Keith Robinson Reader Group - January 2024
Happy New Year, Readers!
Well, that’s another year done! Here are a few of my notable writing-related achievements in 2023, in roughly chronological order…
Began experimenting with AI artwork for covers (using my usual photobashing techniques only with AI-generated assets rather than stock images).
Published Darkhill Scary Stories #5, The Dead End.
Opted out of Amazon’s exclusivity program and went “wide” so I can sell my books on other platforms.
Created my own store for direct ebook sales.
Published Island of Fog #17, Lair of Bigfoot.
Did a lot of newsletter promos and gained a ton of new readers, while easing up on the Amazon-specific ads.
Managed to keep my book income steady despite dropping out of exclusivity and losing Kindle Unlimited customers.
Began experimenting with AI auto-narration and latched onto ElevenLabs, which I’ll be using for all my audiobooks.
Also changed newsletter service. SendFox was a huge disappointment to me, but I’m glad, because I found Substack instead.
I’ve also done cover art for other authors, proofread a few books, done a lot of research, and meddled with other stuff, all of which is why I’ve only managed to get two books written this year!
I’ll be more focused on writing in 2024. I have a lot in the pipeline, including but not limited to…
Banshee (Darkhill Scary Stories #6—due February or March)
Siege of Dragons (Island of Fog #18—the final book, due around July)
The Portal Guard and other spin-off novellas set in the Island of Fog world
You’ll also see the steady release of audiobooks, which I plan to sell on my own store at the same prices as the ebooks, which is way cheaper than Audible and other places. Not everyone will like or approve of AI auto-narration, but the results I’m hearing are fantastic! And as I’ve mentioned, it’s either AI or nothing, because the cost for human narrators is too much for me.
I also intend to put out some hardbacks in the coming months, perhaps omnibus editions that I can sell on my store and take to conventions.
So yes, I’ll be just as busy in 2024 as ever! Books don’t get written on their own, you know! (Oh, wait . . . some would argue that AI is making that possible too. Ugh.)
Banshee
So this is what I’m working on right now—the sixth case for the intrepid paranormal investigators known as the Darkseekers . . .
I started the Darkhill Scary Stories in 2021 by releasing the first three books quickly, one a month in January, February, and March, proving to myself that I can indeed write a 30,000-word novella pretty quickly. So, with that in mind, I’ll be writing this one in January. Here’s part of my own working summary . . .
Opening scene is the lady of the house, who wakes in the night to see a figure at her window. It’s her dead sister!—a ghost who starts to wail in despair. Before morning, the lady of the house is dead as well.
A couple of weeks later, the Darkseekers are roped into a weekend of absolute horror—helping relatives of the deceased to box up small items so the house can be cleared and sold. They’re going to be paid fifty dollars each, so that’s something, but it’s two full days of graft. To help soften the deal, the parents agree to let the children stay the night, along with some of the other helpers.
Ben is privately excited. He’s heard the story of first one sister, then the other, dying in the house . . .
Now, this is purely for my own benefit. It helps me figure out the exact plot and how it all flows together, as well as what details I need to to seed early on so they can be used later. For instance, as I got near the end of this summary, I wanted the kids to be in danger from a falling “item,” but I couldn’t just introduce that item for the first time right when I needed it to be there, because that’s deus ex machina (“god from the machine”), which basically means something is contrived on the spot to make the plot work.
So, knowing I needed this “item” later on, I went back and introduced it near the start. When I write the book, I’ll make sure to mention it several times throughout.
I’ll be starting the book tonight, January 1st, and plan to knock out a chapter each day (about 17 chapters). I’m confident I’ll have this written and edited by the end of the month!
Price Increase
As hinted last month, I’ve raised the price of ebooks by $1.00 on the big retailers like Amazon, Kobo, Barnes & Noble, Google, Apple, etc, while leaving my own store prices alone. Since Island of Fog ebooks are already $6.99, I’ve actually reduced this on my own store.
Overall, you’ll save at least a dollar per book when you buy direct from me!
My store has multiple payment options including Credit Card, PayPal, Venmo, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. It’s a very simple cart system; just add whatever you want to the cart, from any series, no minimum requirements or limits. For example, here are the Island of Fog Legacies books on my store:
It couldn’t be simpler. No more preset bundles; just grab the exact books you want. And ebook delivery is via the excellent Bookfunnel.
Alright vs. all right
I proofread a book lately and came across a pet peeve of mine. The author is a good friend (a mukker*, as he likes to say). He may be reading this, that’s perfectly all right.
Note that I said “all right” there, and not “alright.” Now, opinions may be divided on this, but I’m fairly sure that most people who use “alright” don’t actually realize it’s not all right to use it in their book! If you were to look up the difference, you’d find that “alright” is just fine in informal writing, while “all right” is the more correct way in publishing.
Even so, I’d be okay if I saw “alright” in a novel set in modern times where used in dialog; it has a loose, modern feel to it, and it’s appropriate. You can almost hear the different between “alright” and “all right.”
My problem is with fantasy fiction. My author buddy uses “alright” in dialog for characters in a high fantasy setting—in other words with knights and soldiers and elves and so on. And that just doesn’t sit well with me.
There’s also an elf that speaks in a traditional stilted fashion (ie, “I do not speak like a common person, for I am an elf”) and I spotted that she said “Okay” at one point. My advice was to change that, and he did. It’s a small thing, but I feel it’s quite important to avoid words that didn’t exist in “middle Earth” or medieval days.
Fun fact: In the early 19th century, abbreviations were all the rage among editorial folk in Boston, and “OW” was invented as a quick way to say “Oll right,” which was how “all right” was pronounced in that neck of the woods. It flopped, but a similar abbreviation, “OK,” became very popular. It was short for “Oll korrect,” which . . . well, I think you get the idea.
Later, OK was adopted as an actual word, “okay,” and that’s what I use in my books rather than the abbreviation.
The point is, “OK” or “okay” is fine in any modern novel but should never turn up in a high fantasy novel. Nor should LOL or OMG. I do use “okay” in my Island of Fog books, but those are not high fantasy in the traditional sense. They’re a fantasy setting alongside a modern Earth, and there’s a lot of crossover between the two realms. But “okay” shouldn’t turn up if the setting is strictly medieval or Arthurian or middle Earth.
I expect many readers probably don’t give one jot about this. That’s fine. The English language has changed dramatically over the centuries. Below is a quick example of the same sentence through different ages:
If high fantasy novels stuck to actual Middle English, we’d never wade through all that turgid madness! It was hard enough watching or reading Shakespeare in school. So concessions have to be made if we’re to fully immerse ourselves in the story. We accept the modern stuff as long as everything is dressed up in a realistic way. The fine details need to be as authentic as possible (such as clothing, setting, honorifics and titles, weapons, and so on), but we readily accept a modern interpretation of the language just so we can enjoy the story. So maybe “okay” is just a modern way of saying “I heartily agree.”
In light of all that, “alright” seems like a minor niggle. Still, I hate the word, and I’ll stick with “all right,” thank you very much.
What are your pet peeves in language with regards to your favorite genre?
* By the way, it’s worth mentioning that “mukker” these days is slang for “friend,” but in medieval times it was someone who mucked out the stables.
That’s all for now. Until next time . . .