Category: Random Ramblings

Random Ramblings

Let’s Do the Time Warp – UtopYA style!

UtopyaCon2015_Badge_Exhibitor_MEDIUMI’m packing my bags for sunny Nashville, Tennessee, and the annual UtopYA con. The event, coordinated by Social Deviants, seems almost like a reunion, a gathering of indie writers from across the nation (and even a few international authors).

What I love most about UtopYA is that everyone is a fangirl. Doesn’t matter if you’ve sold one book or thousands, if you are a hobby reader or a book blogger with an army of followers, everyone is treated as an equal.

This year’s theme is time travel. I think I did a Snoopy happy dance when I heard it. I’m an absolute sucker for time travel stories. (check out Butterman Travel by P.K. Hrezo). And being the nut that I am, I declared to myself right away that I wanted to kick butt with my display.

IMG_0126You have to see it. I’m doing a whole Men in Black theme for my latest book, Wrong Side of the Grave, but I gave it a time twist. You see, Doctor Emmett Brown has joined forces with the MIB to stop a time disturbance in Nashville. Yep, I’m kind of a geek (of course, you already knew that). Even my convention booth has a story.

Anyway, visitors can stop by my booth, pick up a Save the Clock Tower flier and if Jennifer’s number is on the back, they win a prize like a flux capacitor car charger, futuristic sunglasses like in Back to the Future 2…heck, I’m even giving away a journal with a cover that’s a reproduction of George McFly’s Match Made in Space novel.

I’ll have BRAND temporary tattoos, toe tags “from” Rigby Funeral Home, signed bookmarks and cards. So, fill your bags up while you sit back and watch the MIB’s Secure Network screen. (oh yeah, that should be all kinds of fun).

My little sis and mom at UtopYA in 2014. Can't take them anywhere - LOL!
My little sis and mom at UtopYA in 2014. Can’t take them anywhere – LOL!

And I’m not the only one who is going all out. Starting this Wednesday, I’ll be featuring the cool giveaways that UtopYA authors will have to offer. You can catch the #CountdowntoSwag on my twitter, @mogdocnews, or instagram @butlerwroteit accounts.

Great Scott! I’ve got to go back…back to UtopYA. See you there!

Random Ramblings

Do Word Counts Count 2015

I like numbers.

After all, I do pretend to be a banker from time to time. And what can be more banker-ish (that is so not a word, but should be) than my annual Do Word Counts Count? post. It’s an annual look at the word counts of bestselling teen books as well as a comparison between traditional and indie published word counts.

It’s the first question that most new authors ask, but there isn’t much out there on the topic. While there are no official ranges for fiction novels, there is an expectation.

To start, we take a look at bestselling authors. Below is the Barnes & Noble bestselling teen fiction list from earlier this month. Every book on it is traditionally published, which should give us an idea of strategy for the market makers.

Barnes & Noble Bestselling Teen Fiction 5/4/15
Novel Page Count Word Count*
The Heir by Kiera Cass 368 92,000
An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir 464 118,384
Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard 400 100,000
Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen 432 108,000
A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah Maas 432 108,000
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee 384 96,000
Paper Towns by John Green 336 84,000
After the End by Amy Plum 352 88,000
We Were Liars by E. Lockhart 240 60,000
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl by Jesse Andrews 304 76,000

*Word counts are estimated based on the standard of 250 words per page

Weird random fact: The 1st place book in today’s 2015 list has the exact same number of pages as the 1st place in the 2013 list (The Fault in Our Stars).

Last year’s B&N Teen Bestseller word counts averaged 88,875 words. This year’s average is 93,038.

To get an idea of word count average for indie authors, below are the current bestselling books from Smashwords, a leading distributor of indie novels. As you will see, these are significantly lower word counts than their B&N counterparts.

Smashwords Young Adult/Teen Bestsellers 5/4/15
Novel Words
His Bad Boy Ways by Faye Aden 55,850
Flit by Abieth Winter 78,810
Wisdom by Amanda Hocking 91,079
Torn by Ashley Stambaugh 83,040
Newborn by Joshua Dee Preece 19,670
Undeniably Chosen by Shelly Crane 152,550
Crutch by Alex Rushmur 2,600
Bloodline by Kei 9,950
Masked SheWolf by Yara Gharios 108,550
Rise of the Valiant by Morgan Rice 81,050

Last year’s Smashwords list included a novella, so I think it’s interesting to note that this year’s list contains two: Newborn and Bloodline.

Average word count for books distributed through Smashwords is 68,314, well under the 93K plus we saw from the B&N bestsellers. Not surprising. The last two years have demonstrated the same as traditionally published works on average tend to be longer than indie published work (though there are exceptions).

As a writer, I typically hear 55k-80k is the way to go for a Young Adult novel. I used to hear that a debut author should never go over 100k as publisher’s, tight with their dollars, often find it hard to justify printing that many pages on an unknown. These numbers seem to reinforce those mindsets with a decreasing average word count every year.

Here’s the comparison over the last few years that I’ve been doing this post.

wordcount

 

Bottom line: Keep it short and sweet, kids.

Random Ramblings

Update

Here we are with the first quarter of 2015 already behind us. That was fast. Like really, really fast. So in case it all went by in a blurred flash of Facebook posts and indecipherable tweets, here’s an update on what’s been happening and what’s to come.

Wrong Side of the Grave

It’s out, and first reviews have been crazy good. I can use all the reviews I can get, so if you have not yet posted a review (especially to Amazon or Barnes & Noble) please do so. Pretty please, with whipped cream and a cherry one top!

If you haven’t had a chance to read it yet, you can pick it up at the usual online bookstores: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, BAM, Kobo, and Apple iBooks among others. I’m also offering signed paperback editions for sale through my website (see below). For those in the Huntington, WV, area, it should be available at Empire Books at Pullman Square by this weekend.

Will there be another? Yes, Wrong Side is just the first book of the Mothman Mysteries. These will be standalone mysteries with the same characters so you can read them in any order. I plan to write them until I run out of ideas. It is my hope to have the next one out by the time the Mothman Festival rolls around in September, although that might take a miracle or two to pull off.

Signed Books

Recently, my website was updated to include a Store area where you can buy signed paperback editions of your favorites. You can also “buy” (in quotes because it’s free) an e-version of the Midnight Guardian short story Siren’s Call, a short that was originally included in copies of Shadows Rising. Go directly to the store, here.

Appearances

Due to a family conflict, I have cancelled my scheduled talk and appearance at the Dayton Book Expo later this month. I also will not be at the Southeastern Ohio Tourism Expo which has been re-scheduled for the same day as the Dayton event. Sometimes you just need to step up and be a Mom. I found myself in that situation. Family will always come first for me. I hope you understand.writeyourfuture

My next scheduled appearance will be at UtopYA Con in Nashville in June. So excited about that event. This year’s theme is time travel. YES!

House of Gammen

house of gammenEveryone’s asking, so here’s the update. House of Gammen, the sixth and final installment of the Midnight Guardian series WILL come out in 2015. I promise. I do not have a date yet, as I’m still writing. However, I can tell you that it will be my next book published, and I am getting very close to starting editing. It’s the last one. I want it to be everything it can be for you and that takes time.

To help make it up to you, here’s a first look at the draft of the cover.

The Chosen Ones

I’ve been tossing around some ideas for providing rewards for my most loyal readers. If you fit this description and have some ideas of your own, please share! Also looking for a fun name for this very special group. You can comment on this post, drop me a line on Twitter or Facebook, or use the Contact form.

Of Sun & Moon, Random Ramblings

Morganville Vampires Series is here!

See if you can spot my book, Of Sun & Moon, in episode 6 or any of the other Midnight Guardian books in the Glass house throughout the season 1.

YouTube orders the playlist by date they were posted, so click on the list icon in the top left corner to change to episode 1 and start from the beginning.

Random Ramblings

My week as a Gisher

If you’ve noticed that I pretty much dropped off the grid this week, you can blame (or thank) GISHWHES, the international scavenger hunt hosted by Misha Collins of the CW’s Supernatural. For one week, geekdom crowns Collins its prince of mayhem, a job in which he shows great skill.

I decided to participate in GISHWHES (Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen) this year to see what the fuss was all about. It’s touted by past participants as a life changing experience. Hunt participants, dubbed “gishers”, are challenged to create art, reach out to their communities, conduct acts of kindness, and break the humdrum of everyday life with insane antics.  Continue reading “My week as a Gisher” →