Making book videos

In the time of TikTok, authors have had to learn to market their books with videos. Some have taken to it with ease and skill that I envy, talking to the camera about their books and other interesting matters almost like pros. I can’t do that. I’m not a fluent speaker of English, and my voice doesn’t work well, thanks to an asthma medication that affected my vocal chords.

But there are the book videos and trailers that feature only the book. Done by professionals, they are delightful ads for the book that pop out in the stream of stationary images. So, about a year ago, I set out to learn how to make those.

Not easy; let’s start with that. Or, it would maybe be easier, if I’d settled with the easy-making tools, where you upload a couple of images and the desired text, and let the programme handle the rest. I found those dissatisfying and inflexible.

Instead, I downloaded a free video editor called OpenShot Video Editor. It’s an open source software like GIMP (a free Photoshop type of software), and the provider should be reliable. There are no ads or registrations required. It looks a bit like GIMP too, and operates in layers like it.

It took a long moment to figure out the logic of constructing a video. Time runs horizontally on the timeline that consists of layers of tracks. The duration an image shows on the video is manipulated by stretching and shrinking it on the timeline. There’s the base image(s) on track 1, on top of which different elements are added and removed on their own tracks, so that they appear at the desired moment in the video.

Fresh table. Mine is in Finnish, but other languages are available.

However, the images themselves can’t be made with the video editor. For those, I use GIMP. First I need to decide the shape of the video, vertical or horizontal, and the size that the social media sites can show (usually 720x1280). I decide on a short story, a few images and text, and make the elements I need with GIMP. Some elements, like the text, are on transparent background, so that they can be layered on top of the images.

Everything is uploaded on the video editor, and then it’s the simple matter of arranging the images in a desired way. Simple being a misleading word. It’s amazingly tricky to make the timeline work without gaps or overlaying images. I think the editor is a tad too sensitive for an amateur like me.

The story should make sense too, and it shouldn’t be too long. Usually, my first set of images doesn’t work, but I can only assess that after I’ve made the first version of the video. The editor offers all sorts of effects as well, animation and fade-ins, some of which work the way I presume, others that don’t. All in all, the editor has features that would make my videos much better if I learned to use them.

On top of everything comes the music. I’ve used royalty free music from Pixabay. There are all sorts of short tracks available there for every mood. Sometimes, after I’ve added the music, I need to tweak the timing of the images to fit the beat. The video editor is particularly good for that, allowing the minutest tweaks.

Work in progress.

Once everything is done to my satisfaction, after a week of tweaking and cursing, the video is saved in a video format, which has to be selected especially to match the form you’ve built it (it doesn’t select the correct one automatically, which is odd). And then you watch it and decide it needs more work, and start again…

I like making book videos, but it’s frustrating work, at least for someone who makes one or two a year. I tend to forget everything in between and have to start anew with every video. The end results aren’t exactly professional looking either, but I’m happy with them. Whether or not they have any impact with readers, I have no idea. So far, they haven’t moved any copies, so the amount of work that goes in them is sort of wasted. But they delight me, and I hope they delight others as well.

Here’s the latest video. It’s not my best, but I like it anyway.

If the video doesn’t show, or it looks wonky (Blogger doesn't seem to understand vertical videos), you can watch it on my FB page here. And you can read more about the book, My Happy Time Loop Fail, here.

Announcing My Happy Time Loop Fail

Sometimes, a book takes a long time to write. Book five of House of Magic has barely gotten anywhere in three months. Occasionally, though, it doesn’t take any time at all.

Three weeks ago, I came up with an opening line for an isekai time loop short story. Those unfamiliar with the Japanese term, it means a genre of fantasy where the protagonist is transported to or reborns into another world. And then, occasionally, the time keeps looping and the protagonist keeps being reborn.

The opening line was “My fourth time loop was different.” I just went with it, intending to write a short story of about 5000 words. But then the words kept piling up and the plot kept becoming more complicated. Soon, I realised I had an m/m romance in my hands as well. And that needed more space.

Two weeks later, I’d written a short novel, fastest I’ve ever written anything. It ended up being about 35.000 words long, so quite a few times longer than intended. And I like it! It has a nice plot, satisfying romance and my first ever m/m sex scene too, which took a bit of work. I hope I got it right.

Since I wrote it, I absolutely have to publish it. The book is now with the editor, and the publication day is set at the end of April. I made a nice cover too, trying to honour the Japanese origins of isekai. I like it very much, although it might give a notion of a sweeter romance than the reader gets. Be warned. 

First two undedited chapters are available on my website, and all the preorder links are up too. And here’s the description:

My fourth time loop was different. For one, it was painful. For another, I returned as my sister.

Henry Sanford has a perfectly normal life in Oxford—until he dies in a drunken accident. Next thing he knows, he’s being reborn. But that isn’t even all. He is born into a completely different world that has magic—but no dragons to his disappointment—as Petl, a son of viscount, with all his memories of the previous life. Not that they help, because he dies again. And again. And again.

But after the latest death, he isn’t reborn. He isn’t even Petl anymore. He finds himself in the body of his younger sister Lisl, only a year before he is killed by a traitor. And said traitor is about to propose to her.

Determined to stop it, he—she—proposes to the first man she comes across: Maleth Boderl, a son of a powerful man, and someone with whom Petl has a complicated history. Not that Maleth knows, because of the loops. And it’s about to get even more complicated, because Lisl is smitten with him at first sight.

It is Lisl who is suddenly lusting after Maleth, right?

Petl can’t dwell on that. He has a war to stop, a traitor to kill, and possibly a heart to conquer too—if he can figure out how he is feeling first.

This is a stand-alone m/m romance with mistaken identities, betrayal, love, and some spice too.

***

You can preorder the book on Amazon, Apple Books, B&N and Kobo, among other places. It comes out on April 28th.

Pantsing

I’m a pantser as an author. I don’t create detailed outlines about the plot before I start writing, or spend much time figuring out what kind of world I’m setting my books in. I do research when it’s needed and solve problems when they occur. My brain simply refuses to come up with anything interesting unless there’s something tangible for it to work on, so I just start writing and figure things out as I go.

I don’t go in completely blindly though. I need a premise and a good beginning, which might change later. I decide beforehand how long a book I’m going to write, how many chapters it’ll be, and how many words per chapter, all of which might change too. I know the ending I’m aiming at, usually a happily ever after or a crime solved. I know the basic structure—usually four or five short acts—and I aim at the end of the closest one at a time, where there is a twist of some kind. A random body might show up that’ll prompt me to a new direction. It’s worked more or less well for me for over thirty books.

However, as a series progress, some more planning tends to take place. The continuing backstory often influences the plot. I have a notion of which recurring characters will show up, the direction where the lives of main characters are heading, and what should happen in the lives of the minor characters. I don’t write things down beforehand, but somehow everything seems to fit. And surprises still happen.

Occasionally, the lack of planning results in the plot heading to a direction that won’t work. I then need to backtrack and rewrite, occasionally large patches even. In general, writing the way I write requires constant tweaking and rewriting. The first draft is also second, third and fifth.

And occasionally the story stalls completely. This happens almost every time, so I’ve learned to live with it. I’ll give it time, and the solution will come to me. Another rewrite might happen at this point.

Every now and then, however, I start a writing project without any plans whatsoever. Most often it’s because I’ve come up with an excellent opening line and I want to see where it leads. More often than not, it doesn’t lead to more than a couple of thousand words and an unfinished short story. But I have a side project in making that started as an opening line and which is now half a book with a clear idea of two more.

This weekend, an opening line prompted me to start a short story that practically writes itself. In fact, it’s going so well, that it can no longer be called a short story, and it’ll likely end up being a novelette. It’s nothing live I’ve written before—an isekai time loop story in a manner of Japanese light novels and mangas—which makes it so fun. I’ll very likely finish it too. Whether it’ll ever be published is another issue entirely, but at least I’ve tried something new—and gotten the opening line off my chest.

Character studies

I have a favourite web manhwa called Jinx, officially published on a platform called Lezhin. It’s a very NSFW Korean boylove (loosely applied) drama about a sweetest of sweet sub, Kim Dan, and the reddest of red flag dom, Joo Jaekyung. It’s approaching episode 50 and there’s still no romance to speak of, and unless Mr. Joo has a personality transplant, it’ll take another 50 before the happily ever after.

Joo Jaekyung and Kim Dan in Jinx by Mingwa

Webcomics are one of the few forms of fiction out there anymore where new episodes are delivered once a week—or in case of Jinx, every ten days—and the reader or viewer has to wait for their next fix instead of streaming everything when they wish. And not many of them happen globally at once. But Jinx is published simultaneously in Korean, English and Spanish, allowing the fans all over the world a chance to gather together to talk about the latest episode at the same time.

One could argue that streaming a whole series enables this too, but the conversations are often about the larger picture when talking about the whole series, and people stream whenever they wish, so they join the conversation in their own pace. Readers of Jinx are united in their agony of waiting, so they gather together to analyse every new episode for its minutest detail. And with a TV series, the attention seldom is on characters the way it is on Joo Jaekyung.

Mr. Joo is a bully, in and out of bed, and few are brave enough to call him on it. Kim Dan bears the brunt of it, but because he’s financially dependent on Mr. Joo, and because Mr. Joo has occasionally been nice to him, he does it willingly. Korean culture might come into play here as well, because Kim Dan mostly does it for his grandmother who is ill. And recently, he’s developed romantic feelings.

Joo Jaekyung in Jinx by Mingwa

Fandom is divided. There are those who hate Mr. Joo with passion. I don’t know why they return week after week, as it’s not a free comic. Then there are the apologists. Mr. Joo has to have a reason for his behaviour. Latest episode (ep. 49) hinted at him being bullied as a child, which sent the speculations on overdrive. And then there are those of us who are waiting for him to come to his senses, one way or another.

(As an aside, Joo Jaekyung, an MMA fighter, is never violent against Kim Dan. I think it would be game over for most of us, if he were.)

As a reader, I’m in for the ride. As a writer though, I read the commentary with fascination. It’s interesting to realise how differently people interpret the few panels of each episode. How some see goodness in smallest details, and are willing to forgive almost everything for love that surely must wait in the end. How for others, character change isn’t possible. Some put their hopes in events that must knock some sense into Mr. Joo, which others discard instantly.

Reading novels and their reviews, I’ve often wondered how people can interpret the same characters so differently. Here, the same happens in real time, and I still don’t quite understand it (though it does explain some real-life behaviour people show in their relationships). As a writer, however, it gives me a bit more confidence to write the characters the way I want. They’ll be interpreted the way I didn’t intend to anyway, for reasons I’m unable to fathom.

Mingwa, the author-artist of Jinx, seems to know this well. Or they simply make the most of the form of serialised comic that almost demands there’s a twist in every episode. So far, Joo Jaekyung hasn’t behaved quite as readers expect him to between one episode and next, and I doubt he ever will. The latest episode ended at a nailbiter that’ll surely result in Mr. Joo blowing his gasket in the next, and Kim Dan will be the target. But it might just as well go completely differently.

Final panel of ep. 49 of Jinx by Mingwa

I don’t quite have the confidence to make my characters behave so differently between one moment and the next. But it makes for an interesting reading, so maybe in the future, I’ll be able to losen up a bit with them. Something to look forward to.

Facing the final boss

You can tell by the title that I’ve been reading too much manga lately. I’ve also been writing a book where the protagonists are facing the same adversary they’ve faced once before, and it’s meant to be the battle that ends the series. They almost lost the previous time, and now the stakes are higher.

In Saved by the Spell, House of Magic 2, Phoebe, Kane and their mage, vampire and werewolf friends faced a dark mage, Julius Blackhart. His goal was simple: he wanted to take over London and a powerful spell protecting it. For nefarious purposes, naturally. He was defeated, but only barely.

Now he’s back in book 5, and, naturally, he has to be more difficult to defeat than before to keep the readers’ interest. He’s become a warlock and has more powerful allies too—as far as warlocks are willing to have allies.

But having the good guys face the same bad guy, even if more powerful, and likely fight the same battle too, is boring. I tried to find ways to make the antagonist more interesting, and raise the stakes for the good guys. Nothing helped. Until I came to ask, what if Blackhart isn’t the final boss.

The readers of this blog know I’ve struggled with House of Magic 5 since January. It’s the end of February and the book hasn’t progressed at all. The only explanation I eventually came up with was that Blackhart and his goals weren’t interesting enough for me. So they probably wouldn’t interest my readers either.

However, once I came up with the idea that Blackhart isn’t the final boss Phoebe and Kane are facing, the story started to develop in a whole new way. The big question of course is, who is worse than a warlock in this urban fantasy world, and what does he/she want.

I’m not giving the answer here, but it does take the story out of London. It might take it out of this world as well. The opportunity to imagine a completely new world is intriguing, and will push me to write the book faster. I hope, anyway. And if all goes well, it will give me a reason to write more books in this series too.

Getting the tone right

I write romances and mysteries, both contemporary and paranormal, cozy and a bit edgier. When I first started publishing, I had two pen names to keep the genres from getting mixed up. But at some point, it felt easier to combine everything under one pen name, and so my genre selection became a bit eclectic.

When it comes to romances, whether contemporary or paranormal, my books always have at least one sex scene. They’re fairly explicit, though never terribly long. They are romances, after all, not erotica. But not all books with romances need sex scenes.

When I started writing P.I. Tracy Hayes mysteries, I knew that there would be a slow-building romance between Tracy and Jackson, her boss. It took until book 7, Valentine of a P.I., before the pair ended up in bed together. And when they did, I closed the bedroom door. For me, it was enough to know that they’d reached that point. There have been four more books since, and the bedroom door has stayed closed.

I made the same decision with my paranormal cozy series, House of Magic. That, too, has a slow romance between Phoebe and her boss Kane, but they only waited until book 4, Magic by the Book, to get in bed together. And I closed the door again.

It’s not like I don’t know how to write sex scenes. I chose not to.

However, my readers aren’t entirely happy. Twice now, I’ve had reviewers specifically mention the disappointing lack of sex and tell that they’d lowered the rating because of it. As a reader, I get it. You’ve waited long enough and deserve some spice. But as the author, I have to get the tone right. And sex would ruin it.

It’s not always about sex either. I’ve had reviewers complain for my use of f-word in my cozy mysteries. And I understand where they’re coming from too. However, my mysteries aren’t entirely cozy. That’s especially true with my crime caper series, The Reed Files, where the male MC, Eliot, is a former mafia enforcer from New Jersey. I simply cannot imagine he wouldn’t use the f-word. So those will stay.

Violence, too, is a balancing act. A writer asked on social media the other day, how much violence should there be in a historical fantasy. Readers might expect some of it, but others might be put off. At the end of the day, though, it’s the writer’s world and they get to decide. For every reader they might lose for not meeting the readers’ expectations—and readers are so diverse, it’s impossible to meet all of them—they might gain two.

And sometimes I want to push the genre a bit too. So, very likely, The Reed Files at least will have an explicit sex scene or two in the future—once the slow-burn romance reaches that far. And I wouldn’t put it past some characters in the House of Magic using the f-word too. The readers who find curse words too much might be outraged by the sex scenes, but the readers who want the sex will be happy. Most importantly, I’ve written the book that I want to write.

Change of pace

As those who have read this blog this year may have noticed, I’ve struggled with writing House of Magic 5. Last week wasn’t any more productive than before, and after 26 writing days, the manuscript stands at whopping 9000 words, averaging 350 words a day.

It has, however, presented me with two surprises already. One is a romantic pair I had no plans of forming between two side-characters. One moment I was stuck, and the next, on a whim, I paired them. And it works. For me, at least. I’m not sure how the readers will react, as one of them is a bit of a fan favourite.

The other surprise is the need for a change in the narrative pace. The series is told in one character’s first-person point of view, which works fine. However, due to events in the previous book, the rather vast cast is split in two for most of this one, leaving the MC’s romantic interest in the dark. So, I was contemplating writing some chapters from his point of view.

I’ve never done such a switch in the middle of a series. I have a dual point of view series where both MCs narrate in first person, and several books in third person. Here though, I thought the additional point of view could be in third person. I’ve read books where the MC is in first person and the other points of view are in third person. Occasionally it works, and then other times it doesn’t.

The other option is to use first person for him as well, but I’m hesitant to use that. I’m not sure I’d get his voice right, as he’s such a different person from the MC. And part of his allure is that he’s a bit of a mystery for the MC and reader alike. Would it ruin the series if we get an insight into him as well?

I don’t know the answer. And until I do, the book might stall even more. I’ll let you know how it goes.