Traditional v. Self-Publish—TLDR Version

So, you wanna be an author?  Alright, here the first thing you do.  Open your front door, place your hand on the jam and then slam it six or seven times.  That’s the kind of pain you’re about to embark on, only every day, every rejection, every missed opportunity, every hour spent writing and not with your friends.

Advice I Never Got, R.A. McCandless

Still with me?  Groovy.  Now let’s talk some publishing—traditional versus self-publishing.

Presidential Flash Cards!

  There are literally a ga-jillion (I did the math) articles out there already discussing this topic at great length and in great depth.

For the TL;DR version, here’s where you should start:

Money, Money, Money

Yog’s Law tells us that money should always flow toward the author.  That’s a great rule of thumb when applied to the traditional publishing machine.  You should never, ever, never pay a publisher to publish.  That’s not your job.  That’s theirs.  If they do their job, everyone (theoretically) makes money.

It may not be much, but it’smoney.

Self-publishing, however, is a different animal. Yog's Law does not immediately apply, and here's why.

Writing ain't like dusting crops!

Publishing Ain’t Easy, Kid

If you're doing it right, then it's a TON of work and effort. Like any art form that is worth buying, you have to know what you're doing, craft a solid product, ready it for market, and then get it in front of the right people at the right price.

If you're self-publishing, you take on the burden of all that yourself. You'll need to find a good, solid, reputable editor who can help you whip your brilliance into shining glory. You'll need a copy-editor who can give your work a good scrub for grammar and spelling. You'll have to get the work ready for publishing then push it out to the retail stores.  You'll have to pay the cover artist for the artwork.  Seriously, pay a cover artist—unless you’re aiming to make a “worst” list. 

A traditional publisher should make most of that easy—or at least easier. That is they should

Confused yet?

provide editors who help polish your story and clean up the typos and grammar.  You should get a strong graphic artist who can provide a solid, viable, marketable and story specific cover.  Your publisher should also do some marketing as well.  You’ll still be expected to do most of the heavy lifting, but a good publisher should point you in the right direction to market. For doing all that, they take a cut of your sales.

Decision Time

There is no right or wrong answer for which direction to go. There is a right and wrong way to go about it.  Cutting out editors or graphic artists or marketing properly and across media are all perfectly acceptable if writing is just a hobby.  If you want to be a professional author, what you should consider is the time, effort and potential cost v. benefit that you will have to put into traditional publishing OR self-publishing to make your decision.

One Week - Hell Becomes Her

It's been one week since you looked at me

Cocked your head to the side and said, "I'm angry."

Five days since you laughed at me saying,

"Get back together come back and see me."

Three days since the living room

I realized it's all my fault, but couldn't tell you

Yesterday you'd forgiven me

But it'll still be two days 'til I say I'm sorry

“One Week” Barenaked Ladies

One week.

One week to glory.  One week to failure.  One week to nail-biting angst.

She's gonna need a bigger sword.

Ultimately, it’s one week to the kick-off of another intense, near-constant effort of marketing and promotion that is heartbreaking, enjoyable, and heavy lifting effort for Hell Becomes Her.

The cover is revealed.  The pre-orders are growing.  The ARCs are out and being reviewed.  There’s really not much more to be done, except line up the near relentless, bringes of tweets, blog posts, and start the process of begging readers to buy the book.

You, also, can buy the book.  You’re exactly who the book is for.

Thank you!

Tears of Heaven—Print Version Cover

If you’ve always wanted to show off that you know an author, but couldn’t point to the book on your shelf, let me solve that problem for you right now.  In just a few short days, eight to be exact, Tears of Heaven will release for the first time in print.

 November 19^th will also mark the release of the second book in the Flames of Perdition series, Hell Becomes Her.

Pre-Order HELL BECOMES HER Today!

4.5 Stars—Christopher Taylor Review

What this scene needs is more win!

Special thanks to author Christopher Taylor at Kestral Arts who provided this very kind review of Tears of Heaven:

This is R.A McCandless' debut novel, an urban fantasy with flashbacks to ancient times tying the story together through history.

The world he has created is a fascinating, unique one taking aspects of Biblical narrative and turning them into a fantasy setting in which the Nephilim (half-angels) still walk the earth, immortal and incredibly powerful. They serve The Throne, the creator, working to fight and destroy either "rogues" (essentially demons, fallen angels) or fellow Nephilim who have broken the rules.

Tears of Heaven follows one such Nephilim named Del (for short) who is millennia old, having been born a few hundred years before Christ. She is essentially an assassin for heaven, given missions by angels and working to teach a somewhat younger Nephilim the tricks of the trade. Angry, bitter, frustrated, and harsh, she is still likable, but difficult to get close to.

In a series of alternating storylines, Del's past and the source of her growing animosity toward the world is revealed, and this first book does an excellent job establishing the strange, yet familiar world she lives in.

Well-written and well-plotted, the book has a satisfying arc of events and characters that lacked any absurd contradictions or failures in logic and events that so many modern books fall prey to. There is a sequel on the way which will continue Del's story, which I look forward to.

Buy Tears of Heaven Today!

Writing, Movies, Feminism, and Beautiful Spirals

I ride a dragon now.  Dragons are cool.

Fiction and fantasy are really reflections of our world, only better. Even dark fiction or dystopias tend to hand us heroes who rise up above the blackness and are able to make choices that sort out the good guys from the bad guys—they can decipher good and evil, right from wrong. That’s not always true in our own world, and so it’s quite a relief to sit back and be transported to place where considerations over extremism, and Ebola and politics aren’t realities. Or, if they are realities, they’re going to be handled, in one way or another, by the characters.

Tomorrow, and tomorrow,
and tomorrow!

We also learn the most from stories, as examples of how to behave, or how we want to behave. When confronted with similar situations, while we can’t use magic, and probably shouldn’t use violence, we still look to our heroes for a means for how to act. How would Moraine or Kvothe or Hermione, or Aragorn, or Katniss deal with this particular scenario? Fantasy and fiction provide us with multiple perspectives for dealing with the realities of our own day-to-day lives.

As Tomorrowland told us, “Every day is the opportunity for a better tomorrow.”

I didn’t look around and start writing strong, independent female characters because I wanted to take a stand on feminist issues. I don’t know how, but my parents raised me to believe that everyone was equal, or at least deserving of equal treatment. It wasn’t one conversation, or one event with my parents.  It was the whole process, how they interacted with me, my siblings, their friends—how they lived their lives—that instilled the idea that the way I buttoned my pants didn’t automatically give me any privileges.  At the same time, I recognize that women around the world are not treated equally:

I am a feminist.

I think everyone should be.

Portraying women as something other than a pretty damsel in distress adds to the conversation. That doesn’t mean I denigrate men to raise up women. That’s also the wrong message to send.

Go ahead.
Say "chainmail bikini" one more time.

It's a process. In my earlier writing, I felt that if women were physically stronger, that would be enough. But that's just a superficial view.  By that I mean, that's how I wrote female characters. Simply physically stronger.

That's overly simplistic.

It’s not fiction’s or fantasy’s job to right all the world’s wrongs.  But we can be part of the discussion, and we certainly should be.  We're only one voice, on thread in an enormous social tapestry, but fiction writers can view problems, or see potential improvements years or decades into the future and present them as science fact. Even if the result is a far-fetched or impossible outcome, that doesn’t remove the potential for inspiration on many levels. If you ask astronomers, physicists, rocket scientists, etc. what inspired them, you often get back some science fiction or fantasy show or writer that caught their imagination and prompted them to pursue a career in that particular field. In return, the science that is developed, inspires new writers.

Inspiration and change spin outward in an often beautiful spiral.

HELL BECOMES HER - Available for Pre-Order!

November 19^th is closer than you think, but if you’re worried the lines at the local ebook retailer will be out the door then I’ve got a solution for you.

You can now pre-order HELL BECOMES HER.

That’s right.  Don’t bother going out in the cold and the dark and the weather.  Stay inside where it’s warm, curl up on the couch with your favorite blanket, a cup of Oolong tea, and wait for the interwebs to deposit this book on your reader.

It’s so simple.  It’s so easy.  Why not do it today?

Pre-order HELL BECOMES HER.

You've Been . . . THUNDERSTRUCK!

Awesome needs no explanation:

Nor does it apologize for being awesome: