A year of thinking Hannah

Source: tumblr.com via Mina on Pinterest

It's near the end of October, which means I should just go right out and admit it to myself and everyone -- Queen of the Clueless (Interim Goddess of Love #2) is late. I wanted it out earlier this year, but life intervened, and I haven't been able to keep to the publishing schedule I established pre-motherhood.

Interim Goddess happens to be my first series too, so the character of Hannah has been residing in my thoughts for the longest so far. This is a good thing because she's kind of gestated and matured there in my mind, but not-so-good too only because I already have a book waiting to be written after this. That might have to wait a little longer.

Rest assured that Queen of the Clueless is on its way. This is how it starts: (QotC sneak peek over here...)

More publishing stories at Author at Once, Oct 27

Been getting a lot of questions about publishing lately! It's likely because of the interview that was published in Rappler, yay. I don't mind the questions at all, but let me just announce this anyway:

I will be speaking at Bronze Age Media's AUTHOR AT ONCE Basics of Publishing on October 27, 2-5 PM, at Cafeccino Eastwood, P500. Register here: bronzeage.ph/authoratonce.

The afternoon will be all about what anyone needs to do to publish their work in ebook or paperback, but it'll be mostly me sharing secretssss. (Haha. Kind of.)

Seats are limited, hope you can all register. Discussing these and participants' questions really help us learn and find out what we all need to do to succeed. See you there!

We're number 2000-ish!

Yesterday and earlier today, I was in meetings with soon-to-be author/publishers and telling them that watching your own ebook sales rank is the ultimate in unproductive timesuck. Now Amazon goes and does this -- check out Author Rank, where they list the most popular authors on an hourly basis.

If you have an Amazon Author Central account you can actually see where you are as stacked up against the greats. And when looking at a graph like this, an hourly account of your winning and failing, you can:

1. Be depressed.
2. Be excited.
3. Even more obsessively hit Refresh.

So the screenshot above is my best number. That is, I am currently the #2,919 Contemporary Romance author in all of the Amazon Kindle store. I peaked this week on October 4 at #1,956 (alas, I didn't even know it! I should have basked in the glory). In all of Amazon, when lumped together with nonfiction and paperback-only, I drop to 140,000-ish.

Am I depressed? Not at all. I live in a city with 12 million people. Being #2,919 means something to me.
Am I excited? Yes. I wonder if I can do anything (that I'm not already doing) to make this a more impressive graph.
Am I even more obsessively hitting Refresh? Um, yeah.

Congratulations to the 2,918 contemporary romance authors more popular than me, at this hour! And to the many authors, a lot of them indie publishers, who are doing so well on this list! Any of you willing to share secrets in exchange for a cupcake? :)

"New Adult" and why it matters

Source: Uploaded by user via Erin on Pinterest

This is how I've had to classify my books in bookstores (online and off):

Romance - Because there's usually a romantic storyline in every book.
Contemporary - Because they're set in the present, or at least the recent past.
Chick Lit - Because they're advertised in women's magazines, come in candy-colored covers, and were published in response to a trend in this subgenre a few years ago.
Women's Fiction - Because some bookstores don't offer "chick lit" as a category.
Young Adult - Because there's no graphic sex, even for the contemporary romances.
Teen Fiction - Because I heavily use flashbacks that have the characters go back to college, usually when they're teenagers.

I've embraced all of these categories and genres, but eventually started to see how they can be confusing for international readers taking a chance on a book with Philippine characters and setting. American romance readers expect more sex in a contemporary romance, and they won't find that in any of my books. Young adult readers expect many of the coming-of-age tropes in novels to happen in high school, but in my stories they usually happen in college -- because many Filipinos start college at 16 or 17, though that's about to change now that we're transitioning into K-12. And for a great many Filipino young women, at least those I know, those things don't even start until they're in their twenties and working. This is a country that has only begun to acknowledge that sex happens between unmarried people, so I have to tread a fine line in presenting that in a way that doesn't seem too "Western." Should I take pains to explain all of this before a person buys my book? Seems too tedious, and I don't want to appear like I'm talking down to anyone with a "things you need to know about my country before reading this" intro.

Recently I found out about an emerging category called "New Adult"/NA. Think of it as describing the kind of stories that seem too old (mature? risque?) for YA, but too young (naive? innocent?) compared to adult lit. There's still some debate over whether it's "a thing" or "not a thing," because where have you seen a "New Adult" shelf in a bookstore? And why split a subgenre further?

And yet this term perfectly describes the section of universe where my books exist. I also think that it helps readers find the kind of stories they're looking for. What I don't want to do as an author is alienate a romance reader with a "too sweet" story, or a YA reader with one that doesn't feel authentic because the characters are too old.

So even though NA is not yet mainstream (I'll consider it so when local bookstores start using it), I'll add it to my regular categories anyway. I think, as a writer, and publisher, it's the category that describes my work the best. Since reading up on NA, I've begun reading books marketed as NA, and I'm usually happy with them. Turns out I'm a target audience for NA too.

More on NA here: NA Alley. Check out #NALitChat on Twitter too.

Average Georgia: How to enjoy a rainy Boracay weekend

Source: Uploaded by user via Ina on Pinterest

What to do when it's raining in paradise? Georgia finds out when she runs into Andy again.

Control, instead of rejection avoidance

Someone asked me if I self-published Fairy Tale Fail because it was rejected by my traditional publisher.

The simple answer is: No, it wasn't rejected by my publisher.

The more complicated answer is: It wasn't accepted either.

What it was, for a time, was a pitch email with attachment that was floating around without a yes or no. And then I discovered that I could sell it as an ebook on Amazon, so I went and did that.

I guess the context of the original question was, "Should I self-publish instead? Why go through the possibility of being rejected by a publisher?"

You can't avoid rejection, sorry. Maybe for a self-publisher it doesn't come as a letter that begins with "We regret to inform you..." but you can still experience:
1. Negative reviews
2. Lackluster sales
3. People who tell you they won't buy your book because they don't like the format/genre/don't read at all
... and many other reasons.

I happen to think that you should independently publish because you want more control over the publishing process. NOT because you just don't want to experience rejection.

In fact, rejection can help. Not just for the writing part, but the publishing as well. Maybe you can't go back and rewrite an already-published book to make it better, but you can apply those lessons to future work. And as a self-publisher, you can change up your pricing, covers, availability, and other things to make sure that certain people give you a chance.

Oh, and this year, my publisher offered to distribute Fairy Tale Fail in paperback, so it will finally appear in local bookstores soon. So, yay! I consider that the opposite of rejection.

New Average Georgia: Wipeout Winner

Source: etsy.com via Amanda on Pinterest

Georgia made a new "friend" -- and did someone see more than he should? New Average Georgia, now on Wattpad!