Ruby Barnes's Blog, page 11
December 21, 2012
Prepare to be creeped out. The Baptist by Ruby Barnes
Since the debacle over Amazon fake, friend and family reviews over the last couple of months it seems to me reviews are a bit harder to come by. My opinion is authors and some readers have become reluctant to post reviews on Amazon in case of removal.
The following review for The Baptist is posted on the author's blog and reproduced here with permission. It's quite a cerebral piece and I'm flattered by the literary comparison. I highly respect Jim Williams as an author. He has a very strong literary style and is a Booker Prize nominee, and I'm honoured by his insight and kinds words. At the same time his review reminds me what a traumatic experience it was to write The Baptist as I had to live with that first person narrative for about a year.
Jim Williams' review of The Baptist by Ruby Barnes
In popular fiction the serial killer is a trope for the embodiment of evil rather than an extreme example of the everyday experience of madness that may affect our friends or ourselves. For that reason Hannibal Lecter has more in common with Dracula Prince of Darkness than, say, the Yorkshire Ripper in his ignorant ordinariness. For the same reason, the madness of the fictional serial killer is a permanent part of the character’s identity – masked perhaps, but always there – while in contrast the madness of actual life is like a career of part time jobs: some good, some horrible, but all episodic. Ruby Barnes’s insight into this reality is what makes The Baptist so truthful, convincing and distinctive.
The story is told mainly from the point of view of the killer himself, John Baptist. He is committed to an institution in his teens for the murder of his brother and here he meets Mary, whose madness is of a more chaotic type. On his release he creates a normal life in Ireland, including a marriage with children and a job running a small garage business. His tendency to madness is always there but it is managed by drugs, as is the case for many people. However – and this is another intelligent insight of the author – John secretly comes off his drugs: he actively chooses his psychosis over his sanity because the experience of madness is invigorating and empowering (at least on a temporary basis until its disruptive effects become overwhelming). In this condition John encounters Mary again and they embark on a spree to realise his mission.
The most effective passages of the book deal with John’s encounter with a mysterious friend, Feargal, and the resumption of his relations with Mary. Because we see events through John’s eyes the surface of the narrative becomes slippery with uncertainty as to the reality of what we are seeing, and the identities of characters seem to elide one into another. This part is wonderfully done because of the delicate writing, which is restrained, slyly humorous, and at times lyrical. The best parts are reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro. The writing throughout is of a very high standard.
As with most books there are flaws, though none of them fatal. This isn’t a detective story, but Barnes introduces a detective, McAuliffe, who is linked to John’s history by an inadequately explained backstory and whose role is essentially redundant. Also there are several shifts in the narrative point of view that work only so-so because the dominance of John’s viewpoint has the effect that the shifts come as something of a surprise. It is also fair to repeat that this is not a standard serial killer thriller, and this means that the reader does not have the safety and comfort of the usual conventions. Prepare to be creeped out.
Jim Williams is the author of Scherzo, ten other novels and two works of non-fiction.
The Baptist - a psychological thriller. Available from all online bookstores in all formats, including tree.
The following review for The Baptist is posted on the author's blog and reproduced here with permission. It's quite a cerebral piece and I'm flattered by the literary comparison. I highly respect Jim Williams as an author. He has a very strong literary style and is a Booker Prize nominee, and I'm honoured by his insight and kinds words. At the same time his review reminds me what a traumatic experience it was to write The Baptist as I had to live with that first person narrative for about a year.
Jim Williams' review of The Baptist by Ruby Barnes
In popular fiction the serial killer is a trope for the embodiment of evil rather than an extreme example of the everyday experience of madness that may affect our friends or ourselves. For that reason Hannibal Lecter has more in common with Dracula Prince of Darkness than, say, the Yorkshire Ripper in his ignorant ordinariness. For the same reason, the madness of the fictional serial killer is a permanent part of the character’s identity – masked perhaps, but always there – while in contrast the madness of actual life is like a career of part time jobs: some good, some horrible, but all episodic. Ruby Barnes’s insight into this reality is what makes The Baptist so truthful, convincing and distinctive.
The story is told mainly from the point of view of the killer himself, John Baptist. He is committed to an institution in his teens for the murder of his brother and here he meets Mary, whose madness is of a more chaotic type. On his release he creates a normal life in Ireland, including a marriage with children and a job running a small garage business. His tendency to madness is always there but it is managed by drugs, as is the case for many people. However – and this is another intelligent insight of the author – John secretly comes off his drugs: he actively chooses his psychosis over his sanity because the experience of madness is invigorating and empowering (at least on a temporary basis until its disruptive effects become overwhelming). In this condition John encounters Mary again and they embark on a spree to realise his mission.
The most effective passages of the book deal with John’s encounter with a mysterious friend, Feargal, and the resumption of his relations with Mary. Because we see events through John’s eyes the surface of the narrative becomes slippery with uncertainty as to the reality of what we are seeing, and the identities of characters seem to elide one into another. This part is wonderfully done because of the delicate writing, which is restrained, slyly humorous, and at times lyrical. The best parts are reminiscent of Kazuo Ishiguro. The writing throughout is of a very high standard.
As with most books there are flaws, though none of them fatal. This isn’t a detective story, but Barnes introduces a detective, McAuliffe, who is linked to John’s history by an inadequately explained backstory and whose role is essentially redundant. Also there are several shifts in the narrative point of view that work only so-so because the dominance of John’s viewpoint has the effect that the shifts come as something of a surprise. It is also fair to repeat that this is not a standard serial killer thriller, and this means that the reader does not have the safety and comfort of the usual conventions. Prepare to be creeped out.
Jim Williams is the author of Scherzo, ten other novels and two works of non-fiction.
The Baptist - a psychological thriller. Available from all online bookstores in all formats, including tree.
December 17, 2012
Hotel Creative Writing for Publication
A tribute to the NUI (National University of Ireland) writing course and its tutors Suzanne Power and John MacKenna.
Hotel Creative Writing for Publication Words by Ruby Barnes to the tune of Hotel California by The Eagles On a Kilkenny footpath, cool wind in my hairWarm smell of ambition and a thousand euro to spare Up ahead in the distance I saw the light of successSuzanne Power in her floral prints and John McKenna’s string vest. There they stood in the doorway, Joan of Arc and William TellAnd I was thinking to myself this could be Heaven or this could be Hell Then she lit up a candle and she showed us the wayThere were voices down the corridor I thought I heard them say (Chorus)Welcome to Creative Writing for PublicationSuch a lovely place, but not a luvvies’ placeFreedom to dream of imminent publicationAny time of year light the candle here And face your fear.
If your character’s twisted - he killed a guy with a barOr your bloke is checking out the good-looking girl with no bra Just channel those weirdos, talk out loud for a weekIgnore the strange glances of those who think you’re a freak. Now let’s tweak the narrator - first person post modernistThird person omniscient, second person horribly pissed And map out the timeline - flashback, backfill and so onAnd if it gets confusing, kill someone or take off your thong. (Chorus)Welcome to Creative Writing for PublicationSuch a lovely place, but not a luvvies’ placeFreedom to dream of imminent publicationAny time of year light the candle here And face your fear.
So we face the non-fiction but are lacking in stimuliAll thoughts of a memoir guaranteed to bring a tear to each eye Master McKenna’s chamber applies his music therapyWe listen to each other’s shite then smile and nod happily Last thing I remember, I was running for the doorI had to find the passage back to the place I was before ‘No way’ said Ms Power, 'You are programmed to critique.Life will never be the same, you all have Writer’s Disease.' (Chorus)Farewell Creative Writing for PublicationSuch a lovely place, but not a luvvies’ placeWe’re heading for imminent publicationAny time of year light the candle here And face your fear.
Hotel Creative Writing for Publication Words by Ruby Barnes to the tune of Hotel California by The Eagles On a Kilkenny footpath, cool wind in my hairWarm smell of ambition and a thousand euro to spare Up ahead in the distance I saw the light of successSuzanne Power in her floral prints and John McKenna’s string vest. There they stood in the doorway, Joan of Arc and William TellAnd I was thinking to myself this could be Heaven or this could be Hell Then she lit up a candle and she showed us the wayThere were voices down the corridor I thought I heard them say (Chorus)Welcome to Creative Writing for PublicationSuch a lovely place, but not a luvvies’ placeFreedom to dream of imminent publicationAny time of year light the candle here And face your fear.
If your character’s twisted - he killed a guy with a barOr your bloke is checking out the good-looking girl with no bra Just channel those weirdos, talk out loud for a weekIgnore the strange glances of those who think you’re a freak. Now let’s tweak the narrator - first person post modernistThird person omniscient, second person horribly pissed And map out the timeline - flashback, backfill and so onAnd if it gets confusing, kill someone or take off your thong. (Chorus)Welcome to Creative Writing for PublicationSuch a lovely place, but not a luvvies’ placeFreedom to dream of imminent publicationAny time of year light the candle here And face your fear.
So we face the non-fiction but are lacking in stimuliAll thoughts of a memoir guaranteed to bring a tear to each eye Master McKenna’s chamber applies his music therapyWe listen to each other’s shite then smile and nod happily Last thing I remember, I was running for the doorI had to find the passage back to the place I was before ‘No way’ said Ms Power, 'You are programmed to critique.Life will never be the same, you all have Writer’s Disease.' (Chorus)Farewell Creative Writing for PublicationSuch a lovely place, but not a luvvies’ placeWe’re heading for imminent publicationAny time of year light the candle here And face your fear.
December 13, 2012
Can you get something for nothing?
There's no such thing as a free lunch, right?
I've been offering The New Author for free as an e-book for the past few weeks as part of my haphazard marketing strategy. This isn't a KDP Select freebie, it's a price-matched affair. The New Author freebie has resulted in several thousand downloads on Amazon US and UK (and possibly Barnes & Noble etc but who knows with the slow Smashwords reporting). A few free downloads have occurred on Amazon DE and ES where it's also gone free. Has it stimulated sales of my novels? Difficult to say but things are a bit quiet on that front for me as for many other indie authors. What has surprised me is the Amazon paperback sales of The New Author which have consistently beaten my novel e-book sales during this 'experiment'. (I hesitate to call it an experiment because, like I said, I'm like a flag in the wind when it comes to pricing strategy. Maybe I should increase my novel prices? Hey, yeah. See what I mean?)
Another by-product of this 'freeness' is the fairly continuous presence of The New Author in top ten genre rankings alongside paid books and established freebie must-haves like Smashwords Style Guide and Write Good or Die. It's a rare event for me to get into a genre listing (although Peril did manage to get into a UK Drama listing this week) and I'm enjoying the vainglory of The New Author achieving that in a niche genre that requires just a few dozen downloads a day for a listing.
Reviews are starting to appear, as well, and a particularly interesting blog review turned up yesterday from one Michael N. Marcus. He loved The New Author but thinks I'm throwing money away by giving it for free and here's his blog post on the subject: http://www.bookmakingblog.com/2012/12/can-you-get-something-for-nothing-yes.html
So, whadya think? Should I put The New Author e-book back to priced? Is it the dumbest marketing strategy you ever heard? Am I flushing money down the toilet in a fit of genre-listing narcissim, 'cos nobody will buy my novels on the back of a piece of non-fiction?
Let me know and I'll email you a free e-copy of ... oh, wait a minute, that's what got me into this fix in the first place!
I've been offering The New Author for free as an e-book for the past few weeks as part of my haphazard marketing strategy. This isn't a KDP Select freebie, it's a price-matched affair. The New Author freebie has resulted in several thousand downloads on Amazon US and UK (and possibly Barnes & Noble etc but who knows with the slow Smashwords reporting). A few free downloads have occurred on Amazon DE and ES where it's also gone free. Has it stimulated sales of my novels? Difficult to say but things are a bit quiet on that front for me as for many other indie authors. What has surprised me is the Amazon paperback sales of The New Author which have consistently beaten my novel e-book sales during this 'experiment'. (I hesitate to call it an experiment because, like I said, I'm like a flag in the wind when it comes to pricing strategy. Maybe I should increase my novel prices? Hey, yeah. See what I mean?)
Another by-product of this 'freeness' is the fairly continuous presence of The New Author in top ten genre rankings alongside paid books and established freebie must-haves like Smashwords Style Guide and Write Good or Die. It's a rare event for me to get into a genre listing (although Peril did manage to get into a UK Drama listing this week) and I'm enjoying the vainglory of The New Author achieving that in a niche genre that requires just a few dozen downloads a day for a listing.
Reviews are starting to appear, as well, and a particularly interesting blog review turned up yesterday from one Michael N. Marcus. He loved The New Author but thinks I'm throwing money away by giving it for free and here's his blog post on the subject: http://www.bookmakingblog.com/2012/12/can-you-get-something-for-nothing-yes.html
So, whadya think? Should I put The New Author e-book back to priced? Is it the dumbest marketing strategy you ever heard? Am I flushing money down the toilet in a fit of genre-listing narcissim, 'cos nobody will buy my novels on the back of a piece of non-fiction?
Let me know and I'll email you a free e-copy of ... oh, wait a minute, that's what got me into this fix in the first place!
December 10, 2012
Profane Language? WTF! The Baptist Profane Twelve Days of Christmas
(Seriously, if you are offended by profanity then stop here.)
Last year I emailed a copy of The Baptist to a friend's work as a pdf attachment. That email was intercepted and she received an automatically generated message from her employer's Mail Sweeper programme.
This e-mail has been stopped in Profane Messages.
A report was attached to the message with the MIMEsweeper Analysis results. The report was studied by all and sundry tea-break and the content engendered a lot of discussion. Irish tea-breaks are an occasion for great craic. The consensus was The Baptist contained a lot of action but not enough components to perform it. They discussed the parts of speech.
The report results are below and I have to say that, while I didn't intend to write a profane novel, I can remember exactly each and every page where the offending words occur.
The phrase 'arse' was found at location 70126
and so on. I'll just share the count.
arse x 1
balls x 2
bang x 3
bastard x 12 (a dozen, one of them capitalised therefore a pronoun?)
bitch x 6 (half dozen, imperial measure)
bloody x 8 (quaint that bloody should be a profanity in this day and age, and might actually have described murder weapon)
blow job x 1 (shouldn't I have hyphenated the blow-job? That's what I've been doing wrong)
bollocks x 1 (shouldn't there be at least two of those fellas?)
crap x 2 (okay, in UK and Ireland it's an expletive)
cunt x 3 (I do apologise, it's a very vulgar word but, in my defence, it was, or rather they were, components of dialogue. Vulgar dialogue. Not uncommon in Ireland.)
fag x 5 (means cigarette in UK and Ireland and that was the intention)
fuck x 10 (no argument there and good to see it's gone decimal)
fucker x 4 (nice alliteration and I'm getting an idea for a Christmas song now)
fucking x 21 (more than a score - in fairness, there is a lot of that going on)
penis x 1 (poor little lad, all on his own, but just goes to show it takes only one)
prick x 3 (oh, right ... well)
queer x 1 (surely acceptable as an adjective?)
sex x 7 (the vanilla variety is profane?)
sexy x 2 (sexy too)
shirt-lifter x 1 (at least it's hyphenated, if homophobic, but anyhow it's dialogue)
shit x 11 (one short of the dozen)
shite x 1 (the Irish for above)
slut x 1 (so few?)
wanker x 1 (there's always one)
white trash x 2 (confused, is that profane?).
Right, Christmas is on the horizon. So, in the spirit of the season, I offer:
The Baptist Profane Twelve Days of Christmas
(I'll just go to straight to the last verse)
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Twelve bastards bragging
Eleven shits a fan-hitting
Ten fucks a flying
Nine fucking expletives (cheated, there wasn't nine of anything)
Eight bloody bus stops
Seven sex in the opens
Six bitches barking
Five ... fags ... a ... puffing!
Four fighting fuckers
Three quiet cunts
Two dangly balls
And a slut arse-wanker penis blow-job bollocks.
(That leaves a spare queer sexy shirt-lifter shite white trash, sounds like one of my characters.)
I'm sure we'll be hearing that little ditty on the radio.
All in the name of literary art, my dears.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Last year I emailed a copy of The Baptist to a friend's work as a pdf attachment. That email was intercepted and she received an automatically generated message from her employer's Mail Sweeper programme.
This e-mail has been stopped in Profane Messages.
A report was attached to the message with the MIMEsweeper Analysis results. The report was studied by all and sundry tea-break and the content engendered a lot of discussion. Irish tea-breaks are an occasion for great craic. The consensus was The Baptist contained a lot of action but not enough components to perform it. They discussed the parts of speech.
The report results are below and I have to say that, while I didn't intend to write a profane novel, I can remember exactly each and every page where the offending words occur.
The phrase 'arse' was found at location 70126
and so on. I'll just share the count.
arse x 1
balls x 2
bang x 3
bastard x 12 (a dozen, one of them capitalised therefore a pronoun?)
bitch x 6 (half dozen, imperial measure)
bloody x 8 (quaint that bloody should be a profanity in this day and age, and might actually have described murder weapon)
blow job x 1 (shouldn't I have hyphenated the blow-job? That's what I've been doing wrong)
bollocks x 1 (shouldn't there be at least two of those fellas?)
crap x 2 (okay, in UK and Ireland it's an expletive)
cunt x 3 (I do apologise, it's a very vulgar word but, in my defence, it was, or rather they were, components of dialogue. Vulgar dialogue. Not uncommon in Ireland.)
fag x 5 (means cigarette in UK and Ireland and that was the intention)
fuck x 10 (no argument there and good to see it's gone decimal)
fucker x 4 (nice alliteration and I'm getting an idea for a Christmas song now)
fucking x 21 (more than a score - in fairness, there is a lot of that going on)
penis x 1 (poor little lad, all on his own, but just goes to show it takes only one)
prick x 3 (oh, right ... well)
queer x 1 (surely acceptable as an adjective?)
sex x 7 (the vanilla variety is profane?)
sexy x 2 (sexy too)
shirt-lifter x 1 (at least it's hyphenated, if homophobic, but anyhow it's dialogue)
shit x 11 (one short of the dozen)
shite x 1 (the Irish for above)
slut x 1 (so few?)
wanker x 1 (there's always one)
white trash x 2 (confused, is that profane?).
Right, Christmas is on the horizon. So, in the spirit of the season, I offer:
The Baptist Profane Twelve Days of Christmas
(I'll just go to straight to the last verse)
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love gave to me
Twelve bastards bragging
Eleven shits a fan-hitting
Ten fucks a flying
Nine fucking expletives (cheated, there wasn't nine of anything)
Eight bloody bus stops
Seven sex in the opens
Six bitches barking
Five ... fags ... a ... puffing!
Four fighting fuckers
Three quiet cunts
Two dangly balls
And a slut arse-wanker penis blow-job bollocks.
(That leaves a spare queer sexy shirt-lifter shite white trash, sounds like one of my characters.)
I'm sure we'll be hearing that little ditty on the radio.
All in the name of literary art, my dears.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 5, 2012
Taking Your E-readers for Granted? E-readers 101
The other day I was delivering the first session of 'Join the E-revolution - Self-publishing an E-book' in Carrick-on-Suir library, South Tipperary. We had fifteen participants, more than enough for the small room, and it was an intimate, informal atmosphere. I had brought my gadgets with me - kindle, Kobo, iPhone and laptop (plus a bit of old fashioned paper).
A few people in the room owned e-readers themselves but for many this was a first look at e-books.
There I was, blabbering away about front matter in the mobi or something, when I noticed a few heads bobbing but many more had the 'what on earth are you talking about' expression on their faces. It's only too easy to forget that not everyone is already surfing the wave and all this e-book revolution is still new for a lot of readers and authors.
Then someone asked me if they had to buy an ebook from the Apple store to read it on their iPad or could they buy it elsewhere or even on Amazon. Another wanted to know if I needed to buy multiple copies to view the same book on all my different devices, and why did I need all those devices anyway?
My initial response was 'Yes, good questions. The answers to these and others are all contained in my book, The New Author, [brandishes paperback in the air] but I'll tell you now what you need to know.'
They all kindly bought a paperback, which was nice of them, but it set me thinking. At the start of this e-publishing voyage I used to have links on my blog to the Amazon Kindle apps because I was trying to convert an Irish reading public to e-books and almost nobody on the island had a kindle. After a while I took that information down from my blog in case readers thought it was patronising but now I think it was a mistake to do so. Sure, some readers know much more than I do about devices, files, apps and stuff (and may well correct me below), but we all have to start somewhere.
So, I thought I'd do a little 'E-readers 101' on e-book files and apps. Here goes.
When you buy an e-book there are two main file types: the ones that works on Kindle (file type azw when bought from Amazon, file type mobi when bought elsewhere) and the ones that work on just about every other reader ( file type epub). There are other e-book file types but let's keep it simple. I'll give pdf a mention as that can be read on pretty much anything without further ado, but it's not great on e-reader devices.
The azw file is the one Amazon will zap onto your Kindle through the ether when you buy an e-book from them. You're not allowed to transfer this file to another person and it generally doesn't work if you copy it yourself onto another device. If you have one of the various Kindles then happy days - you buy, it appears via Whispernet on your device. If you have a different type of e-reader e.g. Nook, Kobo, Sony, then no go, it won't read an azw file. But that's not the end of the story for azw files. Amazon provides free Kindle apps for Apple, Blackberry, Android and Windows devices. If you have a smartphone, an iSomething, desktop or laptop computer, or a tablet then Amazon and their azw files are still an option.
It's also worth knowing that you can have multiple devices and apps registered with Amazon. One e-book purchase allows me to put that book on my Kindle 4, iPhone, laptop 1 and laptop 2. Even better, as long as the devices are connected to the internet their apps will synchronise the last page read. Reading at work during the tea break, on the Kindle at lunchtime etc, you get the picture? Okay, this isn't an Amazon sales pitch.
E-books readable on Kindle devices and apps can also be bought on other websites as mobi files. Smashwords is a good source for mobi file e-books albeit predominantly from indie authors (hey, nothing wrong with that!) Mobi files have to be transferred to the target reading device by the user using a computer cable, as an email attachment etc. Easy enough. Sites like Smashwords sell mainly unprotected content which means they trust the purchaser not to go distributing the file to everyone on the planet but that does mean you're free to put it on any epub reading device at your leisure.
Now let's look at epub, the other main type of e-book file. If you own a Nook (Barnes & Noble), Kobo or Sony e-reader, or an Apple Mac, iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad then you can buy your e-books from the device manufacturer's online shop. They all use the epub file type and are unable to read mobi or azw files. The simplest way to buy and read epub e-books is direct from the branded shop. Again Smashwords sells mobi files and you can transfer these by computer cable or as an email attachment etc, to your e-reader.
All of the major epub-oriented e-reader device manufacturers also provide apps so you can have their branded purchasing and reading experience on your Android or Windows smartphone, tablet, laptop or iSomething.
An advantage to the epub file format is it can be purchased at one store e.g. Barnes & Noble and read on a dedicated e-reader device from another e.g. Kobo. A few months ago I was lucky enough to win a Kobo Touch online at Good e-Reader and wanted to read some of the mobi files I had accumulated over the past while. After a bit of trial and error I found I could copy paste the files over with the Kobo connected to my laptop by cable. I had to change the filename and insert an extra .kepub suffix before the existing .epub suffix. Similar jiggery-pokery might be required between devices but the epub file format is portable.
So, to summarise:
e-reader devices can read either azw / mobi files (Kindles) or epub files (Nook, Kobo, Sony, Apple);e-reader device manufacturers provide free apps so you can also have your branded e-book shopping and reading experience of choice on your smartphone / tablet / computer. There are other file types and software is available to convert between file types but this is 101 so let's keep it simple.
Go here for Kindle store and Kindle apps
Go here for Barnes & Noble store and Nook apps
Go here for Kobo store and Kobo apps
Go here for Sony store and Sony apps
Go here for iTunes and iBooks apps
Go here for e-books at Smashwords
Happy reading!
A few people in the room owned e-readers themselves but for many this was a first look at e-books.
There I was, blabbering away about front matter in the mobi or something, when I noticed a few heads bobbing but many more had the 'what on earth are you talking about' expression on their faces. It's only too easy to forget that not everyone is already surfing the wave and all this e-book revolution is still new for a lot of readers and authors.
Then someone asked me if they had to buy an ebook from the Apple store to read it on their iPad or could they buy it elsewhere or even on Amazon. Another wanted to know if I needed to buy multiple copies to view the same book on all my different devices, and why did I need all those devices anyway?
My initial response was 'Yes, good questions. The answers to these and others are all contained in my book, The New Author, [brandishes paperback in the air] but I'll tell you now what you need to know.'
They all kindly bought a paperback, which was nice of them, but it set me thinking. At the start of this e-publishing voyage I used to have links on my blog to the Amazon Kindle apps because I was trying to convert an Irish reading public to e-books and almost nobody on the island had a kindle. After a while I took that information down from my blog in case readers thought it was patronising but now I think it was a mistake to do so. Sure, some readers know much more than I do about devices, files, apps and stuff (and may well correct me below), but we all have to start somewhere.
So, I thought I'd do a little 'E-readers 101' on e-book files and apps. Here goes.
When you buy an e-book there are two main file types: the ones that works on Kindle (file type azw when bought from Amazon, file type mobi when bought elsewhere) and the ones that work on just about every other reader ( file type epub). There are other e-book file types but let's keep it simple. I'll give pdf a mention as that can be read on pretty much anything without further ado, but it's not great on e-reader devices.
The azw file is the one Amazon will zap onto your Kindle through the ether when you buy an e-book from them. You're not allowed to transfer this file to another person and it generally doesn't work if you copy it yourself onto another device. If you have one of the various Kindles then happy days - you buy, it appears via Whispernet on your device. If you have a different type of e-reader e.g. Nook, Kobo, Sony, then no go, it won't read an azw file. But that's not the end of the story for azw files. Amazon provides free Kindle apps for Apple, Blackberry, Android and Windows devices. If you have a smartphone, an iSomething, desktop or laptop computer, or a tablet then Amazon and their azw files are still an option.
It's also worth knowing that you can have multiple devices and apps registered with Amazon. One e-book purchase allows me to put that book on my Kindle 4, iPhone, laptop 1 and laptop 2. Even better, as long as the devices are connected to the internet their apps will synchronise the last page read. Reading at work during the tea break, on the Kindle at lunchtime etc, you get the picture? Okay, this isn't an Amazon sales pitch.
E-books readable on Kindle devices and apps can also be bought on other websites as mobi files. Smashwords is a good source for mobi file e-books albeit predominantly from indie authors (hey, nothing wrong with that!) Mobi files have to be transferred to the target reading device by the user using a computer cable, as an email attachment etc. Easy enough. Sites like Smashwords sell mainly unprotected content which means they trust the purchaser not to go distributing the file to everyone on the planet but that does mean you're free to put it on any epub reading device at your leisure.
Now let's look at epub, the other main type of e-book file. If you own a Nook (Barnes & Noble), Kobo or Sony e-reader, or an Apple Mac, iPod Touch, iPhone or iPad then you can buy your e-books from the device manufacturer's online shop. They all use the epub file type and are unable to read mobi or azw files. The simplest way to buy and read epub e-books is direct from the branded shop. Again Smashwords sells mobi files and you can transfer these by computer cable or as an email attachment etc, to your e-reader.
All of the major epub-oriented e-reader device manufacturers also provide apps so you can have their branded purchasing and reading experience on your Android or Windows smartphone, tablet, laptop or iSomething.
An advantage to the epub file format is it can be purchased at one store e.g. Barnes & Noble and read on a dedicated e-reader device from another e.g. Kobo. A few months ago I was lucky enough to win a Kobo Touch online at Good e-Reader and wanted to read some of the mobi files I had accumulated over the past while. After a bit of trial and error I found I could copy paste the files over with the Kobo connected to my laptop by cable. I had to change the filename and insert an extra .kepub suffix before the existing .epub suffix. Similar jiggery-pokery might be required between devices but the epub file format is portable.
So, to summarise:
e-reader devices can read either azw / mobi files (Kindles) or epub files (Nook, Kobo, Sony, Apple);e-reader device manufacturers provide free apps so you can also have your branded e-book shopping and reading experience of choice on your smartphone / tablet / computer. There are other file types and software is available to convert between file types but this is 101 so let's keep it simple.
Go here for Kindle store and Kindle apps
Go here for Barnes & Noble store and Nook apps
Go here for Kobo store and Kobo apps
Go here for Sony store and Sony apps
Go here for iTunes and iBooks apps
Go here for e-books at Smashwords
Happy reading!
November 30, 2012
Bestselling Book Basics with Bateman in Bangor
At the end of October 2012 I was fortunate enough to attend Colin Bateman's Best Seller workshop. Here's my piece about what I learned from this prolific and successful author and screen-writer on Multi-Story's Have Your Say.
November 26, 2012
Rantidote
According to Bill Gates, or someone, the average human mind can concentrate on a maximum of eight things at one time. In this world of technology we often have eight or more windows open on our computer and many more in our minds. Throw in the day job, a tribe of kids wanting taxi service, pets chewing things they shouldn't and a leaking tap in the kitchen. Add the never-ending stream of spam and scam emails, facebook ads (no, fb, I'm not looking for twenty-something gorgeous single women in my area - or, I should say, they're not looking for me), robo phone surveys and door to door callers. Yes I have broadband. Yes I would like uncongested broadband. No I don't believe you when you say you have cheaper uncongested broadband. No I don't want a genuine oil painting. Hey, let go of my puppy. Okay I'll buy it, just put the dog down on the ground unharmed and I'll sign. Slams door.
We're living on the edge. Just one more thing, one tiny thing and it's going to get ugly. Hey look, Amazon are selling e-books in India. Hey, now they're selling e-books in Japan. Shame that the whole sales volume seems to have slowed down, just at the time these two new markets are added to Kindle Direct Publishing. But wait a minute. Did really no one buy any e-books for several days? How come that long term free book isn't showing up any figures in the sales reports yet its ranking is steady in the charts? Check chat forums - established indie authors with monthly sales volumes in the hundreds or thousands seem to be experiencing a uniform sudden decline. Maybe India was too much for the KDP reports to digest. Perhaps Japan overloaded the system. The UK Amazon tax boycott? It's the US election. No, that's over, Thanksgiving then. Black Friday, Cyber Monday. Kindle software tiny text updates? Check and reformat my kindle books. Adjust prices up, down and sideways. No difference. Christmas approaching, the kids want new tablets, too much choice, too little money. Everything goes dark. My cerebral fuse has blown. When the lights come back on there's blood everywhere, some sort of salesman's electronic clipboard on the floor and a freshly dug mound of earth in the garden.
So, deep breath, ignore the carnage and go check on the Smashwords dashboard. No sales. Wait a minute. It's nearly December and the Smashwords sales figures don't even cover October for some channels, let alone November. Good job I put The Crucible epub direct on Kobo Writing Life to get instantaneous sales reporting. Over to Kobo where The Crucible remains in 'publishing' status even though I hit the publish button while on Colin Bateman's Bestseller course at the end of October. But I was drunk, so maybe they sort of knew that and there's a drunken author queue. Fair enough.
Back to Smashwords and The Crucible still hasn't been granted Premium Catalog status after three weeks 'pending review' there. But wait a minute, there isn't a submitted date on that dashboard. Seems I didn't actually submit The Crucible for premium catalog. I blame the drink. I blame me. Clearly, it's all my fault. If you've had any hiccups in your sales reporting that's probably my fault as well.
There. I feel much better after my rantidote. Try one.
No puppies were actually harmed during the making of this rantidote.
November 25, 2012
Look before you leap!
When journalism MA student Antonia Molloy interviewed me recently it turned out to be a bit more than I bargained for. Not the typical list of standard questions sent by email but a rather soul-searching forty minutes on Skype. I think she's shown great insight in her write-up. Hop on over to her blog and have a read of One Man; Two Men. In the meantime I'm going to check myself in for therapy!
http://antoniamolloyblog.wordpress.com/2012/11/24/one-man-two-men/
November 20, 2012
Have you got 20/20 vision this Thanksgiving?
Thanksgiving and it's time for sharing. With more genres than you can wave a stick at, here's an on-sale collection of twenty e-books for twenty dollars. Grab the lot or pick and choose at 99c from thrillers (yours truly with The Crucible), fantasy, science fiction, horror, YA, romance. There's something here for everyone. Just go to the Listmania, have a browse and see what takes your fancy.
http://www.amazon.com/lm/R30VHZGI9EVVQS
November 14, 2012
50k means celebration where I come from
Well, Ruby's blog just trundled over 50,000 page views since launch. Not bad for a little blog from down country rural Ireland. Come have a browse and sign up to Ruby's News for a celebratory free e-copy of The Crucible Part 1 in whatever format suits you. $3.99 value and great reviews on Amazon!
