A File 770 article asserts that “several indie romance authors recently found themselves banned by Kindle Direct Publishing with no real explanation.” I have no independent confirmation of this, but the article is worth a look.
I use Smashwords as my primary self-publishing outlet. This locks me out of some nice features I could get by giving exclusive publication rights to KDP, but I don’t care to be locked in like that.
Recently I got into a Reddit discussion that included a question about a non-compete clause for a freelance writer. Such clauses have legitimate uses, but broadly written ones can be nasty. They can damage a writer’s ability to earn an income. I’m not an expert in this area, so I’ve gone looking for reliable material.
PublishLawyer.com has an informative article, primarily addressing fiction writers. It quotes a “typical provision”:
During the term of this Agreement, Author has not prepared or published, and shall not prepare or publish, or participate in the preparation or publication of any work that directly competes with the sales of the Work.
Several readers have received the beta draft of Spells of War. Now I can ignore it for a while. My purpose wasn’t to do trope-busting, but just to follow up on the implications of The Magic Battery. Even so, it has some unusual features.
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This week, I’ve started rewriting the first draft of Spells of War. The first eight chapters went pretty quickly, without any huge changes. The biggest departure from the first draft, though, is that the action will now span 1556-1557, instead of all taking place in 1556. Things just got too crammed against the approach of winter and Ramadan. With the new timeline, the mages on each side will be able to develop more weapons and train the Landsknechte and Janissaries respectively in their use. This means adding material about what happens over the winter without letting the story drag.
A character who shows up late in the first draft will make his appearance earlier. This will let me build up his role in the story more effectively.
I’ll be putting out a call for beta readers before long, perhaps in early January.
Author Walter Donway has posted an enthusiastic review of The Magic Battery on the Savvy Street website. I love not just his praise, but his understanding of what I was aiming for.
Full disclosure: I recently posted a favorable review of Donway’s Retaking College Hill, but there was no tit-for-tat agreement between us. He emailed me a draft of the review last week, asking just for factual corrections.