Jade Varden Official Blog

Think you're ready to self-publish your book? You may have checked all the punctuation and proofread all the grammar and done all the careful converting...that doesn't mean you're ready. Maybe you've got a great cover and a winning blurb, a fantastic trailer and an amazing marketing game plan. And I say you're still not ready. You're not ready to self-publish until you're tough enough to take it.  Are you?  Sticks and Stones... "Good God, I can't publish this!"  One publisher wrote these words in a rejection letter sent to William Faulkner, celebrated novelist and frequent Jeopardy answer. Some rejection letters aren't even this nice.  "The author of this book is beyond psychiatric help." This was in a letter sent to J.G. Ballard, author of Empire of the Sun and one of the Times Greatest 50 British Writers Since 1945. Here's the rub: neither of those authors self-published. If you think rejection le...

As a modern indie author, it's easy to get bogged down in the online community. The Internet allows self-published authors all over the world to connect and share, to offer up excerpts and promote themselves 24/7. It's important to use social media and other online methods to spread the word about your books, but you shouldn't limit your marketing scope. When you want to sell more books and spread the word about what you've got to offer...think smaller . Local marketing is a great way to promote your work and get more experience with being a self-published author. What's Nearby?  We all love Twitter, and I personally spend way too much time there. But every so often you've got to log out and get up. Go outside, and look around. You'll find lots of local marketing opportunities. And don't worry -- I'm only kidding. You can still do some of it while you're sitting on the couch.  Local libraries . Contact your local library about p...

I've made no secret of the fact that I think strong research is the cornerstone of any book. I've written about map-making, and learning about your setting , and making an effort to get details that bring added realism to books.  But I've never told you how to do it. Learn how to research to use your writing time efficiently, and to avoid gathering a bunch of facts that aren't actually true.  How to Research Anything Thanks to the Internet, there's pretty much no question you can't answer -- and thanks to my varied writing style and somewhat morbid curiosity, I know that to be true. I once went on an odyssey to learn about writing tools during the 1800s (because who knows when the pen was invented, right off the top of their head?), so I've already been through every painful research experience you might imagine.  Phrasing . Obviously your first stop is your favorite search engine, but once you get there things can start to get out of cont...

Some writers use epilogues like final chapters in their books...but this is an abuse. Like prologues , epilogues are entities unto themselves. Treat them that way, and you'll end up writing them the right way. At the End... By the time you get to the epilogue, the book is essentially over. The story should already have its own beginning and ending that takes place within the chapters of your tale. An epilogue shouldn't be tacked on at the end to bring resolution to the story -- because you should have done that already in your final scene, within the pages of the book. Epilogues are there to do something more than finish the story. The longer ending . If the book ends on a particularly abrupt note -- a character dies, for example -- you may wish to include an epilogue to provide a lengthier wrap-up of the aftermath. This is especially important if the end of the story doesn't provide a conclusion or follow-up. For example, what happens to the characters left...

 Whether you're aware of it or not, you're sort of reviewing every single book you've ever read, whether in whole or in part. Don't you form an opinion about the writing, the pace, the characters and the plot as you're flipping pages? You may never tell anyone what you thought of the book, but you're still creating a review in your head for yourself -- notes and remembrances that will spring to mind every time you think of that book in the future. If you're an indie author, there's a good chance that the review you create will take a much more literal form. You can easily find yourself with a long TBR (to-be reviewed) list and a lot of responsibiliies and agreements to read other self-published books.  And believe me, I know that it's tempting to cut corners. But there are some really good reasons why you have to read the whole book if you're going to review it and share that review with others. I know there are good reasons, because I...

I was wasting time on Goodreads one day when, somehow or other, I ended up reading the blurb for The Gaze . It was amazing! I was so drawn to the story upon reading it, I sent the author a message right then and there and actually asked him if he would let me review the book. That was at the beginning of the summer. I started the book in June and finished it last night...just a few days before autumn will officially begin.  The Gaze is beautifully written. Javier Robayo definitely knows how to turn a phrase, so to speak. The dialogue is smooth and true; I can actually hear the characters talking when I'm reading it. The narrative is powerful and strong. Robayo knows which words to choose. But, he does choose too many. It took me a long time to read The Gaze because The Gaze is just too long. There are a lot of scenes that flash back to the past and a lot of scenes of the main character doing nothing much at all. For a rather hefty chunk of the story, I felt like I h...

How do I overcome writer's block? What do I love about being an author? Find out in my newest interview!  I answered some in-depth questions about writing and reading at Confessions of a Book Addict . Visit the blog to read the entire interview, and find out which direction I'm taking with my next project.

I'm participating in the vacation extravaganza at Blkosiner's book blog! Enter the giveaway to win a copy of the first book in the Deck of Lies series in any electronic format of your choice.  You'll also get a $5 (USD) gift card to Amazon so you can buy more books (the rest of the Deck of Lies, maybe?). Don't miss your chance to win!