UK Amazon Kindle Forum discussion

This is asking for trouble: giving me blank space to say anything I want.

Ooops. Not anything. There IS a character limit, but it looks very generous.

I've been writing twenty years. Not very impressive in the output department. I never did get an agent to take on the first book, a mystery set in a a university plasma physics department - when I eventually get to it, it will qualify as a historical mystery (it's set in 1975-85), which is hilarious.

Pride's Children - Book 1 and setting up the rough draft and detailed planning all the way to the end of Book 3 - has taken the last fifteen years. I'm slow - it's elaborate. I have had more fun writing than just about anything else I could think of.

Writing is also very hard work. If you want to do a good job, there is an awful lot to learn, and my standards are very high, set by the Bronte sisters and Dorothy Sayers.

And then learning all the publishing stuff: editing, formatting, creating a cover (which required learning graphics), learning to create an ebook (I can do HTML now!), and the details of launching. My brain loved it - I used to do computational physics at Princeton before I got sick. It is very satisfying to tackle new programs and concepts, and wrestle them to a draw.

All I want to do now, though, is get the print version set up and out to Createspace (my sister's book club is half members who only read paper), set up the minimal marketing that you need to do to find readers, and get back to the writing part.

Pride's Children has themes such as:
How do celebrities meet the people they will marry? And deal with rabid fans?
What's it like to be an actor? How do you get to the very top of the profession?
How do you handle all that life throws at you, and still keep your principles?
Children matter. How?
Work is important to individual happiness.
Love and marriage and not.

And the big one: how does being disabled affect every choice you make in your life? And which choices are yours to make, and which won't the world allow?

The actual writing process: no one sees anything until it's finished, and as polished as I can make it. I drove my beta reader wild - there would often be months between chapters. And my motto while writing was: 'Torture Rachel.' She will tell you I did.

I believe the writer's job is to take the reader on an emotional rollercoaster ride, and to evoke the emotion IN the reader. I believe reading is how we experience other lives, while living just one - but stories help us deal with real life.

I've loved to talk about my work with people who've read it - I posted a new scene on my blog (liebjabberings.wordpress.com) every Tuesday for two years as I applied the last layers of polish (I hope!).

Now my job is to get out of the way, and go back to work.

I talk/type too much.

Alicia

Countdown 0.99 until Dec. 21, 2015 - be the first UK sale and make me happy.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017AZLTLG



PRIDE'S CHILDREN: PURGATORY

Money CAN buy happiness - someone just bought me some.

Some lovely UK person (you know who you are - Amazon won't tell me) has just bought the first copy of Pride's Children in the UK, and the jinx is broken.

I am deeply grateful and tickled pink.

Alicia wrote: "Money CAN buy happiness - someone just bought me some.

Some lovely UK person (you know who you are - Amazon won't tell me) has just bought the first copy of Pride's Children in the UK, and the jin..."

:-)

I know just how you feel :-)

Jim wrote: "I know just how you feel"

Thanks, Jim

Cheap, really - new authors live on such spoonfuls.

What's far more important, though, is people reading - but it IS right before the holidays, and a VERY busy time for many.

Hi, all - FYI:

My book is being featured on Sunday December 20th 2015 at www.ebooksoda.com. Check it out for free and bargain ebook deals!

And the Kindle Countdown is part of this promotion (and last longer).

Nothing like being a clueless newbie! I found out last night (two months after launch) that I can put a sample pdf of Pride's Children up on the book page - to make it easier for people to try it.

It's a wonderful idea - I'll have to download samples from other people if they have them.

The easier it is to sample a book, the easier it is to decide if you want the whole thing.

And a pdf is lovely - I have some formatting in the beginning I'm rather fond of, and it doesn't work in the ebook (because you don't want to interfere with people's ability to choose their font), but the pdf is a sample from the print version - and I can keep my little typography experiment (small, I promise),

Patti reminded me I had started this thread - way back what seems like an eon ago when I first started to actually use my Goodreads account - and I've let it go fallow.

A million pardons! Promise to do better.

In the meantime, I found lots of places to talk to the group members who are posting - and fascinating topics to comment on and learn about.

My grandmother used to say, "You learn something new every day." And it would make her smile when she learned something new that day.

Well, I just learned you can edit the topic of your thread!

So I did - but there IS a Kindle Countdown going on in the UK until April 9, so it felt weird to take that out of the title.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B017AZLTLG

Ah, the little ironies of life.

Yesterday I learned that BookHippo is both exactly what I want to be on (it is mainly UK) and that it won't take me because my reviews are mainly US. Duh! Of course.

The opposite to what trips up most of us, Alicia. Good luck with your countdown, hopefully it'll give you some of the reviews you need.

David wrote: "The opposite to what trips up most of us, Alicia. Good luck with your countdown, hopefully it'll give you some of the reviews you need."

Thanks, David.

I feel like a mother holding out a spoon to a kid, and saying, "Try it. You'll like it."

I wouldn't eat mushrooms when I was a kid, no matter what anyone said. Now I love them. I wouldn't eat tomatoes then, either - still don't like them (unless they're mushed up and have no resemblance to actual tomatoes).

Eh, you win some, you lose some.

Our lovely groupite Rosen runs BookHippo.

She's a wonderful author and advocate of all indies.

Have a private chat with her and I know she'll have lots of lovely advice for you. You can tell her Patti sent you and link to your author thread here, if you like.

Mushed tomatoes layered with delicious, delicious bacon.

Minus the mushed tomatoes.

Mmmmmmm

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Our lovely groupite Rosen runs BookHippo.

She's a wonderful author and advocate of all indies.

Have a private chat with her and I know she'll have lots of lovely advice for you. You can tell her ..."

Thanks, Patti. Will do.

Bacon forever. Mushrooms. Omelettes.

And me with a protein shake for breakfast. At least it's chocolate - I make it with crushed ice and it's ALMOST a milkshake.

GL, our Alicia is drinking chocolate flavoured chalk for breakfast!

Sounds like she needs extra crayons.

Thanks, Mistress Lantern.

Are the crayolas chocolate FLAVORED? And edible?

Or need I ask a two-year-old? They are often crayola connoisseurs. Mine were. Way back then, of course.

They're as flavoured and edible as your shake, darling.

She needs a proper milkshake, doesn't she GL?

Yum! Thanks. It's sugar-free, right?

The glass is.

Its only virtual sugar, that does no-one any harm.

Gingerlily - Mistress Lantern wrote: "Its only virtual sugar, that does no-one any harm."

I could LIVE on virtual sugar. No virtual hypoglycemia to go with it, and all that nice sugar high.

Must go nap it off.

I believe Rosen's on her hols this week.

Ah - thanks. No rush - there is a natural pace to these things.

People on holiday should try to minimize their connectivity to the web in exchange for, in my case, beautiful Mexican beaches and warm Pacific water. Can't wait to go back to Huatulco!

Kath wrote: "I believe Rosen's on her hols this week."

Good on her!

Somewhere as beautiful and exotic as she is, I hope.

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Kath wrote: "I believe Rosen's on her hols this week."

Good on her!

Somewhere as beautiful and exotic as she is, I hope."

Oh
So you've got to be beautiful and exotic to go to beautiful and exotic places now :-(

Looks like it's Scunthorpe for me this summer then

Some of us would never go anywhere!

I'm off to Sorrento later in the year; given this latest info, do you think they'll let me in?

That's the ham place, isn't it?

You'll be needing to bring me ham. Lots n lots of ham.

In a hamper

Yes please.

I have to put the feeder out soon - we should be getting hummingbirds as soon as it stops being close to freezing at night.

The flowers are in bloom, but the hummers need consistency. We get the Ruby-Throated ones, and it's fun to watch the little aggressive males play-fight each other over access to the feeder later in the year.

I'm going underground for a while - the standard recommendation for new authors is 'write more books,' and I'm finally ready to begin revising the horribly rough draft of PC: NETHERWORLD, a book with a bunch of competing timelines that have to be perfect or someone is going to find a gaping plot hole in the finished product, and we can't have that, can we?

If I don't block the internet during writing time, I can't focus. Anyone else use Freedom or something equivalent to keep the lure of the net at bay?

Hi Alicia,

Ah-ha, I see. I guess this Freedom thingy stops you accessing the internet even if you wanted to?

Am going to go and google it now. I badly, badly need something to keep me on track. It's amazing the time-warp we fall into on the internet. I think it's ten minutes, the treacherous clock tries to tell me it's an hour or more-liar, liar, pants on fire!

Will Once posted some stuff about tricks to help focus a while back.

I think it's in his blog somewhere.

I'm sure he'd direct you the links.

Kelly wrote: "Hi Alicia,

Ah-ha, I see. I guess this Freedom thingy stops you accessing the internet even if you wanted to?

Am going to go and google it now. I badly, badly need something to keep me on track. ..."

There are two things from the same company, or used to be: Freedom (which blocks the net completely until the timer is over), and Anti-Social (which you can set to block specific sites - usually social ones, but you can choose anything) for a period of time.

I don't know what methods the two have for getting out if you HAVE to access the net, but the older version I have requires me to go through a restart, and then unblock - it takes me several minutes, and that's enough to prevent most casual exits. But if I really need to skype someone, or get a critical piece of information, I can.

Mine is Mac; it's available for Mac and PC.

I can't work without it - once I set up a block, my brain relaxes and gets to work.

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Will Once posted some stuff about tricks to help focus a while back.

I think it's in his blog somewhere.

I'm sure he'd direct you the links."

The internet is a boon - and a monster. Sometimes both at the same time.

I used to unplug my ethernet connection - but that was awfully easy to reconnect.

Alicia wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Hi Alicia,

Ah-ha, I see. I guess this Freedom thingy stops you accessing the internet even if you wanted to?

Am going to go and google it now. I badly, badly need something to keep..."

Thanks, had a quick look on google. I will get something downloaded and set up over the weekend. I go onto the net to check one thing and half an hour later realise I haven't done that but I've looked at loads of unrelated stuff! (You may not see this reply for a wee while if you're on lockdown.)

Patti (baconater) wrote: "Will Once posted some stuff about tricks to help focus a while back.

I think it's in his blog somewhere.

I'm sure he'd direct you the links."

Thanks for the tip Patti, I def need something to keep me on track. I'll have a look through the blog and see what I can find.

Kelly wrote: "Alicia wrote: "Kelly wrote: "Hi Alicia,

Ah-ha, I see. I guess this Freedom thingy stops you accessing the internet even if you wanted to?

Am going to go and google it now. I badly, badly need so..."

Got a fair bit of work done today - the brain was on and the internet blocked.

Good luck - I wish I weren't so distractible, but I am; ignoring that fact wastes a lot of time for me.

There are advantages to being small and unknown and a beginning author.

One of them is that I get to see individual behavior. This morning I checked my sales, on a page which displays both ebooks and KU borrows, and saw that the pages were up to 300. This means someone borrowed Pride's Children, read up to about page 150 of 484.

I went off and wrote my bit for the day, came back, refreshed the screen, and it was right under 1000. This means only one thing: someone tried PC, liked it, and finished the whole thing in one sitting.

I wonder if he (she?) will let me know whether he liked it. But I always love seeing those.

Hi Alicia, I think that would have been me, because that's exactly what I did yesterday.

You write superbly, and while I appreciate you'll have readers hungry for more, the care and attention to detail you've lavished on Pride's Children makes me willing not to harangue you about the next book. I was a bit concerned about the depth of emotion experienced by your reviewers - I tend to keep my reading on the light side these days - but I needed something absorbing yesterday and Pride's Children delivered in spades.

Elizabeth wrote: "Hi Alicia, I think that would have been me, because that's exactly what I did yesterday.

You write superbly, and while I appreciate you'll have readers hungry for more, the care and attention to d..."

Elizabeth, you have made my day - getting feedback from readers, and such wonderful words as yours, is what keeps me going. It takes a lot of time to do what I do, and I do it willingly for exactly the kind of people who write those reviews (and/or send private messages).

Don't worry; I'm very hard at work on NETHERWORLD.

If I seem MIA, I'm going underground for a while - the standard recommendation for new authors is 'write more books,' and I'm finally ready to begin revising the horribly rough draft of PC: NETHERWORLD, a book with a bunch of competing timelines that have to be perfect or someone is going to find a gaping plot hole in the finished product, and we can't have that, can we?

Kindle Countdown for Pride's Children: PURGATORY (Book 1) still on until April 9 some time (if I got my time zones right).

I'll be stopping by at least once a day (can't stay away), but if I don't respond in a timely manner, it's because my head is in a cloud.

Gingerlily - Mistress Lantern wrote: ""

How do you keep doing this? You have the BEST images.

Thanks!

I have fought successfully with MS Word and taught myself to make bookplates to send to people who ask for them when they get a printed version of PC. Two hours of my life I will never get back, but one more off the to do list.

Another milestone: I'm mailing a print copy of PC to Minnesota - to a reader I met on Goodreads.

I won't be doing that often - my slow brain took an hour to go through the steps! But it is still exciting.

Does anyone here use BookCrossing.com? I've released one book in New Jersey (haven't heard anything yet), and am sending one to Mexico, and one to Minnesota.

You give each book a unique identifier - free at the site - and then either give it to someone with instructions to pass it along after reading it (controlled release); or you do a 'wild release' where you leave the book somewhere someone is likely to pick it up.

In either case, readers are encouraged to stop by BookCrossing.com and leave a quick journal entry of anything they wish to say before passing it on.

Anyone who has the ID number can visit the site to see where that book has been.

My aim is to eventually have ten traveling copies of Pride's Children running around out there being passed from hand to hand. If it works, I'll release more.

A day on which absolutely nothing got written except one very important email is still a good day.