Today marks the release of Kelly McCullough’s latest book MythOS, and you'll find a new interview on the SF Novelists site.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Saturday, May 23, 2009
How to plot a novel ... now with extra plot!
Not sure whether you've seen my article on How to plot a novel, but there's a tantilising pic of a completed outline where the font is just too small to read.
I keep getting emails from people asking me to make the pic bigger so they can read the text, or to provide the Freemind outline it belongs to. In the past I've said no because the outline was written for my own use and could contain just about anything. The pic was deliberately designed so it couldn't be read.
However, tonight I caved in and skimmed the plot outline for objectionable or actionable content, and after a cleanup I've uploaded the file to my website.
You'll find a link to the file on the article page, and I've also included an html version of the file. It should be a decent example of a plot outline, and if you're curious to see how much it differs from the finished novel you're welcome to buy the ebook version of Hal Spacejock book four.
Obviously the plot outline contains major spoilers, so I'd read the book before the outline!
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
I keep getting emails from people asking me to make the pic bigger so they can read the text, or to provide the Freemind outline it belongs to. In the past I've said no because the outline was written for my own use and could contain just about anything. The pic was deliberately designed so it couldn't be read.
However, tonight I caved in and skimmed the plot outline for objectionable or actionable content, and after a cleanup I've uploaded the file to my website.
You'll find a link to the file on the article page, and I've also included an html version of the file. It should be a decent example of a plot outline, and if you're curious to see how much it differs from the finished novel you're welcome to buy the ebook version of Hal Spacejock book four.
Obviously the plot outline contains major spoilers, so I'd read the book before the outline!
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Writing: you call that a scene?
I posted a version of this to the yWriter 5 group earlier today, but realised it might be useful to others outside that list.
I've been working extra hard on my novel for the past week or so, and after much editing and re-editing I suddenly realised that working on dozens of scenes with 1500-3000 words in each is not much fun. After a few dozen changes to each scene, usually involving a bunch of new notes and comments, it's impossible to do anything with such big chunks of text unless I reread them to work out what I've stuck in there - and all that re-reading takes time.
So, today I took a dozen scenes from my WIP and broke them down into 35-45 much shorter snippets, each containing just 200-400 words. Each snippet is a logical piece of a scene, encompassing one or more events, and the description field in yWriter5 tells me exactly what that scene contains.
Obviously they'll be combined back into larger scenes again before the book is done, but in the meantime I can work on much smaller chunks of text, which makes it much easier to edit them (How long does it take to re-read 200 words? Most emails are longer than that!), and who can possibly procrastinate about sitting down to write 200-300 words of fiction? Especially when you have a one-line sentence telling you what those 200-300 words have to achieve.
It's all trickery of the mind, but the brain is all that stands between a writer and their next completed novel, so I say get tricking.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
I've been working extra hard on my novel for the past week or so, and after much editing and re-editing I suddenly realised that working on dozens of scenes with 1500-3000 words in each is not much fun. After a few dozen changes to each scene, usually involving a bunch of new notes and comments, it's impossible to do anything with such big chunks of text unless I reread them to work out what I've stuck in there - and all that re-reading takes time.
So, today I took a dozen scenes from my WIP and broke them down into 35-45 much shorter snippets, each containing just 200-400 words. Each snippet is a logical piece of a scene, encompassing one or more events, and the description field in yWriter5 tells me exactly what that scene contains.
Obviously they'll be combined back into larger scenes again before the book is done, but in the meantime I can work on much smaller chunks of text, which makes it much easier to edit them (How long does it take to re-read 200 words? Most emails are longer than that!), and who can possibly procrastinate about sitting down to write 200-300 words of fiction? Especially when you have a one-line sentence telling you what those 200-300 words have to achieve.
It's all trickery of the mind, but the brain is all that stands between a writer and their next completed novel, so I say get tricking.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Saturday, May 09, 2009
Hal 4 powers on
Great news for the Hal Spacejock series ... the 2009 Ditmar Awards ballot has just been announced, and Hal Spacejock No Free Lunch (Book 4) is a finalist in the Best Novel category.
Last month Hal Spacejock No Free Lunch took out the WA Science Fiction Foundation 'Tin Duck' award for best SF/F/H novel of 2008. Earlier this year it was one of only five finalists in the Aurealis Awards Best SF Novel cateogory. Last year it was a number one bestseller at Fantastic Planet.
I'm a highly self-critical writer and I'm never completely happy with my work, always believing there are so many ways I could improve if I could only see through the writerly fog and understand where I'm going wrong. Therefore it's really encouraging to get all this external validation, and as long as it keeps my publisher happy and they keep asking me for more novels, I'll always have a chance to get a Hal Spacejock book just right ;-)
Congrats to everyone on the ballot and commiserations if you missed out.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Last month Hal Spacejock No Free Lunch took out the WA Science Fiction Foundation 'Tin Duck' award for best SF/F/H novel of 2008. Earlier this year it was one of only five finalists in the Aurealis Awards Best SF Novel cateogory. Last year it was a number one bestseller at Fantastic Planet.
I'm a highly self-critical writer and I'm never completely happy with my work, always believing there are so many ways I could improve if I could only see through the writerly fog and understand where I'm going wrong. Therefore it's really encouraging to get all this external validation, and as long as it keeps my publisher happy and they keep asking me for more novels, I'll always have a chance to get a Hal Spacejock book just right ;-)
Congrats to everyone on the ballot and commiserations if you missed out.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Thursday, May 07, 2009
Ker-thunk
I love that moment where you've been working on a novel for months, you've written two thirds of the draft, and you suddenly get a flash of inspiration which allows you to greatly improve a sub-par subplot. Not only that, you also manage to tie it firmly to the main plot AND foreshadow upcoming events.
This happens to me with every book I write, which is why I'm happy to write chapters and scenes even if the plot isn't quite there. A plot outline should be organic, like a nice green vine, and every author should pack a pair of shears and grafting tape.
Words are free, and you can write as many of them as you want without paying taxes, so bash those scenes out in volume and you never know where you'll end up.
The biggest mistake is to not start writing until the plot is perfect, or to stop writing because you're not sure what should happen next. Write it anyway!
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
This happens to me with every book I write, which is why I'm happy to write chapters and scenes even if the plot isn't quite there. A plot outline should be organic, like a nice green vine, and every author should pack a pair of shears and grafting tape.
Words are free, and you can write as many of them as you want without paying taxes, so bash those scenes out in volume and you never know where you'll end up.
The biggest mistake is to not start writing until the plot is perfect, or to stop writing because you're not sure what should happen next. Write it anyway!
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Monday, April 27, 2009
News roundup
I've been twittering lately, hence the lack of blog posts.
First bit of news: an award!
Hal Spacejock No Free Lunch won the WASFF 'Tin Duck' award for best professional long work at Swancon last weekend. This is the second WASFF award in a row for the series, after Hal Spacejock Just Desserts won the same award last year.
It's a very handsome trophy, although it was a real pain to photograph because it's solid glass!
Second bit of news: Big Media coverage!
There was a column in the Weekend Australian on electronic books, and Rosemary Sorensen mentioned the ebook release of Hal Spacejock No Free Lunch.
Third bit of news: Still working on Hal Spacejock 5.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
First bit of news: an award!
Hal Spacejock No Free Lunch won the WASFF 'Tin Duck' award for best professional long work at Swancon last weekend. This is the second WASFF award in a row for the series, after Hal Spacejock Just Desserts won the same award last year.
It's a very handsome trophy, although it was a real pain to photograph because it's solid glass!
Second bit of news: Big Media coverage!
There was a column in the Weekend Australian on electronic books, and Rosemary Sorensen mentioned the ebook release of Hal Spacejock No Free Lunch.
Third bit of news: Still working on Hal Spacejock 5.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Hal 5 update
Just thought I'd take a quick break from tiling, grouting and painting to post a blog about writing. (For once)
One of the reasons I've leapt into decorating with such glee is that it's a great chance to let my mind wander. No deadlines, lots of repetitive work, and a feeling that when I finally get back to writing this novel I'll be able to give it 100%
The other reason is because whole plot lines can appear while you're mixing a bucket of tile adhesive, applying a third coat of varnish to jarrah or slapping acrylic paint onto the walls. (Given that heady cocktail of chemicals and carcinogens, you won't be surprised to hear those plot lines can vanish again just as quickly.)
Anyway, after more than four weeks tiling, decorating, &c, what has my fallow mind come up with? I changed the first name of one of the characers in the book. That's it.
On the plus side, it's a really good name.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
One of the reasons I've leapt into decorating with such glee is that it's a great chance to let my mind wander. No deadlines, lots of repetitive work, and a feeling that when I finally get back to writing this novel I'll be able to give it 100%
The other reason is because whole plot lines can appear while you're mixing a bucket of tile adhesive, applying a third coat of varnish to jarrah or slapping acrylic paint onto the walls. (Given that heady cocktail of chemicals and carcinogens, you won't be surprised to hear those plot lines can vanish again just as quickly.)
Anyway, after more than four weeks tiling, decorating, &c, what has my fallow mind come up with? I changed the first name of one of the characers in the book. That's it.
On the plus side, it's a really good name.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Where's Simon?
These days, mostly on Twitter: http://twitter.com/spacejock
Brevity and random scattered thoughts suit the way my brain works.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Brevity and random scattered thoughts suit the way my brain works.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Monday, March 23, 2009
JA Konrath on piracy & ebooks
JA Konrath is currently on a blog tour, posting on different sites every day in March to promote the release of Afraid, a horror novel he wrote under the name Jack Kilborn. I put my hand up to participate in the blog tour, and when it came to the topic I said 'give me something on ebooks'.
Here's JA Konrath's article on the subject ...
Let's talk about illegal downloading and ebooks.
As of this writing, you can Google "JA Konrath"+torrent and get over two thousand hits. Add in Usenet, eMule, Limewire, and other file sharing clients, and there are a whole lot of people downloading my ebooks and audiobooks without permission. Last year it was less than a thousand. The year before, just a few hundred.
While I love used books, many authors hate them. Some authors aren't keen on libraries, either. After all, authors only make money for each new book sold. If the books are traded, resold, or lent out, they feel they're losing money.
These authors are in for quite a shock in the upcoming years.
Once ebook readers come down in price and become as prevalent as iPods, the 4 billion dollar a year used book industry will be the least of their worries. One $10 ebook download will be up on the torrent sites the day it is released, if not leaked sooner, and will be shared by thousands.
This industry will go digital. DRM doesn't work. People don't consider file-sharing to be stealing. Sales will drop, guaranteed.
Technically, it's impossible to count illegal downloads as lost sales, because chances are most people stealing a copy wouldn't pay for a copy. If they had no way to get it for free, they'd do without it.
At least, that's how I feel about the majority of stuff I steal on the net.
But can we really blame the consumers? Or can the publishers take some of the blame? In this economy, can anyone even afford to pat $25 for a hardcover that will entertain them for 9 hours, when that same money can be used to buy dinner and rent 2 dvds?
Books are overpriced. So is music. And we all know what happened there.
The music industry blew it. Here they had a free distribution system set up by fans. No more production costs. No more shipping charges. No more wholesalers and retailers taking part of the profit. But instead of figuring out how to work within this system, they tried to shut it down and created a hydra.
If Google (with their Kindle), and Sony (with their Ereader), were smart, they'd begin signing writers exclusively to their platforms, split the royalties 50/50 with the writers, and charge a dollar or two for ebook downloads. An easy-to-access online store, well organized and cheap, could cut down on pirating.
Of course, if they were really smart, they'd give the books away for free and charge advertisers for spots. Then piracy wouldn't be a factor.
But print, as we know it, is doomed. The publishing business model is broken, books are too expensive and increasingly harder to find on store shelves, and the ebook revolution is just around the corner.
We can bemoan the change, but we can't fight it, even with contract renegotiations. The used book industry is peanuts compared to the ability of one ebook buyer to distribute thousands of copies for free.
And telling folks that stealing is bad isn't going to change a thing, any more than it did for music. Copy protection won't change a thing either.
Here's a fun thought experiment about new technologies: Pretend print books never existed. What advantage would they have over ebooks?
Let's say we grew up with ebook devices, like my son is growing up with his iPod. Would print even exist?
Ebook devices are still too expensive. But when they come down to under a hundred bucks, and are scratch proof and waterproof, then print no longer has any advantages. Ebooks can be cheaper or free, faster to acquire, you can adjust the font size and type, read without a light, carry 5000 books at once, the books can be interactive and searchable with extra content like DVDs, and the list goes on.
If such a device existed, would there be a single reason to invent print
books? What's the advantage of printing, shipping, and killing 40 million trees a year? (and that's just for the book industry, not newspapers or magazines.)
But we grew up with print books, so we're reluctant to give them up. That is, until we actually try a Kindle 2 and go nuts over that the same way we went nuts over out first iPod.
Some steps are being made in this direction. Amazon, and Sony (which just made a deal with Google for their library of public domain books) are now publishers.
Agents, and all of the big publishers, are anxious to hop into bed with them, rather than consider alternatives. No publisher that I'm aware of has been able to generate much in the way of website traffic and online sales.
But if Random House suddenly made it's entire backlist available online as pdfs for 99 cents a download, that could change the playing field.
They won't, of course. It isn't in their best interest to go digital. They consider erights to be subsidiary, not primary. While everyone is very interested in ebooks, no one believes it will actually replace print, so no one is taking steps to prepare for that.
Smart companies look ahead and change accordingly, even if it means abandoning what originally made them companies. But often, people spend so much energy clinging to the now, they don't have any hands left to reach for what's coming.
But all this is going to do is make it easier for the thieves. Unless Amazon, Sony, and all of the publishers make the ebooks cheap, they'll be stolen.
Actually, they'll be stolen anyway, but the cheaper the book, the more copies that will sell. Why should I search for and download a torrent when I can get the book with a click of a button for 99 cents?
Then again, I have filled my iPod, and it wasn't using iTunes. Chances are, even if books are cheap, they'll still be stolen. But without wholesalers, retailers, or distributors to take a cut, it makes no sense why an author shouldn't make half of the one dollar download, or more. In fact, do we even need publishers any more? Why not just hire a freelancer to copyedit, then the entire dollar goes to the author?
Publishers are falling into the same trap that a lot of companies fall into when new technology comes along, which is: How can I make sure I'm still relevant?
So their business models obviously include themselves.
But what do publishers really do for writers? They print, distribute, and promote. With all the costs along the way, they profit about $3 on a $24 hardcover, same as the author.
Now there are much lower costs. Printing and distributing, which involves shipping and giving percentages to middle-men, are all but gone now.
So what exactly do we need publishers for in an ebook world? What service are they providing?
None at all.
Amazon realizes this. Why should they share money with a publisher for
an ebook? Why not publish the ebook themselves?
But Amazon is still taking a healthy cut, because they feel they're using their distribution system.
Sorry, Amazon, but $10 for an ebook is too much. People are going to steal it. And their distribution, while the only real game in town (except for Sony), still isn't that great. Amazon doesn't sell that many books, and they don't sell that many ebooks.
But has anyone actually compared cheap ebooks to free ebooks to see which people prefer?
I have.
As an experiment, I'm offering an ebook download on my website for 99 cents.
In four weeks, 183 people have downloaded it. Not bad for a midlist author. But I have several hundred thousand books in print, so 183 is actually pretty minuscule.
Also, as an experiment, I've been offering free ebook downloads on my website.
As of today, my free ebooks (not excerpts, these are full books) have been downloaded 16,534 times.
If I'd sold ad space in those ebooks, I could have made some money--a lot more than the 183 ebooks I sold.
So, even at 99 cents per book, even if the author made the entire 99 cents, I'm pretty sure free is the way to go.
Project Gutenberg has over 120,000 ebook downloads per day, for free.
If Amazon thinks they can compete with free, they're crazy.
------------
JA Konrath is currently on a blog tour, posting on different sites every
day in March to promote the release of Afraid, a horror novel he wrote
under the name Jack Kilborn. Visit him at www.JAKonrath.com
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Here's JA Konrath's article on the subject ...
Let's talk about illegal downloading and ebooks.
As of this writing, you can Google "JA Konrath"+torrent and get over two thousand hits. Add in Usenet, eMule, Limewire, and other file sharing clients, and there are a whole lot of people downloading my ebooks and audiobooks without permission. Last year it was less than a thousand. The year before, just a few hundred.
While I love used books, many authors hate them. Some authors aren't keen on libraries, either. After all, authors only make money for each new book sold. If the books are traded, resold, or lent out, they feel they're losing money.
These authors are in for quite a shock in the upcoming years.
Once ebook readers come down in price and become as prevalent as iPods, the 4 billion dollar a year used book industry will be the least of their worries. One $10 ebook download will be up on the torrent sites the day it is released, if not leaked sooner, and will be shared by thousands.
This industry will go digital. DRM doesn't work. People don't consider file-sharing to be stealing. Sales will drop, guaranteed.
Technically, it's impossible to count illegal downloads as lost sales, because chances are most people stealing a copy wouldn't pay for a copy. If they had no way to get it for free, they'd do without it.
At least, that's how I feel about the majority of stuff I steal on the net.
But can we really blame the consumers? Or can the publishers take some of the blame? In this economy, can anyone even afford to pat $25 for a hardcover that will entertain them for 9 hours, when that same money can be used to buy dinner and rent 2 dvds?
Books are overpriced. So is music. And we all know what happened there.
The music industry blew it. Here they had a free distribution system set up by fans. No more production costs. No more shipping charges. No more wholesalers and retailers taking part of the profit. But instead of figuring out how to work within this system, they tried to shut it down and created a hydra.
If Google (with their Kindle), and Sony (with their Ereader), were smart, they'd begin signing writers exclusively to their platforms, split the royalties 50/50 with the writers, and charge a dollar or two for ebook downloads. An easy-to-access online store, well organized and cheap, could cut down on pirating.
Of course, if they were really smart, they'd give the books away for free and charge advertisers for spots. Then piracy wouldn't be a factor.
But print, as we know it, is doomed. The publishing business model is broken, books are too expensive and increasingly harder to find on store shelves, and the ebook revolution is just around the corner.
We can bemoan the change, but we can't fight it, even with contract renegotiations. The used book industry is peanuts compared to the ability of one ebook buyer to distribute thousands of copies for free.
And telling folks that stealing is bad isn't going to change a thing, any more than it did for music. Copy protection won't change a thing either.
Here's a fun thought experiment about new technologies: Pretend print books never existed. What advantage would they have over ebooks?
Let's say we grew up with ebook devices, like my son is growing up with his iPod. Would print even exist?
Ebook devices are still too expensive. But when they come down to under a hundred bucks, and are scratch proof and waterproof, then print no longer has any advantages. Ebooks can be cheaper or free, faster to acquire, you can adjust the font size and type, read without a light, carry 5000 books at once, the books can be interactive and searchable with extra content like DVDs, and the list goes on.
If such a device existed, would there be a single reason to invent print
books? What's the advantage of printing, shipping, and killing 40 million trees a year? (and that's just for the book industry, not newspapers or magazines.)
But we grew up with print books, so we're reluctant to give them up. That is, until we actually try a Kindle 2 and go nuts over that the same way we went nuts over out first iPod.
Some steps are being made in this direction. Amazon, and Sony (which just made a deal with Google for their library of public domain books) are now publishers.
Agents, and all of the big publishers, are anxious to hop into bed with them, rather than consider alternatives. No publisher that I'm aware of has been able to generate much in the way of website traffic and online sales.
But if Random House suddenly made it's entire backlist available online as pdfs for 99 cents a download, that could change the playing field.
They won't, of course. It isn't in their best interest to go digital. They consider erights to be subsidiary, not primary. While everyone is very interested in ebooks, no one believes it will actually replace print, so no one is taking steps to prepare for that.
Smart companies look ahead and change accordingly, even if it means abandoning what originally made them companies. But often, people spend so much energy clinging to the now, they don't have any hands left to reach for what's coming.
But all this is going to do is make it easier for the thieves. Unless Amazon, Sony, and all of the publishers make the ebooks cheap, they'll be stolen.
Actually, they'll be stolen anyway, but the cheaper the book, the more copies that will sell. Why should I search for and download a torrent when I can get the book with a click of a button for 99 cents?
Then again, I have filled my iPod, and it wasn't using iTunes. Chances are, even if books are cheap, they'll still be stolen. But without wholesalers, retailers, or distributors to take a cut, it makes no sense why an author shouldn't make half of the one dollar download, or more. In fact, do we even need publishers any more? Why not just hire a freelancer to copyedit, then the entire dollar goes to the author?
Publishers are falling into the same trap that a lot of companies fall into when new technology comes along, which is: How can I make sure I'm still relevant?
So their business models obviously include themselves.
But what do publishers really do for writers? They print, distribute, and promote. With all the costs along the way, they profit about $3 on a $24 hardcover, same as the author.
Now there are much lower costs. Printing and distributing, which involves shipping and giving percentages to middle-men, are all but gone now.
So what exactly do we need publishers for in an ebook world? What service are they providing?
None at all.
Amazon realizes this. Why should they share money with a publisher for
an ebook? Why not publish the ebook themselves?
But Amazon is still taking a healthy cut, because they feel they're using their distribution system.
Sorry, Amazon, but $10 for an ebook is too much. People are going to steal it. And their distribution, while the only real game in town (except for Sony), still isn't that great. Amazon doesn't sell that many books, and they don't sell that many ebooks.
But has anyone actually compared cheap ebooks to free ebooks to see which people prefer?
I have.
As an experiment, I'm offering an ebook download on my website for 99 cents.
In four weeks, 183 people have downloaded it. Not bad for a midlist author. But I have several hundred thousand books in print, so 183 is actually pretty minuscule.
Also, as an experiment, I've been offering free ebook downloads on my website.
As of today, my free ebooks (not excerpts, these are full books) have been downloaded 16,534 times.
If I'd sold ad space in those ebooks, I could have made some money--a lot more than the 183 ebooks I sold.
So, even at 99 cents per book, even if the author made the entire 99 cents, I'm pretty sure free is the way to go.
Project Gutenberg has over 120,000 ebook downloads per day, for free.
If Amazon thinks they can compete with free, they're crazy.
------------
JA Konrath is currently on a blog tour, posting on different sites every
day in March to promote the release of Afraid, a horror novel he wrote
under the name Jack Kilborn. Visit him at www.JAKonrath.com
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Monday, March 16, 2009
DRM-free ebooks interview
Teleread.org recently posted my article on the harm high prices and DRM (copyright protection) may be doing to ebook sales. You're welcome to drop over there and leave a comment.
I also submitted the Teleread article link to Slashdot, where it's sitting in the queue awaiting a few more votes. I don't usually ask for this kind of thing, but if you have a Slashdot account and feel the article deserves wider exposure, feel free to click the + next to the article header ("SF author Simon Haynes argues against ebook DRM") on this page.
(You can only vote once.)
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
I also submitted the Teleread article link to Slashdot, where it's sitting in the queue awaiting a few more votes. I don't usually ask for this kind of thing, but if you have a Slashdot account and feel the article deserves wider exposure, feel free to click the + next to the article header ("SF author Simon Haynes argues against ebook DRM") on this page.
(You can only vote once.)
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Friday, March 13, 2009
Flycon 2009
Pinched from Chris Dolley's blog because I'm up to my elbows in floor tile adhesive...
FlyCon – the worldwide online SF/F con – starts today at midnight (Australia, EST) and 9am (US Eastern Time) and finishes at 5pm Monday in Australia and around midnight the day before in San Francisco. Panels and author chats are running continuously plus there’s a dealer’s room and a masquerade (photos on Flickr)
All in all it's everything you get at a con but without the hotel bill, the registration fees, the travel, the delays and the cold that follows you home.
Authors attending include Geoff Ryman, Kate Elliot, Sherwood Smith, Karen Miller, Roberta Gellis, Alma Alexander, Devon Monk, Marie Brennan, Sarah Zettel, Jennifer Fallon, Chaz Brenchley, Jack Dann, Sara Douglass, Jeri Smith-Ready, Lisa Mantchev, Simon Haynes, Pati Nagle, Dave Freer and SC Butler.
The schedule is here and I have a panel at 9am EST if you want to come and heckle. (That's 7am my time - talk about dedication to the cause, especially on a weekend ...)
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
FlyCon – the worldwide online SF/F con – starts today at midnight (Australia, EST) and 9am (US Eastern Time) and finishes at 5pm Monday in Australia and around midnight the day before in San Francisco. Panels and author chats are running continuously plus there’s a dealer’s room and a masquerade (photos on Flickr)
All in all it's everything you get at a con but without the hotel bill, the registration fees, the travel, the delays and the cold that follows you home.
Authors attending include Geoff Ryman, Kate Elliot, Sherwood Smith, Karen Miller, Roberta Gellis, Alma Alexander, Devon Monk, Marie Brennan, Sarah Zettel, Jennifer Fallon, Chaz Brenchley, Jack Dann, Sara Douglass, Jeri Smith-Ready, Lisa Mantchev, Simon Haynes, Pati Nagle, Dave Freer and SC Butler.
The schedule is here and I have a panel at 9am EST if you want to come and heckle. (That's 7am my time - talk about dedication to the cause, especially on a weekend ...)
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Monday, March 09, 2009
The Hal Spacejock ebooks: how to score a free copy of Hal #2
Last year my publisher released Hal Spacejock book one as a free ebook, and we've seen just over 50,000 downloads to date.
As of today the rest of the series is available in DRM-free ebook format at a super-low price of A$5 each. (Approx US$3.50) That means you can grab the entire series for A$15 (approx US$10), which is less than the price of a single paperback, and way less than the international postage on one book.
Now for the good bit: I've wangled a superb freebie for anyone willing to share the good news. All you have to do is blog or tweet about the release of the Hal Spacejock ebooks (before the end of March 2009), then let me know you've linked to the news.
In return I'll email you a free ebook of Hal Spacejock Second Course, the second title in the series. Call it an incentive, a big thank-you, a 'review copy' or an outright bribe. I know Hal would!
There's an info page which you're welcome to cut and paste details from, or you can just link to it instead: http://www.spacejock.com.au/HalSpacejockEbooks.html (or http://tinyurl.com/sjbook if space is tight.)
You'll also find a custom mission patch for this very important launch.
Why important? Well, if these DRM-free ebooks prove a big success then other publishers will follow our lead. That'll lead to a bigger choice of titles which you'll be able to read anywhere, rather than the current system of DRM-locked ebooks which only work on specific devices.
A vote for Hal Spacejock is a vote for cheap, DRM-free ebooks. To place your vote, buff up the credit card or Paypal account and step right this way.
Incidentally, on the DRM front teleread.org just published an article in which I state my case against ebook DRM.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
As of today the rest of the series is available in DRM-free ebook format at a super-low price of A$5 each. (Approx US$3.50) That means you can grab the entire series for A$15 (approx US$10), which is less than the price of a single paperback, and way less than the international postage on one book.
Now for the good bit: I've wangled a superb freebie for anyone willing to share the good news. All you have to do is blog or tweet about the release of the Hal Spacejock ebooks (before the end of March 2009), then let me know you've linked to the news.
In return I'll email you a free ebook of Hal Spacejock Second Course, the second title in the series. Call it an incentive, a big thank-you, a 'review copy' or an outright bribe. I know Hal would!
There's an info page which you're welcome to cut and paste details from, or you can just link to it instead: http://www.spacejock.com.au/HalSpacejockEbooks.html (or http://tinyurl.com/sjbook if space is tight.)
You'll also find a custom mission patch for this very important launch.
Why important? Well, if these DRM-free ebooks prove a big success then other publishers will follow our lead. That'll lead to a bigger choice of titles which you'll be able to read anywhere, rather than the current system of DRM-locked ebooks which only work on specific devices.
A vote for Hal Spacejock is a vote for cheap, DRM-free ebooks. To place your vote, buff up the credit card or Paypal account and step right this way.
Incidentally, on the DRM front teleread.org just published an article in which I state my case against ebook DRM.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Friday, February 20, 2009
Hope fanzine part 1
Hope is a new multi-part fanzine raising money for bushfire relief in the Australian state of Victoria. Issue #1 is now available in a PDF edition in return for donations.
Hope #1 contains contributions from Mo Ali, Sophie Ambrose, R.J. Astruc, Lyn Battersby, K.K. Bishop, Matthew Chrulew, Stephen Dedman, Mark S. Deniz, d.n.l, Paul Haines, Simon Haynes, Kathleen Jennings, Ju Landeesse, Damian Magee, David A. McIntee, Simon Petrie, Andrew Phillips, Gillian Polack, Robert Shearman and Daniel Smith. The cover is by Rebecca Handcock.
This is going to a really good cause, which is why I sent in a previously unpublished short story of mine. It's the first short I've submitted anywhere for 7 or 8 years.
Please consider making a donation to the appeal so you can pick up a copy of this fanzine. The suggested minimum is only A$5 (around US$3.50), and I'd really appreciate it if you can help out.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Hope #1 contains contributions from Mo Ali, Sophie Ambrose, R.J. Astruc, Lyn Battersby, K.K. Bishop, Matthew Chrulew, Stephen Dedman, Mark S. Deniz, d.n.l, Paul Haines, Simon Haynes, Kathleen Jennings, Ju Landeesse, Damian Magee, David A. McIntee, Simon Petrie, Andrew Phillips, Gillian Polack, Robert Shearman and Daniel Smith. The cover is by Rebecca Handcock.
This is going to a really good cause, which is why I sent in a previously unpublished short story of mine. It's the first short I've submitted anywhere for 7 or 8 years.
Please consider making a donation to the appeal so you can pick up a copy of this fanzine. The suggested minimum is only A$5 (around US$3.50), and I'd really appreciate it if you can help out.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Thursday, February 19, 2009
Hal 5 progress (really)
Still picking out floor tiles, still programming under contract, but yesterday I managed to write a little Hal 5 as well.
It seems to me I forget my working process with every book. For two weeks I've been reluctant to touch the messy, confusing draft because every scene in my project needed a ton of rewrites to match the outline. Yesterday I remembered what I did for Hal 4 (and 3, and 2, and 1) ... instead of taking 2000 words and editing them to match the new outline, just write the 2000 words again from scratch. It's probably two hours work either way, and writing them fresh is so much easier.
Anyway, this time I'm jotting down notes for a how-to manual, and for the next novel I hope to have a simple guide which will get me through the toughest part. (That would be turning 30,000-40,000 words of mismatched, disjointed scenes into a 100,000 word first draft. Last month the toughest part was plotting, and next month the toughest part will be turning a rough draft into a first edit. It never ends, I tell you ...)
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
It seems to me I forget my working process with every book. For two weeks I've been reluctant to touch the messy, confusing draft because every scene in my project needed a ton of rewrites to match the outline. Yesterday I remembered what I did for Hal 4 (and 3, and 2, and 1) ... instead of taking 2000 words and editing them to match the new outline, just write the 2000 words again from scratch. It's probably two hours work either way, and writing them fresh is so much easier.
Anyway, this time I'm jotting down notes for a how-to manual, and for the next novel I hope to have a simple guide which will get me through the toughest part. (That would be turning 30,000-40,000 words of mismatched, disjointed scenes into a 100,000 word first draft. Last month the toughest part was plotting, and next month the toughest part will be turning a rough draft into a first edit. It never ends, I tell you ...)
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Hal 5 progress
Words written in the past two weeks: 0
Tiled floors jackhammered up: 2
Contract programming jobs completed: 2
I'm currently contemplating the laying of 60 sq/m of tiles. Kitchen, PC area, entrance and two hallways. I've also taken on another programming job.
Re the tiles, we'd just about decided on a 450x450 marble-look tile, layed square, which is the easiest way to go. However, all along I've had a hankering for a picture-frame effect. This is where you lay one row of half-tiles all around the edge of the room, then put down a thin decorative strip (optional), and then lay all the tiles in the middle of this frame on the diagonal.
It's at least double the amount of work, the decorative border will add about 30% to the cost of the job, but it looks very special when done right. On the plus side, I'm saving over $2000 by doing all the work myself, and I've successfully laid a large area of tiles before now so I'm happy I can handle it.
Anyway, if you don't see many writing updates, that's the reason ..
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Tiled floors jackhammered up: 2
Contract programming jobs completed: 2
I'm currently contemplating the laying of 60 sq/m of tiles. Kitchen, PC area, entrance and two hallways. I've also taken on another programming job.
Re the tiles, we'd just about decided on a 450x450 marble-look tile, layed square, which is the easiest way to go. However, all along I've had a hankering for a picture-frame effect. This is where you lay one row of half-tiles all around the edge of the room, then put down a thin decorative strip (optional), and then lay all the tiles in the middle of this frame on the diagonal.
It's at least double the amount of work, the decorative border will add about 30% to the cost of the job, but it looks very special when done right. On the plus side, I'm saving over $2000 by doing all the work myself, and I've successfully laid a large area of tiles before now so I'm happy I can handle it.
Anyway, if you don't see many writing updates, that's the reason ..
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Saturday, February 07, 2009
More on the decorating
First thing my daughter said when see saw me like this?
"Are you my mummy?"
Warmed my SF-centered heart, that did.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
"Are you my mummy?"
Warmed my SF-centered heart, that did.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Progress
Words written today: 0
Tile floors jackhammered up: 1/2
Sometimes it's not about the writing.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Tile floors jackhammered up: 1/2
Sometimes it's not about the writing.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Thursday, February 05, 2009
C.C. Finlay's Patriot Witch - Free download
Now this sounds like a good idea ... promote a series by giving away the first book as a free download ;-)
Yes, author and his publisher, Del Rey, are offering the first book in the Traitor to the Crown series as a freebie:
The year is 1775. On the surface, Proctor Brown appears to be an ordinary young man working the family farm in New England. He is a minuteman, a member of the local militia, determined to defend the rights of the colonies. Yet Proctor is so much more. Magic is in his blood, a dark secret passed down from generation to generation. But Proctor’s mother has taught him to hide his talents, lest he be labeled a witch and find himself dangling at the end of a rope.
Click and download - no registration rqd.
Feel free to repost, twitter, sms or shout the news.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Yes, author
The year is 1775. On the surface, Proctor Brown appears to be an ordinary young man working the family farm in New England. He is a minuteman, a member of the local militia, determined to defend the rights of the colonies. Yet Proctor is so much more. Magic is in his blood, a dark secret passed down from generation to generation. But Proctor’s mother has taught him to hide his talents, lest he be labeled a witch and find himself dangling at the end of a rope.
Click and download - no registration rqd.
Feel free to repost, twitter, sms or shout the news.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Getting closer and closer ...
Bookmark this page
.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
Friday, January 30, 2009
Flashbacks
Five books into the series and it's finally time for a Hal Spacejock novel with flashback scenes.
I wrote a sequence of flashback scenes for this novel during NanoWrimo 2007, but until five minutes ago I didn't think I'd be using them. Now I've changed my mind. (Until I decide not to use them again.)
At the very least I'll get a blog post out of them.
I'm a very linear writer, and I like cause and effect. This minor thing happens, which causes that other slightly more alarming issue. A character overreacts and creates a much bigger problem which then leads to ... you get the idea.
Hal 5 is a mystery steeped in earlier events, and I have to choose between having characters in the present gradually uncovering what happened, or writing scenes set in the past, so the reader experiences the events as they happen.
Let me tell you that reading scenes where characters recap past events can be pretty dull. You can lose immediacy (and readers) very quickly.
On the other hand, if you jump straight in and throw flashbacks at the reader you run the risk of alienating them with a sudden change of location and a new batch of characters they've never met before. Overwhelm your readers and they'll feel like they're starting a whole new novel every time there's a flashback, and that can get tiring too.
What's the answer? Stuffed if I know. I'm not going to leap around all over the place, just flash back to one set of characters at a fixed point in time, based in the same location each time. I'm hoping I can cue the reader in to the flashback pretty quickly, and not by using strange dates or times in the chapter headings. (Those are useless unless you remember what date & time the previous chapter was set in. I'd rather authors just came out and said "Twelve years earlier ..." than put Jan 1958 instead of April 1970.)
I think it'll work, but I won't know until the first draft is done. It should be interesting to try it out, though.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
I wrote a sequence of flashback scenes for this novel during NanoWrimo 2007, but until five minutes ago I didn't think I'd be using them. Now I've changed my mind. (Until I decide not to use them again.)
At the very least I'll get a blog post out of them.
I'm a very linear writer, and I like cause and effect. This minor thing happens, which causes that other slightly more alarming issue. A character overreacts and creates a much bigger problem which then leads to ... you get the idea.
Hal 5 is a mystery steeped in earlier events, and I have to choose between having characters in the present gradually uncovering what happened, or writing scenes set in the past, so the reader experiences the events as they happen.
Let me tell you that reading scenes where characters recap past events can be pretty dull. You can lose immediacy (and readers) very quickly.
On the other hand, if you jump straight in and throw flashbacks at the reader you run the risk of alienating them with a sudden change of location and a new batch of characters they've never met before. Overwhelm your readers and they'll feel like they're starting a whole new novel every time there's a flashback, and that can get tiring too.
What's the answer? Stuffed if I know. I'm not going to leap around all over the place, just flash back to one set of characters at a fixed point in time, based in the same location each time. I'm hoping I can cue the reader in to the flashback pretty quickly, and not by using strange dates or times in the chapter headings. (Those are useless unless you remember what date & time the previous chapter was set in. I'd rather authors just came out and said "Twelve years earlier ..." than put Jan 1958 instead of April 1970.)
I think it'll work, but I won't know until the first draft is done. It should be interesting to try it out, though.
Simon Haynes is the author of the Hal Spacejock and Hal Junior series (Amazon / Smashwords / other formats)
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