The blog of fantasy fiction author and writer Tarah L. Wolff

I’m looking for a cover designer for my book. I officially have a plan but it cannot begin until I have a fabulous cover for Embraced by Darkness. I have queried several artists I found through DeviantArt (my old stomping grounds) and have made some progress. One fantastic artist told me she does commissions for free but I sense she is suspecting something different than what I am going to throw at her. Most excellent digital artists on DeviantArt get commissions to do profiles sketches of fantasy-sci-fi game characters/not a big job in comparison to what I want on my book cover. After I get the cover done for my book I officialy have a plan.

That’s right – I have a plan.

The plan starts with me not being humble at all. I am a web designer and I know how to get to first page Google within two months. I also know how to create a website that sells. These things I have not considered thoroughly enough as being assets for selling becoming a published novelist. I came upon a pdf file of some poor writer who self-published through lulu and failed miserably (several times) the end of the pdf was that she was finally happy with her book covers and she sold a couple a month etc. I looked at her website and her book covers and could not believe she sold any a month. It also just so happens that I’ve been an editor and layout/print designer for eight years. Funny how until I read that pdf that none of this became very obvious to me. I have the experience in the industry to already know not to make the mistakes that she made. I also have enough experience in the industry that I know most people buy books online these days.

That’s right – Most people buy books online now.

Book stores are barely surviving. I know this because I’ve been in the industry close enough, for long enough, that most people buy online these days. And most of them buy used books from Amazon (if they’re smart -  I just bought a used Stephen King book for 1 cent yesterday).

On top of all of that my writers’ group (The Jackpine Writers’ Bloc) has several ISBNs more than they will ever need and are willing to give me one for free for my book. On top of that my aunt happens to be the most incredibly thorough editor I have ever seen and she’s already told me she would edit my book for me. Take note on my last sentence because on top of everything else I think this kind of editing is really what separates the shitty self published books from the publishing company books. Because of the cover, my layout design and Sharon’s professional editing. My book will not look self published but professionally finished. Also if I publish through Lulu with an ISBN I can use their marketing tools for free and that means: A Free Amazon Listing.

So Far I’ve Only Spent $15

That’s right. Only $15 and that’s for the domain registration because we have our own server and that means free hosting for me. Does it seem a little like I haven’t utilized the tools that have been given to me in the past? You’re damned right. But, I also haven’t had a finished book in the past so regardless of what I’m capable of: I won’t push or try to sell a book I’m not proud of. But now, if you haven’t noticed, I’m just about done with my book and I have the time and I can afford $15 to get my website up.

So, Here’s the Plan.

1. Register the domain embracedbydarkness.com ($15)
2. Commission an incredible bad-ass cover. ($?)
3. Get my aunt to edit my book for me. ($?)
4. Use the cover graphics to create a stunning website at the domain. ($0)
5. Launch the book on lulu (with lulu marketing) and the website ($0)
6. Pay per click advertising on Facebook using bad ass cover ($?)
7. Pay for banner advertising on DeviantArt using bad ass cover for 1 to forever ($20 per month)

Now, a couple of things I already have wrong that you may point out. First off, I really need to get my book on lulu and get lulu marketing going ASAP long before I do anything else (besides getting my domain name) because lulu marketing (getting my book in amazon listings etc.) can take up to eight weeks and I would really rather have all of the finished and set before I start paying for advertising. Regardless though, I won’t put my book up in lulu until the cover is finished so that’s priority #1 and, God knows, I’ve got absolutely no money. So, as I hope that someone may give me a commissioned cover for free, I know that that is really far fetched.

Wondering why I chose Deviantart Ads?

I bought Banner Advertising through Deviantart years ago when I was selling photography prints (or trying to). I sold a few but that wasn’t the point. The point was that I got over a thousand clicks a day for only $20 a month. It was impressive. And the Deviantart people are my kind of people. Most of them are fantasy gamers that are very much so online rats like the rest of us. In other words, the people on DA are the kind of people who would buy a fantasy book online, and God knows they would notice bad ass cover graphics in an ad and fucking click on it to take them to my even more bad ass website.

Meanwhile, I’m still working on Embraced by Darkness

I finished the first thorough read through and then speed read through the book again cutting and cutting and cutting. Last time I updated my blog the book was over 170,000 words now its down to about 163,000. That’s still not good enough for me. I am determined to cut the book down to at least 150,00 but if I could get it under 150,00 than I believe I’ll have a real something that I could sell to an agency or a publishing company.

But I’m not just cutting thoughtlessly: with every cut I am trying to improve the book. I am reading a book right now (because despite that I am pouring everything I’ve got into my own book I am always reading something besides) called Getting Into Character by Brandalinn Collins. It’s a book focusing on what a novelist can learn from actors on how to develop three dimensional characters. It’s really got me thinking and I’ve been jotting notes down while I read it in bed as I get ideas to change Embraced by Darkness, especially Osondrous, and make it more clear and focused.

I can’t tell you how much I look forward to being able to start a book from scratch. I have learned so much from having to go through this monster so many times. I know one thing for certain: I never want to have to do this again. Any book I write from here on out I am going to have a concise and very clear plan from start finish, from scene to scene. I will never write willynilly again. My boyfriends been joking, “At this point you could have just re-written the whole thing and not had so much damned editing and cutting to do.” Very depressingly, but at this point, he’s right. But there’s no going back now.

Meanwhile. Once the book is done. As you might imagine. I am going to be sending out to every Fantasy/Sci-fi agent I can find. Hopefully, somewhere, I am going to be noticed. What really terrifies me is that I better start working on the sequel.

It’s that time of the year again. The Jackpine Writers’ Bloc put out its call for submissions for The Talking Stick Volume 19 on January 1st. For those of you writers who are either from Minnesota, or have a close connection to the area, you should consider submitting. Winning prizes for each of the three categories (Fiction, Creative nonfiction and Poetry) is $500 and for second place it is $100. Not to mention all pieces that get chosen are read and critiqued by our fantastic celebrity judges. And there is no reading fee to submit.

Submission Guidelines

I both look forward to and loathe this time of the year. It’s always fun to be on the Editorial Board. When Sharon and I took over the work of The Talking Stick, our only condition was that we could always be on the Editorial board to choose the submissions every year. Without a doubt, it is the most enjoyable part of the process. On top of that, neither one of us wanted to have to work on a book for the rest of the year when we didn’t have a say as to what was being published or sent to the judges.

So, I’m on the Editorial Board again this year. The call for submissions ends March 1st so the five members on the Editorial Board will meet in March some time to determine what gets put in the book. It’s a long day for us. We’re given the submissions to read a week or two before we meet and just getting the submissions read through two or three times is the biggest job. Just imagine one to five submissions from nearly two hundred writers ranging anywhere from one page to fifteen pages each. Big job. But, I look forward to it every year. It’s wonderful to read other peoples writing, though, I admit, I don’t give the poor writers much of a chance.

I can’t help it. Last year, the fiction was gaggingly difficult to read. Fiction, every year, is always the poorest category. I have less and less tolerance for obvious mistakes that should be corrected before submitting. I just can’t believe that we, as editors, are offered so little respect that we’re sent works that were obviously never even read through a second time. Have writers no shame? No dignity? No consideration for the people that want to publish them?

And my biggest, deepest pet peeve, is the complete lack of respect of writers to even bother reading our submission guidelines. We literally have hundreds of works submitted by hundreds of writers to wade through – the submission guidelines are there to make our lives easier. For anyone here that is considering submitting to The Talking Stick, know this: You’re work will be thrown out  if you do not follow our submissions guidelines.

The worst thing you can do to an editor is vary from the default fonts of every Word Processor. Times, or Arial, will help you get published. Don’t use any other kind of font.

I’m going to go back to the subject of reading Fiction. I am apprehensive to attack the Fiction and it grows worse every year. I use to really try, sit down with every story and try to find the good. I’m no longer like that. Because I have become a fiction writer and it is my passion, I have absolutely no tolerance for stupid mistakes. I often wonder, don’t writers ever read? Because, so often when I’m reading terrible Fiction, the biggest mistake that is pointed out to me is the complete lack of knowledge. Sentence structure, story structure. A complete lack of Writing basics. Don’t writers ever read? And that leaves me even more ticked because it becomes obvious, with the very worst stories, that these writers don’t think they need to read. Don’t think they need to learn any kind of writing basics. They actually believe that their work is so incredible that they have nothing to learn.

Well, they have nothing worth publishing then either.

I’m sounding very cold-hearted. Fair enough. I am being cold-hearted but only because I am one of the other writers. The writer who has gone to every class, read every Pulitzer prize winning novel, tried to become a better writer, and year after year respected the craft and never submitted anything with so much as a single spell check error. Never submitted anything that hadn’t had hours of my blood, sweat and tears, poured into it. These other writers, aren’t writers in my opinion. These folks who think they can sit down and whip something up. These writers who half-ass it, not bothering even so much to learn what “Story Structure” means. They make the rest of us look bad.

Creative Nonfiction.

If there is one category we put off reading year after year. It is Creative nonfiction. As much as I loathe crappy fiction there is nothing worse than wading through hundreds of the most boring creative nonfiction you can imagine. Don’t get me wrong, there is good fiction and creative nonfiction in the book every year (works that are worth publishing). But, where the one main mistake fiction writers commit every year is not even knowing fiction writing basics, creative nonfiction writers make the mistake of writing something no one else can stay awake reading. In other words, writing something no one else could give a rats ass about. So often, we get memoir writing and not creative writing in any way. Where that writers family may get a kick out of that particular piece, the rest of us, who don’t know who Uncle Harry is, could give a rat’s ass. So, year after year, we all have loathed reading the creative nonfiction to such an extent that we finally reduced the word count by several hundred. Hallelujah! I’m actually looking forward to it this year because of that.

The most difficult choice. Print quality writing or a quality story?

It is the most difficult choice and it is getting worse by the year. Publish a boring, crap story that was written well or publish the terribly written decent story that kept us reading despite the sentence mistakes? It is a very hard choice. And this is usually where we have out biggest arguments on the Editorial Board. Where one person liked that story because she has a puppy too the rest of the Editorial Board is shaking there heads because they won’t be caught publishing such poor writing. That is my biggest problem with all editors. Not enough of them read without bias but instead, publish those crappy, poorly written stories about two years because they too, have a toddler. I refuse to be that editor. In the end, because I value quality writing above all else, I vote to throw everything else out and just hope, every year, that there will be enough pieces that combine good story along with good writing. Because this is about words. Good words.