Crossing the Animas back from Editor

A few days ago, my editor sent me the edited version of Crossing the Animas and related files. I'm anxious to reviewed her revisions, but I have some personal issues which require me to be in northern California.

Here is the remaining process to publication. Next, I go through every revision, one at a time. I do this to approve the change and improve my writing skill. After I have a clean edited manuscript, the book goes to my ebook formatter. He makes sure the book looks good on various ereaders. My proofreader gets at crack at the book next.

In the past, I published the print and ebook versions simultaneously. The world has changed. Now, more than 90% of my sales are electronic versions of the book. (Excluding library large print sales) So the ebook versions will be published without waiting for the longer print book process.

All of this means that the ebook version of Crossing the Animas should be available before the end of March. The print version will follow about sixty days later.

I hope you enjoy it.

Rough Cover Option

Over 1,400 Book Reviews and Counting

I read every book review. Can't help myself. I'm perverse. I even like to read bad reviews. Dumb, I know, but it's a five minute exercise I enjoy with morning coffee.

• Over 1,400 Amazon reviews for an average of 4.4, with 525 of those for The Shopkeeper. 
• Nearly 4,000 Goodreads ratings for 4.0 and another 400 written reviews
• Plus dozens of professional reviews

Shopkeeper at Amazon

Goodreads

I appreciate every reader. A review or an email note gives me a feel for my audience and helps me connect with readers. Less than 1% of readers leave a text review and I'm grateful for every one. I don't just read them, I take note of what they like and don't like. Each review helps me with my next book. Thank you.

If you like short illustrated reviews, I get a kick out of 3-Panel Book Reviews by Lisa Brown.

Lisa Brown's 3-panel Book Review  of The Metamorphosis

John Steinbeck Writing Tips

Six tips on writing from Pulitzer Prize winner and Nobel laureate John Steinbeck.

1. Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.
2. Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material.
3. Forget your generalized audience. In the first place, the nameless, faceless audience will scare you to death and in the second place, unlike the theater, it doesn’t exist. In writing, your audience is one single reader. I have found that sometimes it helps to pick out one person—a real person you know, or an imagined person and write to that one.
4. If a scene or a section gets the better of you and you still think you want it—bypass it and go on. When you have finished the whole you can come back to it and then you may find that the reason it gave trouble is because it didn’t belong there.
5. Beware of a scene that becomes too dear to you, dearer than the rest. It will usually be found that it is out of drawing.
6. If you are using dialogue—say it aloud as you write it. Only then will it have the sound of speech.

Writing Advice from George Orwell

Orwell's Rules

35 cents for a Masterpiece

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, scientific word, or jargon if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

Orwell's Questions

1. What am I trying to say?
2. What words will express it?
3. What image or idiom will make it clearer?
4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect?
5. Could I put it more shortly?
6. Have I said anything that is avoidably ugly?

Amazon Changing its Customer Rating System?

This seems like a good time to discuss Amazon’s ratings because The Shut Mouth Society has reached 100 Amazon customer reviews. Amazon appears to be in the middle of changing its rating system. (Ratings are the number of stars that customers give a product.) Or at least I presume it is in the middle of a change because the calculation for print/audio and Kindle ratings is different. At the top of the page for print/audio editions, there are now two numbers associated with the star ratings. The first number is the number of ratings without reviews and the second number is the count of reviews. The new rating appears to be a weighted average of these two numbers.

For example, The Shut Mouth Society has 100 reviews for 4.3 stars. The print/audio editions also display 162 ratings without reviews. There is a nifty roll-over chart which shows a combined 4.1 stars with a bar graft and sample review comments. (A roll-over chart is displayed automatically when you roll the cursor over the review count.)

100 Reviews for 4.3 Stars

Some authors seem upset with the new system because their ratings declined. Mine did as well, but I favor the new system. I believe a larger sample size adds credibility to the quality assessment. I suspect those most upset were gaming the old system and their bogus reviews were diluted under the new system.

My remaining question is what is the source of these additional ratings. Amazon acquired GoodReads over a year ago, but the numbers don’t correspond to their ratings. I suspect these new ratings come from Kindle readers, who can assigned a star rating upon completion of a book.

Whatever the case, as far as I’m concerned, the more, the merrier.

Update, 06/04/14:

Ratings seemed to have reverted back to their old selves, so ... never mind.

New York Public Library—Struggling to Stay Relevant

Last post I commented on how the New York Public Library has become a gathering place for electronic enthusiasts who never feel a need to bother a librarian. Most of the patrons I observed were focused intently on computerized devices. An indication of the library’s struggle for relevancy can be found on their website. The above the fold promos are for The Beatles and Tax Day, April 15, neither of which is what one would normally associate with arguably the country’s second most important center of literature and research material. (I put the Library of Congress in first place.)

Other front-page teasers include:

“Make ‘Em laugh: Gut busting Picture Books—NYPL's Elizabeth Bird shares some picture books that will have both adults AND kids rolling in the aisles.”

“Game of Thrones is Back! Now Where is it Going?— NYPL's Shawn Donohue ponders how George R.R. Martin's hit book series will manifest on screen this season.”

“Mad Men: The Beginning of the End— NYPL's resident Mad Men blogger Billy Parrott speculates on what's to come in the seventh season of the hit show.”

“Craft Beer—Stevie Feliciano of the Hudson Park Library shares her adventures in beer tasting and home brewing, along with some helpful books for novices.”

The Home page includes a few traditional library themes, but they are overwhelmed by appeals to pop culture. I suppose the idea is to get New Yorkers into the library in the hope they’ll learn something they couldn’t pick up from People magazine.

The most disappointing part of the NYPL webpage was found at the very bottom: “The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter.” This is an enlightening exhibit of children’s books that promotes reading, art, and appreciation of literature.  This exhibit is exactly the type of event libraries can use to attract new patrons. It’s colorful, nicely organized, learning centric, and above all, interesting.  “The ABC of It” deserves to remain above the fold for as long as it's open.

New York Public Library—A Museum or a Hive of Erudition

The New York Public Library is one of the world’s great institutions. The Map Room is grand space with an impressive collection. The Reading Room is outsized and majestic. The comprehensive Art & Architecture Collection is housed in yet another gracious room.

I have written previously that libraries may eventually become museums for printed books. “Are books becoming obsolete? Is a library the only place we’ll be able to see these odd antiquities? Will librarians admonish us to “don’t touch,” instead of shushing chatterboxes? Are we entering a binary world where everything is decomposed into a series of ones and zeros and then instantly reassembled on a hand-held device?”

Nothing epitomizes this eventuality more than the New York Public Library. There seem to be miles of marble hallways that can accommodate twelve abreast, super-high ceilings, broad staircases galore, and very few books. The stacks are forbidden to all except the high priesthood and nowhere in sight. In fact, it’s rare to see a printed book even in the Reading Room. Everybody seems engrossed in computer or iPad screens umbilicaled to handy electrical outlets that run down the center of the tables. Only two rows of tables in the far back restrict computers and e-readers. On the day we were there, these were the only available seats in the expansive room.

I don’t lament the rarity of printed books, but I fear we might lose the expertise of librarians. I saw few people get up from their prized seats to make an inquiry to one of the staff. I suspect if they wanted an answer, they Googled it at their table. What a shame. My experience with librarians is that they are not only highly knowledgeable, but eager to share their knowledge. Unique nuggets of information cannot be discovered on Google, but a librarian can point you toward a source that can elicit a eureka moment. Print is a medium and a book can be presented in other formats without losing all of its worth. On the other hand, the demise of librarians would be a tragedy.