Another point of view

I’m partial to the subjective, ‘close’ third person point of view in my novels: the reader sees what the character sees and feels, and not much else. Since I write romances, I usually show the action through the eyes of two main characters – the star-crossed lovers – although the style would allow me to use a wider range of characters too. I especially like to show the action through the eyes of the antagonist, a device I’m yet to use in my Two-Natured London series where it would fit well.

As a reader, I’m not as particular. The third person objective point of view, the omniscient narrative where the narrator knows more than the characters, is interesting to read, even if it’s seldom used in modern literature anymore, though particularly well done in Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel by Susanna Clarke. And first person narrative can be fun or intense, depending on the genre. There’s something very intimate about not knowing more than the character does, which is probably why it works so well in detective stories. But it can be very limiting too.

I find the first person narrative especially limiting in romances, which necessarily tells the story of two people. As a reader, I’m often dying to know what the other party thinks of the protagonist as the romance unfolds. It feels like I’m missing half of the story, if I’m only shown the romance from one point of view. I’m not alone in this, and sometimes the author feels it’s necessary to give us the other side of the story too.

One popular way is to write short stories from a point of view of a major or minor character, which are additions to the original. My favourites are the – free – short stories Karen Chance offers to her readers that range from the adventures of a minor character, like Kit Marlowe, to important events in the life of a major character, like the stories about Pritkin. They don’t all add to our understanding about the main character Cassie, but they contribute to the world as a whole.

Some authors take it farther. A couple of extremely popular books have recently been completely rewritten from the hero’s point of view – the exact same story told twice. I haven’t read those popular retellings – I haven’t read the originals even – but I doubt I’d enjoy them much. I wouldn’t be learning anything new even though the point of view is different.

The temptation to tell an important scene twice in the same book from different points of view is familiar to the writers of the close third too – I luckily mostly grew over it before I published my first book. It’s both redundant and annoying, and doesn’t, paradoxically, add anything to the story. There are better ways to add value to your series with the changing of the point of view.

I’ve recently read two books that are additions to popular series and told from a perspective of a major character in the originals. Four by Veronica Roth is an addition to her hugely popular Divergent series, and Brighter than the Sun by Darynda Jones is an addition to Charley Davidson series.  They are not retellings of the story we already know from a different point of view; they tell the story of a different character so that the original story gets a new meaning.

Brighter than the Sun tells the life-story of Reyes, the love of Charley’s life, from childhood on; a difficult story to read, as he had a difficult childhood. Compared with the main series, which is at times laugh-out-loud funny like the character telling it, the style is very different. But that’s the way it needs to be, when the narrator, the main character himself, is so different. It’s a short book and it ends rather abruptly just as he finally meets Charley for the first time, but it achieves its objective: deepening the readers’ understanding of a major character and thus adding value to the entire series.

Four, as its name reveals, is about the character Four, who along the narrator Tris is the main character in the Divergent series. The book contains four fairly long short stories and a couple of short scenes written from the Four’s first person point of view. The first three stories are set in the time before Tris, and even after Tris appears in the fourth, the emphasis is on other matters than Four’s relationship with her. He emerges as a fully formed, interesting character with a story of his own, his hopes, dreams and fears – all four of them. The end result is that I now very much want to read a whole new series with him as the protagonist.

If you have chosen a first person narrative for your book or series, and are now feeling its limitations, the way to change the point of view is by creating new instead of warming up the old. Pick a protagonist, be it the love interest or the villain, and write a story that belongs to that character. You will add much more value to the series that way. It doesn’t have to be a full length book. Your readers will love even a shorter story – as long as it’s original. Try it. Even if you don’t publish it, it will deepen your understanding of your characters, and improve your writing. And that can only be good.

Not so good publishing year

Last year was my fourth as an independent author. I enjoyed it as much as before, but the results of my toiling weren’t as good as they have been in previous years. In short, in 2015, for the first time, I didn’t earn enough with the book sales to cover the expenses of publishing them.

The reason for the poorer year-end result is a combination of dwindling sales and slightly bigger expenses. Book sales have been dropping steadily since I started publishing, and even though I have many more books out, the combined sales aren’t even close to the numbers they were when I published my first book in 2012.

In June, my sales cut to half for no reason that I can see. At the same time, Amazon changed the system whereby it paid for books in its Select system – per pages read instead of per books read. While the new system is fairer than the earlier, for my books it meant that my earnings per book halved. So I was earning less as well as selling fewer books.

Susanna Shore: The Croaking Raven

I compensated for that by taking the Two-Natured London series off the exclusive Select system and uploading the books to Smashwords that delivers them to marketplaces like B&N and iBooks. They’re selling well, but since I only got them uploaded in November, it didn’t salvage the year end result.

I had new expenses too; slightly more expensive stock-photos for book covers among them. I dabbled with advertising – with lousy results. While I didn’t use much money for it – and maybe the results would have been better if I had – combined with dwindled sales, it was enough to push the bottom line to red.

Susanna Shore: A Warrior for a Wolf

Despite the bottom line, I had a good writing and publishing year. I got three books out, The Croaking Raven, To Catch a Billionaire Dragon, and A Warrior for a Wolf. I conquered Smashwords’ publishing system; it requires a bit of work to get the books to convert correctly, and I had been reluctant to make the effort to learn it. And I’m happy with my result there, even if they’re mostly thanks to two free books, The Wolf's Call and part one of To Catch a Billionaire Dragon. I’ve sold a book for every six books downloaded for free. If only I could get Amazon to price match the books, that might help the sales there as well, but despite my efforts, that hasn’t happened.

I redesigned the covers of all my books, and learned to make 3D covers for my box sets. And I started to offer book formatting services and sell premade bookcovers. I have a year-start sale coming up there, so stay tuned.

Hannah Kane: To Catch a Billionaire Dragon

2016 is starting with a bang. Magic under the Witching Moon, a shorter Two-Natured London romance, comes out on January 28th. It’s available for pre-ordering, and if you want to read the first two chapters, they’re up on my webpage. So I’m not letting one less than stellar year to divert me. Writing and publishing will continue strong this year too. I’ll keep you posted.

Susanna Shore: Magic Under the Witching Moon

A good reading year

Retrospectives are more traditional at the end of the year than at the beginning, but here’s one anyway. I had a very good reading year last year—both numbers and contents wise. After publishing my first book in 2012, my reading dwindled, as I felt vaguely guilty if I wasn’t constantly writing. Reading twenty books a year was an achievement. But in 2015, I managed to read 58 books, a return to normal.

Goodreads Reading Challenge helpfully keeps track of everything I read, provided that I remember to add each book in the list when I start and finish them. I pledged to read fifty books last year, which I surpassed by eight books. According to their statistics, I read 22,954 pages, 396 on average. The shortest book I read was Brighter than the Sun by Darynda Jones in 115 pages, and the longest was Fool’s Quest by Robin Hobb in 768 pages. Of the books I read, the most popular among the Goodreads’ readers was Ruby Red by Kerstin Gier, which was read by over 70,000 readers, and the least popular was The Warlock’s Shadow by Stephen Deas, read only by 522 readers, which I find somewhat surprising, as it was a good book.

Not surprising, I read mostly fantasy. Only four books were something else, and those were mainly historical romances. I read books by my favourite authors like Nalini Singh, Trudy Canavan, J.R. Ward, and Janet Evanovitch, but I found many new names too. I finally had time for Ben Aaronovitch’s Peter Grant series. I read it all back to back and enjoyed it immensely. I can’t wait for the next book, The Hanging Tree, which will be published this summer. Another new name for me was Karina Sumner-Smith. I read the first book in her Towers trilogy, Radiant, and will read the rest this year. And I really liked Sally Green’s Half Bad, and Half Wild. The last book in the series is published this year too, so there’s that to look forward to.

The book I liked most was probably Fool’s Quest, although Rivers of London comes close too. The most disappointing read was Aeronaut’s Windlass by Jim Butcher. I’ve loved everything he writes so far, but this one was clichéd and dull. The writer I’ll miss most is of course Terry Pratchett, whose last book The Shepherd’s Crown crowned my Christmas. The series that ended I’ll miss most is Finishing School by Gail Carriger.

Despite all this reading, I had a good writing year too. I published three books, The Croaking Raven, To Catch a Billionaire Dragon, and A Warrior for a Wolf. I also wrote a fourth book, Magic under the Witching Moon, that comes out this January. You can preorder it now.

Magic under the Witching Moon by Susanna Shore

Encouraged by my success last year, I pledged to read 55 books in 2016. I’ve had a good start already; two books read, although one of them is technically a no-finish—after two thirds I skipped to the end to see how it ends and decided it wasn’t worth bothering to read the rest. There are quite a few books coming up from my favourite authors, three already in January, so there’s a lot to look forward to. If you want to follow how I do and what I read, you can do it here.

The reading did cut into my blogging, so I didn’t post very often here. I’ll try to mend my ways, so keep an eye on this space. In the meanwhile, Happy New Year to you all!

Eyes open into world

Every writer is familiar with the advice to ‘write what you know’. We all approach it differently. Some take it literally, basing their stories on personal experiences and nothing else; we all remember how Anne Shirley became a published author once she started writing about everyday life in her beloved Avonlea. Some completely ignore it. How many of us are international spies, really – and how much would we miss if we didn’t have books that have no bearing in the author’s reality.

But most choose an approach that has a little of both. We may not have personal experience of what it feels like to run for our lives, but we have most likely been scared and frightened, and can use the emotions to describe how a spy would feel in a life-threatening situation. Or we write about being a parent without having children ourselves, basing it on observations and emotions similar to parents’ love – or frustration.

The rest is research. How exhaustive it is and how much of it actually ends in the book, is up to each author. I’ve spent hours researching details of period dresses, only to end up describing them as ‘green muslin’ or something equally vague. I’ve read books where the author’s love for details transports me to another world like I were there – or ruin the reading experience with the excess of them.

Either way, the research part of writing can take up a lot of time, and if much of it isn’t used, it may feel like a waste of time. It seldom is.

I have another approach too. I keep my eyes open for interesting details, titbits and news. Internet is full of wonderful things and as I follow all kinds of people on social media, they come to my way without any effort on my part. Much of what I end up using in my books comes from news sources and long-reads. In The Croaking Raven, I used what I had read about human trafficking over the years; that’s what gave me the idea for the book in the first place. I ended up doing very little research for the sake of research. Everything I needed was sent my way.

The same happened with A Warrior For a Wolf. A paranormal romance isn’t the kind of book that necessary needs extensive background work, but I had learned all sorts of little details that came in handy. I’ve read many articles about building the Crossrail tunnel in central London, mostly from archaeological news that have nothing to do with my book. So when a scene happened to take place in a park that is currently closed because of the tunnel – which I also learned from a news article – I used it in my book. It’ll be old news in a couple of years, but for now, I found it an interesting detail to add. I also used tiny details of what it’s like to be a female surgeon in a British hospital that I learned by chance from an opinion piece.

Keeping my eyes open broadens my horizons, helps me to come up with writing ideas, and cuts the time I use on research. It can help you too. The world is full of people who want to share their experiences. All you have to do is to listen.

* * *

In a piece of my own news: A Warrior For a Wolf is now out. You can get it on Amazon.

End to an experiment

A while back, I published To Catch a Billionaire Dragon, a short contemporary romance. As I blogged at the time, I wrote and published it in three parts, each with its own story arc and cliff-hangers at the ends of parts one and two. I set the first book free – on all retailers other than Amazon, which refused to make it permafree.

The first part was downloaded really well from the start. And at first, parts two and three got some attention too, although not nearly in proportion to how much the first part was downloaded. In recent month, however, even the free downloads have dwindled to one a day and almost no one buys the rest of the book.

The experiment was useful though. I’ve learned that people like to download books for free. I’ve learned that readers liked the first part, some enough to buy the rest. But I also learned that nothing enrages some readers as much as having to pay for something when they have got something else for free first – even when they really liked what they had got. I also learned that having a book permanently free doesn’t lead to great sales for the rest of the books. However, it might have worked better if Amazon had made the first part free.

Because the book in three parts doesn’t move as much as it used to, some changes are required. So I’ve published it as a complete set, all three parts together. It’s only available on Amazon for now, and the separate parts are still on sale too. I will unpublish the separate parts later, so that the readers won’t be confused by them. Currently, the book is only $0.99/£0.99, so if you like quick romantic reads, this is a chance for you. And the first part is still available on my website for free too. Take a look!

Store links: Amazon US and Amazon UK, and on all other Amazon stores too.

Learning a new skill: 3D book covers

I’ve long wanted to make 3D covers for my Two-natured London boxed sets, but I haven’t had the skill and haven’t found an automatic cover maker for them. So I finally searched for instructions on how to make them with the GIMP software, and found a number of tutorials. I checked a few of them and ended up following these instructions by Lynne Cantwell on Indies Unlimited blog.

It’s a trial and error learning a new skill, but since I’ve created all my covers with GIMP, I at least have the basic skills. But it turns out there is a lot you can do with it that I had no idea about, and a box shape is one of them.

The instructions on the blog are simple enough to follow, at least if you’ve used GIMP before. I made a couple of practise boxes until I had the basics clear, and then set out to design special covers for the boxed sets. I used the existing covers for my Two-natured London books as the basis and designed the ‘spines’ for them that make one side of the box, the side that shows how many books there are in the set. Mine has only two per set, so it wasn’t a difficult task.

The only details that required extra tweaking were a couple of horizontal stripes running through the design that wouldn’t align when I generated the box, but in the end even those came out well enough. And now I have brilliant new boxed set covers that I’m very happy with.

Having successfully followed Ms Cantwell’s instructions, I can recommend them, if you want to create your own 3D boxed set covers. I have one note regarding them though. The instructions tell to generate the box with the .xcf files, which is the GIMP format that keeps all the layers intact. However, they are huge files and it takes a great deal of processing power to generate the boxes. So instead using .xcf files, save (export) your finished images as .jpg files, open them with GIMP and use them to generate your boxes. That way you:

1. don’t have to merge the layers before generating the boxes. When your .xcf files don’t have merged layers, it’s easier to make changes to them, if the box doesn’t come out the way you want it to. Then you can simply save the changes to a new .jpg file and try again.
2. save a lot of time generating the box. With the .xcf files, it takes several minutes, whereas it takes about 30 seconds with the .jpg files.

Keeping this little detail in mind, you can easily make your own 3D covers with the same instructions I used too. Happy creating!

Stranger at the station – a short story

Despite my best intentions, I haven’t blogged here in ages. To remedy that, here’s a short story to entertain you.

Stranger at the station

I stalked a stranger today. At the Paddington station on my way to work this morning. It’s not a pastime I indulge in often, and never in this intensity, but he was different.

I noticed him instantly when I walked into my usual café at the station for my morning latte and took a place in the line. He was so out of place here I couldn’t help but see him. He was sitting at the far table by the low railing that marked the border of the café, reading a paper, a cup of coffee in front of him, ignoring the people around him like he was inside his own bubble.

A man waiting. With purpose.

I was instantly intrigued. Who was he? Why was he here? Who or what was he waiting for? I could barely tear my eyes off him, almost forgetting to move forward in the line. I wasn’t the only one, mind you. Everyone watched him.

He was definitely the kind of man you notice. A bespoke suit that fit his lean body like a glove, and handmade Oxfords. Mother of pearl cufflinks and silk socks. Hair cut neatly and recently by an expert. In his mid-forties, which when you’ve entered your fifth decade yourself, is just the perfect age for a man. Especially if the man wears his age with such self-confidence as he did. Not classically handsome as such, but he had an assertive face of a person accustomed to being in command.

A businessman, definitely. One with hundreds of employees and dozens of underlings ready to fulfil his every command. He would never be unreasonable with his requests and always graceful when they were met, causing his people to want to please him even more. I could see it all in my mind’s eye: a secretary blushing faintly every time he praised her, her heart picking up speed. Her nights would be filled with impossible dreams of the two of them together.

He wouldn’t even notice. The bastard.

You didn’t often see men like him at train stations. They belonged to first class lounges at airports – if they travelled commercially. He looked like he could afford his own jet.

Perhaps he was waiting for someone. He sat so calmly there, leaning his side against the backrest of his chair, long legs stretched before him, one ankle crossing the other, occasionally glancing at people walking past the café – never those inside it. He never checked his watch, a timepiece so understated in its elegance it had to be expensive. He wasn’t in a hurry to catch a train.

I was so preoccupied with him I almost missed my turn to order and then fumbled with the change. Who was he waiting for? Not a business partner, obviously. They would see him in a glass-walled office at the top of a high-rise, or in an expensive restaurant. Or in a gentlemen’s club. But not at a train station. He would never meet anyone at a train station.

Unless… He was a spy meeting a contact!

That idea appealed to me instantly. The newspaper he was reading was a sign from which the contact would recognise him. The contact would then ask for a time, and he would glance at his expensive watch and give it, only it wouldn’t be the correct time, but a code.

My name was called to get my coffee, which interrupted my musings of international espionage. I didn’t really believe he was a spy anyway. He was too noticeable to be one.

With my coffee ready, I didn’t have a reason to stay anymore, but I didn’t want to leave yet. He was still here, waiting. So I paused on my way out, daringly quite near him, and began to dig my phone out from my bag. I would pretend to have a call so people wouldn’t wonder why I was standing there.

But before I could find my mobile – the bag is insanely large, I don’t know why I keep it when I can never find anything in it – the man checked his watch and then finished his coffee in one. He was about to leave. And I still hadn’t figured out who he was waiting for.

What if it was his wife?

That idea stung. I don’t know why. He was miles beyond my league – even if I had been blessed with self-confidence that stated no man was beyond it, which I wasn’t.  Men like him didn’t go for forty-one-year-old librarians. Not the dowdy-ones anyway. He hadn’t even glanced at me and I had stood almost in front of him for a good while now.

But that’s imagination for you. I could picture him as a spy, easily, and I was perfectly willing to entertain an idea of a passionate affair with him, even though I knew there was no chance for it – but only if he was free. I couldn’t imagine a wife away.

Belatedly, I checked his ring finger and found it empty. The relief I felt was disproportional. If he had been here to meet his wife, he would surely have worn his ring.

Just then, the loudspeakers announced an arriving train. I couldn’t hear from where, but the man immediately folded his paper, got up and headed out without a glance back. I followed.

I didn’t mean to. I was already going to be late for work, having dawdled in the café, but I didn’t care. I had to see who he was meeting with.

His mother? That I could believe. He had the air of duty about him that stated he would fetch his mother from the station should she so request. But I would imagine, too, that he would feel impatient if he was forced to abandon his empire for it. Instead, he had sat there so calmly, not annoyed at all that he had to wait. So not the mother, then.

He walked towards the correct platform in such long strides I had trouble keeping up with my short legs and high heels. Was that excitement I detected in his step? Who could cause such an assured man to suddenly hurry up so as not to miss the arrival?

A mistress, of course. No, a fiancée.

My heart fell. But I couldn’t give up now. I had to see for myself.

He reached the platform and I hurried to catch up. He paused and I did too, standing so close to him I could smell his divine aftershave. I pretended to be waiting for someone too, though why I bothered, I don’t know. He didn’t glance around; he had eyes only for the train that glided to halt just then, and the first class car – naturally. He looked almost impatient now. Considering how calm he had been until then, I found this to be quite out of character.

The door to the first class car opened and a gorgeous woman in her early twenties peeked out, tall and slender with a dark red hair that reached the small of her back in luscious waves. I’d always wanted a hair like that instead of the thin strawberry blond that was fizzy no matter what I did. I was instantly consumed by envy.

The man smiled, a wondrous sight that took my breath away, and lifted his hand to catch her attention. Of course he would have a beautiful fiancée, but a woman that young? I was dismayed.

The woman spotted him and her face lit. “Dad!” she yelled, jumping down on the platform and starting towards him.

Dad?

All my fantasies came crashing down with one word. Not in one of them had he been a father, let alone to a grown woman he was now hugging warmly like they hadn’t seen in ages. International businessmen slash spies did not have children. I felt cheated. Then angry. I had wasted my morning on him and now I would be late and my boss would yell at me.

Well, she wouldn’t yell. She was a very nice lady. But still. With a huff, I turned around and headed to the nearest exit.

Outside the station, a Bentley with a driver. Waiting. I didn’t give it a glance.