You Might Like Book Recommendations

Amazon recently informed me that I've had an account with them since 1999. My first two orders were a Playstation version of Metal Gear Solid and a paperback of Our Dumb Century: The Onion Presents Headlines from America's Finest News Source. Man, those were the days, and not just because I could get books sent straight to me without having to go to the store (I hate shopping) but also because, back in the day, Amazon had a truly awesome "If you liked this book, you might also like" recommendation feature. I say truly awesome because I found so many new-to-me authors through that rec feature. It was magic.

The feature exists today as a shell of its former self. When Amazon started being a publisher and pushing its own books and authors who paid for extra marketing, the accuracy of that feature plummeted. For instance, the last book I bought on Amazon was The House in the Cerulean Sea, a feel-good, heartwarming fantasy. So what does Amazon suggest as my next read? Five Kindle Unlimited books that are sort of fantasy-ish or urban fantasy-ish or paranormal romance, oh, and that M/M celebrity bad-boy contemporary romance. 

Amazon rec algorithm, go home, you're drunk. Also, you're no longer helpful.

These days I find my next read almost exclusively through recommendations of friends whose taste I know aligns with my own. (The House in the Cerulean Sea, for instance, was a personal recommendation from a co-worker, and she absolutely nailed it. I'm loving this book.)

So if you're looking for a good place to find new-to-you writers and immersive story experiences, my best advice would be 

1. Join a book club. 

2. Talk to your friends and co-workers about books they've loved. 

3. Get recs from people who know what you dig. 

4. Read newsletters of writers you admire -- sometimes they'll rec other writers' new releases that they think their readership will like.

5. Scroll your social media feeds, especially on Tuesdays, which is when a lot of book releases happen. The people you're connected to online may (probably?) share your your reading taste.

6. If you specifically like science fiction romance, check out the weekly new releases post that Veronica Scott compiles. This week, it's here, but you can follow her blog to get alerts every Wednesday.

7. Also for science fiction romance, the SFR Station is a huge trove of links to books in our subgenre. It has a nifty browsing feature where you can find books by title, author, and even trope/subgenre. So if you have a particular interest in, say, space westerns or earth aliens, you can scroll through some titles guaranteed to deliver. 

True, the days of helpful recommendation algorithms are gone, but that doesn't mean we can't still find those "If you liked this book, you might also like" gems.

Finding Fantasy Novels One Step Off The Mainstream: #SPFBO

So you like fantasy novels, eh? Looking to find some hidden gems? Stories that are one or two steps off the beaten path?

Allow me to introduce the Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off, aka #SPFBO. Started in 2015 by Mark Lawrence (Of Broken Empire, Red Queen's War, and Book of the Ancestors fame), 300 Indie Fantasy authors submit their stand-alone or first-in-series book to the pool. It's a first-come-first-served open call. On the receiving end are members of 10 Fantasy Book Blogs. Mark divvies up the books, 30 to a blog. The bloggers then choose one of their 30 to put forth as a finalist. The top 10 books get read, publicly reviewed, and scored by all the participating blogs. The finalist with the highest score wins....bragging rights. 

What types of fantasy books final? It runs the gamut, from grimdark to parody, sword & sorcery to mythology, chosen-one quests to whodunnit mysteries. You'll find orcs, pirates, dragons, hitmen, steampunk animatronics, and fire warriors. If you've got an itch for rich fantasies, then give #SPFBO books a try. You can also follow along the journey of the entrants and bloggers on Facebook or Twitter by searching on the hashtag.

GoodReads Listopia: #SPFBO

You're in luck, for two more days, 30 SPFBO finalists are offering their ebook(s) for $0.99/ea. Sale ends tomorrow, 1/20.

Buy Them Now!

Guide to discovering New To You Authors

Um, yeah.

Find an author you have not read before. Read them. Read a lot o new authors. It's how we grow as readers and growth as a reader helps us grow s writers. Also, read outside of your genre.  a lot. 

Really, that's all I've got. 

Okay, back to writing. 

A Guide to Discovering New-To-You Authors

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is Discovering New-To-You Authors: Where would you direct someone wanting to read more from emerging authors in your subgenre?

I'm going to cheat a bit today and point you to an article I wrote for the SFWA Blog: A Guide for Authors on Recommending Books. I'm not cheating for my usual reasons - too busy, running behind, general laziness - but because I really like this article and I think it's useful for this topic. 

Despite the title, it's useful for readers, too!

That's because we can all make an effort to diversify our reading, and this article talks about ways to do that - including resources for finding new-to-us authors who aren't from the usual walks. 

Go forth and find cool new stuff!

Leveling Goals

 Goal: Leveling up. How to get there? For me, writing classes. It's not enough to just want more words - that state is eternal. You can always assume I'm looking for a way to make stories happen faster and more efficiently. Over and above that, though, I'm interested in taking skills up a notch. I want to look at words differently. I want to think not just about what makes a story, but what makes a tale compelling. How do I get more emotion from characters into readers - if words are my only tools - I need to experiment with how they evoke a response in someone who isn't me. 

It's that old acting chestnut of Sir Lawrence Olivier supposedly saying, "It isn't my job to feel anything. It's my job to make the audience feel everything."

I'd started writing on the theory that if what I wrote made me feel something, then surely reads must, too. T'ain't necessarily so. Without getting into the showing versus telling diatribe, let's just say there are multiple ways to approach reaching out to touch a reader via nothing more than flat words printed on a page. 

That's my current work on leveling up. Concentrating on skills. While spurring for more words faster than they are currently being produced.

Career Goal: MOAR WORDS

One aspect of my publishing career that I want to improve this year? An aspect over which I have control? 

Finish writing three books.

Longtime readers of this blog know I'm not a fast writer. This year, I'll release books 6 & 7 in my UF Immortal Spy series, wrapping up the story of Bix and the Berserkers. Then, I have to decide: do I return to my HF Blood Born series and spend the next four years completing that series, or do I write the first book in a new HF trilogy and try to sell it (and the series) to the Big Houses? My HF books are twice as long as my UF books, 175k vs 85k, which means finishing that third book this year is a stretch goal that'll require me to spend less time fighting with a blank page. Can I do it? I have no idea, but I'd sure like to improve my record of days with net-positive word counts.

After all, getting the movie in my mind to show up as words on a page is HARD.

Career Leveling Up: What Jeffe Is Doing

Our topic at the SFF Seven this week is "Room for Growth." We're discussing one aspect of our writing or publishing careers - that we can control! - that we'd like to improve this year.

This topic is apropos for me right now because I'm in the midst of a push to boost (wedge, shove, or squeeze) my career to a new level. I should caveat that I know I'm doing relatively well. I'm grateful for the success I've realized in my writing career and I never want to lose sight of the fact that many excellent and deserving authors haven't seen the same success. 

But I've reached a real sticking point.

For those who don't know, my husband has early onset Parkinson's Disease. He's over ten years into diagnosis, so while his progression has thankfully been quite slow, he's reached the point where he really can't hold down a job. That leaves supporting our household up to me and my books. I'm stubbornly resisting getting a day job again, so this year will really be the make or break on whether I can make enough money to pay the bills and have a cushion for the future.

So, what have I been doing?

Since I can't bottle lightning - which, I admit, I've kind of been hoping to do as getting a book or series that takes off into the stratosphere would be super nice - I've been learning to *shudder* market and advertise.

I attended Romance Author Mastermind in December. Something I'd been leery of before for many reasons. My bestie and sister author Grace Draven talked me into it and I'm so glad she did! I learned so much from it! Mostly I came to the realization that it would behoove me to treat my business like an actual business. 

The other thing that happened is I completed my contract with St. Martin's Press (all but for page proofs on book 3) and they passed on my option book, which is one I've mentioned, DARK WIZARD. They passed on it - even though my editor loved it and the house loves me - because they feel like they can't move fantasy romance in the print numbers that they'd like to. (They don't care about ebook sales. They want what they can sell at Walmart, which is Cowboy Romance and sweet contemporaries these days - so a tidbit for those of you who write that!) 

Once I got over the initial sad, because I loved working with St. Martin's, I took this as a Sign. While my writing income had been pretty close to 50/50 between Indie and Trad for the last few years, in 2020 that changed to 65% Indie - and my Trad income was only 75% of what it was in 2019. That's not a good trend. At Romance Author Mastermind there were many former Trad authors who been where I am and said they'd made their money switching to Indie. Yes, I've heard this before, too. These people showed the numbers. 

I decided that, instead of taking DARK WIZARD on submission to other Trad houses on submission, I'd self publish it. So, DARK WIZARD, book one in my new series, Bonds of Magic, will come out on February 25, 2021. (I loved writing this freaking book so much that I'd already written the whole thing!) 

(If you want a sneak peek of the cover of DARK WIZARD and what it's about, it will be in my newsletter going out Monday. Sign up here.)

Then, because I'd already planned a new series, Heirs of Magic (unrelated, I didn't realize the series title echoes until too late, ah well), with book one THE GOLDEN GRYPHON AND THE BEAR PRINCE releasing on January 25, 2021. You can preorder it here, or here are some handy buttons.

   

That means in 2021, I'll be taking advantage of the fact that I'm a relatively prolific writer - not writing anything for Trad - and releasing two Indie series. My release schedule will look like this. 

The Golden Gryphon and the Bear Prince (Heirs of Magic 1) 1/25/2021

Dark Wizard (Bonds of Magic 1)                                                 2/25/2021

The Sorceress Queen and the Pirate Rogue (Heirs of Magic 2) 4/19/2021

The Promised Queen (Forgotten Empires 3)                                  5/25/2021

Bright Familiar (Bonds of Magic 2)                                         6/26/2021

The Long Night of the Crystalline Moon (Heirs of Magic 0.5) 7/15/2021

The Dragon's Daughter and the Winter Mage (Heirs of Magic 3) 8/25/2021

Bonds of Magic 3 (Bonds of Magic 3)                                     11/1/2021

The Storm Princess and the Raven King (Heirs of Magic 4)         12/31/2021

Of those, three are already written, so it's not as intense as it looks. Also, because I track my productivity so intensely (something I always recommend all writers do, so we know exactly what we can and can't do), this is a doable writing schedule for me. (Hopefully. I'm pretty sure I can do this, but light a candle for me.)

I'm also doing things like reading books on marketing and advertising! I very much recommend David Gaughran's AMAZON DECODED: A MARKETING GUIDE TO THE KINDLE STORE. It's easy to digest and full of excellent, practical advice, absent the ickier kinds of self-publishing shouting. I bought the Publisher Rocket app and have been taking the online classes on maximizing keywords. 

I'm going all in, people. Wish me luck! (And buy my books :D) 

Exercise Envy

 

Sitting. Not ideal. You've seen the data earlier this week. But you know, when all you have is a hammer, everything is a nail. All I have are sitting desks. So far. I lust after a treadmill desk like Jeffe has. With four adults and too many cats in the house, that ain't happenin' any time soon. Space concerns and all.

Still. In the middle of the raging hellhole that was 2020 (and that 2021 is still flirting with, the hussy) doing something - anything - to look after our health made my family feel a little more in control. Working out at home became THE thing.

Yes. Yoga. Weightlifting - we have free weights and a bench and training in the Weider method. We take 2-3 mile walks (with masks - this is Florida and well - the FL man memes, they do not lie). The dh and I bike. 

These are lovely. They boost mental and physical health. But they're time delimited. There are only so many hours in a day and only an hour a day I can devote to motion for motion's sake. Yet our brains evolved in very different circumstances - when motion WAS the day. Our brains were designed to operate at peak efficiency while we walk. Stroll, really. Take a look at the book The Brain Rules. 

Read this and see if you don't join me in lusting after a treadmill desk like Jeffe's. 

The spoiler is this: Our brains were designed for us to walk up to twelve miles per day. It keeps our brains oxygenated, boosts connections, etc, etc, it's really good for you, so there. 

All I know is that if I stop moving, I start hurting. Maybe I'll start saving for that treadmill desk.