tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81478594440007292102024-02-07T10:31:38.322-08:00The Book Wielder DiaryThe Epic Saga of the Publishing of My Epic Saga.
Being a novice to the book publishing industry, I've decided to keep an online diary of the publishing and promotional process as it unfolds for my first novel. I'll talk about all the stuff I do, how well it works out (or how miserably it fails), what resources I use, and what (if anything) useful I learn along the way.Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-77492663346567333942017-01-27T15:19:00.001-08:002017-01-27T15:19:26.731-08:00Twins<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/DIXjUT3oEvQ" width="480"></iframe>Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-64809237741084815412017-01-21T12:36:00.001-08:002017-01-21T12:36:03.923-08:00How to Make the Fish Wielder Pudding Of Power<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/90Wf_4VdTvQ" width="480"></iframe>Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-62064906821678634452016-12-21T17:32:00.004-08:002016-12-21T17:32:45.509-08:00'Tis the Season<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i>With the fondest regards for what Christmas is really all about... </i></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The middle-aged woman in the Santa hat sitting next
to me on the plane sighed dramatically. “Seems like people have completely
forgotten what Christmas is all about,” she announced to the air. She paused in
an apparent attempt to leave me an opening to interject. I steadfastly did not. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Without further preamble, she launched into an
impassioned tirade about the commercialization of Christmas, which, she
suggested, was a relatively recent development that had begun sometime after
her own golden childhood and which was now reaching an unbearable peak. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Down through the ages, we humans have repeatedly
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exploitation and cynical thinking are recent developments and becoming more
pronounced as time goes on.</i> You can find laments about this in ancient
Greek, Latin and Egyptian, and yet we continue to perceive the issue as being
about the specific things going on in the world around us rather than the
things going on inside all of us, always. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">An example is our belief that the commercialization
of Christmas began within our own lifetimes. Actually, merchants fabricated most
of the current American Christmas tradition around 1820 as part of a successful
attempt to refocus the boisterousness of a population at loose ends and flush
with unaccustomed abundance away from rioting and looting and toward buying
things and quietly staying home to give them to each other. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You see, in ancient times, January was a more <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">interesting</i> month. The arrival of
January meant that the harvest was complete, which meant less farm work to keep
people busy. The cold weather kept butchered livestock from rotting, but there
was a short window of time in which to enjoy it at its peak of palatability. So
there was a lot of feasting. The first batches of beer were also ready to be
drunk, which is what vast swaths of the population were at the onset of
January—ready to be drunk. They had too much time on their hands, a short-lived
overabundance of food that was going to be followed by a long period of want,
way too much alcohol and the prospect of a long, bitter winter. Plus, they were
coming out of thousands of years of a feudal tradition in which January was the
“season of Misrule,” when masters and servants reversed roles and the poor
could accost the well-to-do and demand gifts of food, alcohol and money as a
kind of social-pressure-relief valve. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Now
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some!</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">However, the seasonal traditions of drunken
overindulgence and ritual extortion of the wealthy that filled a functional
social role in monarchies didn’t go over very well in democratic, capitalistic
America. In Europe, drunken revelers accosted noble lords and ladies who’d
inherited land and other holdings, but in America, they harassed hardworking
business people who didn’t feel as if they owed any particular debt to the
masses. The great experiment of American democracy, coupled with the beginnings
of the industrial revolution, caused great social upheaval that was profoundly
affecting everything, including Christmas. The holiday frequently turned into
an excuse for licentious behavior, rioting in the streets and looting of shops,
making the season such an unsafe time to go outdoors that the celebration of
Christmas was actually officially outlawed in some major cities. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And so, spearheaded by business owners, a movement grew<a href="https://www.blogger.com/null" name="_GoBack"></a> in the early 1820s to change Christmas from a drunken
carnival of public excess into an idyllic domestic celebration built on a
foundation of “selfless generosity” that would require the exchanging of gifts.
They hand-selected or outright fabricated “traditions,” like filling stockings
with presents and exchanging Christmas cards. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Commercialism isn’t the bane of
our current Christmas tradition but its <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">foundation</i>.
Even our modern version of Santa Claus was formulated as the figurehead of this
domestic/commercial movement, built from a combination of the gift-giving Saint
Nicholas, the British Father Christmas and various pagan figures, including
Odin, Cernunnos and the Green Man. Santa’s fur-lined suit and cap are both
holdovers from the wild Green Man, as are his reindeer Donner (Thunder) and
Blitzen (Lightning). His red hat is probably a corrupted blend of the bishop’s miter
of St. Nicholas, Odin’s pointy wizard cap and the Green Man’s hooded cloak. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Which is what I was thinking as I watched the white
fluff ball at the tip of my seatmate’s hat bob energetically while she
emphatically shook her head. “It just seems so wrong that all these brands and
stores and everybody are glomming onto our Christmas traditions, using them to
sell stuff and then not even wanting to call the holiday by its proper name,”
she concluded. She sighed mightily and then stared at me expectantly, perhaps
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I briefly toyed with telling her that Christmas, as
she knew it, really <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">was</i> about
commercialism, that there really was a Santa Claus but that he wasn’t the
selflessly generous and sprightly old elf from her childhood, that he was
instead an odd combination of ancient Norse Gods, pagan nature spirits and
misappropriated saints invoked by merchants to sell presents and Coca-Cola, that
what was bothering her was that she was getting older rather than that the
world was changing, that her perception that the state of the universe was
devolving into corruption and commercialism was a story as old as humanity and
one we all tell ourselves in order to avoid facing the harsh reality that <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">we</i> are sliding into old age. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So I did.</span></div>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">And let me tell you, it is possible to make a
four-and-a-half-hour, middle-seat flight significantly more uncomfortable than
it has to be just by saying the wrong thing. Even if it is true.</span>Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-15117590545479969972016-12-13T07:03:00.001-08:002016-12-13T07:03:45.298-08:00Sixteen Spellbindingly Alphabetized Witches and Wizards<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbi39S0wQdhyZEEAk00Vuy9IPeUvO8ZPmSL7oBdgmln85dO4zyk2ey2TMQO50QXHZSS_dDaIqXti1xttmQEPgmz9nLSUaGbCRgujLX8HQ2ejZgBh7OjUWUWlCXLO6DLzR_leWTdmR-wzbg/s1600/WitchesWizards.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbi39S0wQdhyZEEAk00Vuy9IPeUvO8ZPmSL7oBdgmln85dO4zyk2ey2TMQO50QXHZSS_dDaIqXti1xttmQEPgmz9nLSUaGbCRgujLX8HQ2ejZgBh7OjUWUWlCXLO6DLzR_leWTdmR-wzbg/s400/WitchesWizards.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">I’m going to upset someone with this list. Let’s
just get that out of the way right off the bat. Probably a bunch of someones. People
love them some witches and wizards, and if I know people (and I do know a
couple), they get pretty persnickety about which spellcasters they think are
the best, and why. First, there’s going to be some dispute over gender-specific
magic user titles (witch, enchantress, sorceress, etc.). Why can’t I just call
them all “wizards” and be done with it? Because some characters (Serafina
Pekkala, for example), are proud of the title “witch,” and would get mad if I
changed it. So boom. People are going to be mad right there. Couple that with
the fact that there are literally hundreds of witches, wizards, warlocks,
enchantresses, sorcerers and necromancers that show up in fantasy fiction while
I’m trying to hold my list down to just fifteen of them, and someone is going
to get their nose out of joint because their favorite got left off the list, or
didn’t take the top slot, or should have been referred to as a “necromancess”. </span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing">
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">I won’t do anything about the gender-indicative
titles because that’s not my job. And I can’t really do anything about the too-many-magic-users
thing, because there are just too many magic users. But I <i>can</i> mitigate
the impression of slighting your favorite enchanter/ess by listing these fifteen
witches and wizards… ALPHABETICALLY! So, without further ado (wait! One further
bit of ado! There are a few spoilers on this list, although I’ve tried to keep
them to a minimum), here are Sixteen Spellbindingly Alphabetized Witches and Wizards:</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Dallben—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">When we first
meet Dallben in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Book of Three</i> by
Lloyd Alexander, he’s already 379 years old, so there’s that. I’m barely half a
century and I’m already getting creaky. Next, he’s one of those wizards who
hardly ever needs to use his power because he’s so bad ass that the bad guys
just steer clear of him. But when they do try to mess with him, he burns them
to the ground. In addition to being the mightiest enchanter in all of Prydain,
he’s also the keeper of the magical Book of Three, which has all the secrets of
the past, present and future in its pages. And finally, he’s both the protector
of Hen Wen, the oracular pig, and the foster parent of Taran, the main
character. All of these things make him pretty awesome, in my opinion.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">So, I had to decide—H for Harry or D for Dresden? </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Most wizards are such rock stars that, like Madonna or Prince, they go
by a single name and everyone knows who they are. But not Harry. He’s got <i>four</i>
names. I decided to go with the system I learned in first grade—alphabetize
people by their last names. Harry is the star of Jim Butcher’s <i>The Dresden
Files</i> series, which is kind of a mashup between magic and hard-boiled
detective fiction. He’s not just a wizard, he’s also a private detective
working in Chicago. As far as magic goes, he’s a powerful elemental enchanter,
specializing in “Kaboom Magic” (battle magic) that involves earth, wind, fire,
water and ice spells (although he’s not above using a regular old shotgun in a
pinch). He also has a magical talking skull named Bob and a dog named Mouse who
is basically as smart as a human.</span><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore</span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Dumbledore’s got <i>five</i> names. Count ‘em. Do I really need to
explain why Dumbledore’s on the list? Ok, fine. Let’s see. For starters, like
Dallben, he’s an old teacher (he was born in 1881, which makes him about 115
years old). We get introduced to him as the Head Master of Hogwarts school of
witchcraft and wizardry in <i>Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone</i> by J.K.
Rowling, and then he runs the place and pretty much knows everything for six
more books. Apart from running <i>the</i> school of magic, he can pull memories
out of his brain (and other people’s) with his wand, he has a pet phoenix, he was
the winner of the greatest magical duel of all time in which he battled and
imprisoned the wizard equivalent of Hitler (Grindelwald), and when he looks in
a mirror that shows people their deepest, darkest desire, he sees himself
holding a pair of thick, woolen socks. Not really on that last one. He was
actually totally lying about that to Harry. Oh, and he’s the only gay wizard on
this list…that I’m aware of. While most people have heard that the word
Dumbledore is an antiquated word for bumblebee, apparently, it was also a style
of hat popular in London in the 1880’s and 90’s. Albus is Latin for “white,” so
that would make his name, “White Hat,” which is a sneaky way of saying, “the
good guy.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Elphaba—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">So, I know.
She’s a wicked witch—no, THE wicked witch. But if there’s one thing I’ve
learned from reading Gregory Maguire’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Wicked</i>,
it’s that there are two sides to every story and the winners usually make the
losers look like the bad guys. Elphaba is actually a bit of both, and a pretty
awesome witch to boot. First, she doesn’t like being called a witch. I don’t
think I would either. Second, she’s Ozian royalty. Third, she’s the
illegitimate daughter of the Wizard of Oz, and finally, she uses sorcery to
create the flying monkeys. Come on! That should get you on a list like this
even if you spend the rest of your career slacking.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Gandalf—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Oh, come on!
Like Gandalf wasn’t going to be on this list! Of course he is. Gandalf isn’t
even a human. He’s a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Maia</i>, which is
basically an angel. That’s right. Gandalf is an angel incarnated in a basically
human form, sent down from Valinor to aid in the battle against Sauron. How old
is he? He was born before the world was created and he’s essentially immortal.
So…old. 2,000 plus, at least. What else? Well, when he’s not flapping around on
giant eagles, he rides around on the fastest horse that ever lived, (which he
can talk to), he owns one of the Three Elven Rings (Narya, the Ring of Fire), he
battles a Balrog, and he gets to shout that awesome line, “Fly, you fools!”
Then he gets <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">killed</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">comes back to life</i>. Oh, and he can make
fireworks and blow animated smoke rings from his weed pipe. There’s a bunch of
other stuff, but those are the basics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Ged—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Wait. So now I’m switching from <i>advisor</i>
wizards to <i>protagonist </i>wizards? Yes. I can do that. I don’t have to
write about Ogion, even though he’s an old wizard who teaches, because I like
Ged better and this is <i>my</i> list. We first meet Ged as an orphan child in <i>A
Wizard of Earthsea</i> by Ursula K. Le Guin (the K stands for </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Kroeber, which isn’t some weird middle name; it’s her maiden name). And
right off the bat, he unleashes some major magic without even knowing what he’s
doing. That kind of turns out to be a theme for him, as he later unleashes a
viciously evil shadow monster into the world without really knowing what he’s
doing. But, he also does a bunch of other stuff, like mastering dragons and
travelling to the literal ends of the earth and finding the broken pieces of a
massively magical ring and being the only guy with any chance of closing evil
portals between the land of the dead and the land of the living. Oh, and he’s
the only wizard of color on this list—a fact that the SyFy channel totally
overlooked when they made their utterly crappy and very Caucasian mini-series,
Legends of Earthsea, based on the books.</span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"></span></b></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Hermione Granger—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Hold
it! Hold it! I already did a spell caster from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harry Potter </i>series! What do I think I’m up to? Well, I’m including
Hermione from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Harry Potter and the Cursed
Child</i>, and that’s not technically in the seven-book series. Plus, she’s
such an awesome witch that she actually becomes Minister of Magic. Plus, Harry
and Ron would never have survived without her. Plus, she got turned into a
human/cat hybrid for a couple of months. Alternately described as “the
brightest witch of her age” and “an insufferable know-it-all,” depending on who
you ask, she’s pretty much a genius. Plus, her parents are both dentists. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">8.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Harold Shea—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Harold, the
“Incomplete Enchanter” Shea, is one of my favorite wizards. He’s really a
psychologist from the present day (well, present day 1940’s—which is when the
stories were written) who uses a system of symbolic logic to project himself
into alternative realities in which magic works. Unlike almost every other
wizard, Harold doesn’t have a teacher—he figures out how to do magic based on
things he’s read, educated guess-work and logic. Most of the time, he’s just
winging it and bumbling his way through his spells to create tales of
wonderfully screwball fantasy. Harold is basically just a brainy nerd—but
written before nerds were a thing. Do yourself a favor and check him out in the
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Complete Enchanter</i> series by L.
Sprague De Camp and Fletcher Pratt. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">9.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Sorceress Ivy—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Princess
Ivy (that’s right, she’s going to be King of Xanth one day) is just three years
old when she stars in Piers Anthony’s seventh Xanth novel <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Dragon on a Pedestal </i>and helps save the world from destruction. She
has a “magician level” talent—the magic of enhancement. She can enhance any
quality of a person or object—including unconsciously making them more like
what she thinks they are or should be like. She’s also the twin sister of Ida,
the Sorceress of the Idea, who can make any idea become a reality. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">10.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Marceline the Vampire Queen—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Wait…I’m including characters from <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Adventure
Time</i> on this list? Yes. Marceline Abadeer is not really a traditional magic
user, but everything about her is magical. While she’s a vampire, she doesn’t usually
suck blood—instead she eats the color red out of things. She is over a thousand
years old, can levitate, turn invisible, change into various beasts, absorb the
powers of other vampires and can play bass guitar. She also survived a nuclear
war. So there’s that.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">11.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Merlin—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">OK. This one
was another gimme. You can’t make a list of wizards and not put Merlin on it.
There’s a law. But let’s not do the normal Merlin stuff. Let’s focus on the
lesser known coolness. First, Merlin was based on a supposedly real guy named Myrddin
Wyllt, who is a legendary Welsh madman and prophet from around AD 573. He
started off as a bard, but went insane during a battle when he saw his entire
side of the fight wiped out. Geoffrey of Monmouth renamed him Merlin and
associated him with the Arthur legend. But apart from all the Arthur drama,
which I assume you know, Merlin is cool because he was apparently the offspring
of a king’s daughter and an Incubus. That’s right. His dad was a demon, which I
guess makes him a half demon. And he singlehandedly built Stonehenge. Yup. And,
he cast the magic spell that allowed Uther Pendragon to disguise himself as
Igraine’s husband and father Arthur. Which he did because his gift of prophecy
hipped him to the fact that making baby Arthur was a good idea. So, not bad for
an insane, Welsh bard.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">12.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ninguable of the Seven Eyes and Sheelba of the Eyeless
Face—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">I’m totally cheating! I’m doing two for one here!
But it’s my list, so shut up. These two wizards are from the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lankhmar </i>books by Fritz Leiber, and I’m
including them both in one entry because they are kind of the co-patrons of
Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, even though they never really work together as
wizards. They’re both kind of creepy and ominous and not a lot is known about
them. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Ningauble
has seven glowing eyes that float around inside his hood. He lives in various caverns.
Sheelba just has a black space in his hood and his house is a hut that scuttles
around on chicken leg-like posts—very similar to descriptions of the witch Baba
Yaga’s place. Both these guys are behind-the-scenes-style manipulators who send
Fafhrd and the Mouser on various quests. If you’ve never checked out the
Lankhmar books, you should, because they are great. And that’s not just my
opinion. You can look that up. That’s a fact.<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"></span></b></span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">13.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Quentin Coldwater—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Are you
paying attention? Yes, I just broke my alphabetizing rule and filed this one
under “Q”. Why? Because I didn’t want to start my list with Quentin. Why?
Because I wanted to start with Dallben, and it’s my list. Also, you have to
build your way up to Quentin Coldwater to properly appreciate him because the
character was clearly built on a scaffolding of all kinds of excellent wizards
and stories from the fantasy genre. Anyway, Quentin Coldwater is the hero of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Magicians</i> trilogy by Lev Grossman.
Grossman said that he wanted to write a darker, more grown up version of Harry
Potter where the school of magic was more like what he’d experienced in school.
I think he succeeded. Quentin is a kind of depressed misfit who basically pulls
a Ged and accidentally unleashes a horrific beast by goofing around in magic
class. I love him as a wizard because he’s never particularly confident about
what he’s doing and because a lot of his magical adventures happen in a land
called Fillory, which is basically a dark and grown up version of Narnia.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">14.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rincewind—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Described as,
“the magical equivalent of the number zero,” is the most cowardly and
incompetent wizard on this list. That’s what makes him such an excellent
character. He seems to spend most of his time running away from various enemies
and transforming relatively minor problems into seriously major ones. He debuts
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Color of Magic</i> by Terry
Pratchett and is featured in a number of other Discworld books.<b> </b>While
Rincewind himself is not particularly fierce, he does have a very dangerous
piece of sentient luggage that follows him around everywhere, violently protects
him, and has an interior that is not constrained by its external dimensions.
Rincewind is also a failed student at the Unseen University for wizards on
Discworld. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">15.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">Serafina Pekkala—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Wait,
shouldn’t she be under “P” for Pekkala? Yes, she probably should, but I always
think of her as Serafina rather than as Pekkala. Now quit nagging me about the
alphabetization.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Serafina is the gorgeous
witch Queen of basically Finland in Phillip Pullman’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">His Dark Materials</i> trilogy. She’s around three hundred years old
and likely to live to a thousand (witches live a long time in those books)
although she’s not exactly human. She can fly with the aid of a pine branch and
intervenes from time to time to save the day. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNoSpacing" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -.25in;">
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">16.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">Tim the Enchanter—</span></b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">I had to turn it up to
eleven and end this list with Tim. He is my favorite wizard of all time and the
only one who is not from a book. Clearly, he specializes in pyrotechnical
magic, and he’s Welsh. Apart from that, and his enmity with the vicious, nasty </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabbit_of_Caerbannog" title="Rabbit of Caerbannog"><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Rabbit of Caerbannog</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">, I can’t tell
you a whole lot about Tim except that I laugh every time I see him, no matter
how often that is. If you’ve never had the pleasure, check him out in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Monty Python and the Holy Grail</i>, where
he is played by the incomparable John Cleese. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;"></span></b></span></div>
Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-48066543006292914682016-08-23T23:49:00.004-07:002016-08-23T23:49:50.799-07:00August 23rd, 2016: End of the Road, Beginning of the Road<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLHWxEi3CESNtrutAsjR07tELU5Nx3YF05WJsCazhhEYDnKdYlEYd_nV-KlK17EUP7Hs-nuAtPXVfeJ6H1i0uhGjCGkYwOcfBAk-QQEMYH-YG4EGPOU7cAcx0UlG-3VKK9kvDgN0KsbWDj/s1600/BookSigning2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="308" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLHWxEi3CESNtrutAsjR07tELU5Nx3YF05WJsCazhhEYDnKdYlEYd_nV-KlK17EUP7Hs-nuAtPXVfeJ6H1i0uhGjCGkYwOcfBAk-QQEMYH-YG4EGPOU7cAcx0UlG-3VKK9kvDgN0KsbWDj/s640/BookSigning2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxpp4-TlT3FwtJ8nLTlDs_dQBP9tciwaKpokznpzuZALIsCXahxD2Ep9I54BEZpYDDInaZoErHInYnoYZ65Y6KyGQQW9ZjohV7rXRTTyV8vKiyd3qWMf6B2V092VTKUS8PLjNemqTF7l8E/s1600/Hardback.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a></div>
The book is finally done and out. I have held the copies in my hands. In fact, I have even had a book release party just this very night. It's been a long and winding road from the time I finished the first draft of the book (19 months ago) and it was weird today to sit next to a pile of books and have the journey done.<br />
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But, of course, the journey is not done. It's just starting. More tomorrow.Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-81540564307958546762016-07-29T11:37:00.000-07:002016-07-29T11:38:36.033-07:00The Countdown, the Weird Worry List and The PR<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrVNi_JAMFIEOTBqpuRfsHbf1bb49BdfX7BButuR23djOqJdepUf4e6V9VbW6mnTgUXHw7cQEQHvFqw2nej36S_qmyyTsbqx5B1wtIqY2jVHqV4e45ChGlxYL7ZVSGJiGFGMO8tTWrL1D9/s1600/CountDown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrVNi_JAMFIEOTBqpuRfsHbf1bb49BdfX7BButuR23djOqJdepUf4e6V9VbW6mnTgUXHw7cQEQHvFqw2nej36S_qmyyTsbqx5B1wtIqY2jVHqV4e45ChGlxYL7ZVSGJiGFGMO8tTWrL1D9/s400/CountDown.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The first three entries on the countdown clock</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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So! The one month countdown to the release of Fish Wielder is in full swing! I've created a daily countdown post for social media in an effort to keep the release top of mind and, hopefully, to give people a taste of the sense of humor of the book and keep them amused even while making them aware of the imminent arrival of the book. So far, the results have been pretty encouraging in terms of views. Of the 3100 or so friends Fish Wielder has on Facebook, I'm averaging about 300-653 actually seeing the posts. In my experience, that can be a big battle on Facebook, unless you are willing to pay for exposure. Generally speaking, when posting something organically, way less than ten percent of the people who signed on to see my posts actually even get a chance to see it. That's because (near as I can make out) Facebook is really eager to get me to pay for my stuff to be shown to the people who want to see it, so they've written a bunch of clever algorithms that prevent people being exposed to things for free. I'm also posting the countdown to Twitter and sometimes to Instagram, but my numbers for followers on those sites are pretty pathetic, so I'm not as focused there.<br />
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In other news, I've been filling out lots of email interviews that my publisher has sent me from various blogs that are going to participate in my virtual author tour. A virtual author tour is apparently what everybody does these days rather than an actual author tour. The actual author tours not only cost a bunch of money, but they are very inconvenient, as you actually have to travel a whole bunch. I'm not a person who loves travel. I would go so far as to say that I often actually dislike it. So, I'm just as happy to be doing a virtual tour (or perhaps more happy) than to be doing a real one. Although, since I've never done a real one, I'm just guessing.<br />
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As far as the interviews go, they've been pretty interesting. Not my answer parts so much, but the question parts. I've been asked to describe my writing process, to share any music play lists of stuff I listened to while writing, my approach to characters, the magic system of the world of Grome and even the political context in which the story is set. I've had a lot of fun answering, although the trickiest part has been trying to provide the requested information while projecting the humorous tone of the book. It seems like, if you've written a funny book, you probably shouldn't use a dry and serious tone when answering questions about it. I could be wrong about that, but I suppose we'll see. I'd hate to come across like I wasn't taking the questions seriously. There. That's another weird thing I never thought I'd be worrying about when sitting down to write the book. I should probably make a big list of all the weird stuff I've worried about in trying to get this book sold, published and promoted that I never dreamed I'd worry about when I was just having fun writing it.<br />
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A not weird worry I've been having is that the on-sale date for the book is approaching pretty rapidly and there are still tons of people who have never heard of it, don't know it's coming and probably won't have any exposure to it before it comes out. It's just a very crowded and noisy field, with all kinds of books being published every hour of every day. It's hard to get noticed in an environment like that. With this in mind, I wrote to my agent some time back and asked him what he thought about hiring a PR agent. He said he thought it was a good idea, but kind of expensive and said he'd meditate on whether there was one in particular he'd recommend. On May 24th, he got back to me on that front and said that there was an agency called <a href="http://www.wunderkind-pr.com/" target="_blank">Wunderkind PR</a> that he would recommend highly. I went to their website and checked them out. There appear to be two primary agents at Wunderkind and they list their email addresses on the site, so I picked Elena (the founder) and wrote to her. Since there aren't any submission guidelines or anything, I just winged it. I started by mentioning that my agent had suggested I contact them, then I gave a super quick bio of myself and my work, then I attached a bunch of links to my Fish Wielder stuff--the website, the Facebook page, the Twitter page, my Jim Hardison author page, and the trailers for the book. <br />
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Wunderkind has a pretty impressive client list, so I was kind of concerned that they wouldn't have time for me or would take a long time to respond, but Elena wrote back really quickly. She said the trailer made her laugh and asked what kind of PR campaign I was looking for--6 weeks or 3 months. I said I thought the 3 month campaign sounded best and then she wrote back and said that would be about $12,000 and that they would appreciate it if I could send the manuscript so that they could see if I would be a good fit for the agency. So, $12,000 is a lot of money, but in researching PR on the Googles and by asking people, I've come to understand that it's pretty much what PR costs if you want it done right. So, swallowing hard, I said yes and sent off the manuscript. I thought, "What the heck? The chances that they'll even accept me as a client are probably small, and if they do, it will be worth it."<br />
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Then I waited and waited.<br />
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Just over a month later, not having heard anything back, I assumed they must have decided that my book wasn't right for their agency. So, I started thinking about whether I was interested in pursuing some other PR firm, or if I should just let it drop. It's not like I was eager to spend a bunch of money, and in my research about PR firms, I had come across a lot of horror stories of people who had been very unhappy with their results. That made me wary about trying to find another PR agency that wasn't coming with a personal recommendation. I figured I'd write a quick note to Wunderkind just to confirm for sure that they had decided not to represent Fish Wielder. But guess what? Elena wrote back in less than two hours. She was apologetic about not having gotten back to me because she had been waiting to make sure there would be room on the Wunderkind schedule to fit me in. She was very complimentary about the book, but said they would only have time to do a six week (rather than 3 month) campaign. So I said yes. The downside is, of course, that the campaign won't be as deep as it would be with a three moth run. The upside is that it will be only half the cost.<br />
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So, I now have a PR firm (or, I will have a PR firm soon). They haven't sent me a contract or game plan yet, but I'm expecting one within the next week or two. I'm eager to see how much of a difference a PR agency will make in promoting the book and will keep you posted on how it works out and whether the return on investment feels adequate for the expense.<br />
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Ok. I think that's it for the moment, except to say that there are some other promotional things in the works and I'll lay out the details as they happen. I also need to do an accounting of how all the promotional stuff and the return on investment for the convention tables and booths has worked out, but that will have to be in a later post, as this one has run on far too long already.<br />
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Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-35949179424336033292016-07-23T19:02:00.000-07:002016-07-23T19:02:21.626-07:00Saturday, July 23rd, 2016: The Countdown Begins!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMnpB4Xy18Z5nGUQHPCo5VLWGnl3N8CC_D_3UirvaFUozgfU2ffaQZiVw8TR2bNkB00EEfPrpRSXufe7IYnGkD2paivgORQErWRajQ47VRLpLdimuEIwxURmv0yNinWyp8zuqm_EQi4C5R/s1600/CountDown.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMnpB4Xy18Z5nGUQHPCo5VLWGnl3N8CC_D_3UirvaFUozgfU2ffaQZiVw8TR2bNkB00EEfPrpRSXufe7IYnGkD2paivgORQErWRajQ47VRLpLdimuEIwxURmv0yNinWyp8zuqm_EQi4C5R/s640/CountDown.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
Well, this being the 23rd of July, 2016, the release of Fish Wielder is now exactly one month away. The COUNTDOWN has begun! I must say that, similar to how I might feel on seeing the timer begin to tick down on an explosive device, I feel an odd mix of excitement and trepidation. <br />
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The excitement is because, after more than a year and a half since finishing what I considered the "final" draft of the manuscript, it's finally going to be a real, published book. I've got to say that this publishing thing took A LOT longer than I expected it would. I knew it wasn't an overnight thing, the way self-publishing would be, but I didn't fully appreciate how long it would actually take. I'd love to hear from any other writers out there about your publishing experiences and how long your journey from manuscript to book took.<br />
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But, after all the waiting and preparing, I'm just one month away from the moment when people will actually be able to read the book and decide whether they like it or not! In a lot of ways, that's kind of the point of publishing a book, rather than just writing it and sticking it in a box under your bed. You want to share it with readers. I'm so excited to hear what people think about it and see whether they find it funny and enjoy the story.<br />
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And that's where the trepidation kicks in big time. They may not find it funny, or may not think it's a good story. Now, after months and months of telling people what it's going to be like, they're going to actually read it and decide for themselves. <br />
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Want to see what that feels like?<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtyulqoBUyaDMoU5-AszC2cnSy4l59C-m-IsV4TVdwjHFcdoqAdPE-bNEHy1x6qC8klIrAaT6VJt-ZuaDBSV5kFHcl7d5toaBABMBn9FZgzCOZ-jlq-IofTq0KMpvMHlgMPvcMGw9NXPJ1/s1600/BulletHead.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtyulqoBUyaDMoU5-AszC2cnSy4l59C-m-IsV4TVdwjHFcdoqAdPE-bNEHy1x6qC8klIrAaT6VJt-ZuaDBSV5kFHcl7d5toaBABMBn9FZgzCOZ-jlq-IofTq0KMpvMHlgMPvcMGw9NXPJ1/s640/BulletHead.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This picture is based on a Cabinet Card by the talented <a href="http://www.peculiarium.com/colin-batty/" target="_blank">Colin Batty</a>!</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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OK, with that out of the way, here's what's happening now, as Fish Wielder enters the final pre-published stretch.<br />
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First, I was up until about 4:00 AM this morning filling out author interviews. My wonderful publisher, <a href="http://www.fieryseaspublishing.com/#!fish-wielder/avxze" target="_blank">Fiery Seas Publishing</a>, emailed me a bunch of interviews to fill out for various websites and blogs. I find interviews fun but awkward. It's always weird talking about yourself (it feels so self-centered and braggy), but it's also really interesting to hear the questions that other people have about your book and your writing process. I also find it surprisingly useful to have to think about those things enough to be able to answer the questions. Why did I decide to write and epically silly epic fantasy? How did I get interested in writing and why do I do it? What was I trying to achieve with my characters? And then there are more specific questions about things I've already thought about a lot. What's the magic system on the mystical world of Grome? What it the political climate there? What meaning did I ultimately hope people would draw from the book?<br />
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Next, my publisher asked me to pull at least ten excerpts from the book that can be used to promote it. These were supposed to be between 300 and 500 words each. I didn't think that would be a hard thing to do, but there are actually a fair number of twists and turns in the Fish Wielder plot that made selecting excerpts a little tough. I couldn't pick any passages that gave away plot developments or could be interpreted as spoilers. So, it actually took me a whole day to identify excerpts. I actually started by picking out about twenty of them and then narrowed it down to fifteen that I sent off to my publisher. I figured that would provide a little flexibility.<br />
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Beyond those things, I'm also working on potential blog posts to use on my "virtual book tour" which is supposed to start up sometime on or around the release date of the book. Included in those posts would be things like interviews with the main characters of the book, selected quotes from the book and funny or interesting material related to Fish Wielder or writing in general. In other words, I'm having to do a bunch of writing! While that's totally cool and fun, it has been cramping my writing schedule just a bit for the next book in the trilogy, A Fish Out of Water. This is, of course, my own damn fault. My publisher warned me, shortly after I signed on with them, that I should get busy immediately on the sequel because I'd find myself pressed for time once the book was actually released. And did I immediately jump into the writing? NO! I was too buys doing other promotional things and feeling like I had plenty of time!<br />
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And here's another funny thing I didn't expect. Once I actually dove into the sequel writing process, it was a weirdly different than writing the first book. With the first book, absolutely anything was possible and all I had to do was follow where the story took me. With the second book, while there's still a good bit of that going on, I also have this little voice in my head that's comparing the new stuff to the old stuff. Am I capturing the same tone? Is the voicing consistent? Am I relying too heavily on jokes and tropes I used in the first book? Am I not using them enough in the second one? Writing a sequel is adding a whole new level of second-guessing to the process. I say a whole new level because my writing process always involves a fair amount of second guessing to start with. This just spreads a thick layer of frosting on top of that.<br />
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And one last thing. Now that I'm down to the last month, I hope to post here at least once a week, maybe more. Even that is a cop out. I had decided to post here every day for the last month, but when I just went to write that down, I found it a heart-stopping commitment and wimped out with the "at least once a week" thing. Then I tried to salvage it with the "maybe more" bit at the end.<br />
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OK. Time to run and pick up the pizza for dinner! Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-20678651419468970202016-07-09T12:32:00.002-07:002016-07-09T12:32:51.557-07:00Saturday, July 9th, 2016: WesterCon, M&M's and Measuring Success?<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid9u-y072i0vzrRGOKA5Yn2r-rBY6Y1ZO4qMHz0dQbrQYqo9Ywuqscq-JoaT2uW-ngwvSV7xga7sBUxWt7_r45jNQZPYs8ZzqgvOMvxk23WITa1pjbNtfv8LrO-xDOcIjZlTu7XA2HyYBd/s1600/HerbAndI.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="282" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEid9u-y072i0vzrRGOKA5Yn2r-rBY6Y1ZO4qMHz0dQbrQYqo9Ywuqscq-JoaT2uW-ngwvSV7xga7sBUxWt7_r45jNQZPYs8ZzqgvOMvxk23WITa1pjbNtfv8LrO-xDOcIjZlTu7XA2HyYBd/s400/HerbAndI.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Herb Apon doodles another character sketch at our booth at WesterCon69</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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I have migrated this Diary page from a sub-page of my site to a blog page on Blogger in order to make it more convenient to update more frequently, and to make it possible for people to leave comments. I looked into a number of different blogging possibilities, but wound up sticking with Blogger because I already use it for other writing things and I am familiar with it and how it works. I'd love to hear what you all use for blogging and why you chose what you chose. Unless you just do it yourself in HTML (which is how I know I'm supposed to be doing it, but I'm too lazy or harassed or something to figure it out) so no need to tell me.<br />
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In case I haven't ever mentioned it, I created the Fish Wielder website with Adobe DreamWeaver. I've found it to be user-friendly enough that I've been able to get the site up and looking generally acceptable without ever having read the manual or take any formal training. That's probably not the best approach to creating a website, but it fits with my general "do it yourself, even if you're kind of half-assed about it" model of getting things done. It means I'm frequently scratching my head about how to do something (like enable people to leave comments) or to figure out why something isn't working right (where did that page go?), but that's what YouTube tutorial videos were designed to address, right?! But enough about that.<br />
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Lots of things have happened since the last update. For example, the book is finally available for pre-order! That was a big milestone that was much delayed. Fish Wielder is now available for pre-order on <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Fish-Wielder-J-R-R-R-Jim-Hardison-ebook/dp/B01FGRFKV0" target="_blank">Amazon</a>, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/fish-wielder-jrrr-jim-hardison/1123780068?ean=9780996894319" target="_blank">Barnes & Noble</a>, <a href="https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/fish-wielder" target="_blank">Kobo</a> and <a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/fish-wielder/id1112771650?mt=11" target="_blank">iBooks</a>.<br />
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The pre-order thing is kind of interesting and frustrating. Paying attention to my pre-order sales rank is a little like what I imaging being addicted to gambling or drugs might be like. There's enough intermittent positive reward involved in checking pre-order stats that I keep doing it (sometimes, kind of obsessively), but the high of seeing a bump in the numbers doesn't last very long and does nothing to sustain me through the times when the numbers crash. And really, on the whole, the numbers are going down more often then they are going up because people buy the book less often then they don't buy the book.<br />
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The pre-order thing is also interesting because some of the retailers, like Amazon, display the "sales rank" of the book, which allows you to get a rough idea of how the book is doing. It's frustrating though, because you only get an approximate idea of how the book is doing. Why only an approximate? Because the "sales" rank doesn't tell you how many copies have been pre-ordered, it just tells you your relative rank in comparison to other books. While it's engaging (and sometimes nerve-wracking) to watch your rank go up and down (I can even graph it on Amazon), it still makes it hard to gauge the effectiveness of your promotional efforts.<br />
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For example, Herb Apon and I just attended WesterCon 69. That's the fourth Con I've had a table at to promote the book and the third one Herb has joined me at to sign posters and dazzle people with his charm and wit. We gave away all kinds of free swag (Fish Wielder bags, buttons, collectors' cards, book marks, stickers, temporary tattoos, coloring pages, posters, mugs, socks and even M&Ms)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpRX8uZafhWAdLLe2BfqGRMxPMeIq9M85VeBfxX0lq-Zwnxtya3SVni1dsT75KW_kssfIeA7km7rBl1sWxn-TPLpO_cL5gsgWphqwOVmbKh9mUuLRkp0R4k2YkK7snpsklZBWEUktuaTh6/s1600/M%2526Ms.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpRX8uZafhWAdLLe2BfqGRMxPMeIq9M85VeBfxX0lq-Zwnxtya3SVni1dsT75KW_kssfIeA7km7rBl1sWxn-TPLpO_cL5gsgWphqwOVmbKh9mUuLRkp0R4k2YkK7snpsklZBWEUktuaTh6/s400/M%2526Ms.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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to get people interested and we made a point of telling pretty much everybody that the book was available for preorder. After the con, I checked Fish Wielder's Amazon sales rankings for the paperback and the ebook editions.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD2ZkvHPKvH_5CygT1wMYlIx3H3KcMG7vmdGMjfrWFFD3hwbPa3C0xCUkbfHtWFf9tF3rqi5gjZ3bnvW3J0Qrsx6NyIjlqgrAgSqCHycXL8A9JOMWdkXsFxQ3Q6poH_0hSVSun9gTfVD_n/s1600/SalesGraphJulyDay1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD2ZkvHPKvH_5CygT1wMYlIx3H3KcMG7vmdGMjfrWFFD3hwbPa3C0xCUkbfHtWFf9tF3rqi5gjZ3bnvW3J0Qrsx6NyIjlqgrAgSqCHycXL8A9JOMWdkXsFxQ3Q6poH_0hSVSun9gTfVD_n/s640/SalesGraphJulyDay1.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The paperback version of Fish Wielder shows a significant spike on day one of WesterCon! Yay!</td></tr>
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There was a significant spike on day one of the con for pre-orders of the paperback version of the book. The rank rose from around #700,000 to around #110,000. That looks awesome! That looks like success! But how many pre-orders is that, exactly? Is that ten, or is that one? I have no idea and there is no good way I can think of to figure it out. Let's look at the ebook pre-orders:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFiQSXelkQ6K2rf7-9xAentJwW1-TA53MdQenKDFLngdfPgJxLweGp73xyur9Y26YqFKgME1uKDAy3LqRWZ9C3BuysX7AeyQ_CFkEjrqcRA6eoJBrUilpVa_14pks1_-Oetoctb63hSj3w/s1600/SalesGraphDay2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="416" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFiQSXelkQ6K2rf7-9xAentJwW1-TA53MdQenKDFLngdfPgJxLweGp73xyur9Y26YqFKgME1uKDAy3LqRWZ9C3BuysX7AeyQ_CFkEjrqcRA6eoJBrUilpVa_14pks1_-Oetoctb63hSj3w/s640/SalesGraphDay2.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The ebook versions shows a spike on day two!</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So wow! A big spike on day 2 of the con (apparently, no one wanted an ebook version on day one). The ebook pre-order rank jumped from #900,000 to about #110,000. That seems like a big jump. But again, how many pre-orders does that represent? It's difficult to figure because Amazon is basing the sales rank not just on the number of copies pre-ordered, but also on how many have been ordered over time and how fast/steadily the orders come in. They call this "sales velocity" and, while I'm sure it's useful to them, what it does is makes it really really hard to figure out the number of copies ordered. My publisher will eventually get that data, but not until after the book is released.<br />
<br />
So, was all the time and effort that went into getting a table at WesterCon, manning if for four days and giving away all kinds of free stuff worth it? That's very difficult to say from a pre-orders perspective. Did our efforts lead to two pre-orders or ten or twenty? I can't say, and that's frustrating and makes me understand why people prefer to put their money and effort into things (like FaceBook advertising) where they can measure their return on investment much more accurately. <br />
<br />
Pre-order numbers aside, WesterCon (and the other three Cons) have all been great and worthwhile experiences. I've gotten to meet some great people, seen some folks become very enthusiastic about the book, and have made some lasting connections with people who have become supporters of Fish Wielder in an ongoing way. From an investment of time and effort perspective, it has been worth every second I've put into it.<br />
<br />
One other cool thing that comes out of cons is that, whenever Herb Apon gets bored, he draws on the left over scraps of paper that come packed between the copies of The Helm graphic novel that I also give away to interested folks. He usually draws the characters from the book, using them as little signs to let people know that we are giving things away for free... Because about a third of all the people who come to our table are suspicious that we are up to something other than giving things away. Anyway, over the course of three cons, he's now drawn quite a few of these. Here they are:<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0azqNlwbGqfHFzb3R083A_GPuQl7lI2aLb2U7odsrScTUTIemYjUdId8Zf7jB65Q3z7LZtXDYd31AvSDJPA042znfRWUggNnGNvG_r_5F6OXglianVp817HMOTtPPqwsKYXo7b-CkcVSZ/s1600/HerbDrawings.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="476" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0azqNlwbGqfHFzb3R083A_GPuQl7lI2aLb2U7odsrScTUTIemYjUdId8Zf7jB65Q3z7LZtXDYd31AvSDJPA042znfRWUggNnGNvG_r_5F6OXglianVp817HMOTtPPqwsKYXo7b-CkcVSZ/s640/HerbDrawings.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Apart from the con, I also did a sock giveaway event at a local sock shop called <a href="http://www.sockdreams.com/" target="_blank">Sock Dreams</a> on the 25th of June. If you go back to the pre-order sales rank graphs, you will see that there were spikes in sales on both graphs on and around that date. I was in the store for roughly three hours and managed to give away about 50 pairs of socks. I worked with a very nice lady named Rae at Sock Dreams, who organized the whole event and did a great job promoting it. Thanks, Rae!<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7KwwNS3swO2i-ZgRRC8fmXBW3wzo3B3P_oB7gzHuWnqvBiXO7ez2cOtntv4X4QaJBn2eO-OxnJR80yBr71WawfkBMqXVcMrA_C09anZoy6-CbEe2sK2LHFs_DaA0Qz9wM3ztBBmwHKwl9/s1600/SockWielde3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7KwwNS3swO2i-ZgRRC8fmXBW3wzo3B3P_oB7gzHuWnqvBiXO7ez2cOtntv4X4QaJBn2eO-OxnJR80yBr71WawfkBMqXVcMrA_C09anZoy6-CbEe2sK2LHFs_DaA0Qz9wM3ztBBmwHKwl9/s640/SockWielde3.jpg" width="494" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">This was the promo poster I put together for the Sock Dreams event</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<br />
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<i>"With Fish Wielder, J.R.R.R. (Jim) Hardison has created
a unique and hilarious, fast-paced, action-packed tale that pokes fun at, but
also lovingly celebrates, the fantasy genre. I have never read anything like it
and I enjoyed the hell out of it."</i></div>
<i>
</i><div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<i>–Mike Wellins, author of Mountain of the Dead, Upon My Worst
Enemy </i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;">
<i>and the Stella's Baby-Sitting Service series</i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Mike is a great writer (you should read his <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Mike-Wellins/e/B001K890RU/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1468092441&sr=8-1" target="_blank">books</a>) and he also runs a museum of oddities in Portland called <a href="http://www.peculiarium.com/" target="_blank">The Peculiarium</a>. You should visit it if you ever get the chance. </div>
<br />
<br />
Well, that's it for this update. Now that I've got this page running on the Blogger site and I can post to it from my phone and don't have to worry about updating the whole Fish Wielder website to make a change, I hope to post more frequently. That will probably be a good thing, considering that we are getting closer to the actual launch of the book! Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-32195949759527594992016-04-27T16:10:00.000-07:002016-07-06T16:28:10.322-07:00Wednesday, April 27th, 2016: Pros, Cons, Trailers and Playtestings<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE6fWsneyvVRJA6yLo5IRtPF03EOab50PIBmVHqmbXzyMeux6sh_3Xf4nER9gAMbj_WxS_ofLW31cJot4DaZYfKTysUE3cw4szRgY8EYNzjTBRmTUe08cX96A28tuG0B2zRT217bVhvA_1/s1600/EmeraldCityDoodleSM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiE6fWsneyvVRJA6yLo5IRtPF03EOab50PIBmVHqmbXzyMeux6sh_3Xf4nER9gAMbj_WxS_ofLW31cJot4DaZYfKTysUE3cw4szRgY8EYNzjTBRmTUe08cX96A28tuG0B2zRT217bVhvA_1/s400/EmeraldCityDoodleSM.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A doodle Herb Apon drew for our Emerald City Comic Con appearance</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Lots of things going on! I had a booth (not an Artist's Alley table, an actual Booth!) at Emerald City Comic Con. Herb Apon, the cover artist for Fish Wielder, joined me in the booth to autograph posters and generally impress people with his mad art skills. And boy, was having a booth a learning experience. I'm glad I built up to it slowly. My first con was the smallish OryCon, at which I had a fan table. My next Con was the pretty big Wizard World Con, where I had an Artist's Alley table. Emerald City was gigantic (80,000 people), and I was pretty nervous going in. I actually hadn't planned to go because it's in Seattle, which is three hours drive from Portland, so I didn't even inquire about a table at the con until very late in the game. I asked about an Artists' Alley table, but they were completely booked and had been for months. In fact, they had been completely sold out since December. I thought about giving up on the idea, but decided I'd send the management team an email, just in case. And then, just about a month before the show, they contacted me to say that someone had dropped out and a booth was open! Of course, a booth was significantly more expensive and higher exposure than an Artists' Alley table, but Herb told me he'd man the booth with me, so I signed on. <br />
<br />
That meant that I suddenly had to hustle to make sure I had enough swag to make having a booth worth while and to ensure that I'd have things to give away for the whole four days of the con. So, I ordered another batch of Fish Wielder socks and also put in an order for T-shirts. I'd been wary about ordering T-shirts through any of the online T-shirt places I've worked with before. First, the on-demand printers I've worked with previously didn't always deliver consistent quality with dark T-shirts because each shirt was a one off. That made it iffy to put in a big order. Second, the shirts were very expensive--about $30 each, which meant that I wouldn't be able to order very many shirts. But then Herb recommended a local shop called Bomm Apparel. They turned out to be great and even went so far as to run me a test print on a dark green shirt so I could approve the quality. They were awesome, said they could get the shirts done on time for the con, and could print the shirts for less than a third of the price! So bam!<br />
<br />
I went with the same sock guys I used before and they put a rush on the order so that I could get them on time for the con too. Love those guys at Eversox.<br />
<br />
In addition to T-shirts and socks, I also got a bunch of copies of my graphic novel The Helm, from Dark Horse, to give away, I ordered another 1,000 buttons (two varieties--Brad buttons and Cover Art buttons), some business cards with a QR code for the book trailer, more Brad stickers, cover art stickers, QR code stickers, and a re-designed tote bag that is bigger, brighter and has a QR code for the website. I also had a bunch of book marks left over from the previous con, a bunch of temporary tattoos, and a bunch of posters as well. And then, my excellent publisher created a series of Character collector's cards and promotional postcards from some new Herb Apon art and put a rush on the order so that I'd have them on time. Here's the whole collection:<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPjB7kRSLe7pSm7fHqskIXVYukWxPynBk1iD3kK-E5GexdpHxgRR-B4i9OAzqv25ZVsKTf2YxS05GZuTXZlek0D6QggXQxP9dG91QxIceab6isJw1C626b5ldA6oJ2ibOSoFNAfy3lEbSp/s1600/AllPromoItemsSM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPjB7kRSLe7pSm7fHqskIXVYukWxPynBk1iD3kK-E5GexdpHxgRR-B4i9OAzqv25ZVsKTf2YxS05GZuTXZlek0D6QggXQxP9dG91QxIceab6isJw1C626b5ldA6oJ2ibOSoFNAfy3lEbSp/s400/AllPromoItemsSM.jpg" width="392" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">SWAG! SWAG! And more SWAG!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
So, despite the tight turn around time, and all the things that could have gone wrong, everyone came through and everything arrived on time! I even used Herb's art from the character cards to make up some coloring book pages to give away in case there were bored kids at the convention (I brought boxes of crayons too that I branded with Brad stickers and QR Code stickers).<br />
<br />
And the con went great! Well, there was a little hiccough at the beginning. When we got to the convention center on the day of the con, we discovered that there was no booth for us--just a gap where our booth was supposed to be. We found that out with a few hours to go before the floor opened for guests. But we managed to parlay that error into a free second table for our booth! Score.<br />
<br />
We met lots of great people who seemed very interested and enthusiastic about the book. We gave away tons of stuff. And, we even met a couple of people who were already familiar with the book and had even read this page! <br />
<br />
For those of you who may make your own con appearances in support of your books, here are some things that worked:<br />
<br />
1. We put out an email sign up sheet and got several hundred email addresses.<br />
<br />
2. We offered our big, bright, branded bags to anyone who walked by with their hands full. We managed to give out 500 bags, each with the book title and a QR code for the website on them--which gave us a big traffic boost to the website and also a lot of exposure at the con from people walking around with our bags.<br />
<br />
3. The coloring book pages were actually a big hit, and more with adults than with kids. I guess adult coloring is a super-fast growing publishing segment these days.<br />
<br />
4. We mostly gave away the high value swag (socks or T-shirts) to people who watched the book trailer and came back to the booth to tell us about it. That helped drive a lot of traffic to the trailer on YouTube.<br />
<br />
As long as I'm on the topic of the trailer, I should mention that there's a new trailer that's going to be released soon. See, the deal with the first trailer was that it was supposed to go live on the day the book went on pre-sale. The plan was to get people excited about the book with the trailer so that they would click a link to buy the book on presale. Only, due to some technical difficulties, the book wasn't ready for pre-sale on time for the trailer launch. But the trailer launch couldn't be cancelled because a whole bunch of blogs and websites had already agreed to link to it on the reveal day. So, we launched the trailer with no book to buy.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrFgw3JVkvEHeDw7wMROCnd4O9qHFWv27RZNIenSEIjTbPQ0jY6sdZgU1msuGXJYdL1avVuDiRbTu4pmBUheOQyOGc82qqgQcuKpRqus6xjNM_LXbYhfh01HVX6VDJ_2ihXcEq0Dx6Iwrs/s1600/ThumbnailFB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrFgw3JVkvEHeDw7wMROCnd4O9qHFWv27RZNIenSEIjTbPQ0jY6sdZgU1msuGXJYdL1avVuDiRbTu4pmBUheOQyOGc82qqgQcuKpRqus6xjNM_LXbYhfh01HVX6VDJ_2ihXcEq0Dx6Iwrs/s400/ThumbnailFB.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A still from the new trailer</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
That wasn't a huge problem, but it bothered me a bit that we didn't get to use the trailer to drive sales. So... I started thinking about creating a second trailer to launch when the pre-sales actually go live. Once again, I didn't want it to be a standard issue, dissolves-between-still-images-set-to-music kind of thing, so I decided to do another animation. But I did learn my lesson from the last one. Fully animated character's take a long time to set up and even longer to render. I didn't want to make that mistake again and wind up white knuckling it to make a deadline, so I wrote the new trailer using the animation from Monty Python as my inspiration. With any luck, the new trailer and the book pre-sales should both be going live around the end of this week. When they do, I'll put up another post about the making of the second trailer.<br />
<br />
And finally, once the new trailer was complete, the con was over and my breathing had returned to normal, I started thinking about other ways to promote the book. One of the interesting things that happened at ECCC was that people would come over to the booth, see the characters cards and assume that we were selling a table top game. The whole card game idea has been banging around in the back of my head ever since my publisher suggested making character cards. So Herb and I fell to talking about card games and Herb told me he'd be happy to create illustrations for a game if I designed one. So...I did. I've been working on it for the last few weeks and am almost done with it now. It's tentatively titled "CARD WIELDER" and it's been through three rounds of play testing so far. In fact, I just ran a playtesting session at my local game store, Cloud Cap Games, tonight. Designing and play testing a card game has been an interesting experience. I've learned something new and had to make modifications to the rules every time I sit down to play the game with folks. <br />
<br />
I think the prototype and the rules are basically done, and response to the game has been enthusiastic enough that I think now it's time to start figuring out how to produce the game and whether it's something I can afford to do as a promo for the book. <br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3XQB46EWOIGtz1MAE6j4Nfp1Kw5lAeqrPZWoQ8BLT-TFvHkYIH9QCVtA1SnqCsbGoWcCYwaiSw6i7Rnh4OIawdpNPi9-rc6-G_Z5ju575jJw-seRmb6_TBQn-zGweUihqxwaE2MTojJVK/s1600/CardWielder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3XQB46EWOIGtz1MAE6j4Nfp1Kw5lAeqrPZWoQ8BLT-TFvHkYIH9QCVtA1SnqCsbGoWcCYwaiSw6i7Rnh4OIawdpNPi9-rc6-G_Z5ju575jJw-seRmb6_TBQn-zGweUihqxwaE2MTojJVK/s640/CardWielder.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Card Wielder, the epically silly Fish Wielder epic card game!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-17888053479681692422016-02-26T15:59:00.000-08:002016-08-04T15:54:39.688-07:00Friday, February 26th, 2016: Editing, Animating, Socking and "Con-ing"<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFziv6j9vZ1tepSt3AUAOKs-HJLPPtvhhu50EAiDNJLX9U8WJ69l5Bp3b_gHbgHIkyphRvsnyMHuKpmU-ZsWi9u5jb4ONBKZsTVxR9xq5otf9v7Gg7roRCfUmFhdCcdQBhTG3b8btfPAXu/s1600/HerbConSketchesSM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFziv6j9vZ1tepSt3AUAOKs-HJLPPtvhhu50EAiDNJLX9U8WJ69l5Bp3b_gHbgHIkyphRvsnyMHuKpmU-ZsWi9u5jb4ONBKZsTVxR9xq5otf9v7Gg7roRCfUmFhdCcdQBhTG3b8btfPAXu/s640/HerbConSketchesSM.jpg" width="474" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Some character sketches Herb Apon drew while at Wizard World Portland.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Well dang! It's been months since I've made a diary entry here...so just like my real life diary, I guess. Shameful. But I have been busy. Let's see, what have I been up to?<br />
<br />
For starters, I got my round-1 edits from my editor on January 17th and had to dive into the first revisions I've done on the book in over a year. That was...interesting. For the most part, I was tasked with fixing some of the remaining laziness in my writing. Too many repeats of a particular word or another, too much reliance on those hated adverbs, and too frequent use of the word, "said." Going back through and tweaking the language (and a few other minor things) took me two full weeks. While there were occasional moments of worrying at a single word for far too long, for the most part, the experience was weirdly enjoyable. But I did notice a sneaky desire to tweak a few little things I wasn't asked to tweak. I tried to resist, but resisting fixing things turned out to take a lot more effort than fixing them. Anyway, the manuscript is back in my editor's capable hands and I am waiting for my round-2 edits to arrive.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh80cXabWqnMaczSqvucj_w9aTat29WLMDnE7s32c_cTPtPJXsXdZFiRg5MA3DblqgiQWe3RHPswpHKLkaLJRvXCoYInAiLGTYdP7ZebUK4H6z-LkhYv2EooRPO-i98gmYyDroMJ09sNFBU/s1600/FWTshot01_Wire_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh80cXabWqnMaczSqvucj_w9aTat29WLMDnE7s32c_cTPtPJXsXdZFiRg5MA3DblqgiQWe3RHPswpHKLkaLJRvXCoYInAiLGTYdP7ZebUK4H6z-LkhYv2EooRPO-i98gmYyDroMJ09sNFBU/s640/FWTshot01_Wire_small.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> A wireframe of a scene from the upcoming Fish Wielder trailer </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXzRNLTiLvFTa-wdZivmwoXjM5PSDXjPFGQcfBg9gXOQOypYkcUot_lVrxKnpv7GDHb_N3crd9O616oHuZ1LUFfIjOolHOnWyUb_xIRDVRVcWkvIemeo0bh4vSKUEAKk_2DoQSpwDeKbWl/s1600/FWTshot01_Still_small.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXzRNLTiLvFTa-wdZivmwoXjM5PSDXjPFGQcfBg9gXOQOypYkcUot_lVrxKnpv7GDHb_N3crd9O616oHuZ1LUFfIjOolHOnWyUb_xIRDVRVcWkvIemeo0bh4vSKUEAKk_2DoQSpwDeKbWl/s640/FWTshot01_Still_small.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">And the
same frame fully rendered with all the bells and whistles</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
In the meanwhile, I'm running on about an hour's sleep for the third time in four days, so I'm a little punchy. You see, I've been working on putting a book trailer together to debut on March 1st. My publisher would have been quite content to handle putting the book trailer together for me, but I had these grandiose dreams of doing something animated. I actually have an animation background, professionally. I was a computer animator, technical director and director for almost a decade in television commercials and entertainment. You know those animated M&M's? I worked on those. You ever watch the UPN stop-motion series Gary & Mike? I worked on that. <br />
<br />
When I first hatched my animation idea, I actually looked into hiring some of my friends who still work in the industry. They were all eager to help me out, but even cutting me massive deals, it would have been too expensive or taken up so much of their time that it would have made me feel guilty. So I thought, "Come on, how hard can it be? I know how to do this stuff...basically." But the last time I animated anything was almost 15 years ago now...and the technology has changed quite a bit. <br />
<br />
I swear, if someone was trying to write a comedy film about a guy bumbling his way through every blunder and mistake it is possible to make when trying to animate a book trailer, my own personal comedy of errors would put it to shame. I had computer crashes, bones for animating characters that didn't work, bones that did work but caused the characters to become un-animateable, computer crashes, scenes that I saved in the office that wouldn't open at home, scenes I saved at home that wouldn't open at the office, computer crashes, characters that seemed ready to go but immediately turned themselves inside-out as soon as I tried to play the animation, and of course, frames that took so long for the computer to generate that the whole thing would take months to render before anyone could see it. And don't even get me started about my grand misadventures trying to locate a render farm that could render the frames for me! That's a post all in and of itself. But in the end, and after many sleepless nights and days spent in a daze, I finally finished it with three days to spare!<br />
<br />
I have to give a shout out here to three talented friends who helped me immensely:<br />
<br />
Steve Bailey, who helped me figure out how to make Brad<br />
<br />
Nick Childs, who performed the voice of Brad<br />
<br />
Brett Caudle, who did the excellent soundtrack music for the trailer.<br />
<br />
For those of you interested in the technical details, I did all the animation in Poser 11 Pro, which I had never used before I first fired it up for this project. It is a great value for the money, and an excellent amateur animation tool. It has some significant shortcomings when you need to use it in a more professional way--like it doesn't do distributive rendering, which is why my book trailer is not rendered in HiDef resolution. From the time I started my first shot to the moment I finished my final render it took exactly one month. I started on January 26th, and here I am, finished on February 26th. <br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT0g9rC_R-e_c8z0z-zLWnRvrtd4db9SMcjHfnzJhl7QKkA-XidWhGPHjTtdYKCkhjNonaLMrB9pc6ZFDFLPX1RSf5CJOkp4bv3u93S7VkpVeigGSkRoSxX_2cjhWtCYkr10s9Xn92OFxO/s1600/FW_socks.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT0g9rC_R-e_c8z0z-zLWnRvrtd4db9SMcjHfnzJhl7QKkA-XidWhGPHjTtdYKCkhjNonaLMrB9pc6ZFDFLPX1RSf5CJOkp4bv3u93S7VkpVeigGSkRoSxX_2cjhWtCYkr10s9Xn92OFxO/s640/FW_socks.JPG" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Side by side comparison: Printed versus Embroidered</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
And now, on to the socks. Who would have thought that getting good promotional socks would turn out to be a big deal? I sure didn't. And yet...<br />
<br />
It's actually really easy to get custom printed socks. The only problem is that they are printed on an ink jet printer, which means they look good from a distance, but they don't hold up so well when you examine them closely and they feel terrible on your feet. I'm kind of a sock guy. I like socks a lot, so the inferior printed socks did not really do it for me. That's when I started looking into embroidered socks. Again, you'd think it would be easy. In this case, the problem was that various sock places, while very helpful, would give me back proofs where my fish looked like crappy graphics from the most ancient of home video games back in the dark ages of the mid 1970's.<br />
<br />
I tried out three different sock places, each time expecting that I had finally found the one that could make my socks, but being bitterly disappointed with the results each time. And then, I found <a href="http://www.eversox.com/" target="_blank">EVERSOX</a>. And they rocked it. Of course, preparing my fish image to be properly translated onto a sock took a bit of doing. I had to reduce Brad from the brilliant full color art Herb Apon drew down to a five color image. I wound up using Adobe Illustrator to do that. <br />
<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4b8AfOKdNeBO5_mQ5ZSuCMh8orATAHWI4w427osqlqULbnwFuPX-c_IjLLlvVpYrHV9_azCNxVuOef7Jq9ZaIBHrjT6ApS_TXKxVsD_vH-3Nwupb2cT0ruaxiZUrCyI4PGWWPVLdW-k4G/s1600/BradSeparations.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi4b8AfOKdNeBO5_mQ5ZSuCMh8orATAHWI4w427osqlqULbnwFuPX-c_IjLLlvVpYrHV9_azCNxVuOef7Jq9ZaIBHrjT6ApS_TXKxVsD_vH-3Nwupb2cT0ruaxiZUrCyI4PGWWPVLdW-k4G/s640/BradSeparations.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Five color separation. White and black count as colors!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
And then the final bit for today! I had a table in the artist's alley at Wizard World Portland, where I promoted the daylights out of the book. I was there from Friday, when they opened, to Sunday, when they closed. I gave out 300 hundred tote bags, 400 buttons, 250 book marks, 3 dozen pairs of socks, 50 tattoos and a whole bunch of Helm comics to get people familiar with my writing style. Also, the wonderful and talented Herb Apon joined me at my table on Saturday and Sunday to autograph copies of the Fish Wielder poster. We gave out about 200 posters!<br />
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No telling whether that fairly large investment in the Con and in the swag will pay off in the end, but it was nice to get to talk to people and see them get excited about the book. A few folks have begun following the Fish Wielder Facebook page and there was a big uptick in traffic on this website as well. There were also a lot of people who signed up for the Fish Wielder email list. The first email they are going to get will be the one telling them that the trailer is done and debuts on March 1st! March 1st! MARK YOUR CALENDARS!<br />
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OK, that's it for today. I hope I get the next entry up here in a more timely manner! Thanks for reading.<br />
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<br />Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-85873512282051161912015-12-19T15:49:00.000-08:002016-07-06T16:27:25.437-07:00Saturday, December 19th, 2015: Bookmarks, Black Marks and Landmarks<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Book Marks!</td></tr>
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I took the advice I got at Orycon37 to heart and had some bookmarks printed up (as well as a couple of other things, like the socks, and some things that haven't arrived yet). The bookmarks just came in from the printer last week and the socks arrived on Friday. I had the bookmarks done at <a href="http://www.24hourwristbands.com/">www.24hourwristbands.com</a> so that I'd be able to give some away at NewCon, in January. Unfortunately, NewCon informed me (after the bookmarks arrived) that they are all sold out of vendor space. Their artists' alley is also closed, so I guess I won't be giving anything away at NewCon. Dang. I know it's not a personal rejection, but it still feels like a black mark on the month. With that denial still stinging, I immediately went to the Wizard World Con website and booked a table in the artists' alley. Surprisingly, they not only had room, I even got a corner table. Wizard World Con will be February 19-21st, 2016, and I've asked my friend (and the artist who drew the cover illustration for Fish Wielder) Herb Apon, if he will join me at my table. He has tentatively agreed and thinks he may be able to get another extra special guest to join us as well. I'll hold off on the name until I hear whether he'll come or not. <br />
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I am also going to send off my application for a table at Westercon 69 today, but that one's not until July. The book won't be ready in July, but I'm hoping I may have some advanced copies or something. I should also have lots of other goodies to hand out, in addition to the posters, buttons, stickers, tattoos and bookmarks.<br />
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In Blurbquest news, I haven't heard anything back from either They Might Be Giants (whom I reached out to through their management group), or from author Nick Harkaway (whom I contacted through Facebook). TMBG hasn't responded in any way, which is sad, but at least they haven't read the book and then decided not to write a blurb. Mr. Harkaway, on the other hand, has been sent a copy of the book...so the fact that I haven't heard anything back could be bad. I know he is very busy writing his own book at the moment, so I don't want to bother him by checking in, but it is a bit agonizing waiting to hear back and worrying that if he has decided not to blurb Fish Wielder, I may never hear anything. I suppose not knowing is slightly better than being rejected definitively, but not by much. In other Blurbquest news, I also wrote to Cressida Cowell, who wrote the excellent "<i>How to Train Your Dragon</i>" series. I contacted her through her website and asked if she'd consider writing a blurb for the book. She wrote me a lovely email back this morning, but declined to do a blurb. She told me she never writes blurbs for anyone because she gets requests all the time, often from people she knows, and it's awkward to have to decline anyone because she doesn't like their book, so she just doesn't write them for anyone. I totally understand that position. She was very nice about it and even said, "<i>If it's any consolation, I've never had a quote from another writer on the covers of any of my books, and they still did well, even before the movies came out...so although it might be a nice thing to have, it isn't essential.</i>" Then she wished me luck with my book. Nice lady and a very engaging writer. I just finished reading the last of the "<i>How to Train Your Dragon</i>" books with my ten year old and we found it both very entertaining and even moving. I'd recommend them to anyone with kids.<br />
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On to the "landmarks" bit. I signed a contract with Fiery Seas Publishing on November 10th, 2015. That makes things officially official now! WHOOT. And after that, I got assigned my very own editor. I am waiting to hear her thoughts on the manuscript. Rest assured, I will keep you all posted on how that process goes. So far, I have only had great experiences with my editors, so I'm hoping to continue the streak.<br />
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Oh, and I am investigating having socks made.<br />
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That's all for now. I hope everyone is having an excellent holiday season so far.Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-73526408415694336342015-11-23T15:40:00.000-08:002016-07-06T16:26:56.263-07:00Monday, November 23rd, 2015: Fish Wielders of OryCon37!<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">At OryCon 37! My first table at a con!</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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Well! I just closed out my first experience running a table at a science fiction and fantasy convention. What an awesome event, and what fun and interesting people! I've done several signing events for my graphic novel at comicons before, but those were organized and run by Dark Horse comics, so I didn't really have to do anything but show up. This was very different. I was running a table in the "fan" section because, of course, Fish Wielder isn't actually out yet, so I didn't have any books to sign or sell. Instead, I did a promotional blitz. I gave out almost 200 buttons (mostly of Brad), tons of stickers and temporary tattoos, and dozens of Fish Wielder posters. I also gave out a bunch of copies of my graphic novel, The Helm, so that folks who couldn't see my book yet could get a taste of my writing style to see if they might be interested in the book when it comes out in August of 2016. <br />
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Overall, I'd have to say that the event felt pretty successful. Lots of folks seemed intrigued by the book, dozens of people gave me their emails for a Fish Wielder newsletter and I had a lot of fascinating conversations with warm and generous people. And a few delightfully odd ones! I also got to try out potential elevator pitches of the book, and I was given some excellent advice to help me do even better next time.<br />
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For those of you considering doing something like this in the future, here were some of my learnings:<br />
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1. Bring a big roll of painters' tape. You just never know what you might need to tape, but believe me, there will be things.<br />
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2. Bring a bowl of candy to give away! Lots of people stopped by to snag a snack and stayed to chat about the book. <br />
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3. At least at this kind of con, most people didn't want to have to lug posters around--so smaller, easier to carry swag might be better. It did help that I brought a big supply of rubber bands to keep the posters rolled.<br />
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4. Buttons seem to trump everything else (even free graphic novels).<br />
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5. Small cards--or better yet, book marks--with all the important details about release date, publisher, publisher website, my website, etc. would have been very helpful. Several people in the book selling business stopped by the table and gave me this bit of useful advice.<br />
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6. Everybody at the con seemed to be collecting ribbons to stick on their badges--so ribbons might have been good too.<br />
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7. Put out a pad of paper for people to write down their email addresses. I had intended to do that on my computer, but there was no power available. And make sure you have a pen right beside your pad, and a spare pen in case your first pen mysteriously vanishes.<br />
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I also applied a bunch of temporary tattoos at the table, so that there was an army of fish wielders walking the con. Here are a few of the brave folks who will be wearing Brad for the next week or two: <br />
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<br />Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-36826442490455472062015-11-07T15:36:00.000-08:002016-07-06T16:26:15.872-07:00Saturday, November 7th, 2015: BlurbQuest Score! Piers Anthony Blurb and New Shirt<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Spell for Chameleon, A Blurb for Jim!</td></tr>
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After 16 days of waiting (way sooner than I expected), Piers Anthony, New York Times Bestselling author (21 times over) wrote back and sent me a review of Fish Wielder for blurbing purposes. Here's the blurb: <br />
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"<i>This is one wild romp! I suspect some smarter reader than I could do a doctoral dissertation just fathoming the fantasy genre's famous legends that are parodied here. I'm not sure I've seen such preposterously determined critic-baiting parody since Xanth or Asprin's Myth-begotten series. I recommend it to anyone.</i>"<br />
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Here's the longer version from the email I received on Halloween morning:<br />
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"<i>I read Fish Wielder, by Jim Hardison. This is one wild romp! It's a deliberate parody of heroic fantasy that reminds me obscurely of the wrestler Gorgeous George. He was one who found a way to make his fame, distinguishing himself from all the other pro wrestlers in a genre noted for its flair and fakery, by getting a permanent done on his long blond hair. Fans noticed that. I remember a review that remarked that underneath all the wild showmanship was actually a pretty good wrestler. Okay, underneath layer on layer of highly unlikely characterization and adventure is actually a pretty good story, told by a writer who has a pretty fair knowledge of his craft. I suspect some smarter reader than I could do a doctoral dissertation just fathoming the Fantasy genre's famous legends that are parodied here. Just when you think that the final twisted thread has been unraveled, a whole nother level of ludicrous coincidence is unveiled. I'm not sure I've seen such preposterously determined critic-baiting parody since Xanth or Asprin's Myth-begotten series. I recommend it to anyone.<br /><br />Piers Anthony</i>"<br />
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I wish I could use more of what he said on the cover of Fish Wielder, but we'll probably wind up shortening it to "<i>This is one wild romp! I'm not sure I've seen such preposterously determined critic-baiting parody since Xanth or Asprin's Myth-begotten series. I recommend it to anyone,</i>" because, you know, shortness. Shortness is good when it comes to blurbs.<br />
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In other BlurbQuest news, I have also finally sent the Fish Wielder manuscript off to Nick Harkaway. This makes me more than a little nervous. You'll remember that his qualifiers when agreeing to look at my manuscript were, "<i>I blurb if something is awesome, within one of the areas where someone might give a damn what I think, and (more tricky) if I get to it in a timely fashion. I say the last one's tricky because I'm wrestling my own book atm and it's putting up a hell of a fight...</i>" So, that's fairly stiff criteria--starting with "if it's awesome". Will he think it's awesome? Will he feel like it's in an area where people would care what he thinks? I just don't know. While all of Nick's books have a wicked sense of humor to them, they are not really comedies by any stretch. He is a serious writer and has been one of my favorites ever since I read his debut novel, "The Gone Away World". That's part of what makes me nervous. Not only is he a great writer, his work is much more serious than mine. Fish Wielder is really a very ridiculous book. While I feel that it has some serious themes (and some genuine merits, I hope), they lie deeply burried under layers and layers of silliness. Silliness, as I have learned over the years, is not to everyone's taste. Some people just don't like it. So, there is a very real possibility that Nick won't like Fish Wielder because of that--or for a dozen other potential reasons--like maybe he'll just think it sucks. And then, of course, he may think that it's not really in his genre of writing and therefore not something he should blurb about. <br />
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I wonder if other authors get this nervous when they send their work off to be read by writers they admire and respect? That's kind of a funny thing with writing--there is no objective way to qualify that something is actually, definitively good, so it opens up a lot of room for self doubt and second guessing. My graphic novel, "The Helm" was pretty well received, but there were some folks who really hated it, too. <br />
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Oh well, I guess I was pretty nervous when I sent the book off to Piers Anthony too, and that has worked out very nicely. I'll just have to wait and see...and I'll keep you posted on how it goes.<br />
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In other news, I got another test T-shirt back from the printers. This one is of the Princess Nalweegie and the image is taken from Herb Apon's excellent cover art. Here it is: <br />
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<br />Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-49890771585295310822015-10-23T14:44:00.000-07:002016-07-06T16:18:59.079-07:00Friday, October 23rd, 2015: Odds and Ends and T-Shirts and Things<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Got a few more test shirts in yesterday. There were even some women's black T-shirts in the shipment, like the one on the screen right side of this picture. I'm pretty happy with the quality and look, but they are fairly expensive to make, especially because they have printing on both the front and the back. Turns out, all the dark shirts are expensive, although they are also the most popular whenever I ask for people's opinions. If I'm going to make a decent number of shirts for promotional give-aways, I've realized I will most likely have to create a one-sided white shirt option. So, I put this one together:<br />
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I've ordered two of these in different price brackets to see which one works out the best. The cheaper of the two is about half the price of a dark t-shirt, which would mean I could print double the number. Of course, double the number of shirts doesn't help if people don't want to wear them, so there's that. I still think it would be ideal to find some local t-shirt printing shop where I could check the quality of a single shirt without having to wait a couple of weeks in between ordering and getting the shirt. I hate waiting for the shirts to show up--especially when they don't turn out well. Then it's a waste of both time and money. Oh well, time to do some more T-shirt research.<br />
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In other news, I haven't heard back from anyone else on the Blurbquest front. Bruce Campbell and Eric Idle haven't responded yet. I didn't really expect to hear anything back so quickly, but that doesn't make waiting any easier. I'm not very good at waiting. I find it tiring and depressing. As I think about it now, I guess maybe I should have picked a different theater of endeavor. Being a writer generally seems to involve a lot of waiting.<br />
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I still haven't managed to find contact info for Terry Jones yet, and I haven't gotten my act together enough to get the snail mail requests written and sent off to They Might Be Giants and Kurt Russell, or to draft up a blurb request for David Wong. <br />
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<br />Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-5669165597537862982015-10-19T15:22:00.000-07:002016-07-21T09:50:57.063-07:00 Monday, October 19th, 2015: Blurbquest Operation Python Failures! And also Reddit...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieKIEf_OSrhLrPr0ie0OSMm1WmT70fe68840xx74bxijKXjIrHGj4RZCNk9VPvA30d7Vdn7joKq15X_DB5IeF3p9rzpwBi52cCCddf0NCEJP470Uk9SDJ1jqJ6Ik8WXgFiUCvta9alukU1/s1600/PythonTroop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="365" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieKIEf_OSrhLrPr0ie0OSMm1WmT70fe68840xx74bxijKXjIrHGj4RZCNk9VPvA30d7Vdn7joKq15X_DB5IeF3p9rzpwBi52cCCddf0NCEJP470Uk9SDJ1jqJ6Ik8WXgFiUCvta9alukU1/s400/PythonTroop.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
I woke up to a couple of Blurbquest fails this morning:<br />
<br />
"<i>Dear Jim<br /><br />Thanks for your message via Michael’s website.<br /><br />Michael is asked possibly 6 to 10 times a week to read a manuscript or book, then either comment on it, or write a foreword – as you can imagine, it’s impossible for him to do this. Therefore, I’m sorry, he’s unable to comment on Fish Wielder.<br /><br />Good luck with the book.<br /><br />Best wishes<br /><br />Paul</i>"<br />
<br />
That was the rejection from Michael Palin's people. Not a bad reason to be turned down, I suppose. Just in case you're curious, here's what I wrote him:<br />
<br />
"<i>I'm a huge fan. I've written a book. The sense of humor is inspired by Mr. Palin's work with Monty Python. Would love, beyond my ability to express, an author blurb...if he does that sort of thing...or would consider doing that sort of thing. Probably no chance, probably right out, but had to try. One of my comedy heroes. The book is called "Fish Wielder" and is coming out in August of 2016. I'd be very happy to send the manuscript in any format Mr. Palin desires. Well, within reason. Here's a link: <a href="http://www.jimhardison.com/">http://www.jimhardison.com/</a> <br /><br />Thank you, in advance, for your consideration. Even if there is some kind of standing "under no circumstances" policy, please pass along my regards. The man is a genius.<br /><br />Yours,<br /><br />Jim Hardison</i>"<br />
<br />
Normally, I would have started with a "hello" or a person's name, but I was submitting through an on-line form and couldn't track down a name, so I went with the more direct approach. Tried to add a tiny bit of humor there toward the end. Oh well. But, right after that rejection came this one:<br />
<br />
"<i>Dear Jim,<br /><br />Thanks for getting in touch. Unfortunately Terry doesn’t have the time to take any new projects.<br />I’m sorry to have to disappoint you in this but we wish you the best of luck with your book.<br /><br />Best Wishes,<br /><br />Millie</i>"<br />
<br />
So, that was from Terry Gilliam's agent's assistant. Kind of a more personable tone to that one than the one from Mr. Palin's helper, but I didn't try to be overtly funny in the letter to Millie. Again, for those of you who may eventually be writing your own blurb request letters and can benefit from my failures, here's what I wrote to Terry Gilliam's agent:<br />
<br />
"<i>Hello, Ms. Hoskins, <br /><br />I hope you are well. I’m writing to you to inquire as to whether Terry Gilliam ever writes “blurbs” in support of other authors. I have written an epically ridiculous epic fantasy novel (Fish Wielder) being published in August of 2016 and I would be giddy with delight if Mr. Gilliam would consider writing a blurb for it. I’m sure he is insanely busy and probably does not have time for this sort of thing, but his work and humor have been deeply influential of my own, so I thought I would at least make the request. I am a previously published graphic novel author and produced screenwriter, but this will be my first novel novel. <br /><br />Here is a link to my author website: <a href="http://www.jimhardison.com/">http://www.jimhardison.com/</a></i><br />
<br />
<i>Thank you for your consideration, <br /><br />J.R.R.R. (Jim) Hardison</i>"<br />
<br />
In case you are wondering how I got Ms. Hoskins (not a daughter of Bob, by the way...I checked) name and email address, it was pretty straight forward and the same method I've used to get contact info for almost everyone I've written so far. I just opened up Google and typed "Contact information for..." and filled in the name of the person I was looking for. In most instances, within a few clicks, I wound up with an email address for someone connected with the person I was trying to reach. Except Piers Anthony (I already knew about his website) and Nick Harkaway (I reached out to him on Facebook, believe it or not.)<br />
<br />
And now it occurs to me that I haven't yet mentioned <a href="http://www.nickharkaway.com/" target="_blank">Nick Harkaway</a> in the tale of my Blurbquest. Mr. Harkaway is a brilliat writer of fantastic works of fiction--meaning they are fantastical in nature as well as excellent reads. He wrote the very funny serious-science-fiction-apocalypse-war-fantasy-with-ninjas, <a href="http://www.nickharkaway.com/books/the-gone-away-world/" target="_blank">The Gone Away World</a> and the amazing steampunk-adventure-mystery, <a href="http://www.nickharkaway.com/books/angel-maker/" target="_blank">Anglemaker</a> and the highly entertaining super-hero-action-parenting-thriller <a href="http://www.nickharkaway.com/books/tigerman/" target="_blank">Tigerman</a>. I have loved his books ever since I was attending the 2008 San Diego ComicCon in support of my graphic novel, The Helm, and I happened to walk past the Random House table where the lady asked me if I liked "crazy science-fiction with ninjas" and gave me a proof copy of The Gone Away World. Anyway, I've been thinking how cool it would be to get a blurb from Mr. Harkaway, so I reached out to him on Facebook, like this: <br />
<br />
"<i>Hello Nick, sorry to bother you with something non-social on social media, but I was wondering if you ever blurb books for other authors. I understand completely if you don't, and I hope I haven't offended you or put you in an awkward position by asking, but I've really enjoyed your books and I have a ridiculous epic fantasy that's going to be published in August and I thought I would ask.</i>"<br />
<br />
And then, he wrote me back this:<br />
<br />
"<i>I absolutely do - and this is why I'm on Facebook: to be reachable smile emoticon <br /><br />Basically, I blurb if something is awesome, within one of the areas where someone might give a damn what I think, and (more tricky) if I get to it in a timely fashion. I say the last one's tricky because I'm wrestling my own book atm and it's putting up a hell of a fight...<br /><br />Do you want to send a hard copy? Or digi?</i>"<br />
<br />
Which was totally awesome of him, but now I'm conflicted and nervous. I personally like Fish Wielder quite a lot and I'd like to believe that it is awesome...but is it awesome enough for Nick Harkaway?!?! I mean, his books are truly awesome. And, assuming he likes it enough to think it is awesome, will he feel like the book falls within an area where someone might give a damn about what he has to say? Fish Wielder is very much a comedy and very much an epic fantasy. Neither of those are exactly his genre. On the other hand, Fish Wielder is also a bit of odd riffing on a lot of different genres, themes and ideas, and as you may have noticed from my brief descriptions of his books, Nick's books are also difficult to describe briefly. <br />
<br />
So, as noted, I'm conflicted. Fortunately, Mr. Harkaway hasn't sent me any instructions for how to get the manuscript to him, so... I haven't had to make a decision yet. <br />
<br />
So, here is my updated Blurb list:<br />
<br />
<u><b>Jim's Blurbquest List</b></u><br />
<br />
<strike>Logan Hunder</strike> HE BLURBED ME!<br />
<br />
They Might Be Giants (looks like I may have to write to them via snail mail)<br />
<br />
<strike>John Cleese </strike>DENIED!<br />
<br />
<strike>Terry Gilliam</strike> DENIED!<br />
<br />
<strike>Eric Idle </strike>(request sent...waiting)<br />
<br />
Terry Jones (can't find contact info)<br />
<br />
<strike>Michael Palin</strike> DENIED!<br />
<br />
<strike>Piers Anthony</strike> ACCEPTED! He's going to read it!<br />
<br />
Lev Grossman<br />
<br />
David Wong<br />
<br />
<strike>Nick Harkaway</strike> ACCEPTED (if I turn out to be brave enough to send it)<br />
<br />
<strike>Bruce Campbell </strike>(request sent...waiting)<br />
<br />
Kurt Russell<br />
<br />
In other promotional news, my awesome agent, <a href="http://www.tridentmediagroup.com/agents/mark-gottlieb" target="_blank">Mark</a>, dropped me an email last night suggesting that I look into setting up an AMA on Reddit for Fish Wielder. Of course, until that moment, I didn't know what an AMA was or have anything more than a background awareness that Reddit was a useful thing for writers who wanted to interact with potential readers. Now, because Mark was kind enough to include a bunch of background in his email, I know better.<br />
<br />
For those of you who may be as ignorant as I, an AMA is an "Ask Me Anything" subreddit--in other words, a forum for people to ask an author (or I guess any kind of person who can type on the internet) whatever questions they want. <br />
<br />
For more info on AMA's check out this link that Mark sent me: <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/mp20pa3iz2s7w6t/r_books%20ama%20guide.pdf?dl=0" target="_blank">AMA</a> <br />
<br />
And for more info on Author Spotlights on Reddit (which are kind of the same thing but for new authors) check out this link: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/books/wiki/authorspotlight" target="_blank">AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT</a><br />
<br />
After looking into it a little, the whole thing seems really cool, so I reached out to Reddit this morning. They are receptive to an AMA for Fish Wielder, but they need to know what date the book will be available for pre-order first. Seeing as I don't know that, I've put in a note to my lovely publisher, <a href="http://www.fieryseaspublishing.com/" target="_blank">Fiery Seas</a>, and I'm waiting to hear back! More on this breaking story as it develops.Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-53168155161272444362015-10-16T14:59:00.000-07:002016-07-06T16:20:33.880-07:00Friday, October 16th, 2015: T-shirts and BLURBQUEST<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE-0yXsTwEasz6wUqlH3ZPkZ3MSzuXBoT7JJbwpVA3Y7Rj7iOGkXpDBRPgGVMdEcdLIjkw1JzJ1th4Wyw_i-8c4idO6VECfqwuGvm-BRp15KCYTPUOQe7gI9i3vRoQdezrs_2isXGH5JCm/s1600/BradShirtFinalBackFront.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE-0yXsTwEasz6wUqlH3ZPkZ3MSzuXBoT7JJbwpVA3Y7Rj7iOGkXpDBRPgGVMdEcdLIjkw1JzJ1th4Wyw_i-8c4idO6VECfqwuGvm-BRp15KCYTPUOQe7gI9i3vRoQdezrs_2isXGH5JCm/s320/BradShirtFinalBackFront.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Official T-shirt Front and Back</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmgnIqH2WKinQFsBS4BDSrxHtUK-aEhmBFELI-mTI5Iro25Sq4P1t6zMWsoqEwXVAJTUQUYuA4wnlJOXMXIciu3YHYaW1WjmEzu05Ef9QeKMnkO2ZV3wr3qZNabBksblk3I9FJGwNbPWWq/s1600/TandBsm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmgnIqH2WKinQFsBS4BDSrxHtUK-aEhmBFELI-mTI5Iro25Sq4P1t6zMWsoqEwXVAJTUQUYuA4wnlJOXMXIciu3YHYaW1WjmEzu05Ef9QeKMnkO2ZV3wr3qZNabBksblk3I9FJGwNbPWWq/s320/TandBsm.jpg" width="302" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Thoral and Brad T-shirt Design</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Test T-shirts came in from <a href="http://zazzle.com/">Zazzle.com</a> today! The colors are bright and crisp, the text is clear and legible! This is me wearing the Brad-style T. I think this design is working pretty well. I wore it around a bit and four people asked me about it. I also got a Thoral and Brad T, which I did not get an opportunity to model, but here it is without a human in it:<br />
<br />
Yes, I have begun the quest for author blurbs for Fish Wielder in earnest. Not that I was kidding around before, but now I'm really serious. I already have one great author blurb. It's from Logan J. Hunder, author of the hilarious <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Witches-Be-Crazy-Happened-Nowhere/dp/1597808202?ie=UTF8&*Version*=1&*entries*=0" target="_blank"><i>Witches Be Crazy</i></a>. Logan was kind enough to read Fish
Wielder and say about it, "<i>Fast, fun, fantastic! Fish Wielder is
hilarious and unpredictable, like a drunk bear playing whack-a-mole.</i>" It
is always awesome to have your writing compared to a drunk bear. <br />
<br />
Of course, I didn't get that blurb on my own, though. My excellent agent, Mark, sent my manuscript to Logan and requested a blurb. Now, it's my turn to begin my own blurbquest. I enter this quest as a complete novice. I don't actually know anything about how this kind of thing is done, how many blurbs I should try to get or how you even find out if an author writes blurbs. What I do know is that I'm going to start by trying to reach some key folks who have influenced my writing in deep and mysterious ways. <br />
<br />
For example, I sent an email to John Cleese the day before yesterday. I figured it was kind of a long shot, but Monty Python's Flying Circus and Monty Python and the Holy Grail were kind of formative of my sense of humor and consequently impacted the writing of Fish Wielder, so I felt like I had to try. I actually found the email address right on John Cleese's website, <a href="http://thejohncleese.com/">thejohncleese.com</a>. So, I wrote him the following:<br />
<br />
"<i>Hello. I have been a big (if not all that tall) fan of yours since infancy (born 1968). Forgive me if this is the wrong venue for such a request, but I'm wondering if you ever write author blurbs for books, as I have written a book deeply influenced by your particular kind of lunacy and I would love to have you blurb it. I'm a previously published author and produced screenwriter. Thank you for your time, and thank you especially for the years of laughter.</i>"<br />
<br />
Honestly, I didn't really expect a response, especially given that incredibly cheesy last line...but the very next day (less than 24 hours later) I got this reply:<br />
<br />
"<i>Jim, I am John's PA. Thank you for your request. John is currently touring the US and Europe until the Spring. I am afraid John only considers endorsing books for persons he knows personally.<br /><br />Best regards, Pat</i>"<br />
<br />
So, BAM! My first failure. At least it was a rejection because Mr. Cleese doesn't do that kind of thing--not because he hated the book. <br />
<br />
I also wrote to Piers Anthony yesterday because his Xanth series was my first exposure to the idea that fantasy could be funny. Bink, from A Spell for Chameleon, was a major hero of mine. Anyway, I emailed this to Mr. Anthony, through his website:<br />
<br />
"<i>Hello, Mr. Anthony,<br /><br />I want to start by thanking you for the countless hours of fun and pleasure your books have brought me over the years. I have been a fan since 1977, when I was 13 and read “A Spell for Chameleon” for the first time. The Xanth series was a major influence on my sense of humor, taste in fantasy, and my own writing. You helped make my awkward teenage years a lot more enjoyable.<br /><br />I don’t know if you ever write book blurbs for authors you don’t know personally, but I would be deeply honored if you would consider writing a blurb for my epically silly epic fantasy “Fish Wielder”. I am a previously published author of comics and a produced screenwriter, but “Fish Wielder” is my first novel. It is slated for release in August of 2016 and my publisher and I are just beginning promotional efforts. I will understand completely if you are not interested, but would be happy to send you the manuscript in whatever format you’d like if blurbing the book is something you might consider. I’ve attached a series of links to the end of this email in case you would like to check out any of my previous works. <br /><br />Thank you again for Xanth, Bink and stories that engaged my sense of wonder, sense of humor and common sense, all at the same time. <br /><br />Yours,<br /><br />Jim Hardison</i>"<br />
<br />
Again, I wasn't really expecting a response, but just a few hours later, I got this email back:<br />
<br />
"<i>I do read, review, and blurb novels when I have time. I have time this year, before I start writing Xanth #42 Fire Sale in January. I don't guarantee a positive review or blurb, as I give my honest opinion, but I do try to understand what the author is doing. So if you care to send Fish Wielder in .docx, .odt, or .pdf or .mobi, I can handle those and should be able to read it next month.<br /><br />Piers Anthony</i>"<br />
<br />
I sent him off the manuscript last night! No telling if he will like it or not, but it makes me a little giddy knowing that an author whose books I've loved since I was a kid is going to read my book. Sorry...geeking out. <br />
<br />
So, who else is on my list? Well, here's where it stands at the moment:<br />
<br />
<u><b>Jim's Blurbquest List</b></u><br />
<br />
<strike>Logan Hunder</strike> HE BLURBED ME!<br />
<br />
They Might Be Giants<br />
<br />
<strike>John Cleese </strike>DENIED!<br />
<br />
Terry Gilliam<br />
<br />
Eric Idle<br />
<br />
Terry Jones<br />
<br />
Michael Palin<br />
<br />
<strike>Piers Anthony</strike> ACCEPTED! He's going to read it!<br />
<br />
Lev Grossman<br />
<br />
David Wong<br />
<br />
Nick Harkaway<br />
<br />
Bruce Campbell<br />
<br />
Kurt Russell<br />
<br />
Is that too many people to ask for blurbs? Do these people even give blurbs? Are they the right people? Will the readers care? I DON'T HAVE ANY IDEA! That's the magic of it! I'm just totally winging it here and reaching out to these people because their work influenced me, it would make me happy to know they read the book, and if I saw any of these people had blurbed a book, I'd at least pick it up to see what was going on. I have no idea how this will turn out, but I'll keep you posted on my progress, good or bad.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-5601174336880940552015-10-12T14:44:00.000-07:002016-07-06T16:19:56.035-07:00Monday, October 12th, 2015: YAY! Stickers!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsIuWc10jwQScfiaXHE7VPyBGbefmOfTXuTuVidLd6rz-6wYO2g1-9ZYs8MbTGPIb4NPRzNeXBlJwXMM41HthrTGXz-PMMTFjSNHtzRmvS2TRBJmpIdd75hDGcoTyCu7JcQvUptEhyphenhyphenW-UO/s1600/ButtonsStickersTattoosSM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsIuWc10jwQScfiaXHE7VPyBGbefmOfTXuTuVidLd6rz-6wYO2g1-9ZYs8MbTGPIb4NPRzNeXBlJwXMM41HthrTGXz-PMMTFjSNHtzRmvS2TRBJmpIdd75hDGcoTyCu7JcQvUptEhyphenhyphenW-UO/s320/ButtonsStickersTattoosSM.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stickers, Buttons and Temporary Tattoos!</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-0WHIlR6H4KUxzihAaTl3Ty27JjPXt6B7NngDkY3UOuBrpwht2lnB6ZddTWtpZ-B2E0fcovCOimd50lndEW3CGTR1Rvbzm5U_in-Y6FpeHIF6g-EcdLuEOJxR7WCZnLTX9F-qVIsuY-cs/s1600/BannerPhotoSM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="211" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-0WHIlR6H4KUxzihAaTl3Ty27JjPXt6B7NngDkY3UOuBrpwht2lnB6ZddTWtpZ-B2E0fcovCOimd50lndEW3CGTR1Rvbzm5U_in-Y6FpeHIF6g-EcdLuEOJxR7WCZnLTX9F-qVIsuY-cs/s320/BannerPhotoSM.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The New Fish Wielder Banner! </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
I got back to my office today, after a week of travel for work, to find that my test order of stickers for Fish Wielder had arrived! YAY! STICKERS! The stickers are of Brad, the talking Koi fish. I'm working with a place called <a href="http://stickeryou.com/">StickerYou.com</a> to print them. So far, I'm very happy with the results. I've already had a test run of tattoos made with the same design (also through StickerYou.com) and a test run of 1.5" buttons made with Thoral on them through a place called <a href="http://24hourwristbands.com/">24hourwristbands.com</a>. All are looking pretty good so far--at least in my opinion. These tests are for promotional items that I'm intending to give away at book conventions and things in order to let people know that Fish Wielder is coming out next August and to get them excited so that they'll keep an eye out for the book as it gets closer to the publication date. I've never tried promoting something before it exists yet, so this is new to me. The owner of my publisher, Misty, of <a href="http://www.fieryseaspublishing.com/" target="_blank">Fiery Seas</a>, has been awesome about brain storming ideas with me, including things like "character cards" that will describe the central heroes and villains, and even a possible book trailer. Actually, one of my main "to dos" on my to do list for the week is to work on a script for the potential book trailer. In addition to the stickers, tattoos and buttons, I've also had a large format test poster run at Uprinting.com that I'm very happy with and a banner. The banner is for use at my first public appearance in support of the book. It looks gorgeous and I had it printed at a place called Vistaprint.com.<br />
<br />
I'm going to share a booth with the Oregon Writer's Colony at OryCon 37, November 20-22nd in Portland, Oregon. This was set up by my sister-in-law, Rachelle, who is also a writer and works with the OWC. I am lucky to have a sister-in-law who pushes me to do things related to my book--like going to conventions and getting a publisher.<br />
<br />
Actually, I'm starting to put together a small list of conventions and things I might be able to promote the book at. Here's what I've got so far:<br />
<br />
OryCon <br />
I'll have a table here from Nov 20th through 22nd , 2015<br />
<br />
<br />
Newcon PDX (A convention for every flavor of nerd)<br />
Still looking into whether or not I can do a panel or something--January 15th through January 17th, 2016.<br />
<br />
<br />
Wizard World Comic Con Portland 2016<br />
I'll probably just go to this. Not sure if there's a public appearance opportunity--February 19-20-21, 2016<br />
<br />
<br />
2016 Northwest Publishing Conference<br />
I've been invited to speak about the marketing plan and my relationship with my publisher on March 5th, 2016<br />
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Norwescon Seatac, WA<br />
Again, not sure there's an appearance opportunity here, but it's from March 24-27th , 2016<br />
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Emerald City Comic Con (Seattle, WA)<br />
Same again--this is a big one. Not sure if there's an appearance opportunity--April 7th through the 10th<br />
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One item I haven't found a good supplier for yet is T-shirts. I was working with a place called ooshirts.com for some Ts to promote my graphic novel The Helm. The ones they printed on white shirts worked out great, but I've been very unhappy with their work on dark and colored shirts. I ordered a couple of test prints of Fish Wielder T-shirts more than a month ago and they have yet to even send them. Meanwhile, dark shirts I've run for The Helm have been a disaster. I can't recommend Ooshirts unless you are working on white shirts, so I'm not even posting their link here. Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8147859444000729210.post-90439228259601807382015-10-11T14:27:00.000-07:002016-07-06T16:19:29.992-07:00Sunday, October 11th, 2015: The Catchup!I've got a little bit of catch up to play here. I finished the final draft of Fish Wielder on February 1st of 2015 and sent it off to an agent. Well, first, I sent it off to the publisher DAW, because I read that they accept unsolicited submissions. But they rejected it. The bastards. The process wasn't quite as fast as all that. It took them several months to reject it, during which time I just got to sit around wondering what was happening. When they finally did reject it, I not only got a nice form letter, I also got a little depressed. It didn't matter how many accounts I'd read about famous writers of books I love getting rejected enough times to wallpaper their rooms with the letters. It was a bummer. It was like that time when my ice cream fell off my cone onto the pavement and my friend said he could sympathize because that happened to him once, but he was still eating his ice cream. <br />
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So then I got all whiny and thought for sure Fish Wielder would never get published and I moped around talking in an Eeyore voice about just self publishing my book. Not long after that, my sister-in-law, Rachelle, who is also a writer (and who must have been tired of the Eeyore voice) advised me that I should really try to find an agent. I objected. I've written a few things before--a movie, a TV special, a graphic novel, an episode of a kids' PBS series--and never needed an agent to get them published and produced, so why should I get an agent for this? She was polite enough not to point out the whining and moping while she patiently explained the value of an agent and insisted that I should find a publisher rather than publish the book myself. She even went so far as to send me a list of agents. <br />
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I combed through the list until I found a few agents who specialized in fantasy books. Then I googled them and checked out the kind of fantasy books they represented until I found one agent who seemed to favor comedic fantasy: Mark Gottlieb at Trident Media Group. Trident is kind enough to provide an online submission form so that you can submit your manuscript electronically. DAW should really talk to Trident about stepping into the modern age. Anyway, I submitted the manuscript on April 17th, 2015. If you want to see what I included in my submission letter, click HERE. Then, I sat around waiting.<br />
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With publisher submissions, you kind of know what you're in for. They generally say that you won't hear back from them for months and that you're not allowed to ask them about it and they won't send you any kind of confirmation to let you know your manuscript even got there. And that pretty much sucks. But once I'd sent Fish Wielder off to Trident, I realized that I had no idea what to expect in terms of the potential wait. Like everything else I don't know these days, I tried googling the answer, but there were no useful results. So I just resigned myself to an indeterminate period of sitting around glumly. <br />
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Eleven days of glumness dripped slowly by. And then, early in the morning on the eleventh day, I got an email from Mark! I opened it with the kind of intense trepidation Schrodinger might feel when checking on his cat, only to find that it was simply a request that I re-email the manuscript in a different format. I had sent an .rtf and he was requesting a .doc. I immediately sent off the new version, sighed my best Eeyore sigh, and then headed off for work, wondering whether the amount of time one had to wait to hear back from an agent would now include an extra eleven days. <br />
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But, by the time I got in to work, there was another email from Mark! Again, I opened it with mixed feelings. It was clearly too little time for him to have read the whole thing. Did that mean he was already rejecting it? Here's what Mark wrote:<br />
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Jim, I'm loving this manuscript! More to come soon...<br />
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All the best,<br />
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Mark<br />
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Later that afternoon, he called me and agreed to represent Fish Wielder. I was ecstatic! Being accepted by somebody, even if it wasn't a publisher, felt really good! Better than really good! It felt great! For at least a week, I didn't feel like I needed to accomplish anything else. Just finding someone who said yes was enough. Predictably, however, that didn't last. Now that I had an agent, it was time to find a publisher. Again, there's not a really good definitive answer on how long something like that takes--at least not one that I could google up. Mark warned me that it might take some time he shopped the book around. And there I got to see the benefit of having an agent first hand. Mark was able to get the book in front of all kinds of publishers, including DAW, and they were actually eager to see the manuscript. Again, I was very excited. <br />
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But that's when the difficult bits caught up to me and I got to go through another agonizing waiting period. Mark had cautioned me, early on (I think it was actually during that first phone conversation), that my book would seem a bit odd in publishing terms. It was a comedic epic fantasy novel, aimed at both young adults and regular adult adults. That meant that it was both a genre oddball and required an audience crossover. Mark was fairly frank about the potential difficulty we were facing. He told me that YA publishers generally want the main character to be about the age of the target reader. My main character is 43. And, he spends a fair amount of the story drunk. That detail was one of the key reasons Scholastic Books sited when they passed on the book.<br />
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It took more than two months to find a publisher (Fiery Seas Publishing) who was willing to take a gamble on the book and able to offer an actual print run rather than just ebooks with print on demand. Why is having an actual print version important to me? My wife says it's probably because I'm a book snob with hoarder impulses, but I prefer to frame the same general concepts in ways that don't make me sound quite so jerky. I like print books because I collect them and I love the physical editions I can hold in my hands and put on my shelves. I actually generally buy two versions of good books--a paperback version for reading and lending to people like my wife (who dog-ears the pages to mark her place! Villain!)--and a hard back version to put on the shelf and keep forever like a wizard's grimoire. I don't hate ebooks, mind you. I know that they're convenient--I've got tons of them on my various electronic devices--but there is something comforting and magical about having a physical book that makes it irreplaceable. <br />
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So, that's the catchup material! On to the stuff that's going on now!Jim Hardisonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03169637965079376308noreply@blogger.com0