Richard Rider's Blog - Posts Tagged "faq"
FAQ
WOW. Not sure if SS has been recommended somewhere recently...? There's just been a bafflingly huge jump in the number of people downloading it the last few days, and I've been getting some really lovely PMs as well. So, thank you for all that! It feels like the stories were written forever ago, it's a proper thrill knowing that people are still reading them (and, hopefully, enjoying them!) even though they're not properly published or marketed very well or anything. However far they spread, it's all been word of mouth and that's the best way this could have happened :)
The same questions seem to pop up a lot, so I'll answer some of them here just so it's all in one place instead of scattered about in emails and PMs:
Why are your books in some weird format my e-reader hates?!
Honest answer... I don't know! If I remember right, when I first put the paperbacks on Lulu (three years ago, holy shit!) there was a thingy you could click so people could download the source file as well, the pdf, and that's pretty much where I left it. I'm a technodunce and it never occurred to me that the format might not work on some readers - now I know better, I'm just waiting for a spare couple of hours so I can sit down and teach myself how to format these things properly so they're viewable on all readers. In the meantime, I've unclicked the Adobe Digital Editions bit (I don't even know what that is, I was just advised to click it so I did like a stupid lemming without bothering to find out what it did) so I hope that helps some people a bit? I've tested the pdfs on a Kindle and they are readable, but the formatting is a bit odd - missing paragraph breaks, mainly, and some of the italicised words have mysteriously vanished.
Once I've fixed the formats, I'll email them for free to the people who already paid money for not-quite-ideal files - I know how aggravating it is to buy something that doesn't work properly. Sorry!
Hey! Didn't these books used to be free?!
Yes they did! They were on Lulu as free downloads for ages, until I discovered that a bunch of thieving bastards were selling the files on other sites. As far as I know I've managed to weed out all the fakes - PLEASE don't buy the files anywhere but Lulu, because that's the only place I currently have them. Anywhere else is dodgy! I put the £5 charge on the downloads because I thought it might dissuade the thieves - obviously people can still upload the files anywhere they want, but thankfully it seems to be working because I've had no more trouble with people making money from my stories without my permission.
It's lame that you put a cliffhanger at the end of the book. That's just lazy.
...Okay!
They're not supposed to be three stories at all, really, they all follow on immediately from one another. I just split them in the most sensible places, otherwise the book would have been MAMMOTH. It's not so important with e-books, but nobody wants to have to carry around a phonebook-sized paperback.
Are you writing any more about these characters?
I would like to! I started to write more to follow on from the three books, but the more I think about it the worse an idea it seems. I feel like they end in a good place, and anything else added on the end would just feel like some clunky shitty unnecessary cash-in sequel (*pointed glare at Hollywood*).
HOWEVER: I'm interested in filling in Lindsay and Valentine's backstories, and I've written a good chunk of both. I'm trying to bust through horrible writer's block so everything's been kind of stuck in the mud for months and months, but that's the plan.
I've also found that it's loads easier to write to prompts when I'm blocked than it is to write the stories that are stuck tight in my head, so please let me know if there's anything you want to see. Like I've said before - if I'm going to spam everyone with these characters, which I clearly am, then it should probably be stuff that people actually want to read. ;)
Also, there are loads more stories in my Writing section. It's probably best not to read these until you've read the three main books, unless you don't care about spoilers. They're a mixture of "missing" scenes, opposite viewpoints, a bit of backstory, bits that for whatever reason didn't fit in the books or were written to fill gaps after the books were already published.
Seriously, FUCK ELLIE! I liked the books, but I hated all the bits with her in. She ruined it!
I'm sorry you feel like that, because I'm really fond of her!
I find it really interesting how many people break off from a really nice message to tell me how much they hated that character - I mean that honestly, not being all butthurt and sarcastic as if I can't take criticism. I love knowing what people think, both good and bad, and I'm never going to get offended by something like that because it's all opinions, right? So let it rip, tell me how you really feel about her, I can take it :P
I'm not sure how much of it is my lacklustre writing, and how much is the m/m mindset that I suppose people get in when they read a book that's mostly m/m. I think Ellie as a character is a lot more rounded in my head, because I have reams and reams of backstory that's not yet written and she feels as real to me now as Pip and Lindsay because I'm walking round living my life with theirs all spilling out of their boxes in my brain as well. So yeah, I realise part of it is probably that - but the het-recoil is a thing as well, I think? I know a lot of people who read m/m don't enjoy het romance as well, and that's fine! But I never really set out to tell a m/m romance story, I just wanted to tell a story about some people and what a mess they are and how they get themselves sorted out. The m/m lovey stuff is how they do it, yes, but I never meant for this to be a nice neat linear clichéd gay love story at the expense of everything else. I wanted the horrible bits and the funny bits and the dirty bits and the disturbing, sweet, depressing, beautiful, whatever else bits to come together because that's the only way I could think of to make the ridiculously unlikely plot feel vaguely plausible. To me, she was never the evil witch getting in the way of the Great Love Story, she was just stuck in a bizarre and horrible situation and giving and getting comfort where she could. I always felt like she was a vital part of Lindsay's character as well as being her own, and I can't imagine the story without her in it. We'll have to agree to disagree...! Hopefully when I get round to writing Lindsay's backstory we can win some people back, I don't know. Either way: I appreciate all criticisms and opinions, I love a good debate!
Are you going to write anything completely new and unrelated to SS?
I... don't know! Like I said before, major writer's block means I've not written anything in absolutely ages. I have this annoying tendency to get some great shiny new idea and write a little chapter or one-shot story, then I go blank and don't know how to carry it on. Nothing in my whole life has ever come as easily to me as writing about Lindsay and Valentine. I don't know what it is. It's strange and I'm not used to it, but I found it so easy to write about them that writing anything else kind of feels like a chore ;)
The same questions seem to pop up a lot, so I'll answer some of them here just so it's all in one place instead of scattered about in emails and PMs:
Why are your books in some weird format my e-reader hates?!
Honest answer... I don't know! If I remember right, when I first put the paperbacks on Lulu (three years ago, holy shit!) there was a thingy you could click so people could download the source file as well, the pdf, and that's pretty much where I left it. I'm a technodunce and it never occurred to me that the format might not work on some readers - now I know better, I'm just waiting for a spare couple of hours so I can sit down and teach myself how to format these things properly so they're viewable on all readers. In the meantime, I've unclicked the Adobe Digital Editions bit (I don't even know what that is, I was just advised to click it so I did like a stupid lemming without bothering to find out what it did) so I hope that helps some people a bit? I've tested the pdfs on a Kindle and they are readable, but the formatting is a bit odd - missing paragraph breaks, mainly, and some of the italicised words have mysteriously vanished.
Once I've fixed the formats, I'll email them for free to the people who already paid money for not-quite-ideal files - I know how aggravating it is to buy something that doesn't work properly. Sorry!
Hey! Didn't these books used to be free?!
Yes they did! They were on Lulu as free downloads for ages, until I discovered that a bunch of thieving bastards were selling the files on other sites. As far as I know I've managed to weed out all the fakes - PLEASE don't buy the files anywhere but Lulu, because that's the only place I currently have them. Anywhere else is dodgy! I put the £5 charge on the downloads because I thought it might dissuade the thieves - obviously people can still upload the files anywhere they want, but thankfully it seems to be working because I've had no more trouble with people making money from my stories without my permission.
It's lame that you put a cliffhanger at the end of the book. That's just lazy.
...Okay!
They're not supposed to be three stories at all, really, they all follow on immediately from one another. I just split them in the most sensible places, otherwise the book would have been MAMMOTH. It's not so important with e-books, but nobody wants to have to carry around a phonebook-sized paperback.
Are you writing any more about these characters?
I would like to! I started to write more to follow on from the three books, but the more I think about it the worse an idea it seems. I feel like they end in a good place, and anything else added on the end would just feel like some clunky shitty unnecessary cash-in sequel (*pointed glare at Hollywood*).
HOWEVER: I'm interested in filling in Lindsay and Valentine's backstories, and I've written a good chunk of both. I'm trying to bust through horrible writer's block so everything's been kind of stuck in the mud for months and months, but that's the plan.
I've also found that it's loads easier to write to prompts when I'm blocked than it is to write the stories that are stuck tight in my head, so please let me know if there's anything you want to see. Like I've said before - if I'm going to spam everyone with these characters, which I clearly am, then it should probably be stuff that people actually want to read. ;)
Also, there are loads more stories in my Writing section. It's probably best not to read these until you've read the three main books, unless you don't care about spoilers. They're a mixture of "missing" scenes, opposite viewpoints, a bit of backstory, bits that for whatever reason didn't fit in the books or were written to fill gaps after the books were already published.
Seriously, FUCK ELLIE! I liked the books, but I hated all the bits with her in. She ruined it!
I'm sorry you feel like that, because I'm really fond of her!
I find it really interesting how many people break off from a really nice message to tell me how much they hated that character - I mean that honestly, not being all butthurt and sarcastic as if I can't take criticism. I love knowing what people think, both good and bad, and I'm never going to get offended by something like that because it's all opinions, right? So let it rip, tell me how you really feel about her, I can take it :P
I'm not sure how much of it is my lacklustre writing, and how much is the m/m mindset that I suppose people get in when they read a book that's mostly m/m. I think Ellie as a character is a lot more rounded in my head, because I have reams and reams of backstory that's not yet written and she feels as real to me now as Pip and Lindsay because I'm walking round living my life with theirs all spilling out of their boxes in my brain as well. So yeah, I realise part of it is probably that - but the het-recoil is a thing as well, I think? I know a lot of people who read m/m don't enjoy het romance as well, and that's fine! But I never really set out to tell a m/m romance story, I just wanted to tell a story about some people and what a mess they are and how they get themselves sorted out. The m/m lovey stuff is how they do it, yes, but I never meant for this to be a nice neat linear clichéd gay love story at the expense of everything else. I wanted the horrible bits and the funny bits and the dirty bits and the disturbing, sweet, depressing, beautiful, whatever else bits to come together because that's the only way I could think of to make the ridiculously unlikely plot feel vaguely plausible. To me, she was never the evil witch getting in the way of the Great Love Story, she was just stuck in a bizarre and horrible situation and giving and getting comfort where she could. I always felt like she was a vital part of Lindsay's character as well as being her own, and I can't imagine the story without her in it. We'll have to agree to disagree...! Hopefully when I get round to writing Lindsay's backstory we can win some people back, I don't know. Either way: I appreciate all criticisms and opinions, I love a good debate!
Are you going to write anything completely new and unrelated to SS?
I... don't know! Like I said before, major writer's block means I've not written anything in absolutely ages. I have this annoying tendency to get some great shiny new idea and write a little chapter or one-shot story, then I go blank and don't know how to carry it on. Nothing in my whole life has ever come as easily to me as writing about Lindsay and Valentine. I don't know what it is. It's strange and I'm not used to it, but I found it so easy to write about them that writing anything else kind of feels like a chore ;)
