How I Self-Published and why

Someone asked me to talk about what I did in regards to the title. I chose to self-publish because I don’t want to spend hours working on query letters, reworking my manuscript over and over just to be told ‘No’. Instead, I chose to self-publish for myself, family and friends.
When it came to deciding if I wanted a paperback copy of my novel I chose LULU. A friend from university recommended it to me. I had to do all the formatting and cover design. This takes time. They do tell you suggestions, trust me, for those considering it, take it. This site also puts the novels up on Amazon.com and Amazon in the UK. Handy. Not many people will actually buy them or I just fail at properly marketing them.
These books were more for me to order in bulk and have family and friends buy them from me. It’s really nice to see my work in an actual novel.
Obviously with how the world is advancing today I chose to use a site for ereaders. I know a lot of people chose to use KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), but that contract is just terrible. You can only publish through there for 3 months. Not my thing. I am from Canada and our main ereader company is Kobo. I decided to go with Smashwords. They have a larger range and so far I have done quite well. Not well enough to quite my day job, but enough to make myself feel like a real author.
I do still dream of being professionally published someday, but this way I feel more comfortable. Unfortunately, some people will review it and be rude about the work because it is not “professionally done”. To me I just brush that off. Compliments are nice, but there are bad reviews too. Do not take it to heart. Not everyone likes all the popular novels.
If you chose self-publishing most would suggest that you have to spend more time marketing than anything else. Not my thing. I do join some free promotional periods so readers can read my book for free through Smashwords.
I hope this helped convince people about self-publishing. Another site to consider for paper copies of your novels is Createspace, which is through Amazon as well.
Read up on contracts, copyrights, distribution and fees. Research a lot and find what best suits you. Because of my want to self publish I put 3 novels up on both sites and will put up more as I type them up and write them. Do it more for yourself and those close to you. Be proud of your work. Well, back to writing I go!

Too Hot to do Squat

That is my mom’s line, not mine. Mind you, I do use it quite a bit. I have done some writing and finished knitting my first eReader cover. Yeah for me!

To go along with my writing theme of trying to help others know more about writing techniques I am giving another definition of what I use: flashback. Here is the definition, including more specific ones.

Flashback: is an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. Flashbacks are often used to recount events that happened before the story’s primary sequence of events or to fill in crucial back-story. A character origin flashback shows key events early in a character's development. In the opposite direction, a flashforward (or prolepsis) reveals events that will occur in the future. The technique is used to create suspense in a story, or develop a character. In literature, internal analepsis is a flashback to an earlier point in the narrative; external analepsis is a flashback to before the narrative started.

Trust me, this is handy to use and a lot of writers use it. In my latest novel. Murder Never Dies, I start the novel with a flashback. This part is essential to the back-story and instead of writing another entire novel, or a hundred pages at the least I include some smaller flashbacks. Here is the beginning of my novel as an example:

Blood; there was lots of it. It was everywhere. It was all over me and the floor beneath me. I looked around the room, trying to recognize where I was. I tried to move my head, but it would not re­spond to my command. Something was wrong beyond my ability to see or comprehend. My eyes were all I had to allow me to figure out where I was. The wall I was facing was dull, except for when the lights which flashed or highlighted it. The colours and patterns of the lights looked like those from emergency vehicles. Red, then white, then blue and it repeated. Not in a set pattern. I knew the pattern: officer down, in need of backup. Worse call to get and whenever the call came through it required the patrol cars full sirens and lights. I knew that call all too well and in this case, the officer was me.

I tried lifting myself off of the concrete floor. My mind seemed to not be able to send these thoughts of movements to my nerves in order to get my body to react. I looked at the ground in front of me and all I could see was blood. Is that all mine? It could not be. I was not alone in the room. There was someone else with me. Someone else that had been hurt or killed. I looked up as much as my eyes would let me without going blurry or crossed-eyed and saw the body of a man. He was not moving. He—too—was surrounded by blood; which I knew was his. His face seemed familiar to me. I looked at his features. The dark, empty eyes; the long black hair tied back in a ponytail, matted with blood, sticking to his cheeks. The expression on his face was not of sorrow or of pain, but of anger: pure hatred. Whoever he was, all I could get a sense of was that I had killed him. Shot him with a gun not belonging to me. My hands seemed to not want to work for me at the moment. The place became even lighter, like spot lights had been aimed at the building to see who was or was not inside it. To see the dead man or me would be hard, unless people were high enough up off the ground and that may not have been enough to see us on the floor.

“Brady Oakes. Come out with your hands up! Release Detective Walden!” a man with a megaphone said slowly, boldly, so that I could hear him with ease inside the building.

Brady Oakes? The name of the dead man came slowly back to my memory. I had been investigating murders and he had been the prime suspect. Had I come here to stop him or had I been taken as his next victim? I looked at the dead man or Brady Oakes as he was known as. Confusion set in, my thoughts and memories were all a mess in my head. The noises outside worried me because I could not remember what was going on or what had transpired. All I could hear was the sounds of vehicles running, no footsteps or voices. I wanted to cry out for help, but my voice would not allow me. Am I dying?

“Detective Walden? Can you hear me?!” the man on the megaphone said.

I tried to yell ‘yes’ in response. It failed. Everything I had tried to do failed. There was a noise, which sounded like a door being broken into. Where? I was unable to see, or tell where it was coming from. The loud thud surprised me. I did not know if my body had reacted to it or if my mind was the only part of me that did.

“Get a paramedic in here! She’s still breathing!” an officer yelled out to the emergency personnel on the other side of the door when he had reached me.

I felt a presence of a small group of people near me. Something unnatural was happening. My body was reacting to the presence of one person in particular: a man. He had to have been out of my range of sight since his presence was barely felt.

“Detective Walden, can you hear me?” a paramedic said to me as he crouched down by my face.

I tried to tell him that I could hear him. Why can’t I respond to him? My mouth was moving to the response that I wanted to say to him. I wanted to tell him, but no sound was generated or moved from my vocal chords.

“She can’t talk! We need to get her to the hospital immediately!”

The paramedics, slowly and carefully, rolled me on to my back, placing a neck brace around my neck. They checked my vital signs and wounds as quick as they could. The total amount of noticeable wounds was seventy: a large and concerning number of wounds for any person to obtain and still be alive and breathing. “Let’s rush her! She’s lost a lot of blood and if she loses any more she won’t be conscious for much longer, let alone alive!” They lifted me onto the stretcher and rushed me out of the building.

“I will be there in a bit,” the man that had spoken on the megaphone informed the paramedics. “I’m all that she has!”

“I’ll let the nurses at the hospital know, Sergeant,” one of the paramedics said before he closed the ambulance doors, allowing my sight of the man to no longer exist.

The following chapter begins with: “Chapter 1: Two Years Later”.  If I did not do this at the beginning I would have to do this at the end. Flashbacks are a major part of this novel because it relies on the connection of a past case with a current one.

Next week I will think of another common writing aspect, unless someone would like to suggest me to explain one. This helps me remember what I learnt when I got BA. in English and Professional Writing.

Foreshadowing

If I were to post this topic somewhere else I would get an onslaught of hatred with a few loves. I figured I should blog about it after talking to another writer.

Definition:

Foreshadowing: An indication of events that are to come. In fiction and drama, hints of forthcoming events prepare the reader or spectator for the eventual outcome of the action.

I don’t care what some writers say, I love it! Of course, you cannot use it all the time because it will loose it’s lustre. Some writers can pull this off well, while some do too much. To me, if you want to use this only put in a small section. If you give away too much then the reader knows what to expect. Mind you, I have only done this with one book: 1440. Okay, I am not fully experienced but I have done it before.

How I used it:

Sometimes, I wonder how I got here. Why did I deserve this? I have wondered a lot during the past day. It was all I could do. I have been alone most of the day. I spent most of the time in silence. Now I lie here, silent, and alone with my thoughts. I listen closely, and jump at the sound of gunshots, outside of the room I was locked in. I can hear the screaming and more gunshots. I turn my head and look at the empty doorway. I desperately want to know what is happening outside. Who is dying, and who is being injured. I cough up blood and spit what was left in my mouth on to the floor. I continued to listen to everything happening outside of the room I was in. I wished I could just get up and unlock the door to see the horror outside. My body will not move, except for turning my head. I cough up more blood and my eyes began to tear up. I know that this is not good. I know that I am dying. I look up at the door and watch it slowly darken. First at the edges, then the darkness swallows the door. The last thing I comprehended is the sound of a single gunshot and then utter silence.

This paragraph is the only thing in my prologue. I did not feel like it was necessary to put in more from the later chapter this comes from: second last chapter in my book. Oh yes, I do use prologues. Only in 2 books, so no need to yell at me.

I suggest that if people cannot think of a first chapter and want to write mainly the action or climatic scenes to use foreshadowing. It is a great way to draw in readers if done properly. Use it wisely and not for every book. I think it worked quite well for 1440.

Hope this helped other writers. My goals have always included helping other writers and never judging.

Back to reading I go…for now!

Book Idea and Editing

With every complete book I tend to go through a week lull. This is where I let my mind go free. Yes, I just considered my mind a separate entity.

I finished typing my book last Monday. It was just over 76k. A solid chunk of words in my opinion.

My editing shall begin tomorrow. The least favourite part of my writing. I hate editing, I tend to add more to the stories and that is never good. More is not always better, but it happens a lot to me. My last novel grew by over 3k.

Editing is important, it then allows me to self-publish my book. I like owning my own copy. No offence to some writers I know that just write to try and get a big publishing company to publish them, I like it for myself. So, editing is my next step, a long step at that.

Oh yes, what is this book idea? It seems that during my down week where my brain rests my brain wanted to create a new book idea. Right now I am trying to feel it out.

Book ideas come and go. In order to make sure it can turn into a novel, like Murder Never Dies, is by writing out a small chunk. This way I can get a feel for the characters and plot.  I have a couple novels where I get over 30 pgs. in and other novels take over my attention. It happens to writers…I hope.

Maybe it is just me. I can start books, but continuing them is the issue. I dabble a little with the one book I have been writing for a couple years as passing the time until other books become more important. This one is a little different. Surrounded by revenge. Not typical revenge though. More driven. There is nothing to gain. Just satisfaction. Well, thus far anyway.

I’ll give it a couple of days to see how I feel about it. I’ll let you guys know how it goes. Back to writing. Tomorrow is the beginning of editing. Busy days off ahead!

I Hate Endings

No, seriously, I do. This is no joke. Endings are just as painful as beginnings. You cannot just end up a book with “And they lived happily ever after”. Never going to happen.

Let me tell you, this book is being  pain-in-the-butt. I can see where it is going, but then it just stops when it comes to how to officially end the novel. Happy? Sad? Ambiguous?

Damn! All of them are good options that work with Control Me. I swear, I do this to myself every time. After 11 years one would think I would have learnt by now to not do this, but nope, I have not.

It’s just so hard! I am so close to the end and all I see is “blank”. If there were enough swear words to express this feeling properly, insert it now. For having  book outside of my norm it is doing well…in my eyes. I am biased because I like my books….at times.

The ending needs to live up to the hype of the book. No worries, the hype is for myself only, no pressure. It has to flow. I cannot just insert a happy ending if it feels like it is tainting the plot.

Alas, I may have to harass friends to answer the question:  “How should I end my novel?”

If anyone knows, let me know. If not, prepare for the contained anger of the book soon. I hope. The book may take more time than I want to finish, but that is another issue.

Inspiring

I am going to admit something very serious. I care more about inspiring people than getting published. Why? Well, getting published is far too much work and like I said, writing is a hobby. Sure, I do it everyday and don’t get paid, but it is more for me.

Why do I care about inspiring others?

Writing has been something I have been doing all my life. If people close to me want to start writing in any genre or form, I want to be able to support. In the past year I have helped inspire two people. One, a complete stranger, another a very close friend.

I own around 40 empty journals, so if a friend is close to me I select one or two journals from my own collection and give it to them. It is my only form of assistance. Sure, I am in groups about writing and help with ideas, but that is not the same as being able to give a part of me.

Also, if people want to write, I want them to write better than me. I know, I know, that is easy because of my style of writing and the genre I write in. I am a realist.

My novels as a whole can be inspiration because well, they are complete. The content, I hope are not inspirational. My books are more, um…horrifying in a sense. Maybe the characters can be inspirational because I tend to work on them and the plot the most. But, the actual writing, not so much. So, I tell people, if I can write a novel, anyone can. And I mean that.

If I can be of inspirations to others I am happy. I get inspired all the time by people and that helps fuel my writing. People can say a phrase, or help build an idea for my writing.

Inspiration is everywhere. I know, a generic line, but it is true.

Well, back to writing. Inspiration is still there for me.

I just wonder, do people like inspiring others? Also, what type of inspiration is there to help you as a writer?

Deciding on Chapters

No, I am not talking about the store, but chapters inside books. When I write my novels I do not write with chapters. I feel that they make it difficult for me and ruin the flow of the novel. I understand that that seems like a foreign idea to other writers, but to me it works.

With my typing up of Murder Never Dies, I have begun to insert where I want my chapters to be placed. Some of my chapters are over 10 pages while others are only 2. With the breaking up of length I find it easier to read from personal experience.  I love reading chapters that are short while the longer ones keep me intrigued. It is all about preference and I try to make a compromise.

Plus, inserting chapters after I type up my handwritten novels allow me to change it when needed. If I want to shorten or extend a chapter I can. Plus, this is my second time of knowing my plot so it allows for more decisive knowledge.

Ever since I started typing up my novels have I gained more respect for writers. It is a hard decision. My one personal pet peeve is dividing up a major part of the novel into two or more chapters. That drives me nuts. It breaks up the part of the plot. My solution to that would be is start the chapter just before the vital part occurs. Plus, I don’t know if it is just me, but I dislike chapters that are over 20-25 pages.

All right, all right. I will stop rambling about chapters and get my butt in gear to start typing and placing my own chapters in critically. Ah, such a tough life of being a writer on the side.

So, before I leave  I have a question for readers and writers. How do you like your chapters?

Megan, where did the idea [insert something graphic, perverse, or both] come from?

Oh, how I have been asked this question many of times.

Recently, the hubby asked me one about 1440. My response: “I don’t know. I was 17. I just wanted something that would terrify and be graphic.”

To be honest, I have no idea where the ideas originate, but they are there, in my mind. Reassuring, isn’t it?

Not all my books are entirely graphic, perverse or both. A nice simple blend works. 1440 was an exception. It may or may not be the only one though.

Writing is my hobby, and if I don’t make it challenging or interesting, its going to be boring. So, yes, I do think of some horrific ideas. The new one is about the use of abilities to control people. What person does not fear being controlled? Yes, I plan to include bloodshed. It would not be a novel written by me, Megan Held, if I did not include bloodshed.

I was raised, and taught by some amazing teachers, to read books that have been banned or are controversial. I guess that helps influence my ideas.

Yes, I may be pulling at strings here, but honestly, I have no clue where the most twisted ideas come from.

Am I sadistic? Maybe.

Am I a psychopath? I don’t think so, I like to write about them.

Am I sociopath? No.

All right, so I have to look back. Hmmm….where did my ideas come from?

Every time I get asked this, I wish I had an answer. ‘I don’t know’ is no longer becoming suitable. Thank goodness I am not professionally published. My PR training would backfire.

My ideas are kind of mystical. I do not know when they occur, why, but I know what to do with them. Sure, some I even question my sanity (been to therapy, I am sane), but I know that if I feel every emotion writing the books it will work.

For those who ask, my ideas come from my mind, my imagination, and my dreams. One day I hope to have an actual answer.

If you object and know where these ideas come from, comment. I am intrigued. Back to writing….ahem…maybe…crap.

Ideas Building Inside

Not going to lie, this is happening to me right now. For the past couple nights I have had this idea brewing in my head as I tried to fall asleep. It hit me so hard that I knew I needed to figure out where to place it in my book.

This is the downside of being a writer, you get smacked with ideas that do not fit in the story right now. So, I have to keep the idea fresh in my mind as I write closer to when it gets placed in.

I am sure I am not the only one that suffers from this. Over the years I have developed some tips.

1. Do not force yourself to write it into the story as soon as you think of it. That is bad, unless it does fit. You thought of it and you will think of where it should go.
2. Try not to forget the idea. This is a hard tip because it could be weeks before you get to write the idea out. If you are one to forget, write it down on a piece of paper and either put it near your computer or inside the cover of the book you are writing in.
3. Never overthink the idea. I know this contradicts my earlier post, but while trying to remember the idea sometimes overthinking will occur. Developing on it is fine, as long as it does not take away from the initial idea.
4. Think of what you were doing when the idea came about. This can be useful when trying to remember it better. I get an idea a lot when I am in bed trying to sleep, or watching Drew play video games.
5. Tell someone else. This can help develop the idea, as well as having an extra person to remember an idea.Sadly, this one is new to me. I tell Drew some of them in case I forget, but so far (after years of practice) my memory is able to contain them all. Oh yes, with telling other people, they can give you feedback if you want it.
6. This is applicable to all forms of writing, not just novels. So, if you are a student and have a painful essay, this can be helpful in that it will give you an idea on where to take the paper, or a part of it that can be placed in it.

Keep the idea fresh and understand that this will happen a lot to you if you decide to keep writing. Most of my novels appear as random ideas and it kills me when I am at a place and I cannot write it out. So, as my last tip, bring paper and a pen if you don’t already, or ask your girl to bring it. Sounds weird, but these are useful besides writing out story ideas.

Oh yes, make sure this idea will fit with your style of writing. It is important not to differ too much. Back to writing I go. I have an idea to get to writing out before it makes my brain hurt. I hope this is helpful and gives some great insight.

“Where do I go from here?”

This is the proverbial question that most writers are faced with. If writer’s are not faced with this, then I may be alone.I am not the type of person that makes lists of characters and information about them, nor do I write down what I intend to happen throughout my novel.

By making notes like that I find that it takes away from the novel. Stories in novels are supposed to just happen, not be planned to every line of every page. So, at times, every writer will experience a moment of “Where do I go from here?”

When these moments arise, do not panic. Stories need time and nurturing. If you are impatient, then do what I do, and ask people a simple “what one is better?” question.

The advice or input from your friends can help make the decision for you easier. Essentially, you are writing the book for yourself, but having input from potential readers is always wise. I tend to get stuck at major decisions that could take the story in different directions for a bit.

Never panic or rush a decision. If you need to leave writing for a few days to make the decision then do so. Writing does take up time, but you have to expect that there will be times when you have to take a break from it. Not all writing is fluent.

Do not stop a story either to make it go “your” way. Sometimes the flow of the story should stay the same and not be altered.

Just know that if you are having the “where do I go from here?” moment, you are not alone. Ask for help, give it time or let it takes it own path.

Only advice when asking for writing help, specify it is for writing. Learnt my lesson when I asked several friends “disappear or die?”

Keep writing!