New Winner

One of my winners never responded, so I picked a new one.

Booklover31, email me your address!  I will send you book!

And the winners are....!

I want to thank everybody who entered my contest!  It makes me smile to see how many people are as excited about Jesse's adventures as I am.

So, without further ado...

The Facebook winner is....  Maer W!

The Twitter winner is...  Donna Simmonds (@DonnaS1)!

The League of Reluctant Adults winner is...  Amanda!

And the winner for this blog is...  Michaela Grube!

All winners, please email me at kari(dot)stewart21(at)gmail(dot)com.  Put "Contest Winner" in the subject line.  Give me a name and address where I can mail your book, and let me know how you'd like it signed.

If you want me to mail your book this Saturday, I have to have your responses by Friday night.  Don't be late!

Giveaway Time!

Eighteen days, can you believe it???  Eighteen days until the release of A WOLF AT THE DOOR.

So what’s a person to do, when they have to wait 18 whole days?  Try to win a copy in a giveaway, of course!

So that’s what I’m doing.  I will be giving away not one, not two, but FOUR copies of A WOLF AT THE DOOR.  Here is how it works.

You can leave a comment on this post.  That’s one entry.

You can leave a comment at The League of Reluctant Adults.  That’s another entry.

You can leave a comment on my JJD Facebook page.  Yet another entry!

And you can leave me a comment on Twitter with the hashtag #sellyoursoulcontest

That’s FOUR entries for very little effort, but you have to leave the comments before midnight, Central time, on Tuesday July 24^th.   I will be giving away one book from each site, to be announced next Wednesday, July 25^th.  The idea being that if the winners get back to me quick, I can mail all the books on Saturday and you should have them well before the book becomes available to the general public.

**Disclaimer – You cannot win more than one book.  That’s just not fair.

**Disclaimer the second – I will accept international entries, but I can’t promise that the winners will get their books as early as the U.S. folk will.  Just works that way and it’s out of my hands.

Book Fort the Third!

Booook fooooort!

Yup, finally here, the loverly box of books! (not to be confused with a loverly bunch of coconuts)

A couple of notes on upcoming stuffs:

On August 7th (release day!), you will find a JJD short story over at Tynga's Reviews.  It's part of the Paranormal Summer Camp event, and it wouldn't hurt to go check out the site ALL month, 'cause there's some awesome stuff going on!

On August 9th, there will be an interview up at The Qwillery.

And maybe...just MAYBE....this coming week (July 16th-20th) I might be compelled to give away a copy of Wolf before you can get your hot little hands on it anywhere else.  Stay tuned!

Note for Reviewers:  Wolf is available on Netgalley, but I believe you do have to request it.  If you have any questions, feel free to email me at kari(dot)stewart21(at)gmail(dot)com, and I will forward your requests to my publicist at Roc.

The Future is Now!

Everybody’s always doing these “The Future of Publishing!” blog posts and articles, usually focusing on the end product:   e-books vs. print books, Big 6 Publishing vs. self-publishing, things like that.  Pretty much everything that could be said has been, and by better people than me.

So, that’s not what I’m gonna talk about!  What I want to talk about today is how publishing has changed in just the two years I’ve been a part of it, from the author’s perspective.  They’re small changes to be sure, mostly focusing around the editing process, but I still find it interesting how quickly things have moved.

When I was waiting for my copy edits on A Devil in the Details back in 2009/2010, I was all prepared to buy stock in red pencils and scribble all over huge reams of paper, brush up on my editing marks, all that stuff that other authors said I’d need to do.  Imagine my surprise when the copy edits came to me in a Word file instead, with track changes turned on.  The Editor told me they were trying to go paperless, so they were going to try and do it this way.

Hey, whatever you say!  And after I did it that way once, I was sold. I love doing my edits with track changes now.  In fact, when I beta for other people, I ask them if I can make my notes on their manuscript that way, ‘cause it’s easier for me to jot things down as I go, than to try and remember everything I wanted to say at the end.

When it came time to do my page proofs on Devil, I got a packet in the mail, all pages laid out nice and neat like in a real book.  I went through those, carefully reading every page and marking up the ones that needed changes with a nice pen.  My greatest fear through this whole process was that I would drop the stack of papers, and spend hours sorting them out again.  Didn’t happen, and I got them returned without incident.  Shortly thereafter, I got another package in the mail, holding ARCs of my brand new book!  (ARCs are Advance Reader Copies, also called galleys)  Yay!  It’s a book!

The next year, 2010-11, I got my copy edits on A Shot in the Dark in my email as expected, whipped those puppies into shape, emailed them back.  But when it came time for page proofs, instead of getting a packet in the mail, I got another email with a PDF file.  “Here, just print off the pages you want changed, and scan/email them back.”  Um… ok, sure!  Saving paper!  Go environment.  It was a new process, but I’m cool, I can roll with the times like that.

Still got my ARCs on Shot, nice little paper book in my hands.

And then we roll around to this year, 2011-12, working on A Wolf at the Door.  Emailed copy edits.  Emailed page proofs.  And last night, I found out that we’re doing e-ARCs!  Yup, no more print ARCs for this girl, they’ll be making review e-books available for professional reviewers through NetGalley**.

Okay, I fully admit that a teeny part of me is disappointed.  I liked having that ARC in my hands, and it would have rounded out the set to have all three books in some physical form.  But on the other hand, think about how much money they’re saving by not printing out what is essentially a “rough draft”.  That’s money that can go to publishing a new author (or keeping an old one).  Also (and keep in mind I’m not a reviewer, I don’t have a lot of access to the awesomeness that is NetGalley), I think that having an online database of ARC/galleys has the potential to reach so many more audiences that having a limited number of printed books.

I find it fascinating how processes have changed, just in two years.  I’ve seen a lot of people talking about how publishing is an antiquated system, and needs to catch up to the times, but I think they already are.  As we go more and more into a digital/technological world, there are so many cost-effective alternatives available.  You would think that printing off/mailing an entire manuscript wouldn’t be so bad.  Figure…maybe $30, and that’s if I had to do it myself, without any kind of corporate discount.  However, if you multiply that by ALL the manuscripts a publishing house is working on at any given time, it comes up to a pretty chunk of change real fast!  And that’s not even counting printing out the ARCs to send to reviewers, most of which will probably be destroyed at some point later (or sold on e-bay, despite the fact that they’re not to be sold at all).

I think I’m lucky to be part of publishing in this particular era, when every day it seems like something new and amazing pops up.  I’m anxious to see what the next two years bring, excited to see where we go from here.

**Note to Reviewers:  I poked around on NetGalley last night for the first time (just what the public can see, of course) and first off, you guys are so freakin’ lucky!!  I’d lose my mind trying to decide what to read first.  Second, I didn’t see Wolf up there yet, but it’s coming, so if you want to review it, make sure you keep checking so you can request it when it’s available.

Tools of the Trade

(Cross posted at The League of Reluctant Adults)

When I’m stuck for blog topics, I often poll my friends to see what things they’d like to hear me babble about. Most often, one (or more) of them says “Hey, tell us more about the swords and stuff that you talk about in your books.” And I’ve been hesitant to do that, mostly because I don’t consider my knowledge on the subject that extensive. I know just as much as I need to know to make sure that I don’t look like an idiot in my writing. If I started claiming to be some expert, I'd be a big fat liar.

However, that said… My hubby and I own a LOT of swords. A LOT. And most (99.99%) of them were made by the crew at a place called Badger Blades. I love these guys/gals, not just because they make awesome weaponry, but because they’re awesome people. We’ve known them a long time, long enough that they’ve seen my kiddo grow from infancy (where they spoiled her rotten) to almost-tween (gods help me) and they still spoil her rotten. Long enough that my hubby has a place of honor on their website, because of all the wicked blades he owns.

I’ve learned a lot about swords from Badger and his crew, from how they’re made to how they function. In A Devil in the Details, I mention that Jesse’s katana can almost be bent double and still spring back straight. After that book came out, I had a fan letter questioning whether or not that was actually possible. And I swear to you it is. I’ve seen it. I’ve been hit with shards of flying anvil when one of Badger’s swords has taken out chunks and left not one blemish on the blade. I’ve also seen one punch all the way through a chest freezer without a bit of harm (don’t ask). They’re beautiful, and functional.

Now, when it comes to katanas, we all know that the old Japanese sword masters did amazing things with metal. They folded it an insane amount of times, slowly working impurities in the metal into miniscule amounts in order to keep the blade from having weak points where it might shatter. Those swords are indeed works of art, and the world will probably never see their like again. However, that doesn’t mean that today’s modern weaponry is anything to sneeze at. It basically boils down to the quality of the metal. Old swords were folded because the steel had so much gunk in it. Then new smelting technologies were introduced, and today’s steel is much higher quality than what those ancient masters had access to. So while today’s swords may not require the intricate effort that the old ones did, that doesn’t mean that they’re inferior quality.*

*Note – There ARE inferior swords out there. Cheaply made, easily broken. They’re meant to be hung on a wall and be pretty, not to be used.

**Note the second – Yes, I know that the middle blade in this picture isn’t technically a katana. It’s a nodachi. I just wanted it in with the smaller blades for size comparison.

Frankly, everything I know about modern swords, I learned from Badger and his crew. You can find out more on how they make these gorgeous blades on their FAQ page. Are there folks who do it differently? Sure. But having had my hands on just about every blade they've made in the last...oh...ten years, I know the quality of their craftsmanship, and I trust their work.

If you’d like to see pictures of more swords, you should really swing by the Badger Blades website. Their photos are much better than mine, and they've got some swords there that I don't have examples of at home. (Don't tell my hubby there's a sword he doesn't have yet)

And if you really are a sword lover, check out Badger Blades' show schedule to see if they’re hitting an event near you!

Signing Announcements!

As I've been teasing on various social media outlets, I have a few signings set up for this fall and the release of A WOLF AT THE DOOR. Well, ok, I have two set up (so far). But it's more than one, so we'll call it a few.

The two signings are local (to me) but I'm still exploring the idea of...well...exploring. Sadly, the whole mom-&-real-job schtick doesn't leave a lot of wiggle room, but I'm checking into a few things.

So here we are! (And yes, I know this is WAY advance notice, and yes, I will be reminding everyone as the time draws near. Probably to an annoying degree)

August 11th, 2012
Saturday, 12 noon - 3 p.m.
Books-a-Million
The Legends at Village West
1843 Village West Parkway
Kansas City, KS 66111

This one will be doubling as my release party, so once the signing is done, we're probably going to migrate to the Dave & Buster's across the courtyard to have some drinks and munch on stuff, and play video games like kids. No, I'm not buying for everyone, but I would never object to folks hanging out and stuff.

September 8th, 2012
Saturday, 12 noon - ??
Hastings Books
605 N. Belt Highway
St. Joseph, MO 64506

Yes folks, I'm coming home! St. Joseph is my hometown, and I'm hoping to see a lot of folks here who won't make the hour drive down to KC.

I still have to check with both venues on their policy about bringing in books you didn't purchase there, and once I know, I'll update things for y'all. I've been to a few signings (not mine) where it became an issue, and I don't want anyone blindsided.

And that's my big news for the week. I also got page proofs done on Wolf, and turned in, so that pretty baby is officially out of my hands. I'm hoping to see some ARCs in my mail soon, and provided that I have enough, I'll be trying to do a giveaway like I have in the past.

I'll keep you posted!