Before I get into the giving away of free books, I was wondering if anyone knew of good online resources for writing about sexual assault issues in fiction. I'm thinking about a post about it, and would like to be able to include other links if they're out there. Thanks!

I said I'd be giving away two copies of The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] this time, one just for entering and another to the best princess-themed haiku.

The random number generator selected will_couvillier to win the first copy. Congratulations! I'll get your book ordered as soon as I receive your e-mail.

Now for the hard part. There were some terrific entries -- y'all rock the princess poetry, and I'm very happy I'm not the one having to pick a winner! Also, it turns out April is National Poetry Month, so this was quite the appropriate contest. I'm gonna pretend I did that on purpose.

Anyway, I picked some of my favorites and used the random number site to choose a few wild card entries. I'll keep voting open through the end of this week. Vote for as many as you'd like, and then if you have time, head back to the original post to read the other entries.

Finally, a quick thanks to everyone who's done any Amazon shopping through my affiliate links (those [Amazon] links I leave next to books). It's thanks to you that I get to give away free books.

I haven't seen a contract yet, but my agent posted it to the JABberwocky site, so I figure it's safe to announce that we've got an offer to translate Goblin Quest [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] into Hebrew. Yay!

And now, time to vote for a book. Thanks to everyone who offered jokes -- they brought many smiles to my face, and were a great deal of fun to read. I picked some of my favorites, and then used a random number picker to choose a few wild cards. Jokes and voting are behind the LJ cut, since some of these get a little long.

Voting will be open through Friday, at which point the winner will receive a copy of The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] direct from the wilds of the Amazon.com.

( Vote for as many as you'd like )

All right, I've got enough Amazon gift credit left to give away one more free copy of The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy].

Thanks as always to the folks who order books and other goodies through my links. You're the reason I'm able to give away more books!

Going with the suggestions from earlier this week, it's Joke for a Book day. Post your funniest in the comments. I'll pick some, let folks vote, and the winner will get a copy of Stepsister direct from Amazon. (U.S. residents only, I'm afraid -- I don't have enough for the overseas shipping. Sorry!)

Keep it PG13 or lighter, and let's avoid the racist/sexist jokes please? (The first one to make a blonde joke gets a visit from Golaka and her spoon.)

Have fun, and feel free to spread the word.

---

Got an e-mail from my German editor this morning. As a title, I'm told "The Stepsister Scheme" doesn't translate well at all, and they're looking for alternate ideas, preferably something lighthearted and/or funny.

I can brainstorm titles, but I don't know how well they'd translate into German, so I figured I'd ask here as well. Any suggestions, particularly from those of you who speak German?

I've also seen the cover artwork for the German edition of Stepsister, by the same artist who did my goblin covers. I'll share that as soon as it's finalized. It's a very different take on the characters than in the DAW edition.

ETA: I've e-mailed my German editor with a list of suggestions. Huge thanks to you all!

Yes, I've seen this. And this. And this (in Spanish, even).

I've spoken to my agent, and we've heard nothing about any movie adaptations. That's not to say we won't hear anything in the future, but right now I'd take it all with a chunk of salt.

If Disney or someone else does contact us ... I won't be posting about it here. Chatting about business deals in progress on a public blog just isn't a good idea. When and if anything happens and is finalized (contracts signed, etc.), then I'll share.

But I'm not holding my breath.

Still, it's nice to daydream about. And even if nothing comes of it, which is most likely, I'm not about to refuse a little extra publicity.

First the announcements...

• I'm doing a reading and signing in Grand Rapids tonight at Schuler Books on Alpine Ave. I'll be there at 7:00 p.m. I might even be reading something out of Red Hood's Revenge...


• I have seen the cover sketch for The Mermaid's Madness. Have I mentioned that I love my artist?


• I have also seen Bookscan numbers for The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] for the first official week it was on sale. Holy crap! I can't share the numbers, but you see that graph on the right? See the line that's almost twice as high as any other line on the chart? Yeah. Thank you all!


• Deadline is tomorrow for the Stepsister giveaway I'm doing. Comment now or forever hold your peace.


• The Nebula rules have been revamped. Among other things, all active and associate members can now nominate works during the 11/15 - 2/15 nomination period. If you qualify and would be interested in reading anything I've published this year, just let me know. (That includes "Ours to Fight For", "Images of Death", and Gift of the Kites, as well as the novel Goblin War.)

With that out of the way, I have a problem. Yeah, yeah, I know. Get yer snide comments out of the way now...

Okay then. Some of you might have noticed the word count meter on Red Hood's Revenge hasn't changed much lately. I've got about 1/4 to 1/3 of the draft done, but that's all. At this time last year, I had a finished first draft of The Mermaid's Madness, and was losing my mind over the rewrite.

My deadline is August 1, the same as it was for the last book. So I've got six months left, and I'm not freaking out yet. But I've definitely fallen way behind compared to last year, and I'm pretty sure I understand why.

The first problem was that I got started on this book, then had to set it aside for a month or so. Most of that time was spent doing revisions on Mermaid. Then I had an awesome anthology invite. When I returned to the book, I had lost momentum, and struggled to get going again.

But that's nothing new. I had revisions and short fiction projects as I wrote the last few novels as well. So what's changed?

My career. For more than eight years, I've set aside my lunch hour to be writing time. One hour a day, five days a week. I've held on to that, trying to do everything else in my free time. And I'm realizing that while I'm still keeping that one-hour lunch time, I'm often spending twice as much time in the evenings doing everything else -- e-mails, publicity, bookstore contacts, prepping blog entries, getting things packaged to mail out, etc. The amount of time I spend on writing-related stuff has grown steadily for years.

As all of this stuff eats up my evenings and free time, I realize I've lost the daydreaming time. The time I spent thinking about the story, imagining nifty ideas to toss in, figuring out what the characters are going to do next, and so on. Much of this book takes place in Arathea, and as of yesterday, the only thing I knew about this country was was appears on my map.

You'll notice it's basically a big, empty land mass.

I need to change this. I need time for reading, daydreaming, worldbuilding, and all the rest. And that means I'm going to have to cut back somewhere else. We all get the same 24 hours in a day, and we all have to prioritize.

With Stepsister still fresh on the shelves, I'm going to let myself keep pushing on the non-writing activities through the end of the month. After that ... I'm not sure. Probably less time on MySpace, for starters. I may cut back on Facebook. I'll have to come up with a better way to manage e-mail as well. One way or another, I need to shift things around so that the emphasis is back on the actual writing, as opposed to all of the extra stuff. I don't know exactly how this will work. I only know I need to change.

The good news? I tossed the story aside and spent my lunch hour yesterday just brainstorming about Arathea. Not only have I started to understand how this country works, but it's helping me to get excited about the story again...

---

Quick Announcement: The Stepsister Scheme just showed up on Fictionwise, for those of you who wanted an electronic version but didn't want to go for the Kindle. Fictionwise is offering a 10% rebate, since it's a new title.

Okay, The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] has been out for one week, and I know a number of folks have already finished the book. (Which is weird ... a year to write it, a day or two to read and move on to the next book.)

Anyway, consider this an open discussion zone. DO NOT READ THE COMMENTS if you don't want to see spoilers. In the comments, anything goes -- discussion of the book and characters, speculation about whether _______ and _______ will ever _______, or if we'll see ______ again in a future book, or what you think ______ meant. What are you hoping for in The Mermaid's Madness? I'm more than happy to answer questions, though I'm not going to give anything away about future books.

I've never done this before, and I know it can be awkward to talk about the book with the author looming over your shoulder. I'll obviously be reading the comments, but I figured I'd give you the choice as to whether or not you want me jumping into the discussion with you.

Poll #1330373
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: None

Do you want Jim to keep his nose out of your comment thread?

So have fun. And tune in tomorrow for Part 3 of Jim's Nipplicious Adventure Stories!

---

This has been a draining week. Intense emotion can take a lot out of you, and this week has had intensity on both ends of the scale. So I figured I'd make two quick bullet points, then give away some books.

• For those of you who have asked, the answer is yes -- Danielle, Talia, and Snow will still be the central protagonists of The Mermaid's Madness.


• Next week, I intend to make a "Spoileriffic Stepsisters" post for anyone who wants to chat about the book or ask questions or all the rest without worrying about spoilers. Should be fun!

Most of you have seen the Amazon purchase links for my books. Example: The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy]. What you may or may not know is that every time someone purchases something through the Amazon link, they help me give away free books. (Also, every time someone purchases through the Mysterious Galaxy link, a fairy gets eaten by a goblin. But that's another story...)

Anyway, you've been busy, and I find myself with enough Amazon credit for two books plus shipping. So comment on this entry if you'd like a free copy of The Stepsister Scheme.

Here's the catch -- you don't get to keep it. Read and enjoy, but once you're finished, you have to pass the book along to someone you think will like it.

(ETA: To clarify, whoever you give the book to is allowed to keep it if they want. If they want to keep passing it along, that's okay too, but that's not part of the rules.)

My clever plan is to give away two books, but to hopefully gain four fans in the process. Four princess fans. Bwa ha ha ha ha ha!

Ahem. Anyway, that's the deal. Interested? Then comment below, and if you're not on LJ, please make sure I have a way to contact you. I'll pick two winners next Friday, and will contact you to get shipping information so Amazon can send you your shiny new book.

Have a great weekend, all!

---

Thanks to everyone who offered their condolences on Becka yesterday. The family is doing okay. I suspect my son will spend the next few weeks going up to people and randomly telling them, "Becka died." Because that's what 3-year-olds do. My daughter had a rough morning, but she and Mama comforted each other. (Everything seems to happen in the morning after I'm off to work, somehow.)

Originally, I meant to post some happier news yesterday. I picked up a few replacement copies of my goblin books, and discovered something cool. Goblin Hero [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] is now in its third printing. And Goblin Quest [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] is now in its fourth! Looks like Jig and company are still going strong, which is nice to see.

Yesterday also brought bookscan numbers for The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy]. I can't give out actual numbers, and Bookscan is only an estimate. It's also worth noting that this book doesn't seem to have made it to Walmart, unlike the last goblin book, which might be throwing things off. So really, we need to wait and watch the trends before we'll know much.

But with all those disclaimers out of the way, the numbers for Stepsister are almost half again the highest weekly sales I've ever had for any book. And remember, these are the sales numbers for the week before Stepsister officially came out.

I'm pretty happy with the books right now. Overall though, it's been even more of a roller coaster this week than usual...

I did have one Stepsister-related puzzler, though. The Amazon listing has zero reviews. Which means Harriet Klausner has not posted a review on Amazon. She's got one on B&N, but not Amazon. If I recall, isn't that the eighth sign of the apocalypse or something? Harriet hasn't started boycotting Amazon, has she?

It's here. Today marks the official release of The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy].

For months, I've been thinking about what I should blog today. I remember back in 2004 at Windycon, talking to some friends about this killer idea I had to take three fairy tale princesses and turn them into a Charlie's Angels type team, saving the prince and fighting the witches and evil fey and generally kicking ass. And now it's a book. With pages and words and everything :-)

So what do you post on book day? When Goblin Quest came out from Five Star in November of '04, I did a contest where all you had to do is mention the book in your blog, and you were entered to win. It worked, kind of ... but looking back, I'm not sure how comfortable I feel about that. It feels like I was buying people's support. This is probably my own neurosis, but I'm not going to do that again.

My friend jpsorrow did a nifty cut/paste banner for his book The Vacant Throne [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] (which also comes out today!) I thought about stealing his idea doing something similar, but decided to go a different route.

I'm just going to make this a request. Some time over the next week or so, if you've read the book, or if you've read the preview, or if you just like the cover, or you just think kick-ass princesses are a cool idea, please spread the word. Tell a friend. Post a review. Mention the book on your blog. And when you do, say why you think it's worth checking out. Word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful factors when it comes to a book's success.

My thanks to those of you who have already done so. I very much appreciate it.

If you choose to mention the book, here are a few links that might be helpful:

Preview of chapter one: http://www.sff.net/people/jchines/SS%20Preview.pdf
Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0756405327
Small cover (93 x 150): http://www.sff.net/people/jchines/Covers/Stepsister%20-%20Med.jpg
Lg cover (199 x 320): http://www.sff.net/people/jchines/Covers/Stepsister%20-%20Lg.jpg
My web site: http://www.jimchines.com
My LJ: http://jimhines.livejournal.com

At this point, things are pretty much out of my hands. I wrote the book and turned in the final revisions over a year ago. I've arranged some signings and interviews, created some icons, sent out extra ARCs, ran some contests, and done everything I could squeeze into my schedule ... I think I'm ready to let go now. I'm a control freak, so I don't want to let go, but it's time*.

Thanks to all of you who've stuck with me so far. That's probably the most important thing to say. Thank you for your support, your encouragement, your enthusiasm, and your willingness to put up with me on cranky rant days ;-)

I love this book. I love these characters and their stories. I hope you will too.

-----
*This does not mean I'm through posting princess updates. I've got some Amazon gift certificates, so I'll probably be giving away a few more copies of Stepsister. And if there's other excitement (like when I finally get to see the German cover for this book), you'd better believe I'll be sharing it.

Good morning, and happy book day!

I'll probably have several posts over the course of today, but I thought I'd start by posting where folks can go to try to win a free copy of The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy]. If you've already bought a copy, then thank you! Enter anyway, and pick one up for a friend :-)

1. Four book giveaway. Answer 8 questions, win 4 books. Sounds good to me! Deadline is January 25.

2. SciFiChick. Quick and easy to enter. Deadline is January 9.

3. SQT's Fantasy & Sci-Fi Lovin' Blog. Comment or e-mail to enter, but get your entry in today!

4. Grasping for the Wind. E-mail to enter. Deadline is January 16. (GftW also posted a nice review yesterday, calling this my best work yet. Yay!)

Am I missing any? I'll probably be giving away a few copies later on this month as well.

Reviews are starting to pop up for The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy]. Most have been pretty darn positive. (I'm still bouncing over the Top Pick, 4.5-star review from Romantic Times :-) But as I've said before, no book will ever appeal to everyone, and there will be less positive reviews.

I read my first ... let's call it "lukewarm" review this morning. Then I re-read it. And then I went back a few minutes later and read it again. Which got me wondering why the negative hits us so much harder. I love the positive reviews I've gotten for Stepsister, but I don't go back and read them three times in an hour.

Back in my psych major days, I remember learning that it takes about 10 positive comments to counter the effects of a single negative. I couldn't recall the details, so I turned to trusty Google, who found this:

You see, a negative comment reverberates throughout our entire body because our body is made up of water, which absorbs both positive and negative comments and creates either rigid and spike like crystals when influenced by negative comments, or creates beautiful and symmetric crystals within the water's structure.

So there you go. The problem is that negative reviews are spikier in our water structure. Now you know! (ETA: Thanks to guinwhyte, we have an origin for the spiky water crystal thing.)

Anyway, I know part of my problem is that this is a new series. I've gotten a few negative reviews for the goblin books, but those books are better established. All three books have gone back for multiple printings, and they're still selling. Quest earned out its advance, and I suspect at least one of the other two books will do the same. Whereas Stepsister is brand new, so the stakes are much higher in my mind. I don't have that anchor of knowing the book has already achieved a certain level of "success," and thus my brain is loose to flail about like a 'roid raging muppet.

I don't think insecurity is an issue. There's always the danger of thinking, "What if they're right? What if this is really just a mediocre book?" But I don't believe that. If another 20 reviews pop up next week saying the same thing, maybe I'll reconsider, but right now the majority of the reviews have been positive. And more importantly, I believe this is a damn good book, with a lot of cool stuff. It's just that the cool stuff didn't work for this particular reviewer.

And I think that's closer to the heart of things. I feel like I let this reader down. Which is completely ridiculous of me, because there's no possible way to make every reader happy. Readers want different things from a book, and that's good. (IDIC, anyone?) But that doesn't change the fact that the most rewarding thing (for me) about being a writer is making that connection with the reader, having them read and fall in love with something I've written. A negative review means I've failed to do that. Fair? Nope. Rational? Not in the slightest. But ah well.

Finally, I have to remind myself that negative reviews aren't a bad thing. Heck, my reading list is brimming with reviews trashing Stephanie Meyer's work, and I'd be doing backflips if I could get a tenth of her sales.

Look at the reviews for Goblin War [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy]. Amazon has almost all five-star reviews, and I don't remember finding a single negative review for that book. As wonderful as that is for my ego, it's not necessarily a good thing for the book. I know that no book will appeal to everyone, which suggests maybe this book hasn't done a good job of getting beyond my core readers and fans. I also know it's the best of the three goblin books, which helps, but if it was really reaching a wider audience, I'd expect a more mixed reaction. Because let's face it, not everyone loves nose-picking injuries and cannibalism humor as much as I do.

This is a new book, and a new series. There's some humor, but it's a more serious book than the goblin stuff. Some readers will appreciate that, while others will be disappointed*. I'm by no means a big name, but I'm more widely known than I was two years ago when DAW published my first goblin book. More people will see and read this book, which means a wider range of reactions. The only way it's going to get all positive reviews is if nobody buys it except for those core fans who already know they'll like it. I'm far better off with a book that reaches a larger audience, even though a (hopefully small) portion of that audience will be disappointed. (If you're a hardcore Gor fan, I can tell you right now that you'll probably fall into the "disappointed" category.)

I still want everyone to love it, of course. I'll still grumble and argue (silently) with the bad reviews. But I do appreciate them, and I'm grateful that this person took the time to read and review my work. Positive and negative reviews can both sell books, and they're both a heck of a lot better than silence.

Even if the negative reviews make my water crystals all spiky.

-----
*I'm going to be very interested to see if there's any correlation between the positive/negative reviews and the gender of the reviewer. So far it's too small a sample to say anything.

The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] officially launches in exactly one week. Seven days. 604,800 seconds, but who's counting?

So what should the author do in preparation for the new book? I have no idea. I don't know that there is a "should" in this case. I've said before that my own promotional efforts have never caused a visible spike in sales. The only thing that has given me a sales bump was the release of the next book. I've also done a few rants about over-the-top or annoying author promotions. Honestly, there's a part of me that would like to ignore the whole promotional side completely.

I obviously don't do that. For the release of this book, I've worked on:

• Getting more ARCs printed, and getting those ARCs to more bloggers


• Setting up about seven booksignings in January/February, with at least one more to come (I hope)


• Touching base with some independent bookstores and sending them bookmarks/bookplates if they're interested


• Getting bookmarks to folks to set out at conventions (Thank you!)


• The joint contest with Joshua, Elizabeth, and Di


• Giving copies of the book out to bookstores


• Any number of interviews (mostly online, but at least one newspaper interview is in the works)


• Stepsister Scheme LJ icons (please help yourself!)


• Pre-release contests to win the remaining ARCs


• A book launch event at ConFusion next month

There's more I could be doing. I want to put a press release together for the local media, but I never seem to get around to that. I'd love to drive around to every bookstore in mid-Michigan, but I don't know if that's feasible. I also have to balance out all of this promotion with the fact that I like my family, and it's nice getting to see them on occasion.

So why do the promotional stuff at all? Booksignings rarely pay off -- I sold 25 books at the last one. At my royalties rate, that's about $12.50 before my agent takes his 15%. And I stayed there for about 5+ hours. So call it $2.00 an hour, give or take? (Before taxes, of course.)

After thinking about this stuff way too much for the past 4-5 years, here's my reasoning:

1. I'm a control freak. If I'm out there doing promotion, I feel like I have some control over the fate of my book. That feeling is 98% illusion, but I don't care. I'll cling to my delusions, because they help me stay sane.

2. The publisher appreciates it. I believe it was a sales catalog for DAW that was giving the sales points on Stepsister Scheme and included something like "Author has been active with promotion both online and in person at conventions and bookstores." Whether or not my efforts have a significant impact, the publisher notices those efforts.

3. No significant impact isn't the same as no impact at all. I think of promotion as a long-term, cumulative game. Maybe I sell 10 books at a signing, but now that bookstore knows my name and might be more likely to order my next books. And those 10 people have met the author in person -- if they like the books, they might share them with friends and pick up the next.

4. I trust myself to set limits. I could pack up the car and my new GPS, take two weeks off work, and do a blitz tour of every bookstore in 300 miles. A part of me would love to do just that, but I won't. Not fair to my family, and not fair to me. I do get pretty stressed around book release time, but I generally know when I'm pushing too hard or starting to neglect my family.

5. It's fun. I like meeting readers and booksellers. I enjoy blogging and putting together fun contests. The photos you all came up with for the last contest were awesome! I have a blast going to conventions and hanging out with fellow authors and fans.

Everyone's different. Some authors do a lot more than I do. Others do nothing at all, aside from writing the next book. There's no right answer, but it's something I think about. And what good is a blog if I can't share my long-winded pondering with the world? As always, I'm curious to hear other folks' thoughts on the whole promotional beast.

I'll leave you with this beautiful photo exapno took in her local Borders:

I've got a booksigning at the Jackson Community College Bookstore for most of the day, and tomorrow my daughter is having surgery (outpatient, nothing major), so expect radio silence for the next few days. This means I will probably fall even further behind in e-mail as well.

I'm starting to understand why writers hire assistants. Since that's not really an option for me, I guess I'll just have to figure out how to make energy-based multiples of myself.

Anyway, I'll leave you with this photo from yesterday, because it is the coolest thing ever.



I have seen the books, and they are beautiful. That glare isn't a result of my poor photography skills. No, that is the glow of pure, embossed awesomeness.

The official release date is January 6, so it won't start showing up in bookstores quite yet*. Which means that yes, I'm totally gloating here :-)

Mmm... Books.

-----
*However, if you're a reviewer, this means you could probably go ahead and e-mail my publicist about a review copy!

First of all, thank you to everyone who entered the photo contest. I received a total of 18 entries, and loved every one. (Seriously -- I probably annoyed my wife, because I kept saying, "Hey, come check this one out!")

Sadly, there can be only one. Mostly because I have only a single Advance Review Copy of The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] to give away.

So I'll be putting it to a vote. You can vote for as few or as many of the photos as you'd like, and you have until the end of 12/5/08 to get your votes in. I'll announce the winner this weekend.

I've put all 18 entries behind a LJ cut, and I apologize in advance for those of you reading with an RSS feed that doesn't recognize LJ cuts. (Also, the poll was beautifully formatted in preview, but came out a little disjointed when I actually posted it. And of course LJ won't let you edit polls. I think it's still clear, but please let me know if you have any trouble figuring out which tick-box goes with which picture.)

( Click Here for the Pics )

I've got to say again that I love these. And if you're wondering, that is indeed an authentic Jim C. Hines autograph on the "Fanshirt" T-shirt, as well as a genuine goblin tattoo in the "Warrior in Training" pic. (Windycon was a highly entertaining convention.)

I know most contests like this lead to people reposing and sending their friends over to vote. That's fine ... heck, part of my not-so-sneaky motivation is to lure more visitors to the blog. However, I'd ask that folks refrain from ballot stuffing, 'kay? Vote for your favorites, and keep things fun.

If you don't have a LiveJournal account and thus can't vote, please e-mail your vote to me at jchines42 =at= hotmail.com.

Finally, if anyone wants to repost the banner, just copy and repaste the following:


Once you've voted, the comments are open so that we may heap praise upon the entrants!

I get a lot of people asking whether I intend to write another book about Jig the goblin. It's flattering, and I love that there are readers who enjoyed the books so much they want me to write more. I almost feel guilty telling them I'm concentrating on the princess novels for a while, and if I write a fourth goblin book it probably wouldn't be out for at least five years.

There's no one right way to build a career. I occasionally wonder if I made a mistake by switching to a new series. Goblin War [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] sold better than either of the earlier books, suggesting that the series was beginning to take off. Would a fourth book have done even better? Was I on the cusp of a goblin explosion which would have made me rich and famous beyond my wildest dreams?

There's no way to guess. I'm hoping the new series will build on the success of the old, but the real reason I switched is because I was done with Jig's story, at least for the time being. It wasn't a marketing decision, but a story decision*. Like most decisions, this one has its costs.

One of the managers here at work tells me his young son is bemoaning the fact that I'm now writing about girls. Another reader has said flat-out that he doesn't intend to read this wacky princess stuff. I've also noticed my first rating for the new book over on LibraryThing. Four stars from a fairly well-known reviewer who loved the goblin books and gave them all five-star ratings. Four stars isn't a bad rating, but I winced to see the drop. And while my German publisher did buy Stepsister (Yay!), I suspect the advance would have been significantly larger for a fourth goblin book.

On the other hand, Romantic Times has named The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] one of their Top Picks for January, giving it a 4.5 star** review which says, among other things, "Hines' strength in his brilliantly plotted, cleverly imaginative book is character concepts and interactions. The action never stops, and the characters are painstakingly real. Readers will laugh and find the tale is over before they're ready to finish reading." And my agent checked a local Barnes & Noble and found that their ordering numbers on Stepsister are almost triple what they were for one of the goblin books. So there are positive signs as well.

What does it all mean? Who the heck knows. Ask me a year after the book comes out, and maybe I'll have a clue. The B&N numbers are encouraging, if they holds true for the whole chain (and we're extrapolating from one store here, so statistically, it's not that significant yet). My gut feeling is that this series is better overall, and should reach a wider audience. The crappy economy might hurt overall sales, but there's nothing I can do about that.

I will lose some readers. That stings, and I feel bad about it, but not bad enough to change course. And I think most readers understand, even if they miss Jig and Smudge. I'm hopeful that I'll gain more readers than I lose, that readers will love these characters and stories as much as they have the goblins, and that sales will increase at least enough to justify DAW continuing to buy books from me.

In the end, I'm happy with my choice, and I'm enjoying the chance to write new characters in a new world. I think it was the right choice for me. But that doesn't mean I'm not allowed to obsess about it!

----
*I'm not saying marketing decisions are bad. If marketing is the only factor you're considering, that could be a problem ... but even then, who am I to judge? If you write a potboiler for cash, and it's a decent book that people enjoy, then go you! I've also learned it's pretty normal to discuss various book possibilities with your agent and/or editor so that you can all decide together which one has the best chance of selling. (Gasp! You mean publishing is a business?) So far, I've been fortunate enough to be able to write two series that I love, purely because I love the stories. Who knows what will happen when it's time to start something new again.

**Romantic Times never gives five stars.

1. Thanks to the people who volunteered to take bookmarks to the conventions. I got your e-mails, and will be sending things your way soon. If anyone else is going to be conventioning and wouldn't mind dropping bookmarks on the freebies table, please let me know!

2. So I have one more ARC of The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] to give away.

I've been trying to come up with a really good contest idea. I considered one involving explosives, but finally decided it was a bad idea, brought on by watching too much MythBusters. Then I thought about having folks Photoshop me, with the ARC going to the most entertaining result. Tempting, and potentially fun, but who really wants to spend that much time staring at a photo of me?

What I finally decided to go with was a simpler photo contest, inspired by Tobias Buckell's blog post earlier this morning. He posted a photo of one of his fans reading Sly Mongoose [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] while rock climbing.

Awesome, and now I'm jealous. I want sweet pics of people reading my books too. So here's the rules. I'll give that last ARC of The Stepsister Scheme to the best photo of you, your friend, your pet, or anyone at all reading one of my books.

• Please limit photo size to 640 x 480.


• Photos can be posted in the comments here. If that doesn't work for you, shoot me an e-mail at jchines42 -at- hotmail.com.


• Funny is good. Amazing is good. Anything that makes me go "Wow!" is good.


• Photoshopping is fair game. If you want to show Darth Vader reading Goblin War with one hand while whooping on Luke, go for it!


• Anyone can enter as many times as they'd like.

Deadline will be November 28. Depending on the number of entries, I'll either pick a winner myself, or let folks vote. Either way, expect a winner by the first week in December.

I think that covers just about everything. Please feel free to spread the word, and let me know if you've got any questions! I'll edit the rules if it turns out I've forgotten something important.

3. Finally, because people seemed to appreciate them last time, I leave you with more pics of Jig and Smudge:

As I mentioned last week, I'm auctioning off an advance review copy of The Stepsister Scheme. All proceeds will be donated to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

The auction is now live. I went for the 10-day listing, so if my math skills haven't failed me, the auction will close on October 23.

Please check it out and spread the word. I believe I've got everything set up properly with the eBay listing, but if you see a problem, let me know ASAP so I can get that corrected.

Like I said before, if the bidding breaks $100, I'll start to throw in some extra prizes to the winner. How many prizes depends on just how high that closing price goes. I've never done this before, so I have no idea what to expect. Scalzi raised over $2000 with a similar auction ... but then, he's John Scalzi. I figure any donation to NCADV is a good one.

And on that note, if you don't want to bid but still feel like donating, the NCADV donations page is at http://www.ncadv.org/donate.php

sistercoyote and guinwhyte offered the ideas that led to this nice graphic ad. Feel free to swipe it and to add whatever embellishments you like! Or if you prefer the easy way, just copy and paste the following code for the short and sweet:

<a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160291898481"><img src="http://www.sff.net/people/jchines/Temp/Auction.jpg"></a>

Thanks, all.

I mentioned yesterday that The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy] wouldn't include a preview of The Mermaid's Madness. However, the folks at DAW took a look and came up with an alternative. It sounds like we'll be putting a one-page ad for Mermaid at the back of the book.

Of course, we're far enough along that this is on a tight deadline, so they asked me to come up with a 70-120 word bit for Mermaid. Because I love you all, and also because I don't know what else to blog about today, I'm going to share.

There is an old story -- you might have heard it -- about a young mermaid, the daughter of a king, who saved the life of a human prince and fell in love.

So innocent was her love, so pure her devotion, that she would pay any price for the chance to be with her prince. She gave up her voice, her family, and the sea, and became human. But the prince had fallen in love with another woman.

The tales say the little mermaid sacrificed her own life so that her beloved prince could find happiness with his bride.

The tales lie.

Danielle, Talia, and Snow return in The Mermaid's Madness
Coming in October, 2009 from DAW Books

Personally, I'm pretty happy with it. I don't always like coming up with this sort of "Grab the reader" synopsis, but I think this one works.

Yesterday's mail brought page proofs of The Stepsister Scheme [Amazon | Mysterious Galaxy], as well as my very own ARCs. I've got one week to turn in any corrections on the page proofs. Then next Thursday I'll be talking to my editor about The Mermaid's Madness. And in the meantime, I'm still about halfway through the first draft of Red Hood's Revenge. So basically, I'm juggling three books at once, each one at a very different stage in the process.

I had hoped that Stepsister would include a preview from Mermaid's Madness, but it looks like that didn't happen. Ah well. I'll just have to post something on the web site as we get that book ready. We'll be making sure the front of the book lists both my goblin books and the three princess books, so people will know there are at least two more coming. That little list will be nice to see.

The important thing though, is that I have an extra ARC or two. I'll probably be using one as a contest prize as we get closer to the release date. The other, however, will be available to YOU very soon.

Stealing (and tweaking) an idea from the ever-inspirational John Scalzi, I intend to auction off one autographed advance review copy of this book. All proceeds from the auction will be going to the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence. Given the spirit of the book, I felt they were an appropriate choice. Particularly with October being DV Awareness Month.

I have no idea how well this will work or what to expect. If the price climbs past $100, I'll toss in an autographed copy of Goblin Quest as well. If it keeps going up, I've got some other prizes I can throw in.

If all goes well, I'll start the auction on Monday. (Assuming I can get the technical details figured out :-) So please spread the word, and keep an eye on this LJ for the announcement.

Also, if anyone has time and the inclination to put together a little button or banner advertising the auction, I will love you forever. A full-size image of the Stepsister cover art is at http://www.sff.net/people/jchines/Covers/Stepsister%20-%20Full.jpg though I'd prefer the final thing be shrunken down. This is one of those things I'd normally do myself, but please see the first paragraph up above.