Less Emphasis On The Publish & More On The Good Writing

The danger with self-publishing is getting caught up in the hype.

So Much Information! So Much Preparation! So Much Marketing Needed!

MUST GET IT PUBLISHED!!!!

Self-publishing is a blanket that covers a myriad of hidden trap doors, sand pits of quicksand that suck time and aggressive publishing services telling you they're the golden ticket to the bestsellers. In among it all, people lose their drive to write, because the making and the marketing just takes over. We not only forget how good it feels, but we also forget the need to constantly hone our craft, because all the marketing in the world will not help a good book float in a turbulent sea of word-sharks.

Self-publishing and Indie blogs seems to just focus on the publishing/marketing. That's all this blog has focuses on for many years. It's time address the writing, it's time to address that first point at the top of each successfully self-published author's list - Write a fucking awesome book.

This month I'm honing my writing craft with the help of the book Dear Writer Revisited at my other blog, The Original Fantasy (yes, there is a second one!). I've set myself a 6 week challenge, to blog my way through this book every second day in an effort to improve my prose and give my slack-arse self a kick up the bottom. Every second day I will blog about a new technique I have learnt to tighten, tone and tan my prose into top shape.

Please join me in your own blogging challenge- heck we can even have a little Twitter party at the end to celebrate- to reducing the stigma of poor self-publishing and put the emphases back to good writing, and off publishing and fame. Because the first will eventually beget the last.

I've already been going for a week, so here are some posts to sink your teeth into!

Dear Writer - Start Your Engines
In which we discuss THE PLAN, setting up a Writing Cave and Writing Truths. There are also posters for you to print out for said Writing Cave.

Know Where You Are - Filling In The Details Of Your Story
We all have those filler phrases in our first draft "and then there was fire, then Kate exploded, then shit went down". This post is all about filling in the details during the dreaded rewrites-of-death.

Stop Trying To Be [Insert Famous Writer's Name Here] - Dear Writer Letter One
Where we talk about avoiding imitation. If you can't get published, and you can't get traction self-publishing, then you're looking for your stories in the wrong place.

Merging Characters - Cull Your Robot Clone Army
Sometimes we create more characters than we need, little character clones running around with a different name and face but essentially doing the same thing. Here we talk about why those characters need to merge into one super character.

To Add A Word Or Take A Word, That Is The Question - Dear Writer Letter Two
While some writers can use adjectives and adverbs to great effect, chances are, you're not one of them. Sorry. *Not sorry*. It's ok, I'm still learning too. In this blog we explore how to polish that description until it shines.

Also, I'm going to be making LOTS of these for inspiration:

It's become an obsession, lets not dwell on that...

Check into http://theoriginalfantasy.blogspot.com.au for highly manic postings over the next month.

Until then...

DO YOU ACCEPT MY CHALLENGE?

E-book Revolution Podcast Ep11 - Contracts & Agents For Traditional & Self-Published Authors

When you are trading in ideas, creativity and intellectual property, the legal waters can get murky, as many writers have had the misfortune to find out. Whether you are traditionally published, accepting the terms and conditions of self-publishing platforms like Amazon, Kobo or iBooks, or a self-published author about to sign your first traditional publishing deal, you need to have some understanding of what a fair contract looks like and what rights you should (or shouldn’t) be giving away. For writers who are looking to build online communities or use digital platforms to enhance their stories, basic knowledge of how to cover your arse from a sue-happy world is vital. 

In this podcast we’re going to delve into the world of contracts and agenting, but I promise you, we avoid jargon, incomprehensive phrases and snore worthy discussions like the plague. I’m a simple girl, I prefer to learn from experts I can understand and actually stay awake with, and I’m sure you’d prefer that too! In this lively conversation with Alex Adsett about the business of writing - which writers tend to avoid only to have it come back to bite them in the arse when they realise their money is ‘missing’ – we talk about the things traditional, self-published and hybrid authors need to know about contracts, legalities and rights.

Alex Adsett is a consultant offering publishing contract advice to authors, publishers and booksellers, and has more recently expanded into the more traditional role of literary agent.  She has fifteen years experience working in the publishing and bookselling industry, as well as a solid background in legal research and contract drafting. She worked for three years in the Rights and Contracts Department of Penguin Books in Melbourne, before moving to the Contracts Department of John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd. Alex has managed Alex Adsett Publishing Services since 2008. She relies on her experience and passion for book publishing to offer sensible publishing business and contract advice. Separate from her freelance consultancy work, Alex has also taken on the role of literary agent.

In this podcast we discuss:

• The benefits of having a publishing consultant
• What self-published authors, moving into traditional publishing, should look out for in a contract
• The importance of escape (reversion) clauses
• Why you should make your publisher aware if you have previously self-published the book they are buying
• Three things any author should keep in mind when signing a contract
• What rights you should give a publisher
• Why advances are not the be-all-and-end-all
• Whether or not you should give a publisher world e-book rights or split the rights by country
• Why authors should look at rising royalty rates for e-books
• What the dangers of an ebook retailer contract are (eg. Amazon, Kobo, iBooks)
• Why you should hold onto your film rights
• Why exclusivity is not in the best interests of the author
• How authors creating online communities and interactive projects can cover their arse
• Why authors should be careful about using photos and videos on their blog
• Whether agents are still relevant for today’s authors
• Why you don’t need an agent to negotiate a fair contract
• And the most successful way to approach an agent.

Enjoy!

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I love hearing from my listeners! Please feel free to contact me or offer any feedback on topics you would like to see covered at: ebookrevolution (at) yahoo (dot) com. Emily's non-fiction book E-Book Revolution: The Ultimate Guide to E-book success is now available at Kobo, Amazon and Bkclb (Australian e-book store).If you enjoy her tongue in cheek style you may also enjoy her comedy novel set in Facebook, The Grand Adventures of Madeline Cain: Photographer Extraordinaire also available from Kobo, Amazon and Bkclb.The companion website for this podcast is http://ebookrevolution.blogspot.com

Why Writers Should Educate Themselves

When I started this blog almost three years ago, I had turned over a new leaf. I had gone from being an egomaniac to realising I knew nothing. Zip. Zilch. Don’t pretend you haven’t been there, that because you can read, because you’ve been writing since you were six, because you can text your mate, or got a great response to that post on Facebook, you believed that writing a fantastic story would be easy. It was all about talent, you didn’t need to build on your skills, you knew what worked.

Yep, I was a dumbass, you probably weren’t as bad a me, but pretty close. Then I sent my stories out into the world and I got slapped by rejection after rejection, some rejections even threw a cocktail in my face and that hurt! Then one rejection came with some advice, and a little part of me said, “Well, try it out, it’s better than sitting here getting a red face. Better to waste your money on something useful rather than cups of tea (or coffee for you caffeine addicts).” I hired an editor, I took writing courses at my local writers’ centre, actually searched out feedback (Rather than letters  with various versions of ‘no thanks’) from writers and I learnt that my writing sucked. Big time. I was so embarrassed at what I had sent out I could have powered a small city for a month on my shame alone. I worked hard to improve and hone my craft, and that work paid off when I landed a mentorship with one of Australia’s biggest fantasy writers.

In the video below I was interviewed by a local internet entrepreneur, Bernie, on the e-book revolution, why it’s important to educate yourself, and why you need to pay for good quality information if you actually want to get ahead.

In this video we discuss:

• How I’d realised that talent wasn’t enough to write a good story.
•  Why I sought out experts rather than ‘free’ advice on the internet. While free information was great, it wasn’t particularly detailed or step-by-step, no one was helping me step back from my own manuscript and point out what I couldn’t see in my own work. I needed people who had more experience than me, and those people, the people that would really make a difference to my writing, wanted to be paid for their time. Experts hold back the valuable part of their knowledge (Usually the ‘how do you do it’ or ‘how do you apply it to you’ part) because they know its valuable, I could search as much as I wanted on the net but I would only get an idea of what I needed, not how to do it.
• How I really resisted paying for help at the start; I didn’t have the money for goodness sake! Then I compared how far I had gotten in six months doing my own ‘research’ in comparison to eight weeks taking a social media marketing course and realised paying for information got me better quality, and I got to where I wanted to be faster. No one else was going to invest in me and my books if I didn’t invest in myself. 

Do I still invest in courses even though I am now asked to give my own? Of course, I don’t know everything. New crazes and ideas and strategies come out every day, and I try to share as much of what I absorb as I can here on the blog in the hopes that you will find it interesting enough to learn more, from me or someone else. I now know that I will always need an editor to look over my books, that there will always be someone I can learn from who knows more than me. 

I can say without a doubt that the only reason I have come so far in my writing career is because I've constantly educated myself these past three years. Every year I have a budget to spend on learning new things. Frankly, it was the best investment in myself I ever made.

What was the best investment you ever made in your writing career? Leave a comments below and see what other writers believe it is important to learn.

It’s Time To Live Life! How To Increase Your Productivity & Keep your Writing, Marketing & Life On Track.

Typically, my memory is atrocious. No really. A family member will ask me to help with some exceptionally mundane task and my memory seems to hit the snooze alarm, like I have a black hole in my head that stops me from linking into the real world. This quirk turned into a bit of a self-hate/productivity nightmare during my first two months of this year as a ‘full-time writer’. Well, I was going to be a full time writer for as long as my digital piggy bank kept turning those slowly dwindling numbers into money. Then I would have to reconsider my strategy, but until then I was going to give my writing the best chance it could get!

Or so I tried.

I would work all day on marketing and hate myself for not getting to my writing. Or spend all day writing and kick myself that I did nothing significant to move my ebook further into the conscious mind of teens everywhere. This was how it was for the first month and it did nothing but lower my morale. It was clear that I had to get my goals out of my head, on paper and chunked it into manageable tasks rather than to-do lists. Otherwise I was going to end up with a zero bank balance and an erratic pile of achievements that didn’t build on each other, they just dressed in spandex and looked impressive.

Tony Robbins calls it Chunking, I call it Bagging Idea Vomit. Everything is bigger in our head, filled with a million tasks, but once we start grouping it together it’s manageable.

Now watch the video below, or here onYouTube, about how I have managed to increase my productivity, and do more, in less time.

In this video I discuss:

• How I’ve always been anal, in that I must finish a task before I move on to the next. The problem with this is you leave all your other tasks alone for weeks at a time to finish one thing, when most tasks need to be done consistently to have an impact. I had to reprogram my brain to let go so I could move all my important tasks forward together rather than sacrificing all the others for one.
• Basically, thoughts become bigger and more insurmountable the longer they stay in your head. All of the sudden your thoughts become King Kong, raging through your brain and bruising the frontal lobe, giving you one hell of a head ache. Don’t let your tasks and goals run over each other like panicked lemmings, write them down. And I don’t mean create another list. To-do-lists still overwhelm, you need to get out of prose writing altogether, put all your major goals and tasks in a Mindmap. Have three or four main areas of focus off your ultimate goal. Then, off the main branches have bubbles stating the things you need to do to bring those focus areas into being.

Copyright: Nicoguaro

• Now you have an exact idea of what you are focused on and what you need to achieve your goals. Now you need to block out the time. Pull out Excel and do a little keyboard dance, block out a maximum of 2 hours per task. Most of my tasks are in hour blocks. It’s better to do things like social media in half hour chunks more than once a week, for example I do Twitter, Facebook and Forums each twice a week.  Make sure you leave some spare hours in there in case you get tied up one day and need somewhere else to put the task. Life happens, don’t fight it!
• Try to follow your plan! Don’t beat yourself up if you run over time, don’t try to make it up. You’re just increasing that stress and dropping your morale like a lopsided scale. Move the task to a spare hour or focus on it the next week. Even if you don’t cover everything, you will be covering more ground, creating more art, and moving all your elements forward at once, not paying rent (in stress-credits) for all the tasks you dumped in the storage shed.
• It does work! I'm blogging more often for you guys right?

Do you find it hard to juggle Life, Writing and Marketing? Or do you have weekly goals? What ways do you try to balance the load? Please do share your thoughts in the comments below.

Ten Shades of Author Collaboration - Why Writers Shouldn't Compete

Why is it that every time I talk to writers ‘new’ to the digital world I end up feeling like I’ve volunteered to be a crash-test dummy for a dozen cars? I’ve just come back from the Adelaide Writers’ Festival with a bit of a bee in my bonnet. Even after all the studies, the blog posts, the infographs and pie graphs, authors and publishers are still under the impression that only the few elite will ever be writers and apparently the whole population of worldwide readers will only read the books of their one perfect author. That god awful vibe still exists, insisting we (authors) are all in competition with each other, and if we even get out readers to look sideways at another author’s book, we will lose their hard won attention, forever!

“Let’s face it, not everyone can be a writer, there’s not enough room,” was the mantra I heard again and again. I’m surprised I didn’t see more writers wandering around the festival looking like escaped kidnapping victims with hoods duct-taped over their heads. Setting aside the fact that I’ve been asked to swallow a steaming pile of BS, let’s break this down a little. There a millions of readers across the globe, it is ridiculous to assume they will only read one book or one author in their life time (40+ reading years). Let’s assume only half or a quarter of the millions were voracious readers, where reading (and I know a lot of you feel me here) is a way of life and once you’ve made it through all those Harry Potter novels you need more pumpkin juice. I can name a dozen favourite authors off the top of my head, none of which are producing books fast enough, collectively, to fill more than two-three months of my allocated reading time. So what do I do for the other nine months (Or eight if you subtract a month’s worth of social media)? Making floral arrangements? Completing my ninja training? No! I’m sampling the wears of new authors, who may not have as much ‘talent’ as my favourites but are competent, and entertaining and still worth my reading time. They may not be the elite writing-del-a-creame, on the NY Times bestsellers, but they write books in genres I like to read.

While readers in the past were restricted to by the cost of printed books, with digital books people are finding reading more affordable. Surveys as far back as 2010 were already noting that 40% of people using e-readers are reading more books now than they did when they were reading print books and that number has only increased. In America surveys suggest that 31% of the population own tablets and 26% own e-readers. In Germany almost 1 million e-readers were sold in 2012.

E-book authors are in a unique position where we have a sector of the market that’s at least 50% voracious readers, ready to snap up a good recommendation from an author that they just read and loved. So why wouldn’t you, as an author, collaborate with other authors whose work you enjoyed, and send them your readers? Think of this as a marketing exercise: if a reader is done with your books (yes, all of them), how do you continue to build their trust in you? By giving them good recommendations, and in the process, another author is building the trust with their readers by sending them to you. It’s a simple concept. No two authors follow the same marketing strategy, which means that every author will have reached different people. No two sets of fandom are the same.

At the risk of sounding cheesy, we need to share the love, not horde the treasure. Because let’s face it, everyone dies, and hording treasure never to use it, is stupid. Better to make connections and friends and promote an abundance economy (Channelling Seth Godin’s Icarus Deception here). As the ever wise J.A. Konrath says:

“One hand should always be reaching up for your next goal. The other should be reaching down to help others get where you’re at. We’re all in the same boat. Start passing out oars.”

So what are authors doing to promote not only their own work, but the work of their collaborators? One of the best examples I’ve come across is the hugely successful Ten Shades of Sexy, a perma-free ebook which features sex scenes from ten different novels and authors. The premise is simple; ten authors got together to produce a compilation book that brought a reader nothing but the ‘good parts’ of their sexy romance novels. They knew their audience well, and took advantage of the knowledge that romance readers loved to bookmark ‘the good parts’ of their favourite novels and gave them just what they wanted. The brilliance of this project is twofold; you have ten authors promoting the same book to their networks of different readers. By supporting each other’s work they are building their own fan bases. Secondly, the book is comprised of novel samples, so the ultimate aim is to use this free book to urge readers to purchase the full novels.

At first glance looking at the Goodreads reviews you would think the exercise had failed with an average star rating of 2.98. But if you delve into the reviews you find that the reviewers have given it 3 stars because the ‘novel’ doesn’t stand as its own book (remember, this was not its purpose – to read like a rounded anthology). The reviews then go on to admit that at least every reader put one or more of the novels sampled on their to-read list. That was the aim, to gain more readers and sell more books; Ten Shade’s Of Sexy did what it was supposed to do. I will admit I read it, and love it for a different reason. I got to read the racy parts without having to go through what I saw as the tiresome parts of a romance! But that’s my genre preference. It’s worth noting that this book is still in the top 100 free Amazon Kindle downloads after almost 8 months (#64 at time of publication).

While this is a great example, this may not be the ideal way for authors to collaborate in other genres. I have blogged about this before but consider going out right now and reading other indie authors in your genre. If you like what you read, and feel your readers would enjoy it too, approach the author about collaborating! Put the synopsis for their novel at the back of yours and have them do the same for you. Then every reader who finishes your novel, full to the brim with praise for your prose, sees the ad and because they liked your book so much they take your recommendation and purchase the other novel. It’s a win-win situation for both authors. You can be very clinical about your choice of collaborator if you wish, asking them about the size of their fan base and the number of downloads they have, making sure they are similar to your own. You could also wear a Dracula mask and shout boo at them through their living room window, but hey, if you want to scare off collaborators it’s your choice. You can even join the affiliate programs of Amazon, Smashwords and Kobo and get paid a percentage for every collaborator novel you sell through the back of the book (how I would do it).

So let’s collaborate with each other, spread the love and ignore the treasure hoarders. 

Use the comments section below to describe your novel (no links to where the novel is sold please, this isn’t a free promotion bid) post your email, and find collaborators. 

Please be gentle with each other, for a potential collaborator may not mesh and that’s ok, it’s about finding a good fit and not everyone will fit, first in best dressed is not the aim of the game. Just remember, it is better to live in a community then take part in an imaginary competition that only exists in the minds of the ‘elite’.

Speaking of collaboration, this is the next phase I want to implement in my own novel The Grand Adventures of Madeline Cain, a YA comedy set in Facebook, just released in December. If you are an YA indie author who writes humorously or for a chick-lit (think Meg Cabot) YA audience please feel free to drop me an email ebookrevolution (at) yahoo (dot) com. Let’s swap books and go from there. The Chick-lit/humour element is important! Straight genres that don’t include these elements (paranormals/fantasies/sci-fis etc) probably won’t fit. I like these novels, but they’re not my target audience. Don’t forget to put ‘author collaboration’ in the subject heading so it doesn’t get spammed!

E-Book Revolution Podcast Episode 7: A Conversation with Reviewer, Blogger, Writer & Podcaster Sean the Bookonaut

I've always been fascinated as to how writers build their author platforms, and which platform, if any, brings in the most traffic and whether or not more traffic equals meaningful connections with readers. Are reviews important? How should you approach a reviewer? If reviews are so influential, should you be doing your own? If you're confused as to whether you should be trying normal blogging, review blogging, or podcasting to connect with your audience then this podcast is for you. Today I talk with Sean the Blogonaut (or Bookonaut) a speculative fiction reviewer, blogger, writer and podcast. Not only will be be discussing the merits of different platforms but the best way to approach a reviewer with your novel (because let's face it, poor Sean has seen it all!)

Sean Wright (AKA Sean the Blogonaut, Sean the Bookonaut) considers himself an aspiring writer, he tends to do quite a lot of aspiring and not much writing.  He blogs at Adventures of Bookonaut in attempt to keep himself sane and connected with other humans who share his tastes in fiction and to comment on and support the Australian speculative fiction scene. He lives in rural South Australia, in the midst of wheat fields, in a 120 year old farm house which has its own history book but no ghosts. He holds a 2nd Dan in Chung Do Kwan, a Korean School of Shotokan Karate, and consequently can speak about 10 korean words and can break pine boards with just his mind.  He is currently working on two manuscripts. You can find him on Twitter and at his website.  He files audio interviews for the Ditmar nominate Galactic Chat, a reviews column for the International Speculative Fiction Magazine and has recently started his own genre fiction podcast, inventively named Adventures of a Bookonaut Podcast.

In this podcast we discuss:

• The importance of attending local writing events and workshops.
• Why it's important to approach a reviewer correctly.
• Mistakes authors make when sending a review.
• How blogging helps you get into the habit of writing every day.
• Podcasting vs Video casting.
• How Goodreads should figure in a writer's overall strategy.
• Why community minded authors get further.
• The proper use of Twitter.
• The mechanics of writing a balanced Tweet.
• Thoughts on paid reviews.
• How to go about blogging.
• What the benefits of podcasting are.
• Which platform draws the most traffic.
• Which platform creates the most interaction.

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Enjoy!

I love hearing from my listeners! Please feel free to contact me or offer any feedback on topics you would like to see covered at: ebookrevolution (at) yahoo (dot) com.

Emily's non-fiction book E-Book Revolution: The Ultimate Guide to E-book success is now available at Kobo, Amazon and Bkclb (Australian e-book store).If you enjoy her tongue in cheek style you may also enjoy her comedy novel set in Facebook, The Grand Adventures of Madeline Cain: Photographer Extraordinaire also available from Kobo, Amazon and Bkclb.

The companion website for this podcast is http://ebookrevolution.podbean.com 

Point of View Can Suck My…

So apparently there are rules. Always have been, like wearing clothes in public and driving cars on the right side of the road (the left side, obviously) and not mooning the Queen. You probably use them because you’ve read so many books that they make sense. You probably break them because you’re lazy.

As a reader, changing point of view drives me crazy! I’m in one character’s head and then all of a sudden I’m inside the petty thoughts of a minor prostitute, looking in the opposite direction to the main character. This jump in perspective derails me and has me crashing into a figurative mountainside in an instant. My immediate thought is always, “Well that author doesn’t know what they’re doing.” I get why a beginner writer does it, they want to show the emotions and thoughts of all the characters in the scene directly, ‘cause let’s face it, subtle description of body language, tone of voice and picking the right word to convey how pissed off someone is takes a lot of thought. And we just want to get to the action! Don’t get me wrong, you can have more then one person’s point of view in a novel, you don’t have to stick with one character. If you’re jumping scene or time, and there’s a break in the prose or chapters, it’s fine to delve into the voice of a new character. But my god, if you jump back and forth between characters and points of view in the same scene I want to throttle you until you become a purple as Violet Bulrigard. As a reader, I love books that follow the hallowed point of view rules, and if an author deviates I will throw them down quicker then a bag of fire ants.

As a writer, point of view is a pain in my arse! It creates all sorts of discontent. I know exactly why I can’t be lazy, and as such I find two stories waring in my head, yelling insults at each other and not moving on with their own storylines. Unfortunately, I only get to pick one. Take my latest story Jake’s Page for example. I had wanted to bring the phenomena of social media to the page to show how you could follow a person’s life and get a sense of their personality through their online platform. That meant getting into the main character, Jake’s, head. At the same time I wanted to show that the person we present online isn’t necessarily the person we are in real life. Anyone who has frequented Facebook would know that finding someone who doesn’t stretch the truth about themselves is about as rare as a model that eats McDonalds. That meant getting out of his head and showing how others perceived him, and how his actions differed from his words.

This story was not a full novel; it wasn’t even long enough to push out into a novella. But it was a story very close to me and I had to tell it. In the traditional publishing world this is a struggle, for I would’ve had to choose between them. I wouldn’t have been able to present the same story, in two different ways, in the same volume and have it published, so that people could see to subtle difference and think on it. Because it was that slight difference in presentation that made the social comment. Hell, I couldn’t even write this story in a traditional prose format, social media was it’s own beast entirely and it didn’t conform to paragraphs and chapters.

But we are in a digital age now, where traditional publishing and formats are no longer the be all and end all. I am a storyteller for goodness sake, I may still have to conform to the rules of writing a good story (like point of view) but that didn’t mean I had to play by traditional ideas of a book or formatting.

I felt both perspectives of Jake’s life were important, a 2D perspective and 3D perspective as it were. Jake was based on someone I once knew and I wanted to get it right. In the end I conceded that they couldn’t be told at once or even in the same format.  They were two separate stories and they needed the right medium to be told. Thus ‘Jake’s Page: A Short Story’ and ‘Jake’s Page: A Play’ were born. The short story, written first, deals with the wacky character of Jake as seen through his Facebook page and private messages. The first thing you notice just how easy it is to get a sense of his personality through the posts he makes and the pages he ‘likes’. The writing of the play required the adaption of the short story into a script, where the action of the real world could be contrasted with the posts (dialogue) of the digital. The adaption was completed under the mentorship of playwright Caroline Reid and focused on translating the phenomenon of Facebook to the stage, bringing the contrasts of the digital and real world to light, and delving into the reasoning behind why Jake acted as he did when he knew the risks, something we couldn’t know from reading his Facebook page. 

Each format tells a different story and gives us an alternate perspective into the comic personality of Jake, University life and the tragic consequences of not looking after yourself. I had never written a play before, so I was glad I had a guiding hand, but as soon as it was complete I knew that a combination of these stories made one harmonious whole and that was how it had to be presented. In e-book format, available on Kobo or Kindle or for the cost of a Tweet at the end of the post. Perhaps get a copy and see why the story had to be written that way, see how much it differs from a traditional e-book (if there is such a thing) but also see how the difference makes sense. It matches the story rather then the story having to conform to the format.

Do you have a novel that’s not coming out the way you want it? Then play with the formatting, mix and match. We no longer need to conform to verse or prose, as indies we should be the ones experimenting, throwing objects at the wall and seeing what sticks, creating art and not following tradition. We’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain.

Do you have two stories waring in your head? Tell us about it below and what your thoughts are in changing the format for the story.

You can get a copy of Jake's Page for free by tweeting or writing a Facebook Post, click the button below: