Therefore, it upsets me somewhat when readers expect my novels to read like yet another Twilight rip-off. Fictional vampires do not live and die with Stephanie Meyer, people!! (Well, they may well have died…) I’ve now received at least three reader reviews slating me for not providing troubled, sensitive vampires who gnash their blunted teeth over their unrequited, practically pre-pubescent loves. I didn’t and would never set out to write this kind of simple, first-person narrated slush disguised as a loving tribute to self-denial. Real vampires don’t do self-denial.

I know that not everyone will love every novel ever written. Some people will downright hate my work and that’s okay with me; having different tastes and different opinions is all part of being human. What really pisses me off though are those readers who hate me precisely because my books aren’t Twilight clones. The sentiment I especially love is that my vampires should be glittery and tame (and boring!) because that’s just what vampires are, right? WRONG! Did Count Dracula sparkle? Did he weep and wail because it was so hard to abstain from drinking blood? No, he tore through virgins like Edward Cullen tears through a nutritious nut loaf on Christmas day. Yet, I still get comments like this: “I would presume the author has aimed this book at the YA audience but I would have problems passing this on to my fourteen year old daughter to read.” Why would you presume this? Because all vampire novels are Twilight?! My novels are NOT suitable for fourteen year olds; they’re full of swearing, drug use, violent death and nasty sex. They are written for adults, because grown-ups are allowed to read about creatures of the night too. To be fair to this reviewer, her review was honest with well thought out opinions (if inaccurate presumptions). It could be worse. I recently enjoyed being reviewed by a teenager who hated my book so much because it was “nit what I thought” (sic), she wished she had the paper version so she had something physical to throw against a wall. Or burn.

Well you can all congratulate yourselves, Twilight freaks, I give up. My hands are in the air, I’m backing away. I had entertained the idea of writing a sequel to Jinn Nation, of breaking Dylan out of his coffin at some point in the future and sending him out to tear his way through the world again, but at the moment I just don’t think I’ll ever have the energy to write it. Fighting against what Stephanie Meyer has done to one of my favourite literary characters is exhausting and ultimately soul destroying. People expect glitter, they expect tortured souls and joyless teenagers with all the rebellious spirit of a dried out slug and when they don’t get it, they leave you rancid reviews all over the internet.

Farewell dear Count Dracula, your reign is over.

"So is Bella a zombie? She's always just like standing there with her mouth open and she acts like she's dead." ~ Beavis & Butthead

An Arse

All of which serves to make my end-of-year witterings about personal highs (I’m in a good mood this morning, I’m not dwelling on lows! Come back to me around the middle of January…) seem rather insignificant and pointless in comparison. I was going to tell you, for instance, about my experiences making Jinn Nation free across all e-reader formats for a few weeks in November. Over 5000 copies were downloaded to Kindle alone and there was much fun to be had pretending they were real sales and that now I was practically rich, mwahaha! It really was fascinating seeing it climb Amazon’s free chart; I took this screenshot when I climbed as high as #5 and overtook Amanda Hocking on the Horror chart:

Wooo, very exciting It’s still too soon to tell if my free experiment has produced any positive results. I’ve heard that it can boost sales of your other books or at the very least get you some more reviews. I’ve yet to see much evidence of either but I should probably give everyone a chance to read the damn thing before I call the exercise a failure. There are still over 5000 people out there with a book I’ve written sitting on their e-reader, and that in itself is fairly awesome.

If I was to continue with my woefully inadequate personal end-of-year review, I might also have waxed lyrical about my plans for 2012, which include a novella set in a dilapidated coastal theme park beset by harridan-esque merwomen (they’re far too skanky to be thought of as maids) and a long planned novel about a fictional, dream-like town dealing with an influx of (largely) well meaning fae…

Of course, my biggest achievement and proudest moment this year and of my life was giving birth to the Sprogling in April. Cue yet another excuse to post a photo of said Sprogling…

All her clothes are nicer than mine...

I hope you all have a positive and fruitful 2012, despite whatever flavour of shit-storm the world deemed fit to sling at you this past year. If you’re like me and you prefer to hide from a harsh reality behind stories and fantasy, Book Chick City’s Horror and Urban Fantasy Reading Challenge 2012 might interest you. I’ve always wanted to try one of these challenges but my ridiculously slow reading pace scares me off. If you’re braver than me and want to challenge yourself to read twenty-four or forty-eight horror novels this year, sign up here.

See you in the New Year

In the sleepy backwater of Dunraven Road, a group of hedonistic friends are trapped in a deadly prison of their own making. When Zach, their enigmatic leader, brings his long term plans to fruition and paves the way for a sadistic vampire cult, their fragile world begins to break apart.

Fuelled by dangerous passions and an insatiable craving for ‘red’, the group must decide whether to succumb to the sweet lure of the abyss, or stand and fight for their very survival.

Amazon Kindle | Smashwords

Devil the First…
Luxuriating beneath the Spanish sun, the most unlikely of vampires plies his trade in awe and seduction; the master of his realm until a fragile human girl appears intent on tearing his comfortable world apart.

Three short stories, three deliciously seductive yet ultimately cruel characters from the author of dark fantasy novels Dunraven Road and Jinn Nation.

Amazon Kindle | Smashwords

After a century of sleep Briana wakes up alone, naked, terrified and seared with blue flame. Once she had been part of a great and wise population, known by humans as fairies, elves or angels. They were explained away in folk stories, made tiny and inconsistent. None of the stories grasped their true power, their ultimate purpose.

But that was a lifetime ago. Now the fae have been extinguished, brought down by petty mortal disease as the earth itself sickened and failed. Briana believes her kin are all dead, but another has survived. Amid the filth and desperation of a human tent city her brother Jinx has set himself up as a god, pushing Total World Immersion upon the miserable population. If you can imagine it, you can programme it and actually feel as if you are there. A city, a garden, a vast ship sailing the ocean. Anything is possible. TWI technology has both revolutionised and divided the modern world. Some think TWI is evil. They worry that humanity will never want to venture forth into the real world again, not when the realms of the imagination are so much richer. But Jinx argues that these people have nothing left to venture into. Will Briana join Jinx in what she sees as a betrayal of their own kind and their love of the earth, or will she walk away from her only kin and forge her own path in this terrifying new world?

Amazon Kindle | Smashwords

I was quite proud of my little self, particularly with the Trio of Devils cover because it actually incorporates three different pictures (if there are any graphic designers out there reading this, you’re probably trying not to laugh but this was quite a feat for me!) When I showed them to my digital art loving sister and her digital art dabbling boyfriend however, I was met with raised eyebrows and barely disguised smirks. Apparently The Lost Fae Realms cover is “too busy” and the models on the A Trio of Devils cover look like they’re trying too hard to be “goth”. Sigh. They did like the fonts though…

I stumbled across this a couple of weeks ago, an interactive book cover: Daylight Saving by Edward Hogan

Just try running your mouse over it, it’s strangely hypnotic. It seems like a fairly simple idea but if all ebook covers become interactive, I may have to give up my amateur efforts, dig deep and find a professional designer. I particularly like the “Share” button on the bottom, very clever; although I wonder how it would work with a non-watery themed novel?

Before I go, I just wanted to mention that my novel Jinn Nation is currently part of Patti Roberts’s Christmas Bloggerthon. This is a massive competition spanning three blogs in which you have the chance to win one of 90+ ebooks. From Patti’s website: 3 bloggers will battle it be the first with 100 new followers. Lots of different ebook titles on each blog means – Lots of WINNERS! You’d be crazy not to enter for an opportunity to win!!! New ebook titles and covers coming soon…..Keep and eye out for Author Interviews… Reviews and more on your bloggers site! Find out more and enter.

The Sprogling says... See you next time, puny mortals! Mwahaha!

Not that the John Locke method doesn’t work of course; it works very, very well. If you don’t already know, John Locke is the first indie author to sell 1 million e-books for the Amazon Kindle, an accolade that was previously only held by bestselling traditionally published authors such as Stieg Larsson, James Patterson and Lee Child. One of his latest projects is a how-to guide to marketing and selling your self-published novel called How I Sold 1 Million eBooks in 5 Months!; the blueprint for the ‘John Locke method’, which seems to basically comprise of pricing books at $0.99 and utilising Twitter. There’s nothing wrong with that (although I often wonder how people view $0.99 novels, whether or not they think they must be crappy because they’re so cheap; but then John Locke has sold over a million books in just 5 months doing this and I definitely have not), but it was the line “my books may not be great literature, but they certainly don’t suck… I no longer have to prove my books are as good as theirs [traditional publishers]” from the book’s sample that put me off purchasing it.

I can’t help but believe that books shouldn’t be a ‘paint by numbers’ affair, written only to make money. I think they should be loved and sweated over, whether it’s a novel about a vampire dating a high school cheerleader or an opus dealing with the stuff of the soul. I know writers don’t aim to live in poverty and it would be weird if they did. Marketing and promotion will always be necessary if you want people to take notice of your work, I just feel that as an indie author it can be all too easy to find yourself focusing solely on the marketing, hopped up on success stories like John Locke and Amanda Hocking. Before long you’re studying the bestseller lists and adapting your work to copy what is selling instead of being true to your own interests and inspirations. But maybe that’s just me. After all, didn’t Dickens often write just for the money? He wrote his novels in segments to be published in magazines, each one ending on a cliff-hanger, and I’m sure I read somewhere that he wrote A Christmas Carol to make some quick cash for the festive season, little knowing how popular and influential it would become. I suppose Charles Dickens and John Locke might have made good Twitter buddies if they’d lived in the same century.

There’s still time to follow my blog tour if you haven’t been doing it already (and if you have, you rock!) Vampires.com have already kindly posted an interview with me, and later today they’ll be posting my guest blog about why I created my vampire character, Dylan (although to be honest, he snuck into my brain fully formed and demanded to be included in the completely different story I was writing; there wasn’t that much ‘creation’ involved, it was more of a hold-up on his part). There’s also still time to read my interview and enter the giveaway to win an e-copy of Jinn Nation in any format of your choice (I’m not formatist!) over at Oh, for the Hook of a Book!, or head to Donna’s Blog Home to read a guest blog about my inspirations and check out the best review I’ve ever had I’ve also been leaving exclusive excerpts of Jinn Nation all over the web (I know, I really should clean up after myself…) So if you fancy reading a snippet from my novel that isn’t included in the bog standard Kindle sample, have yourself a look at these wonderful blogs:

No Trees Harmed
Donna’s Blog Home
Oh, for the Hook of a Book!

Look out for more giveaways, excerpts and blog posts towards the end of the week!

Huge thanks to all the blogs taking part, you’re awesome! Huge thanks must also be bestowed upon the lovely Amber of Amberkatze’s Book Blog for making me this week’s guest author. Head over to read Amber’s interview with me and for a chance to win an e-copy of Jinn Nation!

I haven’t used Smashwords before but I was impressed. It was really easy to upload there and the formatting I had to do wasn’t that bad. I’m planning on writing a blog soon about how I got Jinn Nation ready for publication – how I formatted it and how I got it onto Amazon and Smashwords; so keep an eye out if you’re interested in doing this for yourself. There may also be a future blog about marketing, although that’s something I’m still in the process of doing myself!

So go buy, read, tell me what you think. For a limited time, Jinn Nation will be at the very special price of £0.95 / $0.99, bargain!

Here’s the cover I’ve been so excited about:

This is so much better than anything I could have come up with on my own; I’m so glad that the rather excellent Andy Isaacs agreed to do it for me (my knowledge of graphic design is painfully limited).

As happens with most things I attempt to do within any sort of sensible timeframe, the publication date is a little later than I’d planned. Most days I’ve been working with the Sprogling firmly tucked into one elbow, leaving me with only one hand to type with. I love that she’s a cuddly baby, but the fact that she usually hates to be put down for any length of time does make life interesting. Especially if you desperately need to do the housework or take a shower. She’s also started to smile properly now (she’s 9 weeks old today), so obviously every time she does it, all work has to stop while I marvel at how gorgeous she is.

Proof! (or just an excuse to show off more pictures of my newborn, you decide).

I’ve just realised that I’ve laid all the blame for my own slackness on my child. Shameful. Well, my next project shouldn’t take me so long to finish. I’ve just reacquired the rights to my first novel, Dunraven Road, and I’m planning on republishing it with a shiny new cover and bonus material in the very near future. After that I’ll be continuing to write my new novel – one-handed no less, with a smiling Sprogling curled against my arm

It almost seems worth the peculiar and drawn-out indignities of childbirth and the three sleepless nights spent in a badly ventilated, over-crowded hospital. What am I saying? Of course it was worth it, just look at her!

I actually have lots of other writing related news to blog about, including the unveiling of Jinn Nation’s awesome cover and some rather exciting developments concerning Dunraven Road, but I’ll have to save that for next time, my newborn needs feeding

On the Kindle – Water for Elephants: A Novel by Sara Gruen (Yes, I got suckered in by the schmaltzy movie trailers – I’ve just given birth, indulge me!)

I realise this all makes me sound a lot less excited than I actually am about the impending Sprogling… I actually can’t wait for her to get here, making my current relationship with the notion of time rather complicated. Sigh.

So what of Jinn Nation? Plans for its publication are definitely progressing, whether or not I have the occasional freak-out to suggest otherwise. The cover is currently in the hands of a very talented designer and I’ve been so excited about the drafts I’ve seen so far – it’s going to be awesome! I’ve also redesigned my website to include the book (feel free to laugh at my meagre excuse for a Jinn Nation cover – it’s just a placeholder until the real thing is ready ) and my first indie effort – The Undead Alliance. I didn’t code a thing this time, which only felt mildly weird! Instead, I signed up with Wix.com where you can build a free Flash website entirely online in a drag and drop stylee. You have to put up with a small banner across the bottom of your webpage (you can pay for a premium package that gets rid of this), but I was really impressed with the amount of effects and features you can use. I had fun anyway Wix also host the pages on their own servers. Go check me out now I’m all Flashy! – www.carolinebarnardsmith.co.uk

I’ve also finally perfected the blurb for Jinn Nation:

In Dunraven Road, Dylan wanted to tear the world down – now he only wants to find his place in it.

Finding himself alone for the first time in his long unlife, Dylan turns to the preternatural race of savage creatures called the jinn – a path that inevitably leads him to Christa, a strangely childlike woman with the power to control minds and read thoughts. Mutually intrigued by each other, they set out on a blood-soaked road trip that crosses the United States and the Atlantic Ocean; finally leading them beyond the world itself to the mysterious fae kingdoms of the Inbetween.

What do you think? Suitably appetite-whetting? I’ve tried to include more detail than I did in Dunraven Road’s blurb, because I remember being told it didn’t give enough away to make some readers want to buy it. Which sucked, obviously.

I’m hoping to have a sample of the novel up on my website by next week.

Just before I sign off, I have to mention this blog post by indie author Katie Salidas: Self-Publishing & Marketing Advice – What I’ve learned this past year. If, like me, you’re new to all this indie publishing malarkey (or to being published in general), the information in this blog is seriously worth checking out. Invaluable.

I’m off now to complete some more final polishes on Jinn Nation, here’s hoping I’m less freaked out the next time I blog!

Want a blurb?

A new novella from the author of Dunraven Road.

Is Gabriel strong enough to turn against his charismatic yet ultimately evil leader? Or will he watch Daisy die?

I’m getting ahead of myself though, perhaps I should explain how I came to the decision to self-publish (which will henceforth be known as indie publishing, because it sounds sooo much cooler)…

For those of you who’ve been listening to my radio show, you’ll know I’ve been talking about e-publishing and the Kindle in particular, especially since Amazon recorded astronomical Kindle sales over the Christmas period. So many sales in fact, that at one point the Kindle was outselling the latest Harry Potter book. I’ve always been interested in digital publishing, although back in 2008 I was lamenting the fact that “In the early days… ebooks also suffered from the same snobbery used to demean print-on-demand services. If you had to resort to publishing through an ebook publisher, your book wasn’t worth jack.” Well, I think I can safely say that things have now changed. The Kindle and other major ebook readers such as Barnes & Noble’s Nook steadily grew in popularity over the course of last year, meaning of course that ebooks did too – particularly those published by indie authors who unlike the traditional publishers were putting out their work at a decent price. Paranormal romance author and indie publishing’s current heroine Amanda Hocking has sold over 185, 000 books since April 2010. E-publishing has suddenly become interesting.

Now, of course you’ll always be able to find self-published novels of the same calibre as some of the drek that often stinks up the place over at Lulu; but authors such as J.A. Konrath and H.P. Mallory are proof that this is no longer the norm. J.A. Konrath in particular propounds upon the benefits of hiring professional book designers and cover artists. It seems there really is nothing a traditional publisher can do that an author can’t do for themselves. Social networking even makes promotion easier (and cheaper), often bypassing the need for the sort of large scale advertising campaigns employed by the traditional print publishers (campaigns which have become infrequent to non-existent in recent years anyway, giving new authors about as much support as a cheap sports bra).

Perhaps what has really spurred me on to try my hand at indie publishing though is the amount of control you retain; not only over the content of your work, but over the royalties you can accrue. Many authors claim they’re not indie publishing simply because the traditional publishers rejected them, they’re indie publishing because they get a better deal. All of which is starting to make the traditional publishers and agents sweat into their designer suits.

In the wise words of J.A. Konrath:

“This is the California Gold Rush of 1849. Will everyone get rich? No. But damn near everyone who tries will make more money than they would if they try the traditional publishing route.”

Why wouldn’t you mark out a spot and start sifting for gold?

So, The Undead Alliance is my trial run. I’m planning to do similar things with my latest novel, Jinn Nation and I’m excited