Jade Varden Official Blog

Are books getting shorter? More and more, I'm finding that the books on my reader are pretty quick reads. When I recently looked at 10 books from the top 15 Amazon bestsellers in fiction, half of them were less than 300 pages. The other 5 contained fewer than 500 pages. Not one that I saw was a thick, epic novel, like a Little Women or Clan of the Cave Bear . Should you be aiming to write shorter books, too?  Pages and Pages   Have you ever gotten a good look at Gone With the Wind ? The printed book can practically be used as a deadly weapon -- it's that heavy. Epic-length novels are something that people once took for granted. Big, thick heavy books were very much the fashion when Jane Austen was weaving her tales. But these days, big books are becoming harder to find...not just on the bestseller lists, but all over the book market. 

Amazon recently unveiled yet another program designed for indie authors, and if you use Amazon services you've probably already been treated to the email blast. Kindle Unlimited is a book-sharing program that gives readers a database of books to read. It all sounds great...until you learn that, like Amazon's KDP program, it requires exclusivity.  Going Steady Amazon wants you to be their steady significant other...for ever. Authors who participate in Kindle Unlimited must be members of KDP Select, Amazon's exclusive program for indie authors. The authors who use KDP Select cannot sell their books on any other website, such as Barnes & Noble and Smashwords.  One could argue that Amazon sells more ebooks than all those other websites anyway. One could also argue that Amazon has provided all the platform and marketing opportunity for self-published authors, and they clearly support indies. What about CreateSpace?  There is a good reason that Amazon ...

Loneliness. Stress. Fatigue. Insecurity. Insomnia. I'm not describing the symptoms of a terrible disease...I'm listing adjectives that describe the life of an indie author. This isn't me trying to make things seem dark and grim. If anything, I'm making it sound good. It's hard, probably harder than I could even describe. That's why you need a support system if you're going to write.  Crazy Writers, artists and musicians are generally chalked up to being creative types, and therefore somewhat eccentric. Some even seem to cross the line into craziness (Van Gogh, the ear, you know what I'm taking about). But I maintain that it takes at least a small dose of crazy to even want to become a writer. Even the sanest writers, however, can find themselves going a little crazy because it's such a tough task.

UK's Society of Authors have crunched the numbers, and they've reached a conclusion: traditional publishing is "no longer fair or sustainable." Looking at the Numbers The Society of Authors has about 9,000 members. New figures released recently showed a marked drop in median income for professional authors. They're now earning less than $20,000 annually, wages that aren't "fair or sustainable," according to the chief executive for the Society. The statement comes on the heels of a survey released recently, in which 2,500 writers answered questions about their earnings. Author income is down about 29 percent since 2005 -- a number that is truly frightening. Now, only 11.5 percent of professional authors in England earn their main income from writing. In 2005, that number was 40 percent.

Authors have to be detail-oriented. They're misplaced comma hunters, grammar Nazis, word warriors. But that ongoing quest to write a perfect book is exhausting, time-consuming...and impossible. Perfect My quest for perfection has been going on for about two weeks, ever since I finished the first draft of my newest book. Almost the minute I was done, I started re-reading and editing. I finished the first read (after I corrected about forty thousand mistakes) and immediately uploaded the book to my Kindle so I could read it in a different way . I used this to give myself about 40 more notes, some of them perhaps added in a weird insomniatic stupor. I'm saying that because some of it doesn't make any sense. I have certain words highlighted and I seriously don't even know why.

Pat McCrory, the Governor of North Carolina, has named a self-published poet as the poet laureate for the state. This immediately created a firestorm of controversy...though not for all the wrong reasons, at least. Is North Carolina's Governor More Progressive Than You? Valerie Macon has been appointed the poet laureate of the state of North Carolina, and the state's Governor is in hot water over it.  Usually, this type of appointment involves a ton of red tape. There are submissions and an application process, letters of recommendation. And of course, a full review by the North Carolina Arts Council. Gov. McCrory decided to bypass all of that, however, and appointed Macon on his own.

In researching this post (that's a euphemism for checking to see if I've already written a topic ), I learned that I've written a lot about time. I'm qualified to write about time, because I've gone to war with it so very often. But here's the end of the story: I always lose. As an indie author, you're going to face your own troubles when it comes to time tables, schedules...and losing sleep. Battle if you will...but like me, you'll lose. Up All Night I come across a lot of writing tips where authors say don't do this and don't do that. If you're independently wealthy, it's all well and good to say write when you're inspired and comfortable and well-rested. But if you're like me , that isn't going to happen often.

Public opinion isn't wholly on your side yet if you're an indie author, but the tide is slowly turning in our favor...because money talks. More and more indie authors are making 6- and 7-figure paydays from their self-published efforts. That makes it much harder for others to scoff at the idea of indie authors. The Upper Hand Numbers don't lie, and some of them show what's really happening in the book industry. Some self-published authors are now earning more than authors who have taken a more traditional publishing route. 

Instead of the traditional news update this Sunday, I've decided to rant. A lot has been happening in the world of ebooks lately, and it's raising a lot of questions. Is erotica the genre of choice for all indies...and will these books eventually overrun all the rest? That's Sexy Amanda Hocking is yesterday's news, and the big name in indie books lately is E. L. James. The little erotica book that could has become a pop culture question until probably the end of time, and erotica has become the driving force behind the ebook craze.

Self-published books are beginning to rise to dominance in ebook sales. Authors published through the Big 5 companies make up only 16 percent of the titles on Amazon's bestseller list. Self-published books have a 25 percent chunk of the list. How DRM Hurts eBooks that are self-published on Amazon get 31 percent of daily sales across all book genres. Indie authors as a group have the biggest market share. But the authors that are making the biggest bucks aren't using DRM .

If I say the name J.K. Rowling to you, what do you think of? I'll bet you don't think of a British mum who lives in the country, though that's who she is as a person. You probably think of Harry Potter right away. J.K. Rowling is a brand name to us readers; she's only a person to her family members. And if you want to make it in the literary game, you've got to learn how to turn yourself into a brand, too.  The Professional Mask That's right. I'm about to tell you to stop being a person, and start being a commodity. You can be a person when you're with your friends and family members. You're a person when you're sitting on your couch. But when you're on social media and when you're self-publishing books, you're a brand. From now on, the pen name you use is your brand name. And you'd better start building it.

Being a full-time writer and a self-published author is a balancing act, and today I feel a little like I'm walking on a tightrope.  Walk the Line Freelance writers already have a lot of tasks to juggle, because it's common for them to work several gigs at a time. That means that multiple projects have to be completed in a single day; multiple editors and overseers must be appeased. And, if those writers are anything like me, multiple email accounts must be checked. I check four different email accounts every single day for three different names. And here's the rub: they're all my inboxes. The only way I can manage it all is to compartmentalize. But when you're juggling all sorts of daily writing tasks and you're an indie author, too, things can get a little hectic in spite of your best efforts.

Data from AuthorEarnings.com shows that self-published book titles make up 31 percent of Amazon Kindle's book sales, and that's a lot. In fact, it suggests that indie authors are growing as powerful as the Big 5. This is the moniker given to the country's 5 biggest publishing companies, the old guard who for so long dictated popular literature in the United States. Those days might be over.  Mr. Big Stuff The "Big 5" publishing companies can lay claim to just 38 percent of Kindle book sales. Not only are self-published books taking up a piece of the market that's almost as big, self-published authors get bigger royalties than their traditionally-published counterparts. According to AuthorEarnings, self-published authors earn almost 40 percent of all ebook royalties paid out by Amazon.

All books should be perfectly polished, well-edited, presentable in every way. But there are times when authors might be using incorrect grammar... on purpose . When is it not only okay to break the rules of language, but necessary?  When Bad Writing is Good Sometimes, bad writing is needed in order to bring the setting to life. Ever read Gone With the Wind ? Mammy's voice is clear and strong throughout the novel, and Margaret Mitchell does it with a lot of misspellings and incorrect grammar. 

There are a whole lot of rules in the English language, and we know this to be true because I write about these rules all the time . And as an author, it's part of my job to follow those rules -- strictly. I must cling to them so passionately, in fact, that I actively and aggressively try to get other people to follow those rules. So it may come as a surprise to some blog readers that there's one rule I break...no matter how many times the automatic grammar checker tells me to fix it. Because when it comes to the phrase "and then," I just don't use it. Nope...not at all.  Born to Be Bad Microsoft is totally against the way I write. My word processor completely believes that the word "then" cannot be used unless its buddy "and" is also involved. I'll give you some examples of sentences that are sure to be flagged: She reached across the table, then grabbed my hand in a show of support. He lifted his hand as if to touch m...

As an author, you need support. You need honest feedback. You may even need help figuring out certain writing techniques and double-checking your ideas. It's attractive to start joining guilds and groups, and plenty of writers advocate that. But when you mix with other people, you're always going to wind up with a mixed bag. Joining groups and getting involved has a good side...but plenty of writers will tell you about that. I'm going to flip the coin, and talk about the dark side of sharing your writing with other people before you've finished with it. Team Players I have often mentioned my childhood fantasy of being a writer . I would be sitting in a quiet room -- maybe in an attic, somewhere, or some book-lined room -- all alone just typing away. That, to me, is truly living the dream. Why? Because writing is solitary . You do it alone . To me, the idea of joining up with other writers has always seemed...damned counter-productive, to put it mildly. ...

Finishing a first draft is an amazing feeling, and I want you to enjoy it...for a little while. But once that moment of joy is good and done, it's time to get down to the real work. Because up until now, you've been having fun. Now you have to edit your work, and that means you have to ask yourself the dreaded first draft questions.  Don't have first draft questions? It's time to get some. Otherwise, how will you make sure your story is air-tight?  That's My Interrogative  First drafts are meant to be a bit frenzied. You've got a outline but you're not always following it, because the story ends up going somewhere you didn't quite expect. You're not sure if pineapples grow in Hawaii but you think so and you're going to check it later so that's fine. You haven't finished that one scene with the green plate because you can't quite figure it out, but you're getting back to that later so who cares.  It's okay ...

I'm personally fascinated by history, but it's difficult for me to use this passionate love affair in my writing because I'm interested in real history and real historical figures. And if you write about real people in your books, even those who are long dead, you may experience backlash in all sorts of different forms. But other authors have learned how to beat the system, and they've done it so well there's an entire literary technique named for this sort of savvy trickery. It's called roman a clef , and you don't even have to be French to use it to avoid lawsuits and other author troubles.  At Their Own Game Want to write about something real, but fear reprisal? Don't shrink from the story you want to tell. Pull a fast one on them, and use roman a clef .  This French term is used to describe a novel that is about real life -- real events and real people. This type of novel, however, is very thinly disguised as fiction. The trick is...

Indie authors have to spend a lot time promoting their books. They use forums, they tweet, they blog -- they're out there. And when you're building an online personality and reaching out a lot on the Internet, you're going to get a lot of email. If you don't run it the right way, it will end up running all over you. I didn't notice how many emails I was really getting, or how often I was actually checking my inbox, until I changed the notification sound on my phone. It's a loud sound, and it's a good one -- until you have to hear it 30 times a day. But it's not the notification's fault; it's mine. And if you don't know how to run your email, you're going to end up like me: with a phone on silent mode, and missing all your calls. 

Like the best hit songs, good books need to have a great hook. There are all sorts of different ways to hook readers right at the beginning of a story. Do you know how to use all of them?  Baiting the Hook How  a story begins is really the most important thing about it, because there are readers out there who will look at this and nothing else. If you don't catch those readers who nibble on those first few lines, and get them reeled in, you'll lose them for ever. There are many different literary devices which can be used to hook readers. Get to know them, learn how to use them and then figure out how to make them your own.