Category Archives: writing

When writing becomes a business

Posted on 29th August 2011 by Felicity Heaton

Remember when you were young and you did whatever you wanted and that was okay? You didn’t have a care in the world and took life one day at a time, searching for fun and doing as you pleased. Then, one day, you grew a little older and realised that at the same time you were growing up, and if you wanted to make something of yourself, you had to cast aside your Devil may care attitude and don one of responsibility instead… you had to approach things differently because now everything mattered.

I’ve been writing since 2005, back when I was e-published, and became an indie romance author in 2006, and since then I haven’t ever thought about writing as a business. To me it was a bit of fun and I wrote whatever I wanted and did as I pleased, much like a kid, without any thought about what type of story sold and where my career was heading. I was the rebellious youth without a care in the world, content with writing whatever came to me and if it sold, then that was great, fantastic in fact considering the poor e-book market prior to 2010. Back then, I never believed writers when they said it was all about market research and what books were popular, and writing for that market. I wanted to write whatever I felt like writing, so I did. I paid no attention to the market, but I guess it helped that I love vampires and decided to write them, and also seemed to end up writing stories quite different to the rest out there, gaining myself a bit of a following.

Just like a reckless youth, I have finally found myself growing up. Late last year, after talking to my husband about it and seeing my sales increasing and my readership increasing with it, I decided to take the plunge and say goodbye to my full-time job. Originally I was going to spend a few months a year contracting because that brings in enough money to keep me afloat, but I’ve been able to go from March 2011 until now living comfortably on my book royalties. At the moment, I don’t have to contract, but I’m well aware that the tide is always turning and things rarely stay perfect, no matter how much we would like them to.

Anyway, the change in my life, the leap from the safety of having a full-time job to becoming a full-time writer instead, has been a catalyst for greater change. I think I’ve grown up and now I can understand all those authors who talk about keeping an eye on the market and what sells, and focusing on that. I’m not talking about writing for market, because I don’t think I can ever do that, but I’m talking about harnessing what I have that is selling well for me and focusing on that. It’s very strange for me to do this and it’s been a gradual process, a gentle evolution of my approach to writing, and it was only recently that I realised what had happened to me. Growing up is never easy though, but with my writing having become more than just a fun past time in a part time capacity and without the safety of my full-time job as a developer, I have to suck it up and deal with it. I can always contract, but I think I want to give this writing thing my all and really make something of it.

So I’ve been looking over my stories, and monitoring what books sell and what don’t do as well as those, and where my strengths lie right now. It’s been quite painful at times, because there’s still that rebellious part of me that wants to write whatever the heck she likes and get away with it. I guess I’m disappointed that books I thought would sell well aren’t doing that good. It’s great that other paranormal romances books of mine are doing fantastically though, and it just means that I have to be more fluid about the timings of new books in the series that aren’t doing as well. I guess that boils down to if it’s selling really well for me right now then the next book in that series is going to be shifted up the writing order, and if it’s not doing well, then it has to take a back seat.

At the moment, my strong series are Vampires Realm (which has always done well for me and deserves more attention) and the Her Angel series. I’m watching the sales figures for Vampire Venators to see if Forbidden Blood picks up speed. I have faith that it will as it’s vampire romance and quite unique. My real trouble maker is the Shadow & Light Trilogy. It’s not doing well and is selling far less than I expected for an urban fantasy type paranormal romance. I’m not sure whether it’s the decision to have a witch heroine coupled with a half-demon hero that has caused the low sales. It’s quite different from other books on the market because most of them include a vampire somewhere, or perhaps a shape-shifter.

I really want to continue with the Shadow & Light Trilogy, and have some fantastic ideas for the remaining two books and a little side-story with other characters, but I will have to drop it down the writing order along with Vampire Venators. It’s a shame really, but that’s the business of writing. I can’t put off writing the next Vampires Realm book or Her Angel book for the sake of writing a series that is floundering. It doesn’t make sense to do that, no matter how much I wanted to have the next book in the Shadow & Light trilogy out in early 2012. It doesn’t make financial sense, and it seems cruel to make readers wait for more in the two selling series so I can do as I please. If readers are eager for Vampires Realm and Her Angel, then I have to give them what they want. Of course, I don’t want to disappoint readers who are eager for more in the Shadow & Light Trilogy or Vampire Venators series either. It’s a double-edged sword really. I want to make everyone, including myself, happy… but some things have to give and my business head engages and tells me that you’ve got to write what’s hot while it’s hot.

This doesn’t mean you won’t get an instalment in the Shadow & Light Trilogy or Vampire Venators series next year, it just means that you’ll be waiting until I have Her Demonic Angel released and another Vampires Realm story out before you get them. Don’t worry, I can write fast enough to get them all out next year, I hope. It’s still a strange feeling for me to have and it tightens my stomach thinking about having to move books down the pecking order for the sake of playing the market. I guess I just have to go with readers and the votes they make with their wallets. If I have several hundred readers a month buying Vampires Realm and Her Angel books on Kindle and less than a hundred readers paying for Shadow & Light Trilogy, I have to go with the larger group. That sounds harsh even to me. lol. That’s business though, folks. Whether I like it or not, I have to grow up now and put on my serious face.

One thing I can promise though… you can expect at least five novels out of me next year!

Posted in Her Angel Series, Shadow and Light Trilogy, Vampire Venators, Vampires Realm, writing | Comments Off

Masquerade, books on writing, and ear ache

Posted on 27th August 2011 by Felicity Heaton

My ear is giving me hell today, so I’m mostly sitting on the couch in my living room reading a good book on Characters & View Point. I want to finish this one, and then read one about story structure I bought recently, and then I’ll continue plotting Masquerade. I read a section of Masquerade yesterday, the 30k I had written before realising the story was taking a new direction and that I needed to rethink the current plot in light of that, and the changes to the characters.

I’m getting good ideas for it, but it’s going to be difficult to take Vivek, the hero, who is shown in poor light in the first chapter because we’re in Sophis’s, the heroine, point of view and she’s pretty riled at him and set on being in a bad mood with him, and is therefore slightly off in her opinion of him (heck, we’ve all been there right? Someone does something and we interpret it the way we want to because our judgement is coloured by our current emotions… rather than seeing things clearly and for what they really are, we put what the person has done in a bad light and grow angrier at them when in reality we should find out why they did something and perhaps their explanation would temper our foul mood). Basically, Vivek comes across as a less than sterling bloke, but she’s totally misinterpreting everything and flying off the handle because he’s hurt her feelings and she feels as though he’s on a non-stop mission to get her kicked out of the guard.

Okay, he is in a way, but only because he’s going about tackling his desire to protect her in the wrong way and the guy wants to keep her safe to a fault, so he doesn’t quite see that what he’s doing is actually hurting her since her life is the guard.

So you see… it’s the age old dilemma. I need the tension between them, but I don’t want the reader to lose all sympathy for the hero in chapter one and have him painted as a bad guy that is then irredeemable to the reader. No one loves a hero like that. I guess I need to make sure that it’s clear in chapter one that Sophis knows that this isn’t like Vivek and she feels she needs to find out what changed him from the man who saw her through her training and had always had time for her. I need to make sure that the reader… yes, you… realise in the first chapter that Vivek isn’t usually like this and what he used to be like, how close they once were, and make you stick it out so you find out why he’s acting like an ass in her opinion (he’s not really… she’s just blinded by her anger towards him because of his behaviour towards her).

Why do my heroes always give me trouble? lol. It’s never the heroines. It’s always the men in my life that like that cause these little upsets. Although… if Vivek hadn’t given me such grief, and therefore my writer heart hadn’t tried so tirelessly to give him a reason to be so hard-headed and a bit of a male pig, then I wouldn’t have found a new depth to Vivek and the story.

My meds are kicking in to get rid of the ear ache but Vivek is giving me a royal headache! I’m sure I’ll find a way to balance him in the first chapter so readers aren’t judging him badly and will give the guy a chance to show just how fiercely protective, passionate and brave he is. I can vouch for him. He’s a good bloke once you get to know him. lol.

Anyway, I’m off to assess my work load and continue reading this book on Characterisation. I think it’s really important as a writer to keep learning. I’ve read a lot of books on writing but I find something new in each book I read, so every one is worth it and I feel it really helps me hone my craft and offer a better experience to readers. Maybe while I’m reading I’ll find a way to fix Vivek and that first chapter, and find that balance I need to intrigue readers about Vivek and have them questing to discover just why he wants her off the guard, and just what happened in their past to change him.

😀

Posted in Masquerade, paranormal romance, vampire romance, vampires, Vampires Realm, writing | Comments Off

We interrupt this broadcast…

Posted on 24th June 2011 by Felicity Heaton

This week has not been a good week. First it took me a while to get back into the swing of things after my trip to Istanbul, Turkey. The muse went AWOL, which isn’t like him, and when I eventually dragged him back, he just wasn’t interested in writing Masquerade.

Or maybe that was me not interested in writing it.

It’s not so much that I’m not interested, just that I feel there are problems with the story and some things just weren’t clicking for me. I felt it wasn’t going to be a success as it was. I did get up to around 30,000 words of the story written this week, and with them came a few revelations that have led me to re-think the plot and the story, and the characters involved. Not a bad thing. Better I put it on the back burner now so I have time to think about it and get it perfect rather than having to rewrite huge tracts of it at a later date when a deadline is tight.

The trouble is, I had planned to get this story written and released on September 10th this year. See the problem there. Very short deadline in which to write something to fill the gap. Not sure yet what I’ll do but I do have another story in mind for release this year as my second Vampires Realm story. I’ll think of something to release in September, but it might be a short story or novella rather than a novel. I’m going to crunch the figures in my schedule and see what comes out. It might be that I shift the release of Heart of Darkness to September 10th from October 22nd, and then write something new in time for the October 22nd release date.

You’d think being an indie author it would matter what date I release stuff, but I have a whole year’s worth of guest blog dates in place and I refuse to disappoint the people who have kindly offered me a slot on their blog. I also have advertising in place too.

If I can’t get anything written in time, then I will probably use those dates to promote my first two releases this year, because I didn’t have the tour in place then and they could do with some promotion.

It wasn’t just Masquerade not quite feeling right that has put me behind. It’s my main computer too. It upped and died on me recently during a Windows Vista Service Pack 1 upgrade and I’ve had to reinstall everything. Thankfully, I had backed up all my files to my external hard drive before upgrading to the piece of poop that is the Service Pack 1. Why Windows allow this SP to still be used when they know it has faults is beyond my comprehension, but I think it just goes to show how crap Microsoft is.

Needless to say, I’m mightily miffed at Windows and it’s eaten up my whole day fixing the cursed computer in question. There goes my writing time. Got to reinstall lots of drivers, programs, devices, and put all my files back on my computer now. Bleh.

I had really hoped to get Masquerade written but perhaps it’s a good thing that my release order has changed. Heart of Darkness features a guard as the heroine, and hunters as the enemy. Masquerade has the hero and heroine as guards, and vampires / vampire hunters as the enemy too. Might be too similar, even though the stories are quite different.

I think that I will probably keep Heart of Darkness as my October 22nd release, and then have When Darkness Falls, which is a Vampires Realm novel, as my December release. Masquerade will have to wait until next year before it’s released.

My other option is to write Descent, the second story in my Shadow & Light Trilogy for release in December.

Choices, choices. It’s difficult really. I guess it will all come down to if I have enough time. I picture When Darkness Falls as a novel of around 65,000 words, while Descent will likely reach 90,000-100,000 words. Obviously it takes me longer to write, edit, polish and proof a novel that length.

Maybe this is all just fate telling me that I’m a crazy lady to want to release 8 full novels in the space of just a year. It’s saying “slow down, chillax, follow the flow” which I could happily listen to!

Back to work for me. For a change it isn’t writing that’s beckoning me rather it’s the techy stuff of reinstalling and rebuilding a computer. It’s been a while. I’ve had this one for two years or so without it giving me hell. My previous one required a fresh Windows install everything few months!

I’ll keep you guys posted on what I decide to write for when.

🙂

Posted in 2011 releases, Heart of Darkness, Masquerade, Shadow and Light Trilogy, When Darkness Falls, writing | Comments Off

Angel romances, Assassin’s Creed and blog tours

Posted on 10th June 2011 by Felicity Heaton

This week has been long, but not exactly fruitful. Thanks to my obsession with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and my need to play it every day for at least a couple of hours, my focus is shot. I have managed to struggle with my short attention span and bring it under control enough that I have managed to get the final two chapters of Her Guardian Angel re-written and ready for editing, but other things in my schedule have suffered.

I can’t lay the blame solely at the feet of Ezio from Assassin’s Creed. I think in part my lack of concentration and focus this week is down to overworking. I’ve been working non-stop recently and it was only a matter of time before my mind shattered and I wanted to do something other than author related work.

I’m just thankful that once I get the final two chapters of Her Guardian Angel edited, I can put it to rest for a while, and that I managed to get it done before heading off on holiday for a few days. A much needed holiday, that’s for sure!

When I return, I’ll be thrown straight into the release weekend of Forbidden Blood, but I think I can deal with that if I get everything on my list done and dusted, and therefore only have to worry about release stuff when I get back. I am looking forward to the release of Forbidden Blood. I want to see what readers think about the take on vampires in this one and whether there’s interest in the series. I already have a vampire romance series on the go, so it will be interesting to see what sort of reception this one gets. The Vampire Venators series is quite different to my Vampires Realm series, so hopefully there’ll be room for both of them.

I’m having a dilemma at the moment about what to write next. My schedule is very tight right now, but I really want to get the next Shadow & Light Trilogy novel written, edited, and released this year. I’d love to get it done for September and move Masquerade to October or December. Hmm. It’s tricky though and it is providing me with a bit of a headache. I keep working my calendar, shifting things around and seeing if I could write it and get it edited in time. It’s possible, but it would mean some seriously long days. Going to crunch the numbers again later and see if I’m just asking too much of myself.

I have to take into account that I’m signed up to around one hundred appearances this year at various blogs too. I need to make sure that I have time to get the articles for them written as well as getting books written or edited. On top of this, I want to start offering a flash fiction in my newsletter every month, and I have a few short stories that I want to write as freebies too.

I think I might quietly go away now and have a breakdown. Lol. When I took the leap to become a full time author, I had figured it would be easy and that I’d be able to get stuff done in no time because I had all day to do it rather than just a few hours a day. Wrong! Stuff just came along to fill those hours!

Right, I had best go get on with said stuff.

Felicity

Posted in forbidden blood, Masquerade, Shadow and Light Trilogy, Vampire Venators, Vampires Realm, writing | Comments Off

adventures in paranormal romance and blog giveaway

Posted on 20th May 2011 by Felicity Heaton

Well, it’s been an eventful week, but at the same time, not very eventful. Time seems to be slipping away from me at the moment and my motivation is hitting a low spot. I have so much that I need to do, that it sort of piles up and then overwhelms me. I have decided that it’s not easy having releases only 4-6 weeks apart. I’ll have to address that next year. I just don’t feel as though I’m putting enough into promoting each separate book. As soon as a new one come along, I forget to promote the previous one. Bad me. That’s not the way to sell books!

I was distracted from my work last week because Reunion was listed as FREE at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk, so I was promoting that when I probably should have been continuing to promote my paid-for releases like Love Immortal, Hunter’s Moon, and Ascension. All three are available in e-book and paperback now.

This week, I spent the Monday and Tuesday doing the initial read through of Her Guardian Angel, the fourth book but the first novel in the Her Angel romance series. On Wednesday, I inputted all of the changes I’d noted down on the book (I read on paper initially as it gives me a better experience during this phase when I’m supposed to read as a reader would, not an editor or writer) into the word document, so it’s ready to go. There’s over 100 comments to address, but most of those are about repetition of words / thoughts / feelings. I also have some smoothing out to do in the latter half of the book, and I want to change the ending to make it more dramatic. I’m not sure if this will be the finale of the series, or whether I’ll write another novel for it. I do have a character in mind for another novel or novella, but I need to take stock of the success of the series. I guess if Her Guardian Angel sells well and people make positive noises about wanting another or liking the character I have in mind for it (who appears in Her Guardian Angel), then I’ll probably write the next book.

I’m also trying to decide what to write for December. I have a release slot penned down on my schedule. I was thinking about writing the next Shadow and Light Trilogy novel, which will follow on from Ascension and track the progression of Lealandra and Taig’s relationship. I could also write the next Vampire Venators series novel. Both require some world building. It definitely won’t be a Vampires Realm series book as I’ve had two of those this year. Don’t worry, I’m hoping I can write two more Vampires Realm stories for next year. That’s the downside to series. I have four on the go at the moment (well, that I’m actively working on anyway), plus another two that I want to start, one of which is my seven book Hades’ Boys series. With all those series to balance, it’s difficult to keep my schedule in order. I think next year will definitely be very series-orientated, even though I have a few stand alone paranormal romance books that I want to write.

I did manage to get some downtime this week. Husband and I went out yesterday to the cinema and watched Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides in 3D. It was good. Probably up there with the best movies I’ve seen this year. Definitely blockbuster material, and Johnny Depp was fantastic as usual. Did some shopping afterwards and went to Yo! Sushi for scrummy pumpkin korroke and doroyaki.

Today I should be working on the second draft edit for Her Guardian Angel, but I’ll spend it writing blog tour posts as that’s quite a weight pressing down on me and I’d like to get a whole bunch of them written and sent off so they’re not playing on my mind and I’ll be able to focus on my edit.

Oh, and I started my 500 Blog Follower International Giveaway this week. We’ve reached around 330 followers now, and I’m thrilled by how quickly my followers have risen and touched by the effort some readers have been putting in to help me spread the news about this giveaway. You guys rock, and you rock hard!

I’ve also had a great review or two for Ascension, and my other novels. It’s great to get reviews coming in for them. I’ll try to take snippets of them soon and add them to my website for everyone to read. Sometimes it’s difficult to get a good snippet though.

Wow, this has turned into a long blog post.

What shall I write for December?