A Writer's Journey
As you may, or may not know, I had a Kickstarter campaign to try and raise money to do a really nice professional cover, professional editing, and marketing for the fourth book in "The Casitian Universe Series." It failed, rather miserably.
I've had a love/hate relationship with book marketing ever since I started to think about bringing my novels into the world (well, honestly, it was 99% hate now that I really think about it.) I got swept up in this idea that I should spend effort and time with marketing to sell my books - something that doesn't at all come naturally to me. And, if I couldn't do it, I should hire someone else to do it (hence the need for the Kickstarter campaign, since I don't have that kind of spare cash laying about.) I read a ton of blogs and blog articles about 30 minute marketing, eBook marketing, 10 steps to a million copies, blah, blah, etc. etc. I hated to think about it, and I only managed to do a little.
In light of the failure of the Kickstarter project, I took a good hard look at the whole thing - my relationship to writing, marketing, getting my books read, etc. And in that look I realized that I'd been going about this the wrong way... for me. I was entering into a paradigm that wasn't the right paradigm that made any sense for me.
I've been a small business owner and/or an independent consultant for most of the last 14 years, and have always done only the barest of necessities around marketing myself (website, blog and business cards,) and I've done well enough. I've done well enough primarily because I spent a lot of time (and I still spend some time) paying it forward. I blogged about technology, giving folks comprehensive information and advice for free. I always gave away hours of consulting time, did free (or very low cost) websites, I always had really reasonable rates. I volunteered my time at conferences to give talks. I wrote articles for free. And it has been enough.
For some reason, I thought that it made sense for me to do something differently, more mainstream, with my books, but I know now that I was wrong about this. I knew enough about myself and my own philosophy about things to license all of my books with Creative Commons licenses, a form of paying it forward by allowing people to reuse and remix the work freely. But I didn't go far enough.
So, what's next, you might ask? Well, I have the answer, right here in this here blog entry.
First, I'm going to focus on my craft. I would like to work with an editor, primarily to make my craft better, and make it so that I can edit my work well in the future. I'm not exactly sure how that's going to happen, since editors cost money, but it is something I want to do. I will spend most of February and some of March editing my fourth novel, and publish it sometime afterward, with a very modest professional cover. I have two more complete novels that I will be editing and putting into production later in the spring and summer. I have a seventh novel that is currently in process that I hope to publish by the fall sometime.
Secondly, I have decided to give my books away. I'm changing the pricing for eBooks on Smashwords (which will propogate to other retailers) to free. On Amazon, I'm putting the first three books at $0.99 (can't make them free on Amazon) and I won't publish any more on Amazon directly. I'll be giving away all electronic formats on my website. For paperback, I'll be pricing them on Amazon at their minimum, and I also won't be publishing anymore on Amazon. In addition, if people want to request paper copies, I'll give those away as well. There will be a nice shiny donation button if people want to donate, but the books will always be free (and, of course, still licensed with a Creative Commons license.)
Thirdly, I'm going to blog about writing, science fiction, and book publishing in the 21st century. (But, you might say, you already blog about that stuff! Exactly.)
Fourth, I'm going to stop reading the marketing blogs, and focus on what I know I'm good at: writing, and paying it forward.
A lot of people ask me about the themes present in my writing. Of course there are themes relating to gender, race, and sexuality - I'm not sure it would be possible for me to write fiction without those themes.
But if I were to identify the core theme in my writing - the one theme that is consistent throughout the 6 novels I've finished, and just about every novel that I have planned (more than a few,) it would be the theme of what happens when people of sometimes subtly, and sometimes greatly different cultures (and I mean that in the broadest terms - cultures of human beings as well as cultures of aliens) are brought together by necessity.
Here are some examples:
In the first three books of The Casitian Universe series, the primary culture clash is between the Casitians - human beings gone from Earth for five thousand years, having evolved a completely different society, and Earth humans. But there are also other culture clashes - a big culture clash within humans on Earth, as well as cultures of the Galactic Community. These are big - involving many people, and public.
In the fourth novel of the series, the biggest culture clash is small and individual, and not at all public. It is between a Casitian and US society in the mid-19th century. There is, described in that novel, the big, public culture clash at the time - between southern slave society culture, and northern culture that abhored slavery.
In the novel I just finished, it's all very different, since none of the societies that I describe are familiar - but it is a clash between two cultures, both conservative and tradition-focused, but they manifest that in completely different ways.
I enjoy writing about this - it's a big question for me in life in general. How do we learn how to encounter other cultures in such a way as to be able to accept those cultures for what they are, and not in any way decrease the value of our own culture, or denigrate what others do. It's an interesting challenge, for sure.
I have just lauched my first Kickstarter Project. It is for support for the completion of the 4th novel in The Casitian Universe series. The premise of this fourth novel is:
"What if a Casitian man visited Earth in 1859, and stayed during some of the Civil War? What if he settled in Oregon, fell in love with an American widow, and traveled back with her and her children to the family home in Virginia that she had so desperately wanted to leave, and he posed as her slave during the trip? What if he met and helped a woman who was a slave along the way? What might that be like, and what might happen?"
I'm excited about this, and really hope that everyone who reads this can drop even $5 to help me hire folks to do a professional cover, some editing, and marketing. And you'll get some fun swag if you do!
I'll be posting excerpts from the novel here over the next week or so.
One of the things I like to do is interview my characters - especially those who aren't the protagonists - the ones who don't get much play. The novel I'm working on now, with a working title of "House Trageri", is new for me for a couple of reasons.
First, it is the only novel I've written from a single perspective. Everything else (5 novels now) I've written from multiple perspectives, so you get to be inside the head of several (or many) people. I chose to do this because I felt that this particular novel would benefit. I also did it somewhat as a challenge to myself - it makes developing other characters more difficult.
Second, although this novel is a science fiction novel (how it fits that is something you learn only quite slowly as you read it), it has a fantasy context (some may definitely liken it to Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover novels, although this is quite different.) I'm not a fantasy writer - but I like the fantasy context, and it's been fun to play in that particular kind of sandbox.
Anyway, here is the interview with one of the characters. His name is Master Garliri Serel. He is the teacher and protector of the protagonist. You can get a few hints about the book in reading his answers to the questions. :-)
Here's the interview:
What is your hair color? Eye color? Skin color?
I have dark hair, like most in Trageri. I have dark eyes, and my skin is a light brown - the color of coffee with a lot of cream.
What kind of distinguishing features do you have?
I am tall, broad shouldered, and muscular. I have a scar on my cheek that I got from the war 25 years ago - one of the only injuries I suffered during that war. I came out the better, however - the one who gave me this scar got my sword in his heart.
Who are your friends and family? Who do you surround herself with? Who are the people you are closest to? Who do you wish were closest to?
I am pledged to House Trageri - primarily to teach and protect Daneli, Eldest and Queen. I was raised in House Serel, and go home often, but I am closest to those in House Trageri. I have made some friends, but my work is paramount.
Where do you go when you are angry?
Outside. I take a ride into the fields. It clears my head. Sometimes, I’ll go into the gym and do a hard session of sword practice.
What is your biggest fear? Who have you told this to? Who would you never tell this to? Why?
My biggest fear is that somehow, I will fail House Trageri, and something bad will befall Daneli. I have told no one this fear - they would not understand. But it is a fear I live with each day.
Do you have a secret?
Perhaps that fear is my only secret. Otherwise, I am an open book.
What makes you laugh out loud?
Clowns. For some reason, clowns make me laugh - the way they act and what they do.
When have you been in love? Had a broken heart?
When I was 18, I feel deeply in love with a man from a low-status family in my clan. We had talked about finding a family we both could marry into, but then an Eldest from a high-status family in a different clan proposed to him. He chose that over an offer for us both from another family in clan Serel. I chose, then, to not join a House or family, even though I had several offers. I was too broken hearted to marry after that.
What is your idea of perfect happiness?
Riding my horse, traveling from one place to another. Protecting Daneli, serving House Trageri.
What is your current state of mind?
I am calm and collected.
What is your most treasured possession?
My sword. It was forged in Warani - Warani has the best swordsmiths. It has a hilt wrapped in the finest suede - comfortable grip, and an edge that will cut paper.
What is it that you most dislike?
Dishonesty and duplicity.
Which living person do you most despise?
King Gasri of Warani. Dishonest, duplicitous, and manipulative.
What is your greatest regret?
That I could not save Queen Raliro’s life - that I didn’t see the assassination attempt coming.
What is the trait you most deplore in yourself?
My fears, and the fact that I get seasick.
What do you most value in your friends?
Their honesty, their willingness to support me, and their senses of humor.
Which living person do you most admire? Why?
Master Wuron. He is strong, but sensitive. Willing to use force when necessary, but is always extremely careful, and considerate of all of the consequences of his actions.
If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?
That I could be braver.
How would you like to die?
I would like to die a quiet death at home, alone, knowing that I did my best, and knowing that there was someone to carry on after me.
This is a follow up to my previous post about Fantasy vs. Science Fiction. One of the cool things about Fantasy is the maps, and I have one for the new novel I'm starting. I thought it would be fun to share it. It's definitely a very early draft - there is a lot missing, and I know that there will be many changes in the final version. I created it using a great program from Pro Fantasy called Campaign Cartographer. As someone who is not much of an artist or designer, it makes it relatively easy for me to create maps that work for me. I've got a lot to learn about how to use this program better, but I really like it.
Anyway, here's the beginnings of map.
I've been reading both fantasy and science fiction for years. Many, many years. I love them both, although I do tend to read much more science fiction than fantasy. And I've always considered myself strictly a science fiction writer... until now.
I have a fantasy story that has been running around in my head for years, and my muse tells me it is time to start writing it down. As I've begun to outline it, and spin the plot out before beginning to write scenes, I'm struck by the differences and similarities in my process.
I am, and probably always will be, a hard sf writer (that is, when I write scifi.) I think it's that I've been a scientist, and I like to have my stories have scientific credibility. An upcoming novel I have in draft form, tentatively titled The Right Asteroid is very definitely a hard SF novel. You could argue that the Casitian series is soft, because of it's focus on social commentary, but I tried pretty hard to make the science mostly believable. So in the process of outlining a new novel, I spend a fair bit of time figuring out the science. How fast can ships go? Is the star I'd like to pick for the location of a planet truly a good candidate to have a habitable planet? What would living on Mars be like 100 years from now?
In starting to write this new fantasy (ish - I don't want to spoil it, but it does have science fiction elements) I'm starting with what the families look like, and what does royalty look like, and what faith do people adhere to, and what is the social structure like? I'm delving into landscape and weather, and level of technology (like, uh, swords and stuff.) I'm looking at what kinds of gifts people have, etc.
Some similar elements are things like language and names - I've spent time on that a lot in writing scifi as well.
It's fun. It's different, and I'm enjoying the different muscles I'm stretching. And I think it's going to be a fun story.
The Casitian Universe Series was originally meant to be one trilogy. It was designed to be three books which chronicled the twenty-five years or so after the Casitians contacted Earth, and life for humans on Earth and in the galaxy were forever different. I was going to finish the trilogy, and then go off to write one of several other book ideas set in different universes.I have three different first contact stories that I would like to at some point expand and work on.
But my muse seems to have a different idea. She seems to be completely rooted, at least for now, in this universe I have created. I have now completed the first draft of the fourth novel in this universe. In addition, I have outlines for a second trilogy, which I will start on soon, which tells the original story of how humans came to be taken from Earth 5000 years ago to become the Casitians. And I have ideas for a third trilogy, which will take place chronologically after the first series.
I'm not quite sure why my muse is so insistent. I haven't asked her plainly, because, frankly, I'm enjoying myself. First, I got to explore what would happen if modern Earth humans found out about a galactic civilization, and that there were a lot of other species smarter, more advanced, more civilized, and, well, nicer than we are. Then, in the fourth novel, I got to explore issues of race, slavery, and the realities of 19th Century life in the United States. Next up, I get to explore what it means to be exposed to things that seem completely magical, and find out what happens when human beings from all over the neolithic planet end up together in the same space. What fun!
If you're interested in the first trilogy, they are now available both in paper, from Amazon, and in electronic form from many outlets. I hope to publish the fourth novel, still currently untitled, by the end of the year, perhaps sooner. I'll keep you posted.
People often ask what writers do I read, and what are my influences. I figured that was a great subject for a blog post. First, the big picture.
I've been reading science fiction pretty much since I started reading. The earliest science fiction I remember reading was A Wrinkle in Time, which I think is probably formative for a lot of science fiction writers. I read a lot of hard SF as a kid, teenager and young adult (and, actually, I still read a fair bit of it.) I'd say that in a big picture sense, science fiction writing by women has been by far the biggest influence on my writing.
More specifically, I think if I had to name the eight most influential science fiction authors for me, it would be, in roughly this order: Sherri Tepper, Octavia Butler, Ursula LeGuin, Larry Niven, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Elizabeth A. Lynn, Mary Doria Russel (who isn't strictly a SF author), and Robert Heinlein.
I've been influnced by the literary fiction of Margaret Atwood and Marge Piercy (they both also write SF on occasion).
I'm also influenced by Movies and TV. Biggest influencers there are Star Trek (particularly Deep Space Nine) and Babylon 5.
What also influences my work is just life on this planet - more on that in future posts.
Self-publishing books used to have a bad reputation. That has changed a little bit over the past couple of years, but there definitely is the sense that people who get published "for real" must be better writers, and certainly have more cred. I decided to self-publish my novels for a number of reasons, after long consideration and contemplation. These reasons are both philosophical as well as deeply personal.
First for the philosophical. There are two different threads that I'll follow in this post about the philosophical underpinnings of my decision not only to self-publish, but also to publish using a Creative Commons License. I have been an open source advocate for many years. Although not as much of a purist as some, I still believe that the way to create and share these digital things we're awash in now, whether it be software, content, data, music, writing, art, what have you, is to make them open and freely available to everyone, and allow anyone to "riff off" of that creativity. And, I want to help encourage economic models which help creators make a living from creating.
Open source software is a great example of a gift economy at work, and although it is never, and can never be purely so until and unless our society operates as a gift economy (my personal economic philosophy) it does present a success of sorts for that ideal.
When I wrote my first novel 5 years ago, I knew I wanted to release that work using an open content model. I worried as an emerging writer about how I could possibly do that and get published at the same time. I even wrote Cory Doctorow an email about it once. He is without a doubt the most well known published author who's work has an open content license. There are very, very few other success stories like his. He was quite nice in reply, and basically said "don't worry about it until later." Well, three books and five years later came, and getting published "for real" didn't look especially likely, especially not with an open content license. I'll talk more about those issues a little later in the personal section.
The second thread has to do the concentration of ownership of media companies in a very, very few hands. Six companies in the United States own the vast majority of media, including TV, radio, music, movies, and print. Most publishers of science fiction and fantasy novels are now owned by one of these big six. And in the pursuit of being published "for real", one might be hard pressed to pick and choose. I found the idea of being a part of that machine kind of distasteful. I don't blame other authors who are - not at all. But I realized it wasn't for me.
These two threads come together in talking about copyright, and the ways in which these large media companies work very hard to not only extend copyright protection for works far beyond what makes sense in order to protect the creators of that work, but also to do their best to limit the availability of work, and prevent unauthorized copying of works with technology such as DRM. Things which, in my humble opinion stifles creativity and innovation instead of fostering it. There is a great (albeit long and complex) discussion of this in Yochai Benkler's amazing book The Wealth of Networks.
So now to the personal. Frankly, I didn't spend many years trying to get an agent, or trying to get published. I did spend some months, however. And I got feedback from editors and such on my work. The most common kind of feedback I got was "it needs more conflict." I even had someone suggest that the Casitians should be involved in a space battle with the US military at the beginning of my first book!
I was fighting with this - I wanted people to read the books. I wanted to get published. But I realized that that wasn't why I was writing. It's a subtle thing. I write to tell stories that flow through me. That's the only way I can describe it. I realized that I wanted to write without compromise. I think I'm a good writer. I hope some day I can become a very good writer. I want people to read what I write - but that's not why I write. I write because I can't not write. I can't not tell these stories that come to me.
I didn't want to have to change how I write, or what I wite just so I can get published. I write on subjects that some science fiction fans (and therefore publishers) won't like. I write about gender, race, sexuality and spirituality. I write about peacemaking, and alternative economic systems. I write about the effects of oppression. I want these stories to be read - I don't want them to simply pile up on my hard drive, with no one to see them but myself.
I don't know what will happen now that I've embarked on this road. It's been fun talking with people who are reading, or have read my first book. I'm looking forward to the process of putting the rest of them out, as I'm also already working on more (yes, there will be more - I said I can't not write.)
It's been almost 5 years since I wrote my first novel in the summer of 2006, a science fiction story about aliens who are human. It has finally made it to the light of day! After a lot of consideration about the current massive changes in the publishing world, and my own penchant for all things technical, I decided to self-publish the novel, in eBook form first. If enough people request it, there will be a print run. There may even be an audio book!
I'm excited that this has happened - I've written a lot in the last 5 years, and I'm happy that I've finally allowed myself to get this out the door! :-)
The novel is called: "The Casitians Return." The sequels in the trilogy, called "The Story of New Earth" and "Humans Untied" will be published in June and August, respectively.
You can watch the video trailer for the book on You Tube.
More information (like where you can get a copy) is on the website. It's not yet available on Amazon for Kindle, but should be in the next couple of weeks or so.
If you want to keep informed, feel free to check out the website, sign up for my email list, and/or check out the Facebook page.
I have hemmed and hawed about this for years, now. I started writing my novels in the "Casitian Universe" series back in 2006, and I have now completed the trilogy. I spent a few months looking for agents and publishers, and decided, given my penchant for all things open, as well as the massive, amazing changes happening in the publishing business, that I would strike out on my own. I decided, at first at least, to self-publish all three novels in electronic form only.
The first novel, called "The Casitians Return" will be published on April 8, 2011. You can find an excerpt online. It will be distributed on Amazon, Google, Apple iBook, for the Barnes and Noble Nook, and on casitian.com.
The novels will be Creative Commons licensed.
Many of you know that I write science fiction. I've been writing science fiction since the summer of 2006, when I wrote my first novel - it was designed to be the first in a series of three. I subsequently wrote the second (which is mostly complete) and started the third about a year and a half ago. Over the entire time I've been writing, it has been a struggle to figure out what to do with it. On one hand, it would be nice to have the recognition that published authors get. And it also would be nice to have been through that vetting process - people know that what's on the other end is more likely to be good than bad. On the other hand, I'm not looking to make any money off of my writing, I just want people to hear the stories. And as a long time advocate of open content, the idea of moving down the standard publishing route seemed hypocritical - I just couldn't stomach the idea of standard copyright for my work. The idea of telling agents and publishers, at the same time as I was looking to be published as a new, unproven author, that "oh, and by the way, I will demand that all of my work be Creative Commons licensed" seemed a recipe for failure. I know Cory Doctorow did it, but he seems a hard act to follow. Also at the same time, there is a sea change happening in the way that creative work gets distributed - there's disintermediation happening all around - artists sharing and selling their work directly to their audiences, instead of through the standard mediators that used to control distribution. So since I'm pretty much on the technical cutting edge in everything I do, it seemed pretty natural to me to be the same way in this realm as well. And I've also gotten really enamored of the idea of podcasting the novel in episodes. So that is what I am going to do. The episodes will run about every two weeks, starting sometime in late September (once I get a new microphone, and iron out all the kinks.) All episodes will be licensed with a Creative Commons license (I haven't chosen one yet.) I'll also include small amounts of CC-licensed music in the podcast. At some point, if there seems to be interest, I'll put the text up as well in varied formats (probably text, pdf and .mobi,) also CC-licensed. I hope all five of you who listen like it.
I'm quite excited - I'm on my way to WisCon, a feminist Science Fiction Convention. I'm doing a writing workshop on Friday, which I'm really excited about, then there are lots and lots of things going on until Sunday night. It's my first scifi con, which is kinda funny, since I've been a science fiction fan since I was a little kid. Somehow I missed the con circuit earlier in life. I guess perhaps because I never was the fannish sort. This should be exciting, and it has given my writing a burst of energy - now I just need to find the time to use it!
Ruth and I are off to Provincetown for a week. It's part vacation, part writing retreat. I'm going to try and get further on my sequel, and also think about what I want to do with my first novel. It needs editing, still, but soon, it will be ready to go out in the world in some form. I'll be taking with me a lot of books on writing, and thinking about what it means to be a writer. And, I'll be bringing with me some good sci fi reading. I'll have more to say about writing in the next while - it's been on my mind a lot, and I want to grapple with the issues around writing for me, and move my writing to the next level.
