Category: Writing

Sometimes Passive voice is best.

I wrote this sentence in a review of Bloodbond May 2018:

‘The premise of Bloodbond seems to be that vampires can be put in many different settings. They are no longer lonely, aristocratic outsiders mugging people in dark alleys or seducing maidens. But that was such fun!’

My Pro-Writer software (which is very useful) objected to the passive tense of ‘vampires can be put’ so I changed it to this:

‘The premise of Bloodbond seems to be that writers can put vampires in many different settings. They are no longer lonely, aristocratic outsiders mugging people in dark alleys or seducing maidens. But that was such fun!’

From an anti-passive point of view, this is better. The writers are putting the vampires in a direct fashion. Vampires are not passively put.

The trouble is, this seems to mean that writers were once ‘lonely, aristocratic outsiders mugging people in dark alleys or seducing maidens.’ Adding ‘But that was such fun!’ makes writers sound even worse!

So I changed it back to the original sentence. Sometimes passive voice works best.

I’m off to a dark alley now to mug someone and seduce a maiden but you can read the review of Bloodbond May 2018 on sfcrowsnest. And you can still buy it in the Smashwords sale for just one dollar, yea even unto mobi files if you are so enchained.

All my books are free on Smashwords too. It’s your fault. You wouldn’t buy them.

 

 

 

On Platforms

All my self-published books are free now. I’ve given up trying to sell them and I’ve given up trying to build a platform. Either they don’t sell and I have no readers and no money or I give them away and have some readers and no money. The latter seems the better option. Mostly, I’ve been paid for the stories in them already as they appeared in magazines. Either that or I couldn’t sell them so they’re worth nothing and so free.

But no more platform building. It takes too long and pays too little unless you’re good at it but I’m not and don’t like doing it. After nine months of blogging, tweeting, Linking, Facebooking, Instafreebing, Bookfunneling, Mailchimping and generally pestering the public, I give up. I’ve ‘sold’ 85 books and most of those were free. I doubt if my total royalties amount to £10.

By contrast, I have made some money (not much) selling short stories to magazines and anthologies, and some novellas, too. I take the publisher’s money and I’m done. They can blog. They can tweet. They can Facebook, Newsletter and otherwise publicize their products and I don’t have to. This is a huge weight off my shoulders. Obviously, I’m happy to mention the magazines here and there but the overall responsibility is theirs. I just need to keep writing fiction, which is what I want to do.

Statistically, I’m in the majority. Most self-publishers don’t make a bean. There are a few talented, competitive, productive go-getters who make a living or better. There are a few talented, competitive, productive go-getters who can do this in any field of endeavour and the myth is that ‘anyone can do it.’ If anyone could do it, everyone would.

So, hats off to successful self-publishers. I will still self-publish the odd collection of sold stories where I have the rights or unsold stories I want out there. I may even do a novella or two. But I won’t be desperately flogging them and they’ll all be free. Smashwords ‘sells’ 40 copies of each free book for 1 of every priced. Even cheaply priced. At least some of them get read.

Meanwhile, I’ll go and get a proper job and do this part-time. Art is much more fun if you don’t depend on it for a living.

P.S. My self-published free books aren’t on Amazon. Mobi files are available on Smashwords.

Why buy books?

Why buy books when there are so many out there for free? For example, there are these Giveaways currently running with some good stuff in.

Instafreebie

Christmas in July (ends July 31 2018)

Mysterious Science Fact – and Fiction (ends July 17 2018! Hurry, hurry, hurry!)

Bookfunnel

 July Fantasy Extravaganza (ends July 31 2018)

 

Why buy books? Well, you might want to show your appreciation in real terms, and there’s nothing more real than money. You might think an author deserves some reward for all that effort. You might think if he can eat he will produce another good book. Or you might think ‘Why buy books when I can get them free?’

It’s up to you. Either way, you might like some of these.