Ingram and You

Part of me wants to try to do this like some cheesy 50's health class movie. "Ingram and your body..." But in the interest of time (and sanity)

Most of you (I hope) saw me announce that The Music Box Girl is now available through Ingram. And you may be thinking "But MBG has been out for a while, what does this mean?"

The very short answer, for most of you, is nothing.  For the longer answer, read on.

Ingram is a part of publishing that is largely invisible to the average reader. They are a book distributor & printer. When you buy a book at a B&N or indie store, it most likely got there via Ingram.

You may say "but wasn't Createspace already printing and distributing your books?" Yes! Good question. The difference is that Ingram is the supplier that most bookstores and libraries order from. See, Amazon (Createspace) is a direct competitor of other bookstores, so they don't want to order from someone who is actively trying to put them out of business.

There are other things that also make Ingram preferable, involving wholesale ordering prices and the ability to return books that don't sell, but that's probably a bigger topic than I intend to cover in this Cliff's Notes version.

So, back to the question. What does this mean? It means that MBG can now appear on library and bookstore shelves. It means that someone could be browsing a bookstore and pick up my book and think "Hey, this looks cool." And just like that, I could have a new fan.  It also means that I can do in-store book signings much easier, since the stores can actually order books to have on hand. My hope is that we (my family and I) will be able to travel more in the next few years and get to places where folk might want to see me.

"That's fantastic! How can I help?"  I'm so glad you asked! The thing that will do the most good is to tell people. Ask your local indie store to order copies in. Request the book from your local libraries. Let them know that Second Olympus and the JJD books will be coming soon in the same format. Get the word out, folks!  Help me, Obi-Wan. You're my only hope.

Also remember that, before the year is out, Peacemaker will be re-released, in print for the very first time. This too will go through Ingram as well as my other channels. Tell the world!

#SPFBO 2016

What is it, you ask? It is the “Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off”!

Last year, organized by author/blogger Mark Lawrence, 10 brave bloggers took on the responsibility of reading and reviewing 273 self-published fantasy novels, with the ultimate goal of choosing one ring to rule them all. Er…one winner. You can read all about last year’s competition here!

It was such a huge hit that they’ve decided to do it again, and guess what, I’m participating! I’ve submitted The Music Box Girl, one of 300 entries into this year’s contest. (that’s right, 300 entries. They had to cap the submissions because it was so popular). Now, we (the authors) don’t win anything, other than some good word of mouth, but I’m really mostly excited about learning about OTHER people’s books. My new favorite might be in there, and I don’t even know it yet!

My book got slotted into the group to be read by The Qwillery, and if you didn’t already know about them, you should totally check them out. They do really good book reviews, as well as fascinating interviews, and I’ve found quite a few new reads through them.

If you want to see a list of all of the submitted books, as well as the bloggers who have taken on the herculean task of wading through 30 books a piece, you can visit Mark Lawrence’s blog post about the contest. He keeps a running list of posts there as the bloggers talk about their assigned books. He has also started another post where each blogger picks their three favorite covers, and it will be updated as they all respond.

SO, if you see the hashtag #SPFBO, that’s what I’m talking about, and I’m hoping to be able to read a few of the submitted titles as well over the course of the summer.

Happy reading, everyone!

Who is The Music Box Girl?

BOOK REVIEWERS!  I will be ordering proof copies of The Music Box Girl within the next few days.  If you want me to reserve you a print copy, email me at kari (dot) stewart21 (at) gmail (dot) com.  If you’d rather have an ebook copy, I can make that happen too, just let me know what format you want it in.  (sorry, folk, I can't just hand out books to everyone who asks.  You need to have an actual book review site before I can give up my proof copies)

Thus far, you can pre-order the ebook here:
Kindle
Nook
iBooks
Kobo

The print copy will be released approximately a week prior to the ebook release (which is April 26th), so that everyone can be reading it on release day!

Any questions?

Jesse, The Music Box Girl, and More

Thanks to everyone who made Jesse James Dawson’s birthday so awesome!  It’s nice to have days like that where I remember that there are people who love him as much as I do.  Make sure to go out and leave a review on Amazon and/or B&N when you’re done reading!  If you didn’t like it, feel free to say so! Every review matters.

Once you reach the end of the book, I’m sure you’ll notice that I’ve included the first chapter of something else, called The Music Box Girl.  This will be the next project I’m self-publishing, and I hope to have it out sometime in April.  It’s already written, and fairly polished, but I’m wanting to take my time with the print copy design on this one.  Trying to get fancy!

AND

I promised other good news, and while the above is all good news, that wasn’t what I was referring to.

Some of you may have noticed that Peacemaker has disappeared from all sales channels.  (It’s okay, I’ll wait here while you go verify, but I promise, it’s gone)  This is actually a very good thing!  Intermix, the original publisher, has reverted the rights to Peacemaker to me, and I am now free to re-release it, and in a PRINT version this time!

Not sure my timing on this one, since I want to get MBG settled first, but before summer, Peacemaker will be available again in a shiny new edition, and in print for the very first time!  I’ll keep you posted on dates.  And yes, this will most likely lead into me finally writing the sequels to Peacemaker in the near future.

I feel like this year is going to be a great year!

As The Year Turns

And what a year it's been.

I'm looking back on all my grand plans, trying to figure out if I should be disappointed in myself for not meeting all my goals, or satisfied with what I DID get done.

Suffice to say, I wanted to be done with Jesse #4 by now.  I'm not.  The last two months has been a total wash, though I will say that I think I've made a brainstorming breakthrough and I'll be starting back up with the writing again probably as soon as I finish this post.  I'm so very close, if I can just get over this little bump.  I know how it ends, I just have to get there.

I fully admit, my writing was a victim of stress in other areas of my life.  I know that I've mentioned my Real Job(tm) before.  Well, for the last....oh, probably two years, if I'm being honest...I've not been happy with the Real Job(tm).  In fact, I've been scrambling to get clear of there.  Sadly, I'm not in a position where writing full time is feasible, financially, so getting clear of one job requires a new job.  And in the industry where I work, that's easier said than done right now.

However, over the last three months, I managed to apply/interview/finally get hired at a new place!  I'm simultaneously thrilled and terrified.  I mean, I worked at my old job for eight and a half years.  It's been a while since I had to get all dressed up and go make new friends.  But it'll be fine.  It has to be.  At the very least, it can't be any worse.

So, last day at the Old Job was yesterday, and my first day at the New Job is Monday.

New Job schedule is slightly different (Old Job started at 7 a.m., New Job starts at 8:30 a.m.), but I think I'm going to parlay that into some early morning writing time.  I recall that when I was working on The Musicbox Girl, my Saturday mornings were very productive.  No one in the house is up, it's quiet, I'm not exhausted...  It sounds worth a try.

Also, I find it very poetic that the winter days were getting darker right up until I quit the Old Job, and now when I start the New Job, the days will be getting lighter.  Happy Solstice, everyone!

So.  Goals for the new year:

January - Finish JJD#4, get it out to betas.  I'm about 30K words from the end of a first draft.  Once the holidays are past, I'm going to buckle down and knock this thing out.

January 21st - Peacemaker release.  Advance reviews are trickling in so far, and people seem to like it!  This makes me happy.  It's a fun little story, not intended to change the world, and I hope people enjoy it.  I should probably come up with some promotion events centered around that, but honestly I'm a bit tapped out of ideas given the absence of actual physical copies.  So if anyone has a thing they want me to do, let me know!

February/March - I will be revising The Musicbox Girl per my Lovely Agent's advice.  Kinda looking forward to getting my hands back into this story.  I will also be hopefully assembling beta reader notes on JJD#4 and once MBG is done, go through the Jesse book again.

April - Find an editor & cover artist for JJD#4.  My actual release date for that book will depend on deadlines for these two things.  Starting to look like a summer release for the book, which is apt, since the first three always came out in summer.

Rest of the Year - I want to start outlining/drafting Arcane West #2 (a sequel to Peacemaker).  I also want to start working on a new project that has been driving me nuts called Valkyrie, Inc.  It'll be a little different than some of my other stuff, but it feels like it's going to be fun and I'm excited about it.

Hoping that I can get MBG into a shape where Lovely Agent will want to start subbing it.  She also has Muse to read, and I'm hoping to find out if she wants to try subbing that too, or if I'll be trying to self-pub that one.  Also hoping to make a decision on whether or not to self-pub Night of Fire and Ash, but if I did that, I'd officially have three series going at once, and that way lies madness.  So that one's going to take a bit of thinking.

And of course, once JJD#4 is done, I need to move on to #5.  There will be six Jesse books in the end, and I'm very devoted to finishing the series.  It's just something I need to do at this point.


As we've seen, my best laid plans often go awry, but I like having a starting point from which to veer off dramatically.

Happy Winter-Holiday-Event-of-Your-Choice, and may the New Year be fabulous for us all!

The Latest and Greatest

Once again, my lack of posting astounds even me.  In my defense, though, I've been working.  Like, actual writing working, not Real Job working (though I've been doing that too)

So, what's been going on?

Well, I took the entire month of June to do edits on Peacemaker, and turned those in two whole days early.  Go me!  And just this week, I got an email back from my wonderful editor saying that those revisions have been accepted, so Peacemaker's almost a finished product, and that's a bit of stress off my mind.  Granted, I've never had revisions NOT accepted, but a little part of me is always fearful that she's going to come back and say "this is the suckiest thing in the history of sucky things that suck, do it over".

Right now, I'm working on JJD4.  I'm about 11K words into it, which doesn't seem like very much, 'cause it isn't.  But I've been writing almost every day, even if it's just a little bit, and I'm really starting to sink back into the world again.  It's kinda comfy there, like a big pillow.  A big, fluffy, demon-infested pillow.

I'm still struggling with a title for it.  I thought I had one, months ago, but the more I think about it, the less I like it, so it's back to the drawing board.  Figure, if I'm self-publishing it, I can come up with a title whenever I feel like it, right?

Been learning a lot about self-publishing over these past few months, too.  It's starting to not feel as daunting as it once did.  Ideally, if I can stick to my own self-imposed timeline, I hope to have JJD4 up and functional by March.  All of this contingent on me actually finishing it, of course, and cover art & editing schedules.  My intention is to do ebook on pretty much all platforms, and maybe do a print edition through Amazon's Createspace.  It won't be the same size as the first three books, because they don't offer a mass-market paperback size, and I fully admit that this makes me a little crazy.  They're supposed to match, dammit! Ah well, we take what we can get.

My lovely agent has read The Musicbox Girl, and given me some really great revision notes on it.  She's completely right in everything she said, I just have to wrap my brain around how to fix it.  Right now, that's not going to happen, because I'm trying to work on JJD4, and quite frankly, the writing is different enough that trying to do both at once might scramble my last two brain cells.

I've also sent Muse to the lovely agent, mostly to see if it's something she'd be interested in trying to sell, or if I should just start pondering self-publishing that too.  Honestly, I read through parts of it again, and the whole thing still gives me chills.  It's still one of the best things I've ever written (in my admittedly warped mind) and I'd like to see it available someday.

And, in case you missed it, Peacemaker is up for pre-order on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.  It's also up on Goodreads, if anyone wants to add it to their to-read list. No cover art yet, of course, but I'm hoping soon.  Do you realize that we're actually less than 6 months away from release on that one already??  Time flies when you're having fun.

Remember, Peacemaker will be ebook only at first.  If sales are good enough, they may release it in print later.  I've had several people lament that they don't have a Kindle or a Nook or whatever, but remember if you have a smart phone or a computer, the Kindle app is a free download, and you can read my book right on your phone!

So, current timelines are looking like this:
Autumn 2013 - copy edits on Peacemaker (actual deadline unknown)
November 1 - finish JJD4
Nov/Dec - editing & cover art for JJD4, and revising MBG
January 21, 2014 - Peacemaker release!
Jan/Feb/Mar 2014 - drafting Arcane West #2?
March-ish 2014 - JJD4 release!
Summer 2014 - drafting JJD5?

After that, everything's a moving target.  Heck, half the stuff ON the list is still a moving target.  Ah well.  This is the good life, right?

Goals Revisited

I got to looking at my goals post from way back when, and y'know, I'm really not so horribly off track.

Goal 1 - Finishing Night of Fire and Ash. Check.

Goal 2 - Write JJD4 - temporarily on hold

Goal 3 - Speak at RT.  Done!  Love love loved it.

Goal 4 - Choose/write a new project - well, I kinda DID that already, with The Musicbox Girl, so that one's done, just out of order.

Goal 5 - Publish JJD4 - Still a goal, just pushed back a bit further than originally thought.

So really, what does the rest of my 2013 look like?

Peacemaker - My edits on Peacemaker are due July 1st, assuming of course that I get my edit letter in good time. (I feel pretty safe making that assumption)

JJD4 -  Come July 1, provided that Peacemaker is turned in on time, JJD4 becomes my priority.  Planning on having it done by November 1.  Four months should be sufficient enough time.  After that, I want to spend November/December getting it edited and the cover design and formatting done in preparation for hitting the button to make it live.

And holy cow,that brings me into 2014 already.

At some point in January (don't know the precise date yet), Peacemaker will hit.  Kinda want to spend the month of January dealing with that, but I also want to spend it plotting out the second Arcane West novel.  My current plan with that series is a trilogy, but who knows?  Never say never or something.

Spring of 2014 could conceivably be spent writing AW2, and pimping JJD4 with a spring release.  Then, JJD5 will need to start being a thing, and... I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

And just like this year, my best laid plans could come to a screeching halt due to unexpected (but hopefully still good) events.

It feels good, though, to have a plan.  It may not even be a great plan, but at least it's a plan.

Do you hear the sound of screeching brakes?

Just when I think I know what the heck I'm doing, it all goes wonky on me.

Here I was, just working on JJD4, minding my own business... Got some words in, got a great idea for a new first chapter...  Starting to really get back into the swing of Jesse's brain again.

And then I get the little "bing!" on my phone that says I have email.

Well who could that be, says I?

It's my lovely agent!  She's lovely!  This is why I call her my lovely agent!

The email was in regards to The Musicbox Girl.  ((Previously, on "This is my life", I sent the first three chapters of The Musicbox Girl to my lovely agent who is lovely, because she liked the idea so much.  /end flashback))  Judging by the amount of all capital letters and imperative commands to finish this right now!, I think she likes it.

So once again, JJD4 is on hold.

While I am thrilled that my lovely agent who is lovely is so excited about my new project, I also feel a bit guilty for continually pushing Jesse to the wayside.  Poor guy.  He's gonna develop a complex.

Needless to say, this is going to toss any semblance of personal deadlines I had RIGHT out the window.

Ah well.  We improvise.