Author Interview of Bryan Koepke by Award Winning Thriller Author Keri Beevis

This past weekend a good author friend of mine interviewed me on her website.  Keri Beevis is the award winning author of 2 Thriller novels.  Check out her website and her author interview here on The Writers Cabin.

If you'd like to check out her interview with me it's located here:  Keri Beevis Interview with Bryan Koepke

While you're here take a look at my new Amazon.com author page.

Author Interview with Bryan Koepke

Today's author interview is with Bryan Koepke the author of the debut thriller Vengeance. 

First off tell us here at The Writers Cabin a little about yourself.

I was born in the great state of Oklahoma in a city named Tulsa sometime during the last century.  I spent the first twenty-years of my career working as an electronics engineering technician and during the last decade had the privilege of being on teams that built, tested, and launched spacecraft from both Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.  Prior to that I worked on F-16 fighter jets, got my FAA Airframe & Powerplant licenses, and later managed to get a private pilot’s license.  These days I work on the financial side of things at an aerospace company.

When I was in my teens I knew I wanted to be a writer and during much of my technical career I gravitated toward documentation and test procedures.   I'm married to a beautiful woman named Ildy, and we have a dog-named Daisy. 

Q: When do you write?  I do the bulk of my writing on weekend mornings from 8:00 a.m. to noon, and a few days a week in the mornings before heading of to work.

Q:  How much do you write a day?  My goal is to get at least 1,000 words down in my manuscript, but on weekends I usually get closer to 2000 – 3000 words a day, and 500 to 1000 is a good amount for mornings before work. There are times on the weekends, when I’m well rested with a head full of ideas, that I’ll sit down and write 10,000 words in one sitting.

Q: How long did it take to write this book, VENGEANCE?  I wrote the first draft in about 5 months.  From there I did multiple revisions and rewrites with the entire process from start to finish taking about two years.

Q: How do you bring characters to life? I start with an excel spreadsheet and build a list of traits, motivations, the physical description, and the character’s history. It seems that all of my characters sort of reveal themselves to me on the page as I write their scenes. They take on a life of their own beyond what I’ve planned for them.

Q: Do you like eBooks?  Do you think they’ll ever completely replace paper books?  I like e-books and have purchased dozens of them myself over the past couple of years. They’re great for trips.  I also like a big heavy hardback book or a paperback.  I hope all types of books endure.  I think when we loose things we as readers and writers limit our freedom. After all freedom is all about choice.

Q: Your current book VENGEANCE is a series. How many more books do you plan to write in the Reece Culver thriller series?  I’m planning on writing a minimum of eight books, but most likely ten to fifteen in this series.

Q: What was your inspiration for the book?  I had written two thrillers before starting this book.  I remember reading a newspaper article about a woman who murdered her husband and made it look like a home invasion. This gave me the initial seed for the story and as I wrote the first draft the story morphed into something completely different with a great deal more depth.  Initially it felt more noir than thriller, but over time it proved itself out as a thriller.

Q: How did you come up with the title VENGEANCE?  Initially the book was titled Not Dead Yet, but after completing it and thinking about the story Vengeance won out as the title.

Q: Are there any themes or topics you plan to include in the series?  My protagonist Reece Culver is a pilot, so there will most likely be flying scenes in many of the books. 

Q: Do you write on the computer or longhand?  I write the bulk of my work on computers, both a laptop and a desktop. I take a ton of notes, and scribble down plot ideas longhand.

Q: Who are your favorite authors?  Ernest Hemingway, CJ Box, the early Stuart Woods books with Stone Barrington, Stephen King, James Salter, Raymond Chandler, and many, many more.

Q: Where do you write?  I do 99% of my writing either in my basement office, or in my favorite chair at a cabin up in the mountains of Colorado. 

Q: What are you working on now?  Books 2 & 3 in the Reece Culver series, and when I have less time a batch of short stories I keep going back to and rewriting. 

Q: Where can we buy VENGEANCE?  It’s available on Amazon Kindle, and in a week or so the 6x9” paperback will be available on Amazon.  The e-book will also become available very shortly on Apple, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Nook, Smashwords, Scribd, Sony, Diesel, Library Direct, Oyster, Baker & Taylor and on my website http://www.bryankoepke.com  

Hot New Thriller Novel hitting stores soon.

Bryan Koepke's Debut Thriller novel, VENGEANCE, will be hitting stores in the coming weeks.  

This book is the first in the Reece Culver Thriller Series and will be available in both a 6x9 paperback version and as an eBook.

Self Published Books

So you've made the decision to Self Publish.  Now what?

Question # 1:   Is your book done?   

"Of course it's done", you say.

Question # 2:   How many drafts have you written and how long has it been since you began this project?

"I wrote a first draft.  Had my spouse read it.  Printed it out.  Rewrote it once. Had a friend do what he called, "editing", and then incorporated his comments.  Next I had another friend read through it and point out mistakes," you say.

I say - This isn't good enough.  With the freedom to self publish anything and the free will of industrial giants like Amazon, writers feel an anxiousness to get there work out there.  This is great. You are giving the public lots of great stuff to read.

Not.

In my opinion an author does themselves a great disservice when their work is not adequately prepared prior to being self published.   It should be written and revised a minimum of five times, and in my own work the number is closer to twenty times, particularly if this is the author's self publishing debut.

In an interview with The Paris Review back in 1958 Ernest Hemingway told the journalist that the final words of "A Farewell to Arms," were rewritten "39 times before I was satisfied."

Writing novels does not entail a linear learning curve.  I've heard it said that the learning is on an upward slope, then levels off, then upward again, then levels off, etc.  All great authors continually strive to excel at their craft. Unfortunately great authors are not born with the skills to churn out masterpieces.  If you disagree with this pick up a debut book from any of your favorite bestselling authors.  Read it cover to cover.  Pick up their latest book, written ten plus years after their debut, and read it cover to cover.  I'd venture to say the 10th book will be far better than the first.  

It is because of this that all authors owe the reader the best that they can produce. It seems that once an author is in the publishing game speed is of the essence. Whether self published or traditionally published the pressure to produce increases greatly after the first work.  With self published authors the more books readers have to choose from, the greater the author's notoriety becomes.

There have been a great many Blog articles and interviews that have shown the connection between quantity of books published and author notoriety.  One example of this is indie author Russell Blake who wrote over 25 novels in just 30 months.  While doing this Russell squired away a great deal of money, and gained the attention of none other than Clive Cussler.

A sad fact about editing is that most folks who have not visited the library or searched the Internet for articles about the different types think editing is the same as proofreading.  In the hands of a professional editor a good piece of literature becomes great.  The tough fact is that most great professional editors are swamped.  The line for their services is long and once your work is in their cue the use of their time is competitive.

So what am I trying to say?  

Step # 1:
Get your work to a state where it is as good as it can be.

Step # 2:
Take Stephen Kings advice.  "Put it in a drawer in your desk."  My own words - Let it age a month or more like a find bottle of wine.  This, I believe, is great advise, but the problem lies with ones ability to leave their precious work alone.  Time is what allows us writers to free our minds from the words.  Take this break and begin the next book, write a short story, or work on your author platform.  We all need a website, especially if we intend to self publish.

Step # 3:
Once the manuscript has been allowed to age print it out.  Take a red pen and as you read mark words, sentences, and paragraphs that don't make sense, don't flow, or don't belong.  At this point you are reading as an editor.

Step # 4:
Repeat step # 3 a minimum of five times.  If you are doing step # 3 well each of these passes will yield less that needs to be fixed.  If you are working a day job, taking care of a family, or doing other things that compete with your time to spend writing you will distance yourself from your work.  Each time you revisit it you will see plot holes and come up with new plot ideas.  You will see your characters as they are on the page and you'll feel a need to make your characterisation better.

Time, my friend, is an author's friend not his enemy.

Now go get to work on that novel.








 

AUTHOR PUBLICITY - 2

One of the first steps every author should take is the construction of an "Official Author Website".  There are tons of businesses out there hungry for your dollars that will do a great job of building you a website.  If you have some free time and want to save the cost of the website to spend on gifts for friends, or to spend on marketing that next great novel you're writing the process of building your own site is relatively easy once you've mastered the website tool.  For my "The Official Website of Bryan Koepke" I used Go Daddy.  There are lots of other choices out there, and as someone that used to build websites for friends back in the early 1990's the Go Daddy tool seems clunky at best.  That said a little time looking at the sites of other authors on the web will fill your mind with ideas and make the task much easier.

Facebook -  It seems everyone whether traditionally published or self published has their own Facebook page these days.  The set up is easy and lends itself to uploading the banner image from the cover of your book or you author platform.

Twitter - While I myself am fairly new to the concept of Tweeting I've got to say I love it.  140 characters - what's not to love.  I still haven't figured out the algorithms they use to attract followers to your tweets or to the tweets you read, but at this point I'm sold.

The biggest step you can take to get more publicity is to write your next book.  It's been said time and again write another book.  When I look at an author on Amazon, more times than not, the biggest thing that interests me is if the author has a slew of books to choose from.

Get reviews and don't pay for them.  Much has been said and written on this topic as of late.  Most of us judge a book by what other readers have had to say about it.  To accurately review a book you must first read the entire piece from cover to cover.  It takes an investment in time, and a choice to read and review a book.

Author Publicity

All authors are faced with the hurdle of gaining publicity when publishing their work.  

Today TWC will begin exploring ways for authors to gain publicity.

The first things that come to mind are social media - Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin.  Almost all aspiring and published authors have a Facebook page and by using all 3 of these sites an author can begin to build a buzz about an upcoming book or build their platform.  The key is to start early and post often to attract followers.  Offer something helpful to the reader so that she will return to your page often looking for more information.

VIRTUAL BOOKSHELVES AND BOOK FORUMS

One way to gain publicity is to use sites like:

GoodReads - This site encourages authors to setup a profile and connect with readers.  You can add your book for free and the site has something like 18 million members.

Shelfari - This site run by Amazon is similar to GoodReads.  You can share book recommendations, join book clubs, and learn more about your favorite books.  The site allows users to create a virtual bookshelf, discover new books, and connect with friends.

Book Tagger - Book Tagger allows readers to interact with folks that have read a book instead of having to judge a book by its cover.  You can list the books you've read and want to read.  Build an online book club.  Review the books you've read.

Authors Den - This site makes the claim that its "the world's most vibrant online literary community".
The site lists eBooks, Books, Stories, Articles, Poetry, Blogs, News, Events, Videos, Recent Success Stories by Date, and Testimonials.  It has a large listing of links down the left side of the site that contains bios authors. Another near area of the site is the "Author Signing Area" where readers can buy signed books.

VENGEANCE TO BE PUBLISHED BY WRITERS CABIN PRESS Ltd. Spring 2014

My debut novel, VENGEANCE, will be published by WRITERS CABIN PRESS, Ltd. Spring 2014.


Stay tuned for more on this.

Announcing the Creation of Writers Cabin Press, Ltd.

This past week Writers Cabin Press, Ltd. was created.

New Titles Coming Soon.

What's new with my pursuit of an agent to represent my novel, Vengeance, you ask?

What's new with my pursuit of an agent to represent my novel, Vengeance, you ask? As of last night I've sent out 10 query letters and received 3 rejections. Now that I have a few rejections under my belt I'm in good company. J.K Rowling's first Harry Potter novel was rejected 12 times. Jack London received 600 rejections before selling his first story. Fellow thriller author John Grisham's first novel, A Time to Kill, was rejected by 15 publishers and 30 agents. Stephen King's first novel, Carrie, was rejected 30 times.  More than 350 million copies of his novels are now in print.

So what's an author to do while being rejected you ask?  The answer is: constantly review and edit one's query letter, synopsis, and first 10 pages. Then once I've worked myself up into a frenzy sit back and work on the next novel.

Along those lines I'm very pleased with the plot I've devised for the book 2 in the Reece Culver series. This one is definitely shaping up to be a techno thriller drawing from my 20+ years of work in the field of engineering. Perhaps book 3 will draw upon the 5 years I've been in finance. You know they say write what you know. Now if I can only gain the interest of a solid literary agent I'll be on my way to getting published so all of you can get some enjoyment out of my blood, sweat, and tears.

Update on The Writers Cabin Blog, The Reece Culver Series, and other pursuits.

Attention to this BLOG - I'm currently working 7 days a week at my day job trying to make a deadline for a big project I've been assigned.  With that and my need to write daily, the Blog is suffering.  When the smoke clears I'll get back to Blogging.

The Reece Culver Series Book 1 - As you know if you've been following my posts, either here or on Facebook I finished book 1, VENGEANCE, in the Reece Culver Series.  I started sending out queries to literary agents on January 3rd.  As of this date I've sent out a total of 8 and so far have gotten one response back.

The Reece Culver Series - Book 2
Book 2 in the series will be a Techno Thriller and is coming along nicely.  This new book will make extensive use of Reece's background as an Aerospace Test Engineer.  It will also contain at least one flying scene.  I've fleshed out the plot and am making good headway toward my goal of completing draft 1 by March 31, 2014.  The first book in the series took 20 plus drafts to get to the point where I was satisfied that it was done.  Of course all of us writers have a hard time calling something done.  We learn new tricks, advance our craft, and read the work of others.  All of these things keep us moving forward, improving, working toward being the best we can be as authors.  My number one goal is entertaining the reader.

How to Overcome Writer's Block

Don't you hate writer's block?

You have this great idea that you've been running through your head all week, but now that you've sat down to write there's this big blank screen in front of you.  You force yourself and manage to write a few words only to be enticed by that big blue Facebook icon.  Someone might have commented on my post.  Oh, and I need to tell everyone about the trip I took last weekend.

You go back to that page of your manuscript.  The one you managed to write two sentences on earlier.  It's there again that blank white page that makes up 4/5th's of the page below your two measly sentences.

"I've been meaning to look at the movie listings for Friday night," you say to yourself.  "I wonder what time that movie I was thinking about is playing?"

We've all been there.  There are times when the words flow and their are times when we must force ourselves to write.


9 Steps for Overcoming Writer's Block


1. Schedule a time to write.  During this time don't look at anything but your writing.  Block out 60 to 90 minutes and don't do anything but write.  If you're having trouble getting started go back a few chapters in your manuscript, or a few lines in you poem and read your work.  If you're still stuck begin at page one and edit.  Look at sentence construction.  Hunt for grammatical errors.  Read your work out loud and listen to the dialog and the flow of your prose.  Can it be improved?

2. If you're writing multiple subplots pick one and stick with it. Get into the head of that character by reading your notes, and the work you've previously produced.  Read the scenes and start writing the next one in the thread.

3. Organize your chapter and scene ideas.  For this I use an Excel spreadsheet with different colors for each subplot.  If the writing isn't coming spend your time organizing and outlining your chapters and plot.

4. Resist the urge to look at the internet.  I once read that a bestselling thriller author sets an alarm clock when he sits down to work on his manuscript.  When the alarm goes off in 1-2 hours the author allows himself half an hour to read e-mails or surf the web.

5. Exercise at least 3 days a week.  Get moving. Walk, run, or go to a heath club and move that bod of yours.  It's good for you, burns calories, and gives you time to think.  Exercise produces endorphins, which tend to make you happy.  The happier you are the more motivated you'll be and the more likely you are to keep to your writing schedule.

6. Read the work of writers.  If you're like me you love to read and find that when you do you'll get ideas about things to include in your own stories.  Pick up a book in a genre that's different from the one you write in.

7. Get out of the house and see a movie.  Go out with friends.  Attend a lecture.  See some sports or listen to some music.

8. Take a vacation.  Go camping, hiking, skiing.  Browse a bookstore, go to the library, or just take a walk down a busy metropolitan street.  Go to a museum.  Nurture your brain.

9. Get a good night's rest.  If you're like me you don't produce your best work when you're tired.  Coffee helps, but there are some Saturday mornings after a hard week at work when the last thing I can do well is write fiction.  If you're having one of these days give yourself a break and spend the day away from the computer.

If you've had writer's block I'd like to hear what you've done to work through it.

How Reading and Watching Movies Makes us Better Writers

Watch Movies - When the movie ends pull out your phone or laptop and jot down notes about what moved you and why.  Remember back to which character you liked the most and why.  Think about what the director did to make you like this person.  What character traits do you remember?  What flaws did the character exhibit?  Recount the synopsis of the movie and what the major plot points were.  Think back and analyze the story taking note of what you liked and what you didn't. If you'd written the screenplay what would you have done differently?  Did you like the ending?  If not why?

Read Movie Reviews - Compare the reviewers description to what you put down in your notes after watching the movie.  Did your impression of the movie compare to that of his or her review?  If not what differed?  What can you learn from this?

Start a Movie Group - Invite friends to join and host a get together at your home to kick off the group. Ask a member to pick a film and host the group at their place for the discussion.  Make a rule that whomever picks the next movie will host the group at their home and rotate through the group with each member picking and hosting.  You'll gain friends and have a reason to go to the movies more often.  Prepare ahead of time for the group and introduce them to the basic principles of Plot, Character, Story Arc, 3-Act Structure, etc. I've been in a cinema group in my own neighborhood for the past year and it's a great way to get to know your neighbors and share a common interest. 

Read the Novels of Great Writers - Take notes as you read their books.  What stands out as a great sentence or paragraph?  Reread that section critically and figure out what it is about these words that invokes a response in you.  The more you read the better you'll write.  Our subconscious mind is an amazing tool.

Study the dialog of books - Read out loud. How does the dialog compare or differ from what you've written in your stories? 

Spend your free time reading - Carry a book with you in your car, on the bus, in your purse or backpack.  Always have something nearby to read. When your waiting in line at the bank or train station pull out a paper back or you kindle and read a few pages.

Read Genres other than what you write - If you normally read mystery, thrillers, and fantasy branch out and try some literary fiction, romance, or science fiction.  As writers we can learn from all types of writing.  Read books by foreign authors.

Support your local independent bookstores and libraries - as authors we all have a vested interest in keeping the institutions that exist to supply our written words to the general public.  While I enjoy reading books on my kindle I also buy books at the local bookstore and frequently check books out at our library.  Encourage your friends and family to visit their local bookstores.  Amazon is great, but variety is the spice of life.

Read before bed - Make a daily habit of turning off the television and reading for one hour before you go to bed.

The Writers Cabin would like to wish all of you Happy Holidays!

Upcoming attractions for 2014

- More Author Interviews

- An interview with a business professional in the area of Author Promotions.

- An interview with a Private Investigator.

- An interview with a Professional Pilot. 

What would you like to read about here on The Writers Cabin?  Let us know in the Comments.

How do author’s maximize emotion when writing scenes?

A few years back while attending a writing workshop in intermediate fiction at Denver’s Lighthouse Writers Workshop I learned a technique for writing with emotion. The instructor, Doug Kurtz, stuck out his palm with a stack of index cards and asked all of us students to take a card, read it, and place it upside down on the table. 

Each card held an emotion - anger, fear, sympathy, etc.  He gave us a scenario to write about and asked us to write for 10 minutes using the emotion that was listed on our card.

The exercise taught me to feel what my characters are going through while I write a particular scene. It is my belief than many of us author’s struggle with the concept of inserting emotion into our writing. In my chosen genre, thrillers, I read all the bestsellers and see varying degrees of emotion in their writing.

When I switch to literary fiction I find plentiful use of character emotions. Is this because in mysteries and thrillers the author is concentrating on action and plot, and to a lesser extent the emotions of the characters, or is it because in thrillers we are struggling to keep the content moving forward, and the use of too much emotion bogs down the pace of the writing?

What do you think?

12/4/13 - My novel, VENGEANCE, is complete at 90,522 words.

12/4/13 - My novel is done. I have renamed it VENGEANCE and will begin querying agents in the New Year. The final word count is 90,552 with ninety-two chapters, including the prologue and epilogue. Needless to say I was a little giddy at work this past Wednesday.

I entered VENGEANCE in The Minotaur Books - First Crime Novel Competition. The winner will be offered a publishing contract and receive a $10,000 advance against future royalties. The winner will be announced at the Edgar Awards Banquet April 2014 in New York City. Wish me luck.

Now it's time to roll up my sleeves and get back to work on book two in the Reece Culver Series.  The thought of having free time to spend on just one book feels so good.  For months I've been jumping back and forth between Book One and Book Two.  Both manuscripts have been screaming for attention like children in a sibling rivalry wanting a parent's sole attention.  

How to Back up your Writing

I saw a recent discussion on Facebook about how a writer's computer failed and she lost a whole years worth of hard work.  As it turned out after receiving lots of tips and tricks from her Facebook friends this person was able, for a fee, to recover the contents of her hard drive.

Because of this I thought I'd post today about different ways to backup your writing.

E-mail a copy of your manuscript to a second e-mail account every time you write.  This gives you two copies, but since your emailing the file you expose yourself to a small chance of it getting intercepted by some 2nd party.  Also it's possible to have your e-mail account hacked.

Pay for an automated web based backup service.  A recent Yahoo search brought up 27 plans ranging in price from $5.99 per month for each computer at sites like CrashPlan, Backblaze, and
Mozy.  The next tier of pricing was close to $10 / month for up to 10GB of space.

The site I've used for the past year is JustCloud which is now advertised at from $9.95 to $6.95 per month if you sign up for 2 years.  I signed up for a multi-year plan and use it on both of my computers. Since beginning this plan I've used a total of 11 GB of my allocated 272 GB.  I like the idea that I can access my files from any computer with internet access.  I also like that it's not backed up in the same location where the computer is located.  It's a pretty easy system an not easy for a tired writer to mess up.

What's this GB of space mean.  To put a Gigabyte into perspective a 90,000 word manuscript is about 575 KB's.  This means you could store 473,043 manuscripts on the JustCloud system.  While I like to write and have produced lots of stories over the years I highly doubt I'll use up my storage capacity anytime soon.

The nice thing about this type of arrangement is that it automatically backups anything new on the computer once a day as long as it's connected to the internet.  It can be configured to back up more than once a day if need be.

Burn your work to a CD or DVD.
This is as easy as inserting a disc into your disc drive and using your software to copy files.  The bad thing about this is if you experience some misfortune that takes out your computer it may destroy the discs too.  One work around is to store the back up discs in a second location.

Back up your computer to an external hard drive.
These devices are relatively inexpensive and can be setup to backup your computer daily.

Save your files on a flash media stick such as LEXAR.
These devices are very inexpensive and have the added plus of being portable. You can hang one on your keychain and always have your writing nearby.


 Do you have any other creative ways to back up your writing?  If so tell us in the comments.

What does a rocket launch look like up close and personal?

This is a photo taken during the launch of ORS 3 that blasted off on the evening of November 19, 2013 at Wallops Island located on the eastern shore of Virginia.

(Click on each photo to make them bigger)

The Minotaur 1 Rocket launched a record setting 29 satellites.  Not to be out done a rocket was launched in southern Russia a few days later carrying 32 satellites.

Here's a birds eye view of the launch.

This view lights up the surrounding area.

Writing to Done

A talented thriller author, Jennifer Hillier, recently posted on her Facebook page about when she knows she's done with a book and ready to give it to her editor. For Jennifer it was as follows:  

"When you get to that point in edits where you're no longer sure if anything makes sense and you've totally lost all perspective, then it's time to send the manuscript back to your editor. Because you're done.  Yay!"

For new authors one of the greatest challenges is learning to recognize when their manuscript is done. By done I'm talking about the point where the novel is polished enough to have a chance of catching and keeping the eye of a literary agent, or if the author chooses to self publish the point where it has the chance of selling thousands of copies to readers who aren't your friends and family.

As writers we all get to the point where we finished. With my current novel I've been there at least four times during the past year. It's the destination where your beta readers, friends, writing group associates, and your soul all tell you you're done. But is this really the point at which your novel has matured to the point where it's completed? Probably not. 

What's a new writer to do at this point in the creative process? 

You can pay an editorial service to critique your novel. One such service charges .008 per word for a manuscript evaluation.  They'll take it a step further and annotate your manuscript for .012 a word. To put this into perspective if you have a 100,000 word novel the first service will cost you $800 dollars and the second $1200. I'd suggest keeping your money to hire a freelance editor later on in your writing process.

If you have a friend or associate who works in publishing or editing you can beg, bribe, or convince them to read your manuscript and give you the naked truth about how good or bad your story is. At this point you don't want, or need someone to be nice to you, and tell you what they think you want to hear about your work. 

Stephen King says in his book "On Writing" to let it rest. He suggests putting it in your desk drawer and letting it sit undisturbed for a minimum of six weeks. Mr King suggests doing this after your first draft. I agree with his logic, but I'd like to take it one step further. Give your manuscript a six week rest at the point where you think your done.

During this time three things will happen. 

Number one is distance - you will distance yourself from your writing, your characters, and your familiarity with the story. This is a good thing. During the six weeks begin your next novel. If it's a sequel get it started while the protagonist is fresh in your mind. If you don't feel like diving into a whole new novel then write something entirely different such as a short story, blog posts, etc.  If you have the budget and time for it take a trip. If you don't have the budget go hiking or camping. I spent many weekends camping during my college days back in the 1980's. It's a great way to rest and rejuvenate one's soul for a few dollars of gas money.

Number two is self doubt - all writers at some point in the process face this. I thing it is a good thing because it is ego defeating. As writers we need to check our ego at the door occasionally. Otherwise it gets in the way and stifles our creativity and revision process. 

Number three is perspective - when you pull your novel out of the drawer in six weeks you will look at it with fresh perspective. Print it out on paper and with a pen and notebook sit down, and read as much of it as you can in one sitting. Leave the manuscript pristine and take your notes in the notebook.

PS: If you'd like to read more about Jennifer Hillier I interviewed her here on The Writers Cabin in the Author Interviews Section or you can read about her and her thriller novels here:  Jennifer Hillier Website

Good luck to all of you fellow writers out there.  Let's hope you write the next Bestseller.

What's new with my book?

What's new with my book?

It's in the hands of my freelance editor. He's doing his final edit and should be done in the next week or two. Then I'll review everything and the book will be done. 

Step 2 - Start querying Literary Agents. 

Step 3 - Get a Literary Agent to represent me. From what I've read this is usually much more difficult than writing the book in the first place. I've got my fingers crossed, so please cross yours. 

Step 4- Sell the book to a publisher. 

Step 5 - Wait a year for the book to come out for sale. 

Step 6 - Repeat.

In case you're wondering Step 6 has already begun. I'm about 20,000 words into book 2 which is a continuation of this thriller series.

Record third quarter earnings at Simon & Schuster

Simon & Schuster turned in a strong third quarter with sales of $224 million.  OIBDA hit a new third-quarter record high of $43 million, up from $39 million in 2012.

Yours truly is hoping this recent bullishness is an indicator that publishing is back on track with what it was prior to our economic troubles which took shape in late 2007.

Simon & Schuster’s parent company CBS attributed much of the increase to strong growth in eBook sales which comprised 27 percent of sales for the quarter. Up from 21 percent a year ago.

Self-Publishing Movement Continues Strong Growth in U.S.

Analysis of U.S. ISBN data via Bowker reveals that the number of self-published titles jumped to over 390,000.  This is up 59 percent over previous year, and over 400 percent above 2007 numbers.  

Ebooks comprised 40 percent of the ISBNs that were self-published in 2012, compared to sales of just 11 percent back in 2007.

More than 80 percent of self-published titles were brought to market with support from just eight companies, which include Smashwords and Amazon’s CreateSpace.

What direction are ebook sales heading?

Publisher’s Weekly posted an article about the possibility of buying ebooks directly from grocery, drug, and other storefronts in the coming months.  This is all due to a deal between Txtr, the German ebook company with backing from 3M and ReaderLink.  The plan is to sell the inexpensive Txtr Beagle ebook readers at stores such as Wal-Mart and Walgreens.

According to the Txtr Beagle website http://us.txtr.com/beagle/

the beagle downloads ebooks via Bluetooth from a smartphone and will have enough power via two AA batteries for up to one year, based on reading 12-15 books.

You can read up to five ebooks at any one time on the beagle. This doesn’t mean that you are limited to only reading those five books; you can store an unlimited number of ebooks on your txtr cloud library.

The Beagle weighs just 4.5 ounces; has a small 5-inch Electronic Ink screen; and has 800 x 600 pixel resolution.  The Beagle was originally announced as costing only $13 in the US, but now It seems that the $13 price is only being offered in Europe as a phone subsidy package.  The Beagle as of right now will be available in the US for $69.99.