Tag: writers business

Upcoming New Novel!

Posted on by kat_richardson

 

Marty Arriving in November!

There will be a new Kat Richardson Fantasy Crime Noir novel out in November 2024 from Fairwood Press! (Working title: Storm Waters. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see the listing.)

So, I’ve been saying “damn it Marty” for a while and referring to “Marty Fucking Storm” off and on for… umm… about 5 years. And I’ve read the opening scene in several iterations at a couple of conventions, so some of you know what I am talking about. But for those who don’t:

Some wisecracking ex-bootlegger named Marty Storm turned up in my brain a while back, pestering me to write about him. He looks and sounds like a character from a classic 1930s Hollywood crime film and talks like a character out of Dash Hammett or Raymond Chandler. He’s also a water mage, owner of a shipping company based in Los Angeles and Long Beach California, with some spooky-ass family in Bayou Barataria outside of New Orleans. Initially his story was pretty grim, but over multiple revisions, it got a little less bleak, though it’s still pretty Crime Noir with a big ol’ heap of Magic. The story takes place in the first half of 1934—just before the deaths of Bonnie and Clyde, and immediately after the repeal of Prohibition—when Marty finds himself suspected of the murder of his mistress. Investigating the crime to save his own ass drags Marty back into the heart of family problems he’s been dodging for years, and magical contracts he didn’t know existed.

So after a lot of revision, rejection, more revision, more rejection, etc… I threw in the towel and got in touch with Patrick Swenson and Fairwood (who is also a big crime noir fan, like me) and he said “Yes.”

So, spread the word: Storm Waters! Historical Fantasy Crime coming in November from Kat Richardson!

Looking forward to your comments and questions.

(And, yes, I’m still editing and coaching, and I’ll be attending some conventions this year, too.)

 

Upcoming Conventions

Posted on by kat_richardson

Norwescon and Left Coast Crime 2024

So, I’ve gone and registered for two upcoming genre conventions in my area: Norwescon—Seattle-area’s longest-running Science Fiction and Fantasy convention, which happens over Easter Weekend  (March 28-31 this year) at the Hilton-Doubletree near SeaTac airport; and Left Coast Crime—a wandering Mystery Literature convention which will be hosted at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue On Seattle’s Eastside (what a mouthful), in mid-April.

I’m already talking to the programming folks at NWC, so I will be on at least a few panels and I might be holding some workshops. LCC is a bit of a different beast, since the programming folks essentially look at who wants to be on programming and what they are good at or interesting to hear talking about, and then stick them on a panel that fits. Or don’t. Because you don’t attend Mystery conventions as a pro the same way you attend SFF cons. Panel selection is based on the programming folks knowledge of the genre and the attendees, so the panels are likely to be created to showcase the writers and other pros that the attendees are most likely to want to see or hear from, plus a few smaller names to round out the panel and give the newer or lesser-known folks a hand up. Therefore, I have no idea if I’ll be on anything at all. But it’s always fun to hang out with the Mystery Fans and writers regardless.

So if any of you are hoping to catch up to me in person before the my next book comes out (sometime next year) that’s a couple of places you can find me. Hope to see some of you around!

 

Editing and the Price of Everything

Posted on by kat_richardson

laptop computer next to a pile of colored folders with a pair of reading glasses on top

Costs Worth Paying

I engaged in a conversation recently on The Twit (@katrchrdsn) and FurryElephant (@kat_richardson@universeodon.com) with an #IndieAuthor, and others, about editing costs. She was quoted $6K for an edit based on word count and is aghast. I’m not, but then, I’m old and have been in the editing game since 1991.

Editing and Cover Art are vital to any book’s success and they are worth paying for. Yeah, $6k for editing may be high, however, cost depends on how much work the edit represents; word count, genre, level of edit expected, degree of interaction the editor offers, and so on make a big difference in the cost. Also the editor’s rep and hourly rate have a price. In-demand, well-regarded, and/or award-winning editors charge more for their time.

My editing prices start around $2.5K for developmental edit on 90-120K genre fiction manuscripts. Longer books, Coaching, Non-Fiction, line-edit, and Technical editing cost more. I don’t do Copyedit or final proof. Those are specialized skill sets and they should be performed by someone other than the author or dev/line editor, if possible (it helps to have new eyes on a project at that point, among other reasons.)

I  will occasionally do “single pass crits,” which are super-light and get the client a short—usually bullet-point—crit letter to work from, but I still have to charge $800 for my time, because it takes most of a week to read 90-100K and write up the notes (plus my bookkeeping/invoicing). I try not to do a lot of these, since they take more hours than I charge for, and I bill at less than half my normal rate.

If the writer’s new to the self-pub systems, getting some help on formatting can also be worth some cash first time through (or trading services with another writer who’s more experienced). This is also something I don’t do, and which writers should not expect from a freelance editor.

If a writer doesn’t have the money for some services, they’ll have to settle for something less than their ideal. Shopping around and being willing to spend less on some things, and do more themself is necessary. If you consider yourself an Indie Writer, you are also, effectively, an Indie Publisher, and that comes with all the hats. You either wear them all, with varying degrees of success, or you farm some out. Editing is worth paying for, whether you pay in cash or with an exchange of services with another member of the Writing/Editing community. I don’t say this just because I’m an editor as well as a writer, and I want your money; I know first-hand that I’m a great editor when I’m working for someone else, and a bit blind to my own writing faults when working for myself. YMMV.

A Qualified “Yay!”

Posted on by kat_richardson

 

And I am Tired.

I have dragged all my author copies of the Greywalker novels home from the storage unit out in Lovely Sequim (which is pronounced “Skwim” if you wondered). Ten boxes and we had to rush home to avoid being rained on and ending up with soaked books in the bed of the truck, stopping once to wrestle the tarp back into place. On arriving home (dry, thank you) Mr Kat and I carried all of the boxes up the stairs to the office/storage unit over the garage, plus unloading and moving all the other boxes we brought back as well. Wheee! what fun (not)! And all of this after having gotten stuck in mud on our mountainside and having to dig gravel from the side of the road with an entrenching tool and a steel dog bowl to dump said gravel under the tires in the SNOW (no, I’m not kidding) to get back down the hill to our storage unit to begin with! I think I moved about 200 pounds of gravel, and very large stones to act as wheel chocks while we did so.

So, now I shall go through the boxes, sort, count, and inspect how many of what I’ve got. It’s highly likely that I’ll be posting information about signed copies and sets for sale here, to consolidate information in just one place, and only posting links to my FaceBork and Twitter accounts. But first, *flops on floor and imitates a poor, sad deer staring at the truck that hit it…* Owwww…

Writers’ Business #1

Posted on by kat_richardson

The Problem of Silence

This has been on my mind a lot lately:

Writers of every kind have a culture of silence about contract clauses and advances. Sometimes this is exacerbated by NDAs, but a lot of it is social and corporate pressure to keep quiet, and not to complain for fear of adversely effecting relationships with publishers and PR departments, or setting precedent for the next contract. It’s one of the reasons it’s also very difficult to address misbehavior and actual malfeasance by publishers, agencies, or their employees, since most writers fear retribution or ostracism. This also holds for self-pub and indie-pub writers working directely with small presses, distributors, and vendors. We need to work on breaking down that silence, and then the rest falls into place.

I understand the purpose of NDAs in relation to patents, R&D, and some other product aspects of commercial competition, but they should not be general gags on writers discussing publisher/press/distributor/vendor boilerplate, advances, ebook clauses, royalty schedules, non-compete clauses, rights reversion, or so-called “morals” clauses, among others. If we are free to discuss such aspects of contracts without fearing we will lose our often tenuous financial security,  we help aspiring writers as well as established ones, and writing will become a less-abused, and less anxious, profession.

There is a line between discussion and whining that can be hard to negotiate, but this self-censorship serves dishonesty and potential abuse in both small and large companies more than it serves the writing community.