First Cup of Coffee - February 6, 2024

Fun news on covers and Italian rights - along with some info on how selling foreign rights works. Also, my recent experience with a published book contest and how negative comments can be devastating.

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Transcript

00:02.12
jeffekennedy
Good morning, everyone! This is Jeffe Kennedy author of epic fantasy romance I'm here with my first cup of coffee.

00:14.14
jeffekennedy
Delicious. Today is Tuesday February Sixth 2024 um alert listeners among you will know that this is not my usual podcast day I did not podcast yesterday. Because I had to take the hubs down to Albuquerque for a root canal which then ended up didn't happening. it's a story um basically it's a thing of shitty dental care when he was a kid I totally believe this he grew up in a small rural town. And he did his teeth are coming apart now and so he was supposed to get this root canal yesterday and the ah andidantist looked at it and said that actually the tooth is in such terrible shape is crumbling so much. That even if he did the root canal and they put a crown on it. It might come apart in six months so he might have to do a bridge and all of this kind of thing. So um, but anyway I thought maybe I could get the podcast done before I left but I couldn't and ah so thing. So did yesterday was a little bit of a wasted day but I I was sad about it I kind of took it and stride I was um, know we we went to Starbucks actually twice on the way down and on the way back and yeah and it was fine.

01:42.73
jeffekennedy
So news from me I know that I need to I've I not haven't been talking about my own stuff so much because I've had like industry things to talk about. But I think I forgot to tell you all the exciting news that we sold italian rights for Oneira woo hoo. Yep, so it'll be translated into italian some people ask me? Um, so what does that mean I have such a range of people who listen you know both industry folks and readers and other people. Um other people here under the vast umbrella. Ah, so yeah, when you sell foreign rights that means that they paid me money in euros so actually I get more in dollars which is nice, um, paid me in advance. So it's like selling to an american publisher but I sell to an italian publisher and then they pay for the translation. And they publish it and it's interesting with foreign rights because you end up having very little control of the actual book even more so than usual with traditional publishing because because um. In fact, when I I have been had books translated into italian before and you know like I found out and maybe and that was through Carina Press and harlequin so maybe it will be a little bit different this time but like I found out about it when they when they published it like.

03:17.22
jeffekennedy
My Google search turned up at the book it published and I hear this from lots of different authors like you get even less say than usual in covers. There's no way. Well I mean there probably is a way but in general you you have no idea how good the translation is they you know they could have. Drone in I don't know I was trying to think of a good example and I couldn't come up with one I well I wanted to say Don Quixote and then I became aware that was the wrong language. Anyway, you know unless you have someone read it who knows the language well and even then they would have to like tell you. Um, I've also had books translated into french same books that got translated into italian and I did study french and high school and in college and like I read Le Jeux Sont Fait oh the transcripts gonna hate that. Um. Entirely in french you know that's a short novel but still so I thought well I'm going to read my novel in french and and see here's my opportunity and um reader I gave up really fast. It's a little excruciating to read your own book anyway and then to read this erotic romance novel. In french um, when I was incredibly rusty. Yeah no I've had that conversation with other writers too. We're like oh no, we'll just let it go and that's what you have to do you just have to let it go of.

04:49.17
jeffekennedy
I was talking with a friend the other day about the Italian rights and she said that and and we have a couple other places interested to places countries languages. So um, but it's not firm yet. So I won't say anything yet but she um was. She'd had some books translated into various languages and she was like I never got royalties on any of those like you really hope for a good advance because um, it would be really difficult to audit their royalty statements and make them pay you. It would be interesting. Authors who listen to this I know you're out there. Let me know if you have ever received royalties on a translation.

05:35.77
jeffekennedy
Um, oh and then ah other news on Oira for which we still don't have a final title but we're we're nagging people about it. It's getting closer because we started talking covers yay and. I should have grabbed this before I started. Oh I can find it so torras sent me cover concept art now what this means is this is very early stages but they wanted to show me. Other book covers. They sent me 3 existing book covers books out there in the world and said this is the kind of thing we're thinking about and wanted to get your feedback before we send it to the art department. So so it's like not anything like my cover yet. But instead it's. This is the kind of thing we're thinking about and and they're really cool covers. It's it's really neat stuff. Um, and mom I sent you the email with those covers I don't know if you saw it yep to your Comcast email. Ah. So so this is great because they said we thought of doing something dark, romantic up market and with roses. So I think this is cool because and the salient part here is up market.

07:06.21
jeffekennedy
When I sent this to Megan. She said she asked if this could be the new tagline for her life megan dark romantic upmarket and with roses and I said yes if it can be for both of us and she agreed absolutely um up market means kind of that there. In the at least in the book business. Um that they're gonna try to appeal to like a broader audience than Joe's fantasy which I think is great. That's part of why I wanted this book to go to trat because. I thought that they would be able to launch it in a way that I would not and shooting for an upmarket audience which can include like book clubs kinds of things that is an audience that's very difficult to reach as a self- publisher. So um. The covers they sent are are gorgeous and and I could tell you well when they say dark and romantic like they're looking at like a glossy black background and and roses. So you all know I have to name drop at this woman. That I get to email with Robin Mckinley now ah since she was grandmaster last year and I want to email her because 1 of her things has been roses and when I asked her for what kind of images she wanted for graphics go along with her grandmaster announcement.

08:33.87
jeffekennedy
She said right roses like on these book covers you know lush romantic roses. So I'm gonna email her and say guess what I get to have roses too and one day I'm gonna grow up and be Robin Mckinley so um that's those exciting news on the book front. Um. I think I probably also did not say that we have changed the working title of Amethyst Run I had my um annual check in with Sarah a week ago monday day a week ago yesterday and we talked about all the things and I've mentioned on here it's one of the things that I really like about Sarah as an agent that she does this annual check-in and what kind of just go over all the plans. All the things. Um and I talked about having being deep into writing the amethyst run. Which is no longer called the amethyst run um that I'm having to change things up ah and part of it is is because my original concept was too complex for how the story is being executed. This is what happens when you write intuitively. Um, and you're writing on spec right? that I was like trying to predict where the story would go which is not my forte. So um I have what I've done in this book is I have these various fay realms that are.

10:05.34
jeffekennedy
Kind of in an in ascending order of magnitude of mysteriousness and power and I did them in order of alchemical colors and gems so amethyst is several layers in. And so I'm trying to explain this to Sarah saying I don't think I can get them all the way to this to amethyst to the fay realm of amethyst that I'm only going to get them as far as like moonstone which is the second and I said but 1 option would be to change up the order of the fay realms. It doesn't have to be. Alcheical symbols and Sarah said let's make the series title be order of the fay roms I was like all right done and so now the working title for this book is the first order of the Fay Ros um how do you like that. It actually makes much more sense for the story and it conveys certain things. Um, she also amusingly I know I've told this elsewhere but I don't think I've told it here. Um, she asked about how like hot this book is and I said well it's a slow burn. And she gave me this look for those not on video. It was the um, the blandly disapproving look and she said can we have some heat in the first book and I said well it's kind of hard because it's like a lot of action in they're like on a short timeline and.

11:37.12
jeffekennedy
All of this and she just keeps giving me the look and she's like really it would help a whole lot on selling this book as if we could have some some sex in the first book and so and I'm mentioning this because I know that this is the kind of thing where certain indies will. You know lights row up their hands in despair and be like oh they're telling me how to write my book. They told me I have to have sex at the first book. This is the kind. This is how the conversation actually occurs um nobody tells you you have to do the thing but your agent will give you look the look and say it would really help if. And ah and I'm like okay I mean because I love to write this stuff right? I'm like I I'll figure it out I'll I'll figure out how to do it and she said it doesn't have to be a lot. You can save the flogging for the second book that was like oh my god Sarah. I do not have flogging in every book and I told this to some other people and they were giving me grief about having flogging in every book and I blood so now I kind of want to go through my entire catalog and count up all of the books that do and don't have flogging because really there it's not that many. But they're having a good time giving me grief about it. What are friends for so um, all of that's that's going I mean the first order of the fa realms is not going as fast as I would like it to but do they ever? um.

13:11.32
jeffekennedy
And yeah, I'm I'm really excited seeing ah onera coming together. So that's all the happy news then I have something I want to share with you. Um, because I feel like this is really important for newer writers. In particular and that is something about contest feedback because I know that certainly back in the day I did all kinds of entered all sorts of contests and it was a real roller coaster and ah so this thing happened. Where last year I entered dark wizard in a published book contest and I want you to remember that this is a published book contest right? The books published it's out there dark wizard for the record, let me crap it. So dark wizard I think you all know and many of you have read has done well for me and I love this book. Um, it has almost eight hundred ratings on Amazon which is good for me and it's standing at a 4 point 3 um and I'm good reads it's got a 3.9 out of 5 with almost fifteen hundred ratings and having that good of a rating on good readings is great it's great I'm very happy with with those ratings I'm happy with how this book is done I've reached new audiences with it and that's.

14:44.86
jeffekennedy
Part of why I thought well I'll enter this particular contest. Um, and I am filing off the serial numbers a bit but it is with um, an organization that has been struggling So a subset of that organization and I thought well. You know and I used to be much more heavily involved. So I thought well I'll support them and I'll enter Dark Wizard even though I haven't entered any of my published books in anything for a really long time I thought ah you know Dark Wizard has a shot of winning and they a really pretty trophy and I mean who am I kidding that's I'm driven By. Obtaining pretty trophies to put on the shelf. Ah so I thought yeah might as well try it. So I entered the book and then there were organizational problems and I won't go into the weeds on this but like. When they were supposed to announce the finalists they didn't and they sent up the things saying oh gosh you know we're having problems and then they didn't give the awards when they were supposed to and then I never heard anything about it ever again and mostly I forgot about it right? But everyone I would think no wonder what happened with that and then I couldn't find anything on it. So Oh my best beloved the other day this same organization asked me if I would be a final judge for their unpublished manuscript contest which I have done before several times and normally I mean if I can make it work.

16:15.87
jeffekennedy
I I will do this kind of thing you all know I like to pay it forward and I said well you know, let me think about it and I said but I really want to know what happened with the published book contest because I was going to be annoyed because they do take a $50 entry fee I was going to be annoyed if they like never did the contest. It's like. Is there an organizational problem here I don't want to be supporting something where they're taking people's money and then like not actually pulling the contest together so to go running the unpublished contest didn't know but she said oh I'll ask the go running the published contest to to contact you. Which she did right away so that that was Great. You know and she was like oh I apologize I was having trouble sending emails. Um and but here are your scores so she sent me the scores on the book. There were 3 judges and ah.

17:11.40
jeffekennedy
I got and the book I see I still mess up on that you all know that I really try to stay say instead of me I say the book and I still slip up. It's an ongoing effort like all things right? So ah, the book got a 7.8 and 8 and a 4 out of 10 now. These are very standard contest results for me and when I was very very first newbie writer and I would get these things. Um I would it would throw me into a pit of despair and someone explained to me that I have a very strong voice strong voice on my books. Strong voice here on the podcast and when you have a very strong voice. It tends to be polarizing that you tend to get very high scores and very low scores. But these are not very high I mean eight seven point Eight what did I say something like that. And they dropped the lowest score but the worst part people is is that there were comments with it and I don't know why they asked for comments, you don't I don't want to see comments on my published book. Ah but you know of course she emailed this to me so I read them and they were devastating comments people. Um, and I have I don't like the metaphor of the thick skin but stiff doesn't bother me much anymore these days and these were a little painful for me and here I am you know like with my Rita trophy. Um, you know plenty of validation. My six figure deal. All of this.

18:45.27
jeffekennedy
Um, and and evidence that this book is you know worthy right? You know I've got this decent rating on Amazon and these um people so I'm just going to read you some of these comments because I feel like this is important to know um that. Like a book like mine would get comments like this Ah they said um, found it really hard to get into the story due to the verbose narrative and run on sentences. Um.

19:21.21
jeffekennedy
1 character seemed almost too perfect so lacking significant character flaws ah felt like the plot could have been executed better. Another one says watch that the heroine doesn't read like a child. Her decisions were foolish and not believable most of the time. The hero was more developed but inconsistent in his behavior from sweet laid back to fit of anger and the one that gave me a forer of course was the worst most vicious too much telling too little showing. Um. The female character arc was solely situational and the male character was 1 note as opposed to the previous judge. Ah the line writing which which even what does that mean, what is line writing. Line writing felt immature and lengthy interspersed with words most readers would have to stop and look up. Um, highly suggest hiring a developmental editor and or taking a workshop on line writing and character development. So. Why would you say this to somebody who's already published the book right? that makes no sense and I mean you all know I teach workshops on that maybe I should take my own workshop. Um, and so the take home message here is that that these comments are.

20:44.45
jeffekennedy
Are not useful and I've shared this with a number of people who've read the book and they're like did they even read the same book which is what we go through right when you see reviews and um and always tell people not to read reviews I wish I hadn't read these comments because they did get in my head and that's what happens again. It gets in your head. Even when it's patently stupid. Um and some of this is patently stupid because there is no such thing as line writing I don't even know what line writing means. Ah so I did write back to the gal running the unpublished contest and I said I know this isn't your problem. But thank you for tracking down those results for me I also had to ask the gal running the published contest where the final results had been posted. And it turned out because I tried to look for him and I got a four zero four error and she's like oh the page had been down but now it's back up again I got it back up and I found it and amusingly the book who won that one in my category is a book that I blured right? The world is for full of irony. Ah. But um I I wrote back and I said you know as as a writer who cares about younger writers and as president of Sifwa where part of our mission is to create a safe genre community.

22:09.98
jeffekennedy
I'm really bothered by the tone of these comments because I mean I didn't say it got under my skin I'm sharing it with just all of us. Um, but it got more under my skin more than it should have and I can just imagine for a less experienced writer with less validation than I have had. That this would be ruinous. This would be so devastating and there's just not an excuse for it. So I told I said that she should be feel to feel free to share with the board of directors for their organization and so forth. But that I couldn't put my name on the contest even the unpublished contest even though they're different and she did say she wrote back and said well you know the unpublished contest is judged by by professionals not by readers and I'm like it doesn't change much whereas it does it. Um I think it's a real problem that people running contests are not being more aware of this kind of thing so I went a little long today but I did want to share that with all of you. Um, you know one trick and I might do it I might print print out the page with these comments and burn it. Um. It actually works to get it out of your head and if you got something like this hey we're in it together. So I hope you all have a great week and I will talk to you all on Friday you all take care bye bye.