I spend a lot too much time on twitter, generally via a hugely popular app called Tweetdeck.

Tweetdeck is handy because it allows me to sort people I follow into columns. I have about three columns of writers, one of family, one of Maui people, one of Hawaii people, etc. Without these columns it would be impossible for me to keep track of what people have to say.

The odd thing about Tweetdeck, though, is that if someone retweets a post using the “retweet” link on the website or the “retweet now” option on Tweetdeck, that retweet will NOT show up in their column. This is important.

I focus my attention on three or four columns. Since your retweet will not show up in those columns, it’s almost certain I will never see it.

So to improve the odds that I will see a retweet (and that other Tweetdeck users will see it too) don’t use those retweet links!

If you use Tweetdeck, instead select the “Edit then Retweet” option. This adds an “RT” to the tweet, but it also makes the tweet yours. Now it will show up along with all your other tweets. Yes, this can be a pain because the tweet will often need to be edited for size, but if your goal is to help someone get the word out, this is the best way to do it.

If you’re still using the web interface (and why are you??) the only way I’ve figured out to do it is to manually copy and paste the tweet you want to retweet. Preface it with an “RT.”

And that’s it. One little step to help your tweeple get the word out.

Jack Webb, age 20, US Army Air Corp

1950s: the cowboy hat disappeared in later years

Fishing off Honolulu

1982

There’s been a widespread discussion on the web these past few weeks about women writing science fiction. Today is Father’s Day here in the USA, so I’d just like to say the person most responsible for getting me interested in science fiction was this man right here, my dad, Jack Webb.

These days I think most dads know they need to encourage sons and daughters both to believe in themselves, to try new stuff, to be smart, self-reliant, and to develop an adventurous spirit. Back in the sixties and seventies, when I was a kid, that was still fairly rare if you were a girl.

My dad though, was ahead of his time. Because he was always looking for the next adventure, I grew up variously on the back of a motorcycle, riding horses, getting ill on fishing boats, hiking, camping, and flying between the Hawaiian Islands in little two and four-seater airplanes. My dad was also always sharing his interest in science and gadgets, and would never bat an eye when I would proclaim that I was going to grow up to be a primatologist, or an aeronautical engineer, or go to the air force academy. Never once do I remember hearing, “Girls don’t do that sort of thing.”

He was also always reading, fiction and non-fiction both, but always lots of science fiction, and naturally I followed along.

So for better or worse I blame my dad for setting me on the path to writing science fiction. It starts at home, guys, as most of you young dads already know.

My dad read all my books. He was my biggest fan and quite convinced I was the best writer out there, as a loyal dad should be.

He passed away five years ago at the age of 82. He lived a very full life.

I started noticing a definite uptick in the ebook sales of my novel Vast this past week and wondered why. Google Alerts proved useless in tracking down the reason, but my blog stats provided a clue that led me back to Alastair Reynolds’ blog, who has some really kind things to say about the book–and so do his commenters. Check it out here.

You can sample the book at the links below. Vast, in ebook form, will also be available from BookViewCafe.com in July, and the print version will be out later this summer.

Amazon.com USA
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

My first two book giveaways at Goodreads.com finished this week. Was it worth it? My gut feeling is yes, but as with most promotional efforts, results will take a long time to play out, and I’ll never have a good way to measure them.

A giveaway is easy to set up. I pick the title, the number of copies, and the start and end dates for people to sign up. At the end of the giveaway, I get an email from Goodreads linking me to a page with the names and addresses of the five winners. I send the books out.

Hopefully those five winners will like the book and give it a good review, or maybe even try some of my other books. But the real gain is that all those other people who didn’t win a copy at least took a look at it. 1002 people signed up to win a copy of The Dread Hammer; 136 have it marked as “to read.” 672 signed up for Skye Object 3270a; 62 have it marked as “to read.” Not overwhelming numbers, but it’s a start.

The cost to me was printing for the books, postage to get them here, and postage to send them out individually to the winners. I live in Hawaii, so shipping costs can get pretty absurd. “Media Mail” isn’t an option for me, because that can mean up to two months in transit, so everything goes via Priority Mail.

Would I do another book giveaway? Probably. When I have the right sort of book to promote.

What would the right sort of book be? An original book, that was not second or later in a series. Basically, something no one’s ever heard of because it’s that new, and one that doesn’t require the reader to be familiar with an earlier volume.

If any of my Goodreads winners (or readers) ever happen to wander by here, I’d love it if you would comment on the experience from your point of view.

@DannieC_Hill on twitter just asked me my thoughts on pen names** and if I’d done a blog post on the subject, so here I am.

Until very recently I’ve always written under my own name, Linda Nagata. This was done largely out of naivete and partly out of defiance (see the very current and continuing discussions around the Internet of women writing science fiction). Suffice to say that the intervening years have convinced me that “Linda Nagata” might not be the best name I could be writing under.

With my latest book, The Dread Hammer, I did a radical genre change from hard science fiction to unabashed fantasy. What better time to try out a pen name? So I published TDH under the name Trey Shiels. There’s nothing secret about it. I want my long-time readers to know that’s me, but I also want to see if having a different name on a book might make a difference in sales to people who have never heard of either of us. (Not that this is in any sense a scientific experiment. Whether the book is a roaring success or an abysmal failure, there’s no way to isolate the contribution of the pen name.)

That said, pen names are a pain! On my first pass at a print version for The Dread Hammer I managed to put “Linda Nagata” at the top of every left hand page in the book, instead of “Trey Shiels.” This cost me $110 and a couple weeks of time to fix. When I go to sign the book, I have to repeat over and over “Trey Shiels” — “Trey Shiels” — “Trey Shiels” — or you know what I’m going to write. Someone won a copy of the ebook, and I realized afterward that the name of the file I sent was “The Dread Hammer-Linda Nagata.epub.” (now fixed)

I do not ever think of myself as “Trey Shiels.”

Other authors have multiple pen names, but if I did that I think I’d have to have an assistant at my side to keep reminding me who I am at the moment.

It’s only been a couple of months. I suppose that in time I’ll adapt. And maybe, in the end, “Trey Shiels” will be a more successful author. But my advice, where pen names are concerned, is tread cautiously!. Better to pick the right name from the start.

**every time I start to write “pseudonym” I have this deep fear I won’t spell it right, so I write “pen name” instead

1. Sit down at laptop, ready to work.

2. Realize mouse is still upstairs. Go get it.

3. While upstairs, check email on desktop; process some photos; look for a file; realize file is on laptop.

4. Go downstairs to get file from laptop.

5. Realize mouse is still upstairs. Go get it.

J Daniel Sawyer has a long but very interesting post up titled Literary Studies, Anyone?, discussing the dubious value of formal Literary Studies.

Having been a biology major, I freely confess I snarled my way through the required “literature” classes in college and otherwise avoided the English Department. It’s not that I don’t like “literature,” (see my post in which I am head-over-heels for the novel The Story of Edgar Sawtelle). It’s just that my idea of a great book didn’t include much of what I was required to read in college. On the positive side, we were required to read books, but not to analyze them.

My only experience with analysis is second hand, via an honors class my daughter took in high school. I talk about it in this post, Pick Books You Like. We learn to be avid readers when we like what we read–and we learn to be writers by reading, by studying diverse fields, and by writing, writing, writing.

I’m a novelist by nature. I’ve only ever written a handful of short stories–and most of those are on the long end of a short story–plus a few novelettes and novellas.

Word count is the deciding factor on which category a piece of fiction falls into. According to the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America:
Short story: under 7,500 words
Novelette: 7,500 to 17,500 words
Novella: 17,500 to 40,000 words
Novel: over 40,000 words

I’ve just published in ebook form a 7,000 word short. In the Tide was an Analog cover story back in the day, which was quite a coup for me at that stage of my career.

Here’s a tip for new writers: In the Tide was actually a “study” in much the same way that a painter will do sketches before tackling the big oil painting. I used this story to develop a feeling for the nanotech-drenched story world that later led to The Nanotech Succession books. I also used it to develop the type of evolved-human character that ultimately led to Nikko in The Bohr Maker. It’s a scheme I heartily recommend! Get paid developing the ideas for your novels. Where’s the downside of that?

In the Tide is a 99¢ short story. Here are the links:

Amazon USA
Amazon UK (£0.69)
Barnes & Noble

UPDATE: “In The Tide” is now available for free on my website, MythicIsland.com. Look for the box labeled “FREE FICTION”

The cover I designed for Memory didn’t seem to be too popular with y’all, so I asked artist Jenn Reese, a writer herself and owner of Tiger Bright Studios, to come up with something new, and here’s the beautiful result.

The new cover went live today on Amazon, and should show up at Barnes & Noble before too long. Find the ebook here:
Amazon.com USA
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

What sort of cover sells books? I don’t know, but I’m willing to keep experimenting.

Let me know what you think!

Oh Nook Reader App for PC,

I don’t know if I should admire you or despise you.

It’s true there was an extra curly quote “}” at the end of the second style sheet in my epub file.

And I know it shouldn’t have been there.

But Kindle managed to overlook it and correctly parsed the book’s styles.

Sigil managed to overlook it and correctly parsed the book’s styles.

Calibre managed to overlook it and correctly parsed the book’s styles.

But you, Nook, have higher standards! You insisted on correct code and refused to parse the book’s styles until I spent half an hour tracking down your complaint.

I’ve decided: I both admire and despise you.