REBELS & DESPERADOS -the 1st review

As an independent writer, I live for moments like this- the first review of REBELS & DESPERADOS.

By Jim Fraiser

It’s 1888, when a delicate peace exists between the Confederate States of America and the United States of America, the latter having been vanquished in 1863 after a Rebel victory at Gettysburg. CSA President James Longstreet manages a Confederacy that has freed its slaves, annexed California and taken north Mexico by force, calling it State of South Texas. Britain, still at war with France, controls Canada, except for a lawless region including Alberta, Montana and several other American and Canadian states. This area is called the Disputed Zone, or the Cauldron, a haven for outlaws, desperados, rebels and renegade Indians.
If this wildly creative setting is not enough to grab your attention (it certainly caught mine!) then the unique plot certainly will. It concerns the meanderings through the aforesaid hostile territories of CSA secret agent and train wrecker “Black” Judah Lee, his “dark angel” whore Bella, his compatriot Big Drake and Drake’s bigger wife Carmen, and Lee’s would be nemesis, soldier Lawrence Thorenson. Of course, the Mounties, Pinkertons as well as Confederate and American troops are hot on Lee’s trail, as he pursues a secret CSA mission. Along the way, there are shootouts, brothel sex (described once as “riding a wild bronco through a volcano”), elaborate duels, train and bank robberies, and much more wanton sex. Raunchy Western humor abounds, as with a character’s comment, “I’d f**# a snake if it had ears,” explaining that the ears would give him something to hang onto!
Injected into the fiction are historical characters such as Longstreet, his Vice President Nathan Bedford Forrest, and former CSA Generals Jubal Early and George Pickett, who wage one of this ebook’s most intriguing duels. And there’s the Confederate battleship, Jefferson Davis.
The body count and carnage are prominent characters in this wild shootout, and the dialogue is as salty as that of any other book ever written. But the action is non-stop, the story riveting, and the weird mixture of alternate history and western story such that I read the whole thing through in one sitting.
There are even accompanying maps and wanted posters to augment the wild men and often even wilder women. A few mis-steps occur to be sure, e.g., rare editorial lapses and the fact that Bedford Forrest was never such an elegant speaker. But this is fiction, after all, and alternative historical fiction to boot.
If you like a really wild west, a plot that moves like a nuclear locomotive, and well-drawn, bizarre characters mingling with real-life ex-Confederate generals, this is the story for you!


http://www.amazon.ca/REBELS-DESPERADOS-REBEL-EMPIRE-STUART-ebook/dp/B00FRKG91C/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1387232829&sr=1-1&keywords=rebels+%26+desperados

An Indie writer- rants!!!

An Indie writer- rants!!!

There is no doubt that the advent of the internet has made self publishing for independent writers a new reality, however it's not always the easy and simple process its cracked up to be.

Publishing on Amazon Kindle direct- is very straight forward, as long as you've built your TOC- table of contents correctly. Amazon is more complicated if you have any images contained within the text.

My big hassle with Amazon was working out how to get paid. It was a nightmare that took weeks and dozens of emails to resolve. All the problems were related to electronic payments. Part of it was my fault, the rest I lay at Amazon's feet. These issues have now been resolved and I actually get paid for my work.

Smashwords is slightly more challenging and time consuming. I first uploaded my new ebook REBELS & DESPERADOS in early Oct. It sat in their queue for ten days, then was rejected for TOC problems. Funny the TOC worked fine at Amazon. They allow you to remove the TOC and their meatgrinder process will build one for you. OK, I did it again, and another two weeks for it to be reviewed and approved. Finally the book is approved and they begin to send it out to the vendors, such as Barnes & Noble, Apple, Sony and KOBO.

The book slowly begins to appear on the individual ebook vendors sites. After three weeks- while it had been sent to Kobo, it never actually appeared on KOBO for sale. Then I discover you can now self publish directly on Kobo and eliminate Smashwords as the middle man. Kobo uses a process called -Kobo Writing Life - very straight forward, my book was available within 24 hours of the upload, So why bother with Smashwords, hmmm, good question.

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/rebels-desperado

Next it's interesting to compare book sale numbers. My book sales on Amazon outsell all the other ebook vendors combined  by a 5 to 1 ratio. Pretty clear to see where the money and exposure  is.

Since Smashwords will only pay me via Paypal it creates a whole new problem. Since my Smashwords sales are low, the quarterly payment is always just under $15. Guess what. You cannot make a withdrawal from Paypal for less then $15. So in effect I can never get that money.

Guest Post at - ALTERNATE HISTORY WEEKLY UPDATE

I recently had the opportunity to write a guest post for the very interesting blog- ALTERNATE HISTORY WEEKLY UPDATE

Check it out:

http://alternatehistoryweeklyupdate.blogspot.ca/

REBELS & DESPERADOS is now available in the Amazon Kindle store

My new novel - REBELS & DESPERADOS is now available in the Amazon Kindle store.  This is book two in the series REBEL EMPIRE.

Here's a brief synopsis:

The year is 1888. Young Confederate secret agent and outlaw -“Black” Judah Lee is the most wanted man in all of North America. His alliance with the Métis warrior nation and his daring bank and train robberies in the Disputed Territories of Dakota and Assiniboia have brought him to the attention of the grim and bloodthirsty Mountie - Superintendent Thornton. Lee and his psychotic partner Drake Kensington have barely managed to avoid capture, but the Mounties and Pinkerton’s are closing in! He has fallen into a world populated by gamblers, rebels, renegade Indians, outlaws, murderers, desperados and whores; his crucial mission to aid the Confederacy hangs in the balance as he blazes a trail of blood and murder across the West.

Here's the link to Amazon

http://www.amazon.ca/REBELS-DESPERADOS-REBEL-EMPIRE-ebook/dp/B00FRKG91C/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1382364366&sr=1-1&keywords=rebels+%26+desperados

Finishing an 18 year Writing Marathon

I just completed a comprehensive re-edit of my eBook GETTYSBURG REDUX in anticipation of re-publishing it simultaneously with the sequel - REBELS AND DESPERADOS. The editing was comprised nearly entirely with the correction of minor grammatical errors, words that had become joined and minor spelling errors.  I also took this opportunity to re-format the dialogue to make it easier to read. Perhaps it would be better to say I polished minor errors as opposed to re-editing.

When I look back at the journey that the publishing of this book represents I often wonder where I found the energy to get the book into a version that could be published. The novel was originally written during the 18 month period from 1994 to 1996.  Unable to secure an agent, editor or publisher the disks sat forgotten in a box in my basement for nearly 14 years.

Originally I thought the writing was the hard part, I was so wrong!

So here are the final steps to publication. In the spring of 2012 I realized that an agent, editor and publisher were no longer required.  Miracle of miracles you can self publish as an eBook. Once I found the box where the novel was stored I realized the book was written and filed by chapter on 48 separate 3 ½ inch floppy disks. The novel was written using Lotus 123 a spreadsheet program, which was the only program that was available to me at that time.  If I had known just how much trouble converting the files from Lotus to a usable Word program would be, I would have used a more suitable program back in 1994.

 Hind sight is easy!

The first hurdle that I encountered was that I didn't have a computer that could read the antiquated floppy disks, and I actually contemplated re-typing the entire book in word, a potentially daunting task considering the book contained approximately 245K words.  Then my son-in-law found me an old refurbished PC that had a drive that would accept 3 ½ inch floppy disks.  Ok, first hurdle resolved.

However, I now needed to find a way to convert from Lotus to Word.  There is a program called CNET which I ultimately used and I was able to convert the chapters into Excel files.  Then I had to convert from Excel to Word, however when the conversion was completed there had been problems with the formatting and instead of clean Words files, everything was corrupted.  The corruption took the form of the addition of lines inserted between the lines of text. Instead of approximately 450 Word pages I had nearly 5 thousand pages.  This meant I needed to sit and manually delete these lines; this took nearly three months of incredibly boring work. During this period the sheer size of the file was so large the file would continually freeze up the PC, OK another computer was required so I upgraded to another recycled Dell which resolved the problem.

Once I had a file that was workable I was able to actually edit the novel again to clean up all of the errors that had developed along the way and to polish the text etc.  Another two months of work ensued.  During this period I was able to secure the talents of the very creative Lan Medina and the cover was designed and drawn.

Finally with a product I was happy with, I set out to publish on Amazon, a reasonably easy task.  However, when I looked at the preview on Amazon I realized there was another serious formatting error.  Somehow through all of the conversions an error occurred which scrambled the text.  Another two months of work was required to correct.

Finally after six months of work and hundreds of hours of boredom I was able to publish on both Amazon and Smashwords.  The 18 year journey was completed and it was so gratifying to finally have it finished.  Previously I had always felt a huge sense of failure because the book was sitting unused in a box gathering dust.

GETTYSBURG REDUX IS AVAILABLE AT ALL EBOOK VENDORS

The sequel - REBELS AND DESPERADOS should be available by the end of 2013.

CUSTOMER REVIEW- MR. JABLOWSKI'S TREASURE

It was really nice to receive my first customer review for my short story- MR. JABLOWSKI’S TREASURE. There’s nothing more gratifying than getting feedback from a reader, especially if it’s positive feedback.

Here’s the review that was left on SMASHWORDS:

“John R. Stuart imaginatively explores an early memory treasured from a life once lived—I would like to believe—interwoven in a rich tapestry of soft hue and silky texture with a subtle naivety of innocence spilling through each page.”

MR. JABLOWSKI’S TREASURE is available at the following eBook vendors:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/mr-jablowskis-treasure-john-r-stuart/1116057697?ean=2940044608344

http://www.diesel-ebooks.com/item/SW00000328907/Stuart-John-R.-Mr.-Jablowski-s-Treasure/1.html

https://itunes.apple.com/au/book/mr.-jablowskis-treasure/id667813706?mt=11

http://store.kobobooks.com/en-ca/books/Mr-Jablowskis-Treasure/hzBvXl5BzUKLRv9OwL48k-

https://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/john-r-stuart/mr-jablowski-s-treasure/_/R-400000000000001077109

http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/328907

Editing - The Tedious part of the creative writing process

I've just finished the third edit of my new novel- REBELS AND DESPERADOS which represents the second critical stage in my novel’s life.  I suspect there is nothing more tedious and boring in the entire world than this process, however, it is vital to producing a good- enjoyable story. Now I don’t pretend to be a professional editor, however a degree in English Literature from the University of Toronto is a good starting point.

My current process for editing is three fold:

Edit one consists of a fast re-read to insure the story flows, the character details are correct, the timelines are true and it basically makes sense for the reader.

Edit two consist of a detailed examination of the books formatting in word. This is a spell and grammar check as well as a review of the standard formatting. Formatting errors in an eBook will present the reader with a poor reading experience, and may cause trouble when the book is submitted to your eBook publisher. Tedious at its best.

Edit three is a page by page re-read of the entire novel, start to finish. At this point I again check spelling, grammar, and word selection. It’s an opportunity to polish and tweak the story as well. I edit every page twice and this process is a true time eater!

I finished the third stage on July 1^st and then it was time to send it off to my editor for his review. For REBELS AND DESPERADOS I’m very lucky to have a good editor, a friend who was an English teacher at a U.S. college, so the edit will be good!

Once he finishes his review it comes back to me for my re-work based upon his edits. Now I’m of the opinion that a good editor will fix any spelling or grammatical errors, identify story line issues and comment on the quality of the story. He may also decide to critique the way the story is written, basically what style do I write in. Is it suitable etc, etc?

I hope in this situation I will not require significant re-writes. Depending upon what the editor suggests I hope to be ready to correct and publish REBELS AND DESPERADOS by October 2013.

But ultimately I have the final decision as to what the story is and how it’s told. After all I am the writer.

So, where am I going with this? It’s like a lottery to get published.

I have probably read upwards of 1000 works of fiction during my life, but in order to find those 1000 truly worthy reads I've started to read many, many more books. It’s likely in the range of 5-10 thousand books.  Most look of these books have a great cover, look interesting and have promise, but after 50 pages or so I put them down- unfinished. Why?

Well, some are just plain terrible, others are well written but the subject matter is boring, it might be very well written but the subject matter isn't strong enough to keep my attention.  Where am I going with this, well the point I’m making is that there are thousands of stories available, as standard printed books or as eBooks- but they just weren't right for me, and the publishing business is much the same.

It’s like a lottery to get published. At some point every one of the books I've rejected has caught the attention of an agent or publisher.  Someone somewhere thought it was brilliant and spent the time and money to publish it. I suspect on any given day several hundred book proposals will arrive on a publisher’s desk.

Why are some accepted and others rejected? Good question?

When I originally tried to publish GETTYSBURG REDUX the old fashioned way, I sent my book proposal to approximately 100 publishers. Some had the courtesy to send me a reply, must did not. Universally their response was negative! Did this mean my novel was bad, not necessarily, they may have failed to see the potential in my work, or perhaps it wasn't the flavor of the day? They may have seen merit in the story but felt it wasn't commercially viable. Perhaps the subject matter and story-line were not something they were interested in. Maybe they had a bad day or had no interest in alternative fiction; never the less they declined my book proposal.

Here are some examples of successful authors that had trouble getting published:

Margaret Mitchell- GONE WITH THE WIND was rejected by dozens of publishers

J.K Rowling - HARRY POTTER

Louis L’Amour received approx. 200 rejections before his first work was published

C.S Lewis is reputed to have received in the range of 800 rejection letters

Agents and publishers get it wrong all the time. There are many successful authors, with millions of sales- and I won’t list any of them here, but these are books I found to be unreadable. They Just didn't meet my needs as a reader.

So getting a book published by a large publisher is akin to winning the lottery, the chances are significantly stacked against a new and unknown author.

Just keep trying - I know I will!