A couple years ago, when I began writing The Speed of Darkness, I never stopped to worry about marketing I figured simply, If the book is any good, it will sell.
Now I realize that no matter how good or bad it may be, no opinions really matter if no one knows of its existence. Before now, the only people I know who have read it are the people I have talked to or contacted myself. No one else knows that it is out there, or even cares if it's any good without seeing the reaction of someone else.
This weekend the book finally began to generate reviews here. At the time I wrote this blog, it's only two, but with any luck, those reviews will get more people to read it. They both graded it 4/5 and seem to have enjoyed their reading.
So hey, care to see what they said, maybe read the book yourself where you can leave your own reaction to The Speed of Darkness?
October 31, 2011
October 23, 2011
It's almost Short Fiction Week 2011? It must be a sign
This morning I finally worked out in my head how I could write a story with some fantasy characters I've been playing around with for quite a while.
My only problem was that before now that's all it was, 4 characters and no story. And one idea of a scene- a centaur and a satyr hiding inside a fast food joint, trying to serve customers without letting on that they aren't human.
My other 2 characters are a girl dragon in human form with the other mythical creatures and some teenage-20 something guy who is first meeting the others.
Now this was all a bit fanciful even for me so I tried not to give it too much serious thought; but the ideas kept coming back; building into more of a story.
I just knew certain things about my characters:
-The centaur is somehow in charge, the leader or something.
-The Centaur and the Satyr are much older than the other two, and have been teamed together to get past something seriously bad...
-My satyr has goat horns on his human head except one is broken short where the centaur kicked him once. Centaur dude feels guilty about this and it's probably the only reason why he will put up with the satyr acting like he does sometimes.. (you know, like a Satyr ^^)
-The normal guy somehow becomes a werewolf as a result of something the other three do and so they now feel responsible for looking out for him as his beliefs in reality are rewritten and keeping others safe from a werewolf who hasn't learned to control himself.
(As none of them are human they don't have to worry about going werewolf, I guess...)
Need I go on? All that's important is that I never felt it was enough to make a story
This morning I was looking at how it's still about a week until November so I probably shouldn't start on my NaNoWriMo story just yet, but that would be enough time for a semi-flash short story.
[if you ever heard that description before, it's probably 'cause I 'semi-made' it up~ flash-fiction, as I understand it uses no notes and very little forethought- I can't do that! I like to have even minimal notes; to build myself some sort of frame to work within and to spend a bit of time even if it's just a day or two to think about how I would react to the situations I've given my characters.]
So I decided I'm gonna write not the entire story of my 4 characters (for one reason- because I'm pretty sure I haven't thought it all up yet) but just the tale of how my creatures and the human came together, at their lovely fast-food place with dragon-fire-grilled burgers.
Hmm, I wonder if that mode of cooking would pass a health inspection....
My only problem was that before now that's all it was, 4 characters and no story. And one idea of a scene- a centaur and a satyr hiding inside a fast food joint, trying to serve customers without letting on that they aren't human.
My other 2 characters are a girl dragon in human form with the other mythical creatures and some teenage-20 something guy who is first meeting the others.
Now this was all a bit fanciful even for me so I tried not to give it too much serious thought; but the ideas kept coming back; building into more of a story.
I just knew certain things about my characters:
-The centaur is somehow in charge, the leader or something.
-The Centaur and the Satyr are much older than the other two, and have been teamed together to get past something seriously bad...
-My satyr has goat horns on his human head except one is broken short where the centaur kicked him once. Centaur dude feels guilty about this and it's probably the only reason why he will put up with the satyr acting like he does sometimes.. (you know, like a Satyr ^^)
-The normal guy somehow becomes a werewolf as a result of something the other three do and so they now feel responsible for looking out for him as his beliefs in reality are rewritten and keeping others safe from a werewolf who hasn't learned to control himself.
(As none of them are human they don't have to worry about going werewolf, I guess...)
Need I go on? All that's important is that I never felt it was enough to make a story
This morning I was looking at how it's still about a week until November so I probably shouldn't start on my NaNoWriMo story just yet, but that would be enough time for a semi-flash short story.
[if you ever heard that description before, it's probably 'cause I 'semi-made' it up~ flash-fiction, as I understand it uses no notes and very little forethought- I can't do that! I like to have even minimal notes; to build myself some sort of frame to work within and to spend a bit of time even if it's just a day or two to think about how I would react to the situations I've given my characters.]
So I decided I'm gonna write not the entire story of my 4 characters (for one reason- because I'm pretty sure I haven't thought it all up yet) but just the tale of how my creatures and the human came together, at their lovely fast-food place with dragon-fire-grilled burgers.
Hmm, I wonder if that mode of cooking would pass a health inspection....
October 14, 2011
Stuart Aken: Author Interview with Sarah Baethge.
Stuart Aken: Author Interview with Sarah Baethge.: Hello Sarah, please tell us about you, as a writer. I have always liked Science-fiction and Fantasy, and write primarily to enterta...
October 12, 2011
Discovering Goodreads
If you like to write or even if you just read, you have to check out goodreads. It is like the biggest collection of book knowledge that I have ever found. I've just spent some time trying to link all my writings there so my pages can get a quick/click ad linking to all of my writings.
October 09, 2011
A Rejection I'm Glad to Get
Have you ever had a great idea that refused to materialize when you set to work on it? I'm talking really fun here, just imagining what it could be is enjoyable.
After spending a couple months on one of these 'great' ideas, I had what I considered to be a good first chapter for my epic, imaginary time and space novel written. I had a full vision of where it was going; yet suddenly; I ran into a solid wall that blocked my finding how.
After a week or two of getting nowhere on it, writing but rejecting scenes and notes that didn't quite measure up to what I had, I moved all parts of it to the unfinished folder on my computer, because I couldn't justify spending trying to spruce up the tale that seemed to have died.
Now this was just shortly after I had given up on the other book I recently had the guts to get published. That one, The Speed of Darkness, was enjoyable to me after not looking at it for a good long time, so perhaps I thought, that other one would work now, too.
And yes, I still liked what I had, but the ending seemed just a little bit too short. Fine, I decided, I'll just pass what I have to a couple publishers as a short story, and if I ever decide how to continue it; I can write a sequel.
Of course now, this was last month now that I sent it to someone who asked me to wait until some date in November with no contact before I considered it rejected; so can you guess what happened?
The very night after I sent it off, I had the thought of how to continue it. We're talking one of those fun 11:30 p.m. frantic note writings in the dark that makes me glad my computer screen glows so I don't have to worry about my room light switch.
The continuation!!
I was only left hoping what I had already sent wouldn't pass the prospective editor's evaluation. Not enough hope that I felt I should contact them to withdraw my submission (even what I have planned now doesn't complete the story so it wouldn't hurt to have part published), but I could certainly see that it would all be stronger if presented together. I put off trying to write it until I knew if I should write it as part of what I had or if it needed the right structuring to stand alone.
This morning I got the email, apologizing that my story didn't make the cut. One of the reasons why they gave was that it ended quite abruptly.
This rejection gives me the opportunity to immerse myself once again in my fantasy world of Tehar. Thank you for the rejection Bewildering Stories.
After spending a couple months on one of these 'great' ideas, I had what I considered to be a good first chapter for my epic, imaginary time and space novel written. I had a full vision of where it was going; yet suddenly; I ran into a solid wall that blocked my finding how.
After a week or two of getting nowhere on it, writing but rejecting scenes and notes that didn't quite measure up to what I had, I moved all parts of it to the unfinished folder on my computer, because I couldn't justify spending trying to spruce up the tale that seemed to have died.
Now this was just shortly after I had given up on the other book I recently had the guts to get published. That one, The Speed of Darkness, was enjoyable to me after not looking at it for a good long time, so perhaps I thought, that other one would work now, too.
And yes, I still liked what I had, but the ending seemed just a little bit too short. Fine, I decided, I'll just pass what I have to a couple publishers as a short story, and if I ever decide how to continue it; I can write a sequel.
Of course now, this was last month now that I sent it to someone who asked me to wait until some date in November with no contact before I considered it rejected; so can you guess what happened?
The very night after I sent it off, I had the thought of how to continue it. We're talking one of those fun 11:30 p.m. frantic note writings in the dark that makes me glad my computer screen glows so I don't have to worry about my room light switch.
The continuation!!
I was only left hoping what I had already sent wouldn't pass the prospective editor's evaluation. Not enough hope that I felt I should contact them to withdraw my submission (even what I have planned now doesn't complete the story so it wouldn't hurt to have part published), but I could certainly see that it would all be stronger if presented together. I put off trying to write it until I knew if I should write it as part of what I had or if it needed the right structuring to stand alone.
This morning I got the email, apologizing that my story didn't make the cut. One of the reasons why they gave was that it ended quite abruptly.
This rejection gives me the opportunity to immerse myself once again in my fantasy world of Tehar. Thank you for the rejection Bewildering Stories.
October 05, 2011
#WriterSpotlight; The Importance of Downtime by Sarah Baethge (@22niel)
My quickly written writer's advice about the writing of my book at
and
Smashwords:http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/88625
October 04, 2011
It's not procrastination, it's efficiancy
I know I said I was going to start writing today, but responding to: Prem Rao's blog made me realize something,
Everything I've ever had the nerve to self publish has been written for NaNoWriMo.
So now I think I'll take my time with this Idea, fully flesh it out and whatnot, and not start writing until November.
When November comes I'll write all I can without stopping to plan- sure I don't expect to get fully finished, I never have before, but if I can take a liking to this one as I did to the others, I can foresee my future success.
Everything I've ever had the nerve to self publish has been written for NaNoWriMo.
So now I think I'll take my time with this Idea, fully flesh it out and whatnot, and not start writing until November.
When November comes I'll write all I can without stopping to plan- sure I don't expect to get fully finished, I never have before, but if I can take a liking to this one as I did to the others, I can foresee my future success.
October 03, 2011
October 02, 2011
New story idea! Why I want to just get it down
Finally I am just about ready to relax a bit on trying to publicize my silly werewolf book. This may have come about because it's finally going to appear in a couple of people's blogs, but really I think it might be because I find myself ready to write again.
I had the idea for what should become a short story on Friday. I've sketched out a story map- some quickly written notes, and am ready to start tomorrow.
Why go so slow? It's exactly how I went about writing my last short story, 'Right Now', and taking my time with that story somehow allowed my mind to play with the concept until the finished short became something that was almost nothing like my original concept for the story. So why risk that happening again?
'Right Now' may be my favorite thing that I have ever written. Currently I'm checking to see if a few small publishers may like it, but even if they don't, I am going to get that one out to the world even if I have to publish it myself.
This new story shouldn't take more than a week or two to write, and even if it happily stays just the way I see it to be, in that speed of writing way it's like 'Right Now' - an important fact.
I have more than enough half fleshed out unfinished story ideas. taking the time to analyze every word seems important, but in reality it does little other than open up self doubt. My stories I actually published: 'The Speed of Darkness' (at amazon or Smashwords) has had little other than cosmetic changes for the last 2-3 years and 'Breaking Away' remains incomplete on a peer review site ( http://www.iwritereadrate.com ) because the constant rereading just pulls me too close to my own story and I lose the nerve publishing it.
So timing is important, I don't want to rush through my writing so fast that I eliminate the effect that thinking about my story may have, yet I know that if I don't spur myself on a little I won't be willing to risk the fact that other people may not like my work.
I had the idea for what should become a short story on Friday. I've sketched out a story map- some quickly written notes, and am ready to start tomorrow.
Why go so slow? It's exactly how I went about writing my last short story, 'Right Now', and taking my time with that story somehow allowed my mind to play with the concept until the finished short became something that was almost nothing like my original concept for the story. So why risk that happening again?
'Right Now' may be my favorite thing that I have ever written. Currently I'm checking to see if a few small publishers may like it, but even if they don't, I am going to get that one out to the world even if I have to publish it myself.
This new story shouldn't take more than a week or two to write, and even if it happily stays just the way I see it to be, in that speed of writing way it's like 'Right Now' - an important fact.
I have more than enough half fleshed out unfinished story ideas. taking the time to analyze every word seems important, but in reality it does little other than open up self doubt. My stories I actually published: 'The Speed of Darkness' (at amazon or Smashwords) has had little other than cosmetic changes for the last 2-3 years and 'Breaking Away' remains incomplete on a peer review site ( http://www.iwritereadrate.com ) because the constant rereading just pulls me too close to my own story and I lose the nerve publishing it.
So timing is important, I don't want to rush through my writing so fast that I eliminate the effect that thinking about my story may have, yet I know that if I don't spur myself on a little I won't be willing to risk the fact that other people may not like my work.
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