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Based on the feeback I'll have to add this one to my queue.
What amazes me is that somewhere out there, someone bought this book and gave it a good enough review and recommended it to enough people that it blew up. But I can't imagine anyone buying it with that cover :eek:
I'm reading this now and agree that it shows promise and is solidly enjoyable. Also agree about supporting characters being well done. I'm about 80 percent through on the Kindle, so hope to finish today or tomorrow.
I'm willing to try self-pubbed novels if the author is working with subjects or themes that interest me. I usually go by word-of-mouth recommedations as well as sampling text to find them.
Looks like I'm gonna be reading Blood Song. But I wonder if the author gets more money if I buy the self published e-book. Which I still can through my kindle $2.99 not bad. I'm probably going to end up self publishing something. As a visual artist I have terrible judgement on my own creations even now in the written word. Recently learning a lot of my recent favorite authors had a rough go with publishers I wonder what exactly goes on in the process. I could be wrong but a lot seems to weigh on the opening pages if not the first paragraph. That is a pretty scary thought as a writer even though Im guilty of bailing on a novel early if it doesn't grab me. Which could be just mood related on my part . Off to read the sample material amazon provides. -jam
while i was at uni, i had one of australia's best literary authors as a tutor. i remember her always saying that the most important part of your novel was the first page. she would work and re-work her first pages and encouraged everyone to do the same. your first lines telegraph not only your skill as a writer, but also set the scene. in many cases, your novel's overall tone and mood is pretty much summed in the first few paragraphs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Headwound
i've never forgotten that, for some reason, and always remember her words every time i start reading a new book.
I was told the same thing from my English teacher and do the same!Quote:
Originally Posted by Lucas Thorn
I also think it's important to grab the readers attention from page 1; a book always gets points from me if it starts well and pretty much hooks you in from then.
I picked it up yesterday just by chance. Then came to this thread. May move it up my pile and read it soon.
I think you may be under the wrong impression about self-publishing. Many authors are self-publishing not because they couldn't get published any other way, but for any number of reasons including more money.Quote:
Originally Posted by Lord Pendragon
When I was self-published I often heard reviewers saying, "Why isn't a publisher picking this guy up." But the answer was pretty simple. I wasn't on the market. I was making good money self-publishing, my books were coming out every six months, and I had complete control. I had on interest in traditional publishing.
"But Michael, you have switched now, so I don't understand your point." My point is both myself and Ryan decided for whatever reasons that switching to traditional would be good for our careers. But I know self-published authors who have turned down six-figure contracts to stay self, so my point is don't assume that someone is self-published because they can't get a traditional deal.
Checkout the list I put together for Ranting Dragon. It is my pick for 20 Indie Fantasies Worth Checking out. There might be something on there you'll find worthwhile.Quote:
Originally Posted by Radone
It depends. If he ends up signing a lot of foreign language translations that can make up the difference for what he'll lose in switching from self to traditional in the US (at least that is what happened to me). Before switching to traditional I estimated a loss of about $200k...which, nearly a year later, seems to be pretty much untrack. But I also got more than than in foreign sales so for me it turned out to be a "wash" from a financial perspective.Quote:
Originally Posted by Headwound
and that's getting more common, authors turning down offers to be traditionally published. i wrote an article a few months ago essentially making the point that with the decline of influence the traditional publishers are experiencing, they're going to have to step up and show what benefit they can actually provide an author (edit: other than simply the merit badge of being traditionally published).Quote:
Originally Posted by sullivan_riyria
basically, i think they're going to have to make the move into more aggressive marketing. at the moment, i feel the book market is relatively lazy compared to many other retail markets. they've always assumed they didn't need to do much more than put a few posters on a wall in bookshops. but it's not the case any more. with bookshops closing down, there needs to be more efforts made by traditional publishers, or the online giants like amazon will simply swallow them up and continue to strengthen themselves a publishing source. i mean, for 99% of traditionally published authors, the publisher does nothing much in the way of helping them market themselves anyway.
an interesting perspective is from my previous job as a manager of a bookstore for 10 years. in that time i dealt with all the publishers on a monthly basis. they'd try to sell me their books. except none of them ever try to sell the little ones. they're only interested in getting me to buy bulk. when it came to the fantasy and scifi lists, no publisher knew what they were doing, or even what it was about. half the time, they'd skip that part of the list.
genre fiction, i think, is where self publishing will grow. because there's no losing with it. and, as stated, you get more control. sure, at the moment there's a fair number of under-edited books out there. but those books seldom last, and i reckon it's already beginning to sink in with a lot of new people that to be writers, they need to pay more attention to their craft. you already see independant authors recommending editing etc. i don't think it'll be long before they sort that out. after all, they want the sales...
I agree with everyone, this reads like a polished epic, not a book by an indie author. I'm not actually done yet, but pretty clear its likely to be my top indie find, if you can still call it an indie find.
The only thing that struck me as unprofessional was the fact that the lengthy prologue was all in italics. It was way too lengthy for that, was kind of annoying.
Funny thing, I saw it at the top of the amazon fantasy section with a 5 star average rating, and I wouldnt even read the description because it sounded like a vampire book. I must have passed over it a dozen times before I looked at it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by sullivan_riyria
Lots of good on your list, and it reminded me of a couple I want to check out, so thanks! I really like a lot of BV Larson's stuff, for example. That said, just for the sake of discussion and in case you hadnt considered it, I feel like you might want to consider ammending your list the next time you publish it somewhere to warn folks that some of the books on their have a very young adult vibe. For example, the Book of Deacon and the Emperor's Edge are both heavily young adult in my opinion, whether they were marketed that way or not. I was able to enjoy The Book of Deacon somewhat, but not The Emperor's Edge, and would have steered clear of both if I had realized they were YA.
That bothered me in the beginning, too, but lesser so during the brief switches between the present and the past. I guess it was a stylistic decision. I've seen big agency books do this, too, but switching fonts rather than italicizing might have made it more readable. Personally, I find reading italics for anything longer than a paragraph hard on the eyes.Quote:
Originally Posted by ArtNJ
I bought the book on the strength of recommendations on this thread.
Excellent debut, will definitely be reading the sequel as soon as it’s out.
The characterization was very good and the pace was maintained without sacrificing depth.
An all round excellent find that I can recommend.
I'm kind of burntout on fantasy, think this would be a good refresher?