Category: Interviews

 
 
How to Write a Novel in Ten Days is in the NaNoWriMo Writing Tools bundle, a collection of a dozen books on writing. A portion of the proceeds goes directly to the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, a non-profit group created by the families of the crew of the Challenger shuttle. This bundle is only available through the end of November 2018.

Meet Dean!

Dean has written over two hundred novels, and hundreds and hundreds of short stories. In addition to his many original novels, he’s also written film novelizations, Star Trek novels, and has ghostwritten a number of other books. He’s the editor of Pulphouse Fiction Magazine, and is one of the executive editors for the original anthology series Fiction River.

How to Write a Novel in Ten Days

Even in today’s fast-paced world, the myth that writing fast equals writing badly—or, conversely, writing well equals writing slowly—persists. Now, USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith aims to shatter this myth once and for all with this latest WMG Writer’s Guide.

In a series of blog posts, Smith chronicled his process toward ghost writing a 70,000-word novel for a traditional publisher in just ten days. He wrote about his progress, his feelings about the writing, and how he approached and overcame obstacles. This book takes readers on a journey that demonstrates that writing fast, and writing well, comes from motivation and practice.

Excerpt

This book is pretty easy to explain. It is simply a series of twelve blog posts, one per day, that I did over a stretch of 12 days just under a year ago. The point of the blogs was to detail out a novel I wrote for a traditional publisher in ten days. I had one post ahead of the writing days and one after I finished the book to wrap up.

All twelve are here.

Now granted, as each day went on, I added to the post, and at the end of the day I did a summary on each post. So if you were following this (as thousands were on my web site hour-by-hour), you would see each post grow as each day went on.

The goal of doing the blogs was to help take out the mystery of “writing” fast and show how it can be done easily. You just spend the time. Writing fast is not typing fast, it’s just sitting in the chair and writing for numbers of hours.

A little background: I have written and sold over a hundred novels to traditional publishers over the last twenty-five years. Some years I wrote a great deal, some years I took off during those twenty-five years and wrote no books. But after a hundred plus novels, I know how to write a novel.

I wrote this into the dark, as some writers call this type of writing. In other words, I had no outline. And the novel was published by the publisher with no rewrites from me.

I have left all the blog posts pretty much as I wrote them here in this book, because I felt that would be the best way to detail out the feeling of those ten days.

So I hope this journey through the daily writing process of a novel by a professional novelist is fun and entertaining and enlightening.

I had fun detailing out the process as well.

Enjoy the journey and have fun with your own writing.

– from How to Write a Novel in Ten Days by Dean Wesley Smith

The Interview

 
 
Why did you decide to write a novel in ten days?

Honestly, it was a ghost project and they needed it quickly, then delayed the payment and I never start writing until I have the contract and first payment. Learned that lesson the hard way early on. So by the time the payment got there, I had moved on and just wanted this out of my hair.
 
 
You wrote this book as a way to document your experience ghostwriting a ~70,000 word novel in ten days. Was this an unusual amount of writing for you in this type of time period?

Nope, not at all. About normal for me when I am writing to be honest. I am not a fast typist, so I manage about 1,000 words per hour. For something like this it just means I actually write for more hours is all. Nothing magical at all. I am prolific and fast because I spend more time in my writing chair than others do.

 
 
You write “into the dark,” meaning you don’t create outlines, but instead just sit down and start writing? What type of plan did you have when you started the novel? Without an outline, how did you know the result would come in around the required 70,000 words?

After a hundred novels or so, you tend to know how long a novel will be as you go along, even though you have no idea where the book is going. Just practice, I guess. And a sense of the pacing of the book. A shorter novel has a different form of pacing.
 
 
If you could go back in time to when you started writing, and could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

Follow Heinlein’s Rules much sooner and never fall off of them for any reason.
 
 
What is the “magic bakery?”

A metaphor to understand copyright. Most writers don’t have a clue about copyright and what they license. The magic bakery metaphor makes it easy to understand and real.
 
 
Your Thunder Mountain novel series combines time travel and the Old West. What inspired this series, and what do you enjoy about writing it?

I have always loved and written time travel, and my families on both sides were pioneers into the Pacific Northwest way, way back. And as a kid my grandparents would take me to old ghost mining towns and tell me what they were like when people lived in them. Also, on one trip into old mining country when I was an early teenager, a friend of mine and I went into an old gold mine (really stupid) and found a bunch of crystals. So that experience and my love of the Old West and time travel just sort of came together. I am working on a new Thunder Mountain book at the moment, actually.

 
 
You and your wife, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, have taught writing workshops for decades, and every year you offer new online classes. What do you enjoy about this?
 
 
The learning. It challenges us both to figure out ways to teach a topic and then I keep learning from the writers taking the workshops as well. We would stop them in a heartbeat if I wasn’t still learning and hungry for the knowledge.
 
 
Pulphouse Fiction Magazine is a reincarnation of a magazine you and Kris offered through the small press Pulphouse Publishing from 1988 through 1993. Why did you decide to bring the magazine back after a twenty year absence? What’s different this time around?

Not much, actually. Crazy, fun stories that are high quality and make people think. What we were trying to do back in the early 1990s. And I thought it would be fun, which after a year, it has been great.

 
 
Your Cold Poker Gang Mystery series is focused around a group of retired Las Vegas police detectives playing poker and solving cold cases. Has what you write for this series since you moved to Vegas? And how does your own expertise as a poker player help with these books?

No poker in the books. The idea was a spin-off of a thriller I wrote called “Dead Money” which was about poker. Nothing has changed since I moved to Las Vegas because I haven’t written a new one here. Plus I really knew Las Vegas before I moved here, so can’t imagine anything changing. I love writing those mysteries. They are so much fun.
 
 
What story (or stories) are you working on now, and what’s fun about what you’re writing?

Working at the moment on a new Thunder Mountain novel. Not sure after that since I never know what I will write until I sit down and start writing. I just like entertaining myself. Figure if I do that, others might like it as well.

About Dean

Considered one of the most prolific writers working in modern fiction, USA Today bestselling writer Dean Wesley Smith published far more than a hundred novels in forty years, and hundreds of short stories across many genres.

At the moment he produces novels in four major series, including the time travel Thunder Mountain novels set in the Old West, the galaxy-spanning Seeders Universe series, the urban fantasy Ghost of a Chance series, and a superhero series starring Poker Boy.

His monthly magazine, Smith’s Monthly, which consists of only his own fiction, premiered in October 2013 and offers readers more than 70,000 words per issue, including a new and original novel every month.

During his career, Dean also wrote a couple dozen Star Trek novels, the only two original Men in Black novels, Spider-Man and X-Men novels, plus novels set in gaming and television worlds. Writing with his wife Kristine Kathryn Rusch under the name Kathryn Wesley, he wrote the novel for the NBC miniseries The Tenth Kingdom and other books for Hallmark Hall of Fame movies.

He wrote novels under dozens of pen names in the worlds of comic books and movies, including novelizations of almost a dozen films, from The Final Fantasy to Steel to Rundown.

Dean also worked as a fiction editor off and on, starting at Pulphouse Publishing, then at VB Tech Journal, then Pocket Books, and now at WMG Publishing, where he and Kristine Kathryn Rusch serve as series editors for the acclaimed Fiction River anthology series.

Find Dean

Website | Facebook | Goodreads

What is StoryBundle?

StoryBundle offers collections of DRM-free ebooks where readers select the price they want to pay for the bundle, and can choose to donate a percentage of the portion of the proceeds to charity. At a certain price threshold, “bonus” books are unlocked. Readers download the books directly to their tablet, ereader, computer, or smartphone.

One of the current bundles is the NaNoWriMo Writing Tools bundle, a collection of a dozen books on writing. A portion of the proceeds goes directly to the Challenger Center for Space Science Education, a non-profit group created by the families of the crew of the Challenger shuttle. This bundle is only available through the end of November 2018.

Meet Jason!

Jason started StoryBundle in mid-2012 because he was seeing people bundle games and other things, but not books.

The Interview

How did you come up with the idea of creating StoryBundle.com?

It’s hard to remember now, in 2018, but back in 2012 there were no book bundles and there were no box sets on Amazon! It was very difficult to find curated sets of books that were both high in quality and sold for a good price. Nobody was putting different authors together back then—as far as most readers knew—so I thought it was a very good market for people who wanted to fill up their ereaders.

So we took this idea for curated books, coupled it with quality authors and curators, plus made an easy delivery system that allowed anybody with essentially any electronic device capable of reading ebooks to enjoy the books, DRM-free!

How do you select curators to create bundles?

We pick our curators from authors we’ve worked with before. This is so that we know how their tastes run, how their promotional efforts go and if they can handle the job of curating, since it’s a totally different set of skills than writing and promoting.

Does StoryBundle put together bundles as well, or are they always managed by outside curators?

We started by curating the bundles ourselves, but as we’ve grown, we’ve moved to an almost 100% author/publisher curating platform.

Does StoryBundle participate in the selection of authors/books for bundles?

We leave most of the curating to the authors/publishers, but we do sometimes make suggestions or try and introduce authors to each other that make sense for different bundles.

If a curator wants to donate to a charity not on your current list of charities, is it possible to add to this list?

Definitely! We’re open to adding new charities all the time, and we work together with the authors to find one that makes the most sense for the bundle theme. And if they don’t have one specifically in mind, we have a lot of charities that we’ve worked with in the past that may fit.

What are the biggest mistakes you see some curators make?

By far the biggest mistake is that some curators think the curation is done after choosing authors to be in the bundle. I would say at least half of the job of curator is to promote the bundle, arrange for authors to promote and figure out how best to get the word out. Because the curator knows the theme of the bundle, how it was assembled and which authors are in it, they’re the best equipped to market the bundle and try and get as many eyes on it as possible.

Is there a limit to how many bundles can be available at any given time?

There’s no technical limit, but the practical limit is that we only launch one bundle a week that go for 3 weeks each. Technically there can be 4 bundles live at once. We’ve also found that it’s good to stagger the bundle themes, so they don’t overlap too much with each other. It’s really no good to have 4 sci-fi bundles live at once, because a potential reader wouldn’t pick up all 4 sci-fi bundles. Instead, we recommend doing a mix of bundles so that readers with different tastes can find at least one bundle they enjoy, and maybe a second in a different genre while they’re here.

How much lead time do you recommend to set up a Storybundle?

We recommend at least a couple months for new curators, but experienced curators with lots of connections can set it up in about a month. Of course the longer the curators have, the better, since it takes publishers often a few weeks to get the books approved to be in a bundle.

What is the minimum and maximum number of books allowed in a bundle? Is there an “ideal” number of books?

The minimum we aim for is at least 8, but there’s no hard maximum. Some bundling sites shove in as many books as they can find for every bundle, but we take the long view that we don’t want to de-value the concept of ebooks. Here’s our thinking: If you can get 25-30 books at once for a really cheap price, how likely is it that you’re going to finish all of them? Unlikely, yes? And how likely are you going to be to buy another bundle when you have 15-20 books in your backlog that you may want to read, but will never get around to? It makes it difficult for subsequent bundles to appeal, and if you’re pricing your books at just cents per book, what message are you sending to readers as far as how much you value those books? And to authors?

Long story short is that just because we’re combining books together in a bundle, we don’t de-value the individual book and we want to make sure we make this sustainable for all our authors and for us as well.

How long are bundles generally available for? Is there a set amount of time, or can this vary

We usually have our bundles for 3 weeks, but certain bundles, like the NaNoWriMo Writing bundles, go for 2 months to cover the ramp-up to NaNoWriMo and the month of November itself!
 
 

 
 
Promotion for bundles is primarily done by the curator and the participating authors. What promotional techniques have you seen people have the most success with?

There’s no one best way to promote a bundle, sadly, or else we would copy and paste the method for every bundle! A variety of things have worked for us in the past, such as involving the charity, getting different blogs to help promote, reaching out to author friends to signal boost, and even getting more notable people to talk about the bundle on social media.

What do you enjoy most about running StoryBundle?

This may be a sappy answer, but the thing I will take away when StoryBundle is over is the friends I’ve made along the way. Getting to correspond with authors has made some friends that I wouldn’t have imagined I would make before I started StoryBundle, and I’m sure these friendships will last when the site is over. It’s been great to get to see different authors’ writing processes from the outside, and I’m cheering for all of them to do well no matter where they’re selling their books!

About Jason

Before starting StoryBundle, Founder Jason Chen covered technology and software as an editor for Gizmodo.com and Lifehacker.com. Before that, Jason was a software engineer, a student, and way before that, a fetus.

Find StoryBundle

Website | Facebook | Twitter | StoryBundle FAQ

Meet Mark!

Mark is an author, professional speaker, and bookseller, with more than a quarter century of experience in writing, publishing, and bookselling. He started writing at 13, and has written three novels, a number of non-fiction books on locations where ghostly and eerie things occur, published numerous short stories, and edited quite a few story collections.

He has a podcast on writing and publishing, publishes a regular video series in which he reads from either his short fiction or his eerie non-fiction, and does many, many other things. Mark loves craft beer, has a skeleton sidekick named Barnaby, and has managed to combine his love of beer with his love of the unexplained.

Books Gone Bad

Books make the world a better place. They are, perhaps, the only thing you can buy that actually make you richer. As Stephen King says, “Books are a uniquely portable magic.”

But what if it were actually true? What if there was actual magic emanating from a book itself? What if a book was sentient? What if a book could actually interact in our world? What if there is something a bit more evil or sinister lurking in the pages?

What if a book doesn’t just open up a world of possibilities to a reader, but, instead, brings the reader into that world? And what about the people for whom books are a central part of their lives? How do they interact with, or perhaps, include books in their magic, their schemes, their lives? How do they protect the infinite possibilities that books store and provide?

This bundle of about 260,000 words from 10 short stories and 2 novels includes explorations of books and the world of books that include magical, supernatural, science fiction or speculative elements. Book nerds will…

The Interview

Books Gone Bad ties the themes of books and magic together. What inspired you to create this bundle?

I have always been a giant book nerd. Books are a special type of magic all on their own. But I have long enjoyed reading stories that center on books and bookish people. I had a short collection of stories on that theme and was trying to figure out a way that I and perhaps some other authors could cross-promote one another. I thought that a themed bundle like this might be just the thing for readers like me.

Having had previous great experiences being part of collaborative BundleRabbit bundles, I thought this might be a great way for me to get my feet wet in curating a bundle to my reading passions.

If this project helps me and the other writers earn a little, perhaps sell more, or attract new fans, then great. If not, then at the very least the project has given me some fun stories to read and enjoy.

This bundle contains your book Active Reader, a collection of three short stories related to books and bookstores. How did your years of experience working in bookstores tie in with this collections?

My experience in bookstores ties in quite tightly with this collection. While one tale (“Browsers”) in the collection is about getting lost in a bookstore (which is more from the browser’s point of view and inspired by an actual experience I had visiting a bookstore in Hamilton, Ontario and getting lost in the store), the other two tie directly to my own bookselling experience. “Active Reader,” the title story, is about the misuse of a bookstore loyalty program (and a story that occured to me when I was in the midst of selling the “Avid Reader” card for a book chain I worked at). And though “Distractions” is about a writer dealing with a combination of writer’s block and distractions, it’s really another cautionary tale about those who follow the advice of self-help gurus (whose books I sold a ton of over the years).

In addition to writing fiction, you have a podcast! On Stark Reflections you interview authors, people in both the traditional and indie-publishing communities, and provide your own reflections on writing and publishing. What do you enjoy about your podcast, and how has it surprised you?

What I love best about the podcast is that it keeps me engaged and learning from authors and other folks from creative industries. With every single chat and interview, I find myself learning something new, or perhaps re-learning something I’d forgotten about. And every single time, the conversation inspires something in me.

While I know the podcast offers quality (ie mean, c’mon, look at the breadth of knowledge that my guests bring) and I know the listener base is constantly growing, I am surprised when I meet someone while out and about, at a conference, etc, who mentions they listen to the podcast and they love the content I provide as well as the open-sharing that I do. I figured my podcast was just another voice adding to an already almost saturated market, but the surprise is how many folks share that they feel it provides a fresh perspective that isn’t offered in the same way elsewhere. Perhaps they appreciate my attempt to balance the traditional and self-publishing perspectives, which I haven’t really seen in the podcasts I have been enjoying listening to.

You’ve combined your love of haunted places with your love of craft beer. Tell us about Spirits Untapped!

I have always been afraid of ghosts, monsters and the unknown and have long described myself as a Book Nerd. So I thought that writing the book TOMES OF TERROR: Haunted Bookstores & Libraries would be the crowning moment of the book I was meant to write.

But then, in 2014, I met Liz, my partner. On our first date, we met up for a beer (both being self-described craft beer enthusiasts) and the rest is history. As our relationship grew out of that first date, our exploration of both ghostly tales and the spirit of beer culture grew from that.

At some point a couple of years ago, we realized that all the traveling that we did together to various beer locations, could be used in a book. So we started the SPIRITS UNTAPPED blog as a way to document some of our beer adventures. While the blog and website itself is for the exploration of the SPIRIT of craft beer culture, the forthcoming book SPIRITS UNTAPPED: Haunted Bars & Breweries, will focus on the ghosts and eerie and unexplained events in bars, breweries and restaurants.
So, apparently, there’s a second “crowning moment” of the book I was meant to write. In this case, Liz and I are writing the book together, so it’ll be a dual crowning moment for us.

How did you select the stories for the Books Gone Bad bundle?

I logged onto the BundleRabbit website and did a few keyword searches for books, booksellers, librarians, then scrolled through the titles available. I also reached out to a few friends to see if they had any titles that might be applicable for such a theme and asked them to submit the title to BundleRabbit so it could be included in the bundle.

It was a fun experience, because as I was scrolling, I picked the stories that were bookish in theme and were ones that I responded to with: “Gee, I’d really like to read that.” So if that were the case, I reached out and asked the author if they would like that story to be included.

You’ve participated in story bundles before, but this is the first one you’ve curated. How has the experience been? What have you learned, liked, or disliked?

Having selected for and edited anthologies, I was already familiar with that type of curation experience. But this one was somewhat easier, because most of the stories were already out there and “completed” and already available. That part was easy.

I think I underestimated the time involved in helping to push and promote the anthology. I created short videos and multiple creative assets for my books as well as the others in the anthology, but, because I’ve been up to my eyeballs with more tasks than I can handle, I let my own promotional efforts slip – I was a bit disappointed to see minimal promotional efforts overall outside of the few things I had done.

There was a really smart curator (you might know her) who told me her method of choosing authors – she shared that she spent a bit of time exploring each author’s own social media and promotional presence as part of her strategy. IE, if they seemed to be active, they were more likely to put some effort into supporting the bundle. I suppose that’s something I learned that I can take with me going forward.

I’m not saying that I’m disappointed, because I think that the stories collected in the bundle are excellent tales by great writers. I suppose I was expecting each author to do at least a bit more sharing of the bundle – but the good news is that soon I’ll likely have time, again, to focus on promoting the bundle (I already have a promo scheduled via a manual request through BundleRabbit), and, since it’s not a limited time release, perhaps different authors will push it at different times, spreading out the effect.

After all, it’s NOT just about the first 30 to 90 days – it’s about long term sales. And it’s a quality bundle, regardless of when or how people discover it over time.

You’ve worked in virtually every type of bookstore, including at an online bookstore – Kobo, where you drove the creation of their author/small publisher platform. What do you miss about working in physical bookstores?

The thing I miss most about working in physical bookstores are the daily interactions with readers and customers and the tactile experience of holding books, unpacking new books and placing books in customers hands.

I created Kobo Writing Life to fulfill a need. I’d been self-published to Kobo, but they didn’t have an easy way for authors or small publishers to get into their systems (not without doing a lot of technical gymnastics) – Also, I had created a similar system for Chapters/Indigo (Canada’s version of Barnes and Noble) about 10 years earlier, so it was using the same methodology – create a FEW platform, let people publish their work and support them in ways to help them grow their sales.

In a nutshell, I created Kobo Writing Life for me to use as an author. Using that as a basis, it’s obvious that there were tens of thousands of other authors who wanted and needed the tool as well. So, like advice writers are given, I focused on a niche and a target audience (me), and many other people like me found it useful as well.

#FreeFridayFrights is an audio and video series where you do live readings of your short stories and your non-fiction about ghosts and eerie tales.

Yeah, I started it back in April 2018 as an experiment of providing something free for two main reasons – 1) to expand and grow my author brand and 2) to give people a free taste of what my writing was like in the hopes that they might consider being a reader/fan of my work.

What story (or stories) are you working on now, and what’s fun about what you’re writing?

Apart from a non-fiction book that outlines my 25+ years of experience as a bookseller, I am working on a variety of short fiction projects as well as finishing up some of the longer/novel length works.

I am the poster child for “do what I say, not what I do” because, despite some of the advice I offer to authors, I have three novels that are the first books in three different series’ out with not a single sequel finished.

For EVASION (Book One in my “Desmond Files” series), I have a ¾ completed COVERSION sequel that I’m working through.

For A CANADIAN WEREWOLF IN NEW YORK (Book One in my “Canadian Werewolf” series), I have a 50% completed draft of FEAR AND LONGING IN LOS ANGELES that I’m working through.

If I were smarter, and followed my own advice, I’d finish off EVASION with COVERSION and the final book in the trilogy, INVASION. And I’d also get my butt back on the “Canadian Werewolf” series which looks like it could be part of something a bit longer. After all, my hero, Michael, has plenty of ways to exploit his “superhero” wolfish abilities.

And that’s not to mention I, DEATH (which I did sell to a publisher – however, I just secured the audiobook rights back from the publisher so do plan on turning that into an audiobook while drafting out the next stories in that series)

Speaking of audiobooks I plan on releasing an audio-book ONLY version of “The Best of Free Friday Frights” – again, just a test concept, since the FreeFridayFrights are mostly previously published stories – I love playing and experimenting with different forms and so compiling an audiobook that combines so many different moving parts could be interesting (especially since I’d already paid for several of the stories I would include to be professionally narrated)

Again, more projects than there are hours in the day. But I love having tons of things to choose from. I never get bored.

About Mark

Mark Leslie would be the first person to admit he’s still afraid of the monster under his bed.

Proudly adopting the term “Book Nerd” for himself, Mark is a writer, editor and bookseller and is most comfortable with a pen in hand, fingers on keyboard or with his nose stuck in a book.

His first book, ONE HAND SCREAMING (2004) collected mostly previously published short stories and poetry along with a few original tales. His other fiction includes I, DEATH (2014), EVASION (2014) and A CANADIAN WEREWOLF IN NEW YORK (2016). Mark’s dark fiction is often compared to “Twilight Zone” or “Black Mirror” in terms of style, exploring “what if” themes with contemporary settings that include speculative elements, gently skipping around the genres of sci-fi, horror and urban fantasy.

Apart from editing science fiction anthologies NORTH OF INFINITY II (2006), TESSERACTS SIXTEEN: PARNASSUS UNBOUND (2012) the horror anthology CAMPUS CHILLS (2009) as well as FICTION RIVER: EDITOR’S CHOICE (2017) and FICTION RIVER: FEEL THE FEAR (2017) Mark writes non-fiction “true ghost story” books that include HAUNTED HAMILTON: The Ghosts of Dundurn Castle & Other Steeltown Shivers, SPOOKY SUDBURY: True Tales of the Eerie & Unexplained TOMES OF TERROR: Haunted Bookstores & Libraries, CREEPY CAPITAL: Ghost Stories of Ottawa & The National Capital Region and HAUNTED HOSPITALS: Eerie Tales About Hospitals, Sanatoriums, and Other Institutions among others.

Mark continues to publish short fiction in small press horror magazines and anthologies and most recently had stories appear in TESSERACTS SEVENTEEN (2015), FICTION RIVER: SPARKS (2016) and 2113: Stories Inspired by the Music of Rush (2016)

Born in Sudbury Ontario, Mark has courted with a serious addiction to reading and writing his entire life. He has called both Ottawa, Ontario and Hamilton, Ontario home and currently lives in Waterloo, Ontario.

Find Mark!

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

Find the Books Gone Bad bundle

BundleRabbit | Amazon | Kobo | Barnes & Noble | Apple Books | Facebook

Meet Chuck Heintzelman!

Chuck is the founder of BundleRabbit, a do-it-yourself story bundling platform that helps authors create ebook story bundles, and collaborate on collections in both ebook and print. He’s created well over a thousand ebooks with Vellum as part of his work with BundleRabbit.

Chuck is also a very talented writer, and occasionally manages to sneak in some fiction writing as well as spending time with his family, working a full-time job as a computer programmer, and enhancing BundleRabbit.

The Author’s Guide to Vellum: Creating Beautiful Books with Vellum 2.0

Take the pain out of creating books!

Vellum helps you:
– Generate high quality ebooks
– Create professional looking print books
– Assemble boxsets in record time
– Create beautiful books

“The Author’s Guide to Vellum” steps you through the software, explaining each feature, and has tips & tricks that can save you hours of time.

Don’t have a Mac computer? No worries. “The Author’s Guide to Vellum” shows you how to run this amazing software without owning a Mac.

Whether you’re new to Vellum or an Advanced user, you’ll learn something with this book:
– Why do some pages not show in the Table of Contents?
– How can I get a page to appear before the Title Page?
– How can I force my books to have blank paragraphs?
– Which pages can start on the left side of print books?

“The Author’s Guide to Vellum” answers all these questions, and more!

The Interview

What is Vellum, and why is it so awesome?

Vellum is a software package that allows you to import a Word doc and format your doc into ebooks and print books. The great thing about Vellum is it makes creating ebooks super-easy … and the resulting ebooks look simply stunning.

Vellum is Mac-only, but your book explains how to run it without using a Mac. Is this hard?

Not hard at all. There’s a service called MacInCloud that allows you to “rent” a virtual mac. You share files between your local computer and your MacInCloud using DropBox or OneDrive and use the software in the cloud to create your ebooks.

How many books have you created with Vellum?

I don’t have a clue any more. I stopped counting a few months ago when I passed a thousand ebooks created. My guess is probably somewhere between 1500-1600.

Vellum allows you to create print books as well as ebooks and print books. Do you have to set things up differently for each format?

You don’t have to, but Vellum gives you the option to have certain parts of your book only appear in the ebook version or print version. Let’s say you want the copyright page at the back in the ebook, but at the front of the printed book. You simply create two copyright pages, one that only appears in the print version and one that appears in the ebook version.
 

 
There’s a “Tips and Tricks” section in your book. What’s one of the most useful tips you’ve learned?

Probably the non-breaking space trick. Using this hidden character will allow you to add vertical spacing to your text. For instance, let’s say on the print book you want a section to appear at the top of the next page. You can hit the enter key five times to insert five blank lines, but Vellum will treat those lines as one blank line in the formated book. Simply add a non-break space character, hit enter, another non-break space and enter, and now you have three blank lines instead of one.

You’ve created a lot of box sets with Vellum. How does Vellum help make this process easier?

It’s easy as drag-and-drop. You can take individual Word docs or Vellum files and drag them into the box set you’re creating and a new volume is automatically added. With everything prepared I can easily create a five book box set in Vellum in less than five minutes.

What’s your favorite Vellum feature?

The preview. By using the Vellum Preview you can see what your ebook look like on any device. Set it for Kindle Paperwhite, and you’ll see how it appears on that device. Change to an iPhone or iPad and you’ll get a preview of those devices as well. Or, you can see exactly what the printed page would look like in a print book.

About the Author

“His short stories are stunning” — Dean Wesley Smith, USA Today Bestselling Author

Indie Chuck Heintzelman writes quirky short stories, usually with some sort of fantastical element. He’s as surprised by this as anyone. Even after dozens of stories published, he still stays up too late at night, feverishly working on the next tale. Many of his stories can be found in various issues of Fiction River or Boundary Shock Quarterly.
 
Lately, Chuck’s time has been consumed managing and enhancing BundleRabbit, a DIY ebook bundling and collaborative publishing service.

Find Chuck

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Find The Author’s Guide to Vellum: Creating Beautiful Books with Vellum 2.0

Books2Read

Meet A. L. Butcher!

A. L. (Alex) Butcher has a background in ancient history, mythology, and classical studies – all of which have given her an interest in the fascinating world of monsters. Here Be Monsters is the fifth volume in her Myths, Monsters, and Mayhem series. In addition to her many short stories and the story bundles she’s curated, Alex writes The Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles, a series of adult dark fantasy romance adventures set in a world where magic is forbidden.

Here Be Monsters

Here Be Monsters is a collection of 19 tales of myths, monsters, and mayhem.

We love to fear them and fight them. Monsters come in many forms, from the monsters within to the monsters outside and under the bed. Dare you venture into the caverns and the castles? Dare you enter the darkness of an accursed soul?

An eclectic collection of dark creatures and those who fight them. You have been warned.

~ Here Be Monsters is only available through September 2018 ~

The Interview

Here Be Monsters is the fifth volume in your bundle series Myths, Monsters, and Mayhem. What inspired you to create this series, and this volume in particular?

I love fantasy, and the total diversity of worlds, creatures, people and situations within. Fantasy is by far the widest and most creative of genres, and the possibilities are limitless. In my view fantasy is freedom. I love the old style myths, fairytales and bardic stories, and this series has a bit of everything. Our cultures are saturated with myth, legend and the fantastic – St George and the Dragon (see my blog for an article on the history of this); giants and fairies, even Santa Claus is a fantastical story. These are not only aimed towards children – there are 131 public houses called George and Dragon in the UK, 67 called Robin Hood (or similar), 59 called The Griffin, 51 called The Phoenix, 52 called The Unicorn and 31 called The Golden Fleece. Such tales remain popular, and most if not all countries have a mythic past which still appears in current life.

Here Be Monsters features the darker side of fantasy – those beings and beasties we all love to fear. Not all are bad – In The Stolen Tower (which features in the bundle too), two of the primary characters are Trolls – but not your usual bridge-lurker type of troll. The monsters in this one are taken from their past – at a time before the magical Fae Realm was sealed off, and should not exist in the world they currently inhabit. There’s an earth elemental too – a personification of the mountain. The Keres are nasty, nasty creatures – think harpies with an even worse attitude. But there are also human monsters, and creatures the humans fear which are the good guys.

I know some of the other stories have an array of nasties, but not always those creatures who we would assume are the monsters.
 

 
 
You’ve written a number of stories set in Erana, a fantasy world you created – including “Warrior’s Curse,” which appears in Here Be Monsters. What is it about the world of Erana that keeps bringing you back to it?

Erana is a world of magic – but that magic has been seriously beaten into submission. After years of war between elves, men, fae, trolls and various other magical creatures the fae realm is closed off, the elves fall to a mysterious plague that almost destroys their civilisation, the trolls retreat to the mountains and largely shut themselves off, and martial law is imposed. The Order of Witch-Hunters take charge and blame the elves and magic for the plague (rightly or wrongly – that will be explained in later books), and seek to obliterate magic, and enslave elves where ever they are to be found. Magic, however, refuses to abide by the laws of men, and appears in odd places, and people.

It’s a world of contrasts – magic is everywhere – albeit on the sly – but it’s usage and possession are punishable by death. A person doesn’t choose to be magical – they just are. Most people soon learn to hide what skills they have or pass them off as something else. There are temples to various gods – which not even the Order has the courage to forbid. Many people think the gods are real and it doesn’t do to take the chance they aren’t. Most of the elves live in hiding, or in Enclave (basically ghettos) and have no rights, and are owned by humans. But most humans are peasants and too ignorant, afraid or overworked to see the problems. It’s been that way for three hundred years, it must be the truth. Truth and freedom are relative terms.

Warrior’s Curse starts with some treasure hunters seeking refuge from a storm in a cave. They soon discover bags of shiny loot – but as with most things in Erana such treasure has a past, and is not what it first appears. One of the group (a Troll Past-Seer) recounts the history of the most rare and expensive item and decides she wants nothing to do with it. The menfolk are not so wise… The ‘story within a story’ is set in the past – for there are witches, monsters, and unholy magics – and none of the treasure hunters would even comprehend such things in a world where magic is illegal.

Erana draws me in time after time. It has a dark history, but there is hope for the future. The good guys are anti-heroes – they kill, steal and manipulate but for the good of others and a ‘cause’. The bad guys are bad – but many just don’t know any different or are following orders. Good and bad are not clear. But in many ways it reflects our world – there are oppressed and oppressors, the wise and the foolish, a history saturated with blood, and the indomitable spirit to survive, no matter what.
 
 
Remembering Warriors is a story bundle you organized as a commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the First Armistice Day. A percentage of the royalties goes to the Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes, two charities that support wounded and ex-service personnel and their families. What inspired you to create this collection?

This one is easy for me to answer. My father served in the Royal Army Medical Corps and was wounded in action in 1959 – he lost the sight in one eye. My mother served in Queen Alexandra’s Army Nursing Corp (fortunately she came out unscathed). The Royal British Legion helps ex-veterans and their families in a number of ways. My father currently resides in a British Legion nursing home, and all the residents there have served in the forces.
Help for Heroes is a more recent charity which also promotes rehabilitation and help for those wounded in action.

2018 is the centenary of the end of World War One – the Great War which decimated Europe and led, it’s argued, to the Second World War and the horrors there. In the last century war has continued, although thankfully not a global scale, and men and women return damaged (those who do return). I firmly believe the Great War, and World War Two shaped modern European history, and such horror should never be forgotten. There were villages in England where every man between 16 and 50 was lost. It’s very easy to disassociate oneself from war – which for most of us is fought far away against people we aren’t very familiar with – and we can become blase to it. But these soldiers, no matter whose side they might be on, are someone’s child, sibling, parent or friend. I have seen the price war can exact – and how it changes lives.

The slogan for the Royal British Legion is Live On – that is an important message as those who remain CAN live on, and those who suffer injury can now have worthwhile and valuable lives. We must as humans, as descendants, as free people remember the sacrifices some pay for freedom. I set this bundle up to try and raise awareness of these charities, to stir a thought for the soldiers past and present. The Great War was known as the War to End All Wars – sadly it did not.
 
 
In The Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles, you created a world where magic is forbidden and elves are enslaved. The series starts with Dii, an elven sorceress, fleeing for her life. How did your background in politics and mythology help you craft this series?

One only has to look back on human history to see parallels to the world of Erana – Despotic government, rule by fear, divide and rule, blaming a particular group of people for society’s ills and the list goes on. Politics doesn’t change much, oh yes new leaders and parties come and go but the machine rumbles onward nonetheless. No party/leader will change the system which got him or her elected (assuming they were in fact elected), and no party is likely to radically change the status quo. In many ways it’s a case of better the devil you know. That said there have been uprisings – the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution to name a couple, and there have been individuals and groups who have made a difference but they are few and far between. Certainly with many revolutions the common man or woman has not noticed a great deal of difference to his or her life. And many folks are content with that. Change can be frightening. But also there is always someone willing to fight for the little guy – to stand up and say no more. There is always hope and the human spirit to fight on, to live and to discover a better world. Sometimes it’s so much bullshit, but not always.

Much of the background lore for Erana is similar in form to our own mythology – and of course in myth anything is possible – from vast flying lizards, to demi-god heroes, to the lowliest beating the greatest. It doesn’t have to be true, but it does have to show us the best and worst in ourselves, and that people can be greater than they imagined. The allegories of myth hold moral, and symbolic meanings.
 

 
 
You have a background in politics, sociology, classical studies, ancient history, and mythology. How does your interest in and knowledge of these areas influence your writing?

I love the old Roman and Greek tales and I read a lot of history. Erana is mostly a medieval society, with a few tweaks. As I said earlier myth and storytelling are really important aspects to our modern society – although it’s not obvious at first. I like reading myths, fairytales and the lore-laden fantasy stories and try and style my work in that way. Sociology and politics teach one about societies, relations between classes, people and countries – how government is run, and more importantly how people THINK it’s run – which is vastly different.
 
 
How did you select the stories included in the Here Be Monsters bundle?

Some were from authors I was already familiar with, and some I read the synopsis or the look insides and decided the book was a good fit. Authors can refuse to join a bundle if they feel the vision doesn’t match their work.
 
 
 

You’ve put together a number of story bundles, and have more planned. What do you enjoy about creating these collections?

The Bundles are a lot of fun. They are also a GREAT networking tool. The idea is that readers get a bundle of books for a bargain price and find new authors and the authors get ‘cross-pollination’. I’ve found some great new authors and books to read.
 
 
What story (or stories) are you working on now, and what’s fun about what you’re writing?

Currently I am working on Book IV of the Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles, an Erana novella (currently which is stuck), an historical fiction for an anthology, and a ghost story. It’s all fun – I love creating stories. Except when the story won’t tell me where it wants to go – then it’s annoying.

About the Author

British-born Alexandra Butcher (aka A. L. Butcher) is an avid reader and creator of worlds, a poet, and a dreamer, a lover of science, natural history, history, and monkeys. Her prose has been described as ‘dark and gritty’ and her poetry as evocative. She writes with a sure and sometimes erotic sensibility of things that might have been, never were, but could be.

Alex is the author of the Light Beyond the Storm Chronicles and the Tales of Erana lyrical fantasy series. She also has several short stories in the fantasy, fantasy romance genres with occasional forays into gothic style horror. With a background in politics, classical studies, ancient history and myth, her affinities bring an eclectic and unique flavour in her work, mixing reality and dream in alchemical proportions that bring her characters and worlds to life.

Her short novella Outside the Walls, co-written with Diana L. Wicker received a Chill with a Book Reader’s Award in 2017.

She is also the curator of a number of exciting book bundles on Bundle Rabbit and frequently works with other authors.

She activity supports nature, wildlife and veteran’s charities.

Find Alex

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Blog | Goodreads

Find Here Be Monsters!

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