Justice Keeps Intriguing Readers

"I  would recommend this to everyone who likes to be shocked and intrigued."

Justice has been reviewed at Books for YA!, and I couldn't be more pleased. Go and read the whole thing, and don't forget that you can win the book free. Look to the left of the blog to sign up for one or both of my giveaways, and get your own copy of Justice.

Writng a Bestseller Doesn't Require Instant Success

Every author probably dreams about becoming an overnight success the moment they put the first word on the first page of the manuscript. The dream is reinforced by books like Twilight and the Harry Potter books -- which were practically household names before they even hit the shelves. But some books are a bit slower in the bestseller race...and that doesn't necessarily mean they've lost. 

It's much easier if your book becomes a bestseller in 20 minutes, instead of 20 years...but would you really be disappointed if decades later something you wrote became one of the most famous books of all time? That's what happened to children's author Margaret Wise Brown, who wrote a book way, way back in 1947 that you've probably heard a thousand times. 

It's called Goodnight Moon, and it's one of the best-loved and best-known bedtime stories ever written. It's also a bestseller, but it didn't gain that title for many, many years after its initial publication. Though published in '47, Goodnight Moon was not a bestselling book in the '40s. Or in the 1950s. Nor was it a bestseller in the '60s or even the '70s. Margaret Wise Brown had to wait a long, long time before her little book cracked the big list.

In 1953, Goodnight Moon was selling around 1500 copies a year (which even in 1953 was way short of setting the literary world on fire). By 1970, it had started selling around 20,000 copies a year. When New Year's Day dawned on January 1, 1990, more than 4 million copies of the book had been sold. More recent estimates put the book's sales right around 16 million total.

Maragaret Wise Brown lit a small spark with her children's book, rather than a roaring fire. But slowly, the flame began to grow and spread. Today, Goodnight Moon is read by and read to many millions of children all over the world. It wasn't an instant hit with readers, but slowly they began to discover this wonderful bedtime story.

Everyone wants to write the next Twilight...but it wouldn't be the worst thing if maybe you wrote the next Goodnight Moon instead, would it?

Surviving Death

 "Lies, odd family connections and dirty deeds seeping out of every brick in the fancy mansion she lives in..."

 "Jade's writing is style is vivid and concise."

Author and friend of the blog, Melanie Cusick-Jones, recently posted her review of Death at Goodreads, and I hope you'll go and read it! While you're there, check out her book Hope's Daughter.

Writing 101: Bad vs. Badly

If you use improper grammar, do you write bad...or badly? Know the difference, and you can at least change the descriptor.

Bad and -ly

If you've heard the song, you know what the word means. Bad in slang can be used to describe any number of positive opinions and feelings. In more formal usage, bad usually denotes something that is undesirable. In grammar, it's a bomb waiting to explode ugliness all over your writing. The problem is, bad has a friend named -ly, and you never know when or where he's going to show up...or if he's supposed to be there. 

When -ly shows up to your word party, he changes everything. He attaches to bad to become badly, and that's a whole different part of speech altogether. Now, the word is an adverb, a word that's used only to modify another adverb, a verb or an adjective.What does that mean? It's simple: it means badly can only mingle with another word at the party.

If I say I was badly and end the sentence, badly gets lonely. He starts wrecking everything in sight -- like your book, and your reputation as an author. Why? Because he's got to have a friend, another word to modify. Add a word for him to modify, everything's great: I was badly irritated. Everyone's getting along and dancing to the music, and your words are flowing the way they ought. Have you ever said I feel sadly or I am happily? No, because -ly can't stand to be left alone.

Unless (you knew it was coming) action is involved. When things start to get lively, grammar rules start to change. That's what parties are like. It's absolutely correct to say I played badly after losing the big game, because play is an action verb.

Confused yet?

When it's used with action verbs, like go or throw, it's okay to use badly. But with linking verbs, like saw, it just won't work. You can't say I saw, because you must see something; saw is a linking verb, so badly just can't mix with it. 

Bad as a Bachelor

Alone, bad is an adjective, a different part of speech. All adjectives are used to describe something else. Like adverbs, they can't stand alone. In the phrase I've got a bad feeling about this, bad describes the feeling you're having. But feeling is a noun, which means it's not an adjective, adverb or verb...so you can never say I've got a badly feeling about this and stay grammatically correct.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, there's an easy trick to good grammar. If you're having trouble figuring out if you should use bad or badly to modify a word, just replace it. Shove a synonym in there instead like awful, incorrect, unsatisfactory or poor. Then, you'll be able to find out that you write badly, but only when you're using bad grammar!

Writing 101: There's a Word for That

There are so many words in the English language, the actual number can't even be provided. Some experts have tried to estimate, but there are new words being added all the time (and a ton of weird ones that people never really use). What I'm saying is, when you're writing about or writing with punctuation and letters, there's a word for that. There's a word for every itty bitty little piece of punctuation, for the extra add-ons in letters, for every wacky symbol you might find when you're reading.

Dotting the Is 

Everything has a name, even in punctuation. Knowing the proper words for things comes in pretty handy, especially if you've got a question about proper usage. Trying to use a search engine without knowing the right words is an exercise in frustration...and won't you sound learned and impressive if you know that the little dot over the i and j is properly called a tittle?

It's a fun little word, a lot more interesting than the name for the little bar that crosses the t (which is simply known as a T-bar). We can thank the Germans for giving us umlauts, the double dots that sometimes appear over foreign words (like naïve).

The French love letter symbols. They gave us the circumflex, that little half-triangle over certain vowels, but you can find this mark in all sorts of languages. Depending on where and how it's being used, the circumflex represents stress on a vowel sound, a rising and falling tone and all sorts of other pronunciations. 

Accent marks are those sweeping, slanted marks that appear over words like protégé. Sometimes, you'll find a weird mark underneath the letters. The funny little doodad hanging around on façade is called an ogonek, a Polish word that actually means little tail. You'll find funny n-words in Spanish with a curvy line over them (like piñata); that funny thing is called a tilde.

Put them all together, and what do you get? Diacritics. Sounds like a bunch of angry book reviewers, but that's the actual proper name for all those funny little letter extras that are used to denote specific pronunciation in words.

And once you know what they're called, you can actually use them. Digging through font and symbol sets in order to find the exact letter you need is such a tedious process, most writers don't bother (I don't). Many words that should have diacritic marks are written without them in American English, but technically that's not right. You can, however, keep a list of codes handy so you only have to type in a few numbers and make your correct marks. There's a word for everything. Once you know it, there's nothing you can't find out.

Writing 101: When to Use That/Which and Who/Whom

Which isn't used for people. That's one of the first rules of writing you need to know, and the first rule of using that/which and who/whom properly. 

That/Which

 

I've talked (a lot) about proper use of the word that in the past. It's one of the most over-used and under-valued words in the English language. I find it shoved in everywhere when I'm reading, and my experience is that it can be eliminated at least half the time. But one of the most important rules of using that and which is often ignored: it's not for people.

 

That and which are used for items, things, businesses and all other inanimate (non-conscious) objects. These words are not used to describe people. For example:

 

I saw the blue folder that was on the desk. 

I'm talking about a thing or an object, so I'm using the word that. In this example, I could just as easily use which instead. I can't use who. 

 

I saw the blue folder who was on the desk. 

The blue folder has no consciousness, so it's not a who. By the same token, if I replace the blue folder with a person, I have to stop using that. 

 

I saw Carl, who was on the desk. 

Who/Whom

People often use who incorrectly when that should be there instead. For example, companies and corporations are often dignified with who when clearly this is incorrect. I found a Huffington Post article in which Wal-Mart is referred to as a who. Wal-Mart is not a people, and although it may be made up of people who work and shop there, Wal-Mart is the brand name of a business and not a person.

However, that is sometimes used for people in writing. Some writers have specifically used it as a device and some use it to more accurately reflect the way people actually speak (because it's done a lot in everyday dialogue). It's been done so much, in fact, that some reputable sources have accepted it as proper grammar -- the American Heritage Dictionary says that can be used for people, sometimes, as a reflexive pronoun. 

 

It is acceptable in all but strictly formal writing, and sometimes in dialogue it sounds a lot better to call someone a that than a who. For example, "Mike? The guy that came in first in the marathon last year?" Strictly speaking, who should supplant that, but you're more likely to hear someone use the latter in everyday speech (because enough attention isn't paid to the majesty of good grammar in schools, but  I digress). And either way, it can't go in the opposite direction: Wal-Mart still can't be a who. That is flexible, sometimes, but the who rule isn't.

What Indies Should Pay For...And What They Shouldn't

Everyone's self-publishing these days, and the ebook market is booming. Lots of indies are cracking the bestseller lists and making a name for themselves. There's opportunity out there...and wherever there's opportunity, there are people who prey upon it. Self-publishing isn't free, no matter what anyone says. Some things, you've got to pay for. Some things, you shouldn't pay for. Learn how to tell the difference, and spend your money where it's going to matter most. 

What Indies Should Pay For

Some things cost money, even in self-publishing. When it comes to creating a book that you're trying to sell to the masses, there are some things you're going to have to buy...and some things that maybe you should buy. 

• Copyright. Where you're writing your book matters. Make sure to look up the copyright requirements for your current home country. In the United States, for example, you have to pay to register your copyright. Always do this before you publish a book!
• Editing. Lots of authors are bad at editing. I personally am atrocious at spelling. It takes a lot of work and time to edit your book, which you must do quite thoroughly before you publish. You may want to consider hiring a professional editor if you know you're terrible at it and you can't seem to find the time to do it. If your time is more profitably spent at other tasks, in other words if hiring an editor won't lose you too much money, consider using a paid service.
• Cover. Not artistic? It's okay, lots of writers aren't. If you can't seem to create a book cover, or don't know how, you might want to hire an artist or graphic designer. You can find ebook designers everywhere, but if you're looking for something specific it's always an option to place a free classified ad on Craigslist.

And What Indies Shouldn't Pay For...

Turning a manuscript into a full-fledged book is a tedious process that takes a ton of time and care. During the journey, you're going to see advertisements and maybe even make contacts who offer to make things a little easier for you. But some things, indie authors should be doing for themselves.

• eBook formatting. Learning ebook codes and formatting a manuscript so it becomes a readable ebook is a long and frustrating process. You need special software, you've got to convert files and once you start adding a Table of Contents and images into the mix you're just tormenting yourself. It's certainly a lot easier to pay someone to format your book for you, but it's a waste of money. It can save you only a few hours at most, and ebook formatting is something anyone can figure out for themselves (I know, because I can do it and I can never figure anything out).
• Book trailers. Plenty of indie authors have book trailers for their books, awesome 1- or 2-minute videos designed to pique the interest of potential readers. They look great and they carry a certain cachet...but that doesn't mean you should spend any money on them. To be frank, book trailers don't really sell a whole lot of books. They're cool, they're a fun extra and they help show that you're serious about what you do, but tons of sales probably aren't going to come flooding in because you posted something on YouTube. Professional book trailers are expensive, and you can create your own using free images, software and video clips. Maybe your trailers won't look pro, maybe they take a long time to make, but they'll do until you sell your first million copies.
• Reviews. Yes, you can pay for reviews. Kirkus is the most prestigious, but there are tons of other review sites and companies out there that want your money in exchange for their opinions. My advice is don't do it. It's an unnecessary expense. With hard work and time, you can scour the Internet and find tons of book review sites and lots of bloggers who are perfectly happy to review books for free. They get free books to read, indies get reviewed and everyone's happy. When money and favors start exchanging hands, the whole thing becomes a little tainted. One honest review from an enthusiastic reader is worth 20 reviews you paid to get. Save your money, and spend your time instead to get truly heartfelt reviews.

Spending Your Money

Self-publishing is a business, and in any business you're going to find lots of people who want to cash in. You'll be approached by blogs offering promotional services, tantalizing ads for big lists that you can't see unless you pay for them, tons of opportunities that could be reached if only you pay a little money. Sleep on it first. Find out exactly what they're offering for your money, and take the time to get online and see if you can achieve the same thing on your own. Chances are, you can. Indies exist because they learned how to do everything themselves, so don't be quick to pay for something that looks like a great opportunity. There are lots of ways you can create your own opportunities, and lots of reasons you should save your money for other stuff. 

Meet the Characters From Justice!

I've done several interviews where I've talked about my books and my writing process. For the first time, my characters are taking the spotlight and sharing their thoughts.

Visit Today in Shenaya to read an interview with the characters from Justice (yes, including River) and find out what things look like from their point of view.