Author: Karen

Out of the Box Blogs

Leave of Absence?

Karen

Hello everyone! I’m back and was going to write a review on a book I just read but I feel as if I need to explain my disappearance the last two months. This last summer I was fortunate to get to move back to Hawaii which is where my family raised me from a teenager and I have spent many years to help my parents retire. I thought it was going to be great, I mean the weather is awesome, I have fantastic friends here and a job I really like. Unfortunately I’ve gotten very sick and we recently discovered it’s a reaction to the vog (the nasty ash that comes out of volcanos) that has been drifting here from the Big Island. As a kid Maui never really had a big problem with this but with new vents opening on the volcano our air quality has gotten worse and worse. So I have had to decide to leave Hawaii and move back to the mainland. The combined being sick and trying to make moving plans is making me very neglectful and for that I do apologize. I should be off the islands by the end of the month but the doctors warn me that it may take time for my body to heal so I have to confess that my post may continue to be sporadic for another few months. Sick with me kids I hope to be back in fighting form soon!

Thanks for listening and hope you like the review to follow!

Out of the Box Blogs

2015 in review

Karen

This was our first year getting one of these, and since our blog started in September I’m excited to see how we did!

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2015 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,900 times in 2015. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

indie author, Out of the Box Blogs, paranormal romance, scifi, steampunk, Urban Fantasy

The Waiting Game

Karen

Recently I’ve noticed that a lot of the authors I’ve been following for years are spacing the time between books in a series more and more. Now sometimes it’s a health or other personal issues which I completely sympathize with and understand, hey as much as I’d like to have that new book real life and family is a priority, but sometime it’s not. Here are some of the reasons I’ve been consistently running into:

  1. The new series. Authors want to start new series, which I get creatively they get bored, so the old series which is the cash cow and the one I love starts to have longer and longer wait times. I have a few that publish like clockwork once a year but now with new series (still only publishing once a year) the series I follow only comes out every 2-3 years. Sometimes I actually have forgotten what’s going on it’s been so long.
  2. The publisher. Apparently the publishers like the publish certain genres certain times of the year. One author missed her deadline by a month and now her book is slated to release a year later. This is a NYT best selling author and this will make it a three year wait on the book. Really? You couldn’t find a spot?
  3. The deadline. As mentioned above deadlines seem to be getting tighter and tighter for writers and when they miss them then books seem to get pushed not weeks buts 6,8,12,18 months out.

The saddest part is that some new series I’ve picked up are really interesting but there has been no follow up..and its been 12-18 months for some of these books. Honestly I’ve lost interest in anything that’s not my core reading, as far as series are concerned, that aren’t indie authors. Do you think it’s over stressed authors, publishing houses that think people will stay loyal no matter what or an over critical me?