Well, I don't know if this means I've finally arrived, but I found an unauthorized copy of Scary Mary up online last night as I was searching for reviews of SM. It seems a young lady has put my story up at wattpad, which is funny b/c Lulu has just partnered with them and sent me an email saying how wonderful the site is. Didn't figure I'd already be on it...I've left comments for the user to kindly remove my story, but I think she may no longer be active on the site. I'm not upset per se, but I don't want to leave the story up like that. If I don't see any action in a few days, I'll pursue channels on the site to have the story removed.
My insistence that this copy be removed may seem strange b/c I do offer SM free here and now over at Smashwords, but I feel like I should have some control over where the story exists. I don't like the idea of people posting my story and getting feedback on it and generating attention for themselves. I want the attention. I'm greedy like that. We'll see what happens...
I posted what happened over at Web Fiction Guide to hear other authors take on the subject. Those that publish in .pdf form were much happier to see their stuff posted by others on download sites. I think the format of how something is published will determine an author's reaction when something like this happens. Well, the authors feelings on this will probably determine the format they publish in actually. I think its interesting the willingness some authors have in sharing their work. Sharing my writing has always been kind of nerve wracking for me, so their happiness with it being everywhere like that is sort of incomprehensible. I mean I get stage fright so their freeness is something sort of alien. Anyway, I set up some Google alerts for all my work to try and keep better track of stuff like this and not find out about is six months or more after the fact.
Pirated!
Smashwords Edition Up!
I'm sure I'll find some terrible flaw in it eventually (the liscence statement is wonky I know), but Scary Mary is now up at Smashwords. I have no way of looking at some of the formats, but of the ones I could view, they looked okay.
I'm quite surprised by the number of downloads already at Smashwords. In less than 24hrs and no promotion, it has been supposedly downloaded 63 times. I don't know if that's standard and if bots are responsible but it is intriguing.
I've decided to keep Scary Mary free. I feel like it is a little too short to charge for, and I am offering it free on the internet. If I were charging for it, I'm sure the downloads would be nil. If people read it and like it, they'll be more likely to check out other work by me. The Ipad edition may have to cost .99 though. I signed up to be offered to Ipad users, and there was some verbage to the agreement saying the price had to end in .99, and if it didn't, Apple would round it up to the next .99. I don't know why Apple would insist on it being for sale, but we'll see. It isn't over there yet, and I don't know when it will be available to Ipad users to see what the deal is.
I've been setting up my profile over at Smashwords. I even put up [shudder] a profile picture. Supposedly as I type this there have been a few more downloads of SM. I wonder if there will be any reviews.
Well, I'm definitely going to keep my eye on Smashwords and see how that goes. I need to go over to Scary Mary's website and put up a front page explaining all the different reading options and maybe post a few quotes from reviews.
Smashwords #398 in queue
That's what it says right at this moment with my upload to Smashwords. Just under 400 other books are being uploaded ahead of me. I've set Scary Mary at free for now on there. I'm not sure if it will stay that way because I do love dubloons, but for now I'm leaving it as is. One reason is because the story is still free online at the website. I wouldn't feel right if someone bought it without realizing they could read it free online. I'm not sure if anyone would buy my book without first coming in through the website, but I'd rather not take that chance right now. If I do set a price, I figure it will be low. The minimum is $.99. I might charge that or a little higher. I have to see how much I have to accumulate before Smashwords will pay out. If I have to sell a hundred copies before Smashwords pays out once, it's just better to give the book away. Also, I'm not sure how the book will look once it is finished uploading and being converted to all the different formats. If it looks like shit, I definitely don't want anyone buying it.
Well, I'm not staying up to see if the upload is successful. I'm #351 in the queue now.
Responding to a few comments
Fiona asked about the reason for Gran's bad mood in the last few chapters of Stalking Shadows, and I confess that I may have not made it very clear. I'm worried that her motivation may not be actually logical and that's why Fiona and possibly others don't get her or assume there's more at play than a conflicted person like possibly supernatural involvement. I'm not sure what to do. I hope Fiona can come back and reply to my comments and tell me what could help her understand.
Another very good reader comment was by Steve who wondered about Gran's reaction to something that happened to Mr. White, (I'm trying to stay clear of spoilers.) and the truth is I didn't consider Gran's reaction very clearly. I think it has something to do with POV tunnel vision. I was focusing on Mary and what she was going through I didn't spare Gran a glance. But I should've b/c Mary would have.
That's one of the tricky aspects of storytelling. The author assumes since she's making up everything that only what she presents matters, but she has to remember that while she's writing a story, she's creating a world full of people and places. While the story may only be showing a small sliver of that world, it has to be rich with details b/c everything is interconnected. Things don't stop just because the POV is turned from them. Gran was going through something, but I didn't notice it. I don't know if I'm explaining that well at all, but I'm very glad Steve pointed out something I missed.
Stalking Shadows COMPLETE!
I finally did it! I finally finished Stalking Shadows. And you know I was adding to the end again. I really hope people like the meandering ending. I know it goes on kind of long, but I feel like it has to so I can finish up a few things and to get Mary into a good space for that glimmer of happily ever after.
Will there be a sequel to Stalking Shadows?
I certainly hope so, but I'm going to let these guys rest for a while and work on other stories. I've been working on my urban fantasy for a bit today, and I think it's coming along. It's no where near done, but I like the progress I'm making.
I don't know what I'm going to do now that SS is no longer hanging over my head. I let this puppy sit in the corner for over a year while I poked at it with a stick. I know that's terrible treatment of a puppy, but I couldn't seem to help myself. Hopefully now I've turned over a new leaf and can work freely and happily on new stories.
I've said this before and I'm going to keep reiterating it, I am never again posting a story as I write it. It's all or nothing from now on. I don't know if I'll even try to serialize my next story. I'm going to definitely have the whole thing written before I begin posting. I don't know how others do it, but it just does not suit me.
Commenting on Comments
I'm finally looking at comments that were left for me ages ago. For the most part, I feel bad that I didn't respond when they were left because all comments are valuable and readers don't need to leave them. But I did delete one from Scary Mary the other night, mainly because it made my head hurt to decipher, but also because Scary Mary is promoted as YA and I want it to be pre-teen and teen friendly, I didn't think it prudent to leave the profanity-laced comment on there. But I make no such claims here (or on UB), so here's the comment in all its head scratching glory:
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Chapter 1":
ok mary umm u lame asz fuck and get a life u dont scare no body anyway so just get wit it ok lil asz gurl u must scare everybody else but u doont scare me at all try again next week lol dats if u can scare me lmfao dats why u dont have a boy-friend at all but i do lol
Posted by Anonymous to Scary Mary at April 22, 2010 6:41 AM
Isn't it great? I love the fact that the comment is directed to Mary. I wish I were clever enough to respond as Mary, but I'm leery of doing that because it's a slippery slope to insanity. I wonder if the reader came back the next week to see if Mary scared him this time? I didn't get anymore comments of this colorful nature so sadly I don't know. I wonder how this reader stumbled onto my site?
Chapter 12 Up!
After a minor setback with my health, I posted chapter 12 today. Only 2 chapters left to post and then I'll be done. Two chapters might not seem like a lot, but it is to me. There's a big showdown and then a lot of interpersonal stuff. I hope readers like the conclusion of the story.
Working but Slow
I've been reading back over chapter 12 of Stalking Shadows in preparation of posting tonight, and it's basically ready, but I'm not going to try and format it tonight to post. I got sidetracked a bit by deleting stuff at the end of chapter 2. I'll have to update that now. What I did was I took out a bit of dialogue that mentioned Mrs. Polk, Chowder's former owner, but since Jake is no longer in the story, Mrs. Polk doesn't really serve any purpose. I had mention of Mrs. Polk in chapter 12 as well, and it was glaringly useless now so I figured I should cut all mention of her completely from the story. I decided to add some different dialogue to the end of chapter 2 to take the axed text's place, but unfortunately, I'm stumped for the final line to finish the chapter. I may decide to just post it as is. The dialogue is just a little bit of fluff. Inconsequential really, but it's fun b/c it's poking a little fun at something.
Stalking Shadows is getting done
I uploaded chapter 11 tonight. I'm not sure how smooth it is since I started writing more goddamn content while supposedly editing. I ended up adding about two pages to the chapter. I'm sure there are some errors. I just hope there just aren't any plot errors.
I've really fallen out of the game. I've been lurking over on WFG for the past few days and cruising other story sites and everything has built up so much! I'm an old-timer in web fiction, but I am no pro. Some of these guys are real pros. I tip my hat to them.
Been checking out Smashwords as a way to deliver my stories for ebook consumption. I initially thought I'd throw Stalking Shadows up as a .pdf or something so people could download it and read it free, but don't know how to do it simply. Lulu doesn't seem to have an option for free ebook, at least I couldn't find it in my bleary eyed perusal of the site. Smashwords definitely allows it, but I figure if I do it might as well go all the way and set up the file properly.
Anyway, I'm going to keep mulling over the whole ebook thing. It's going to have to go on the back burner as I continue to actively wrestle with uploading Stalking Shadows to the website and try not to write anymore new stuff to the freaking story. I'm happy it's filling out, but I just want to get it over with.
Nearing Home Stretch!
The next chapter post for Stalking Shadows will have new content! But would you believe I began adding new material at the very end? I can't believe I'm writing new content this late in the game. I really struggled with the ending for this and it's getting very Harry Potterish (as in going on for chapters after the story is over), but I feel like I need to tie up some minor loose strings that were still dangling after the big bad has been vanquished. Jake is out of the story and I sort of miss him, but I think I will use him in the next Scary Mary Adventure, but that will not be the next thing I'm writing. I have several stories in progress that I want to finish and then post. Those won't be done serially I think. I definitely won't be posting as I write. I'm never doing that again. The pressure burned me out in a major way. I don't know which story will be posted next. It'll be whichever finishes first. I have an urban fantasy, a superhero story, a juvenile vampire story, and a juvenile fantasy all in the works. Word count wise the urban fantasy is the furtherest along, but I've stalled out on it a bit, and since I've been really focusing once again on Stalking Shadows and pushing myself to post it, I haven't glanced at any of my other works in progress, except the juvenile vamp story b/c I've been primarily writing it on my i-phone. Though you want to talk about rough drafts, try writing on an i-phone, there is no going back to edit and porting the text over to my PC is like getting a root canal. Anyway, just wanted to say Woohoo! new content almost posted to Stalking Shadows and hopefully, I'll have the full thing posted in a couple of weeks and then I can scream it from the moutaintops.
Oh, and I redesigned Scary Mary's banner a little and redid the buttons. That was fun, though I don't know if Eli over at Novelr will like this font better. It might still make his eyes bleed. Oh well.
