jimhines

Hey, check out these e-books that just came out in the UK and its territories!

All four books are still available in print and e-book from DAW in the United States, but there’s never been a UK edition. Until now!

::Dramatic music plays::

Book one, The Stepsister Scheme, is £2.80, and the rest are £3.50. (That includes VAT.)

I’ll be updating with additional sales links as the books go live at various vendors.

• The Stepsister Scheme: Amazon
• The Mermaid’s Madness: Amazon
• Red Hood’s Revenge: Amazon
• The Snow Queen’s Shadow: Amazon

Here’s the all-new cover copy for book one:

The epic, action-packed story of what happened after the fairy tales.

Once upon a time, a girl named Danielle (better known as Cinderella) escaped her evil stepmother, married a prince, and according to the stories, lived happily ever after.

The stories lie.

Danielle Whiteshore has no sooner moved into the palace when her stepsisters show up to kidnap her prince and steal him away to the realm of fairies. To save Prince Armand, Danielle needs more than the enchanted glass sword her mother left her. She needs the Queen’s secret protectors: the deadly warrior and assassin Talia (Sleeping Beauty) and the fun-loving, flirtatious witch known as Snow White.

Plunged into a world of adventure and intrigue, Danielle must forge the trio into a team if they’re to rescue her prince and survive the machinations of a foe far deadlier than her stepsisters.

I love that these books are finally available to a wider audience. (Even if it meant going back and adding all those extra U’s to the words.)

And as always, I really hope people enjoy them!

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Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Many of you are probably familiar with the Bechdel Test, named after Alison Bechdel, and originally posited by Liz Wallace.  The test simply asks whether a movie meets the following criteria:

(1) It has at least two women in it, who (2) talk to each other, about (3) something besides a man.

The rule works with written fiction too, and can be applied to more than just gender.  For example, The Stepsister Scheme passes the test with flying colors, but if you ask whether there are at least two nonwhite characters who talk to each other … well, no.  Likewise, it fails if you apply it to visibly lesbian/gay characters.

Red Hood’s Revenge, on the other hand, passes all three of those permutations of the test.  Yay, I win at Bechdel, right?

Now let’s time how long it takes someone to point out that the series fails the test miserably when applied to men.  There are more than two male characters, but I don’t know that they ever talk to one another, and if so, I doubt it’s about anything except our heroines.

BECHDELFAIL!

So does this mean I should add a pair of male sidekicks?  Maybe goblin males, who can chat about the finer points of barbequeued knight?  The armor holds in the juices … okay, actually that sounds like fun.  But I’m gonna say no.

The point isn’t that a “good” story must be like Noah’s ark, having at least two of every character variant.  To me, the test is a way to illustrate how few stories actually have multiple female characters, and if so, they’re often present simply as “accessories” to our male heroes.

I don’t worry that my books fail the test when applied to men, mostly because I can’t remember the last book I read that didn’t pass the “Male Bechdel Test” … but I could give you a long list of books that fail when applied to women, to LGBT characters, to nonwhite characters…

It’s an awareness thing.  It’s something I think we need to be more conscious of, both as readers and as writers.  Stepsister Scheme has only a single non-white human character.  Was that a deliberate choice, or did I simply use white as the (lazy) default?

Or take the zombie story I just sold, for example — those characters were white because I had a week to write the story, and I didn’t bother to think about it.  I just defaulted to white.  (Okay, more of a grayish tinge actually, but still.)

Was I wrong to make them white?  Should I have made them black or Native American or Inuit or something else?  Not necessarily … there might be valid reasons why most of the zombies in that situation and location would be white.  But as the writer, that should have been a conscious decision on my part, not a default.

Discussion is welcome, as always.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

For anyone who’s had the chance to read Red Hood yet, if you felt like posting a review at Amazon and helping to knock that Harriet Klausner review off the front page, I’d be much obliged.  “Little Lady of the Red Hood” indeed…

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I’m back!  Had a lovely vacation up north.  Kids spent most of the week swimming and working on their sunburns.  Everyone stayed up way too late, and most days I got to sleep in until 9 or even 10 in the morning.

Stopped by the local bookstore, which didn’t have Red Hood, but did have Crosscurrent [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] by my friend Paul Kemp.  It took me a few chapters to really get into it, mostly because I haven’t been reading the expanded universe Star Wars stuff, so I didn’t know the characters or recent events.  But it was a fun story (Star Wars + time travel!), albeit a bit dark at times, and an excellent vacation read.  Finished the book in about a day.

Ah, vacation…

I also hopped online a few times to check e-mail, Amazon ranking, Bookscan numbers, and so on.  Vacation or no, my book was coming out, and I had to be there!  I had to be doing something.  I had to … well … I don’t know.  It’s kind of strange, actually.  Turns out my book was released just fine without me.

Could it be that I didn’t need to be online 24/7 when the book came out?  Crazy talk, I know.  I mean, I did have some blog posts prewritten and scheduled, and I had warned my wife that we’d need to drive into town so I could post a Twitter update or two on release day … but we didn’t get into town until later that afternoon, and as far as I could tell, books continued to sell even when I wasn’t watching.  Heck, it’s too early to say for certain, but this one might even be selling better than the previous books.

Weird.

None of this comes as a real surprise.  Intellectually, I know my control and influence over the book is pretty much done the day I turn in the final manuscript.  Emotionally though, I still like to pretend I’m involved, and to cling to the illusion that I continue to have more control over the fate of the book.

Time to let go, I suppose.  Fly, little book.  Be free.  Enjoy your time on the New Releases shelf.  August will be here all too soon, and then far too many of you will be stripped and returned.  But until then, get out there and make your author proud.

Tomorrow I’ll probably be putting up a discussion post for the book.  And apropos of nothing, here’s a shot from when I was playing with the panorama setting on our digital camera last week.  Click for full size.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Jim is on vacation this week, and is blogging from the past!  He has very little Internet access, but will read and catch up on comments eventually.  Please feel free to comment and let him know whether you people of the future are zipping around in flying cars and personal jet packs yet!

Red Hood’s Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] came out yesterday.  One question that comes up a lot with book releases is how readers can help to promote the writer.  Either the writer wants to get the readers to help spread the word, or else the readers actively ask what they can do to support the writer’s new book.  So here are Jim’s thoughts on:

What readers can do to support their favorite books!

It’s simple enough, really.

Step 1: Get yourself hired as the head buyer for a major bookstore chain.
Step 2: Stock up on the works of Jim C. Hines.
Step 3: Profit!

For those of us not in a position to take over as a buyer, I refer you to the blog post I did asking where you learn about new books.  (On LJ here.)  Reading through the answers confirmed a lot of what I already suspected: word-of-mouth is one of the most powerful factors in getting people to pick up a book.

I’ve seen and tried a lot of different things to publicize books.  I’ve done author interviews.  I’ve provided HTML code people could copy and repaste with the book’s cover and info.  But … and perhaps this is a “Duh!” moment … what seems to work best is simply people talking about the books they love, and why.

So if you want to help support the princess books, or any books for that matter, just talk about them.  Write a blog post describing what you love about the stories or the characters or the world.  It doesn’t have to be a formal review or anything like that (though reviews are always appreciated).  Your excitement about a book you loved will sell that book far more effectively than the author ever could.

And if you’re really not comfortable with that, there’s always cosplaying your favorite character

Other suggestions and ideas on what to do (and also what not to do) are more than welcome!

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

So tomorrow my family heads north for vacation.  We’ll be gone for a week … the same week that Red Hood’s Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] comes out.  This is going to be interesting.

Since I won’t be around on Tuesday, I went ahead and drew a winner for the 8th and final book giveaway.  Congratulations to lavvyan, who wrote the following:

Han Solo: Good book? You’ve never heard of Red Hood’s Revenge?

Obi-Wan: Should I have?

Han Solo: It’s the book that made the Barnes & Noble Top 10 in less than twelve parsecs. It’s outclassed Imperial bestsellers. Not the lauded self-help junk, mind you, I’m talking about the big NY Times hits now. It’s good enough for you, old man.

I hope people enjoyed these giveaways.  I had a great time reading all of your entries.

It’s strange to think I’ll be away, with little Internet access, on my release day.  How will I obsess over my Amazon ranking?  How will I scour the net for reviews?  (Okay, so I’ll probably make my family drive into town on Tuesday so I can get online at least once via the wireless at Subway, but still.)  It’s going to be hard.

On the other hand, here’s a “self portrait” I took last year when we went up north.  So you know what?  I think I’ll manage

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

I mentioned on Monday that I had received my author copies of Red Hood’s Revenge, which means review copies should also be available.  If you’re a reviewer and would like DAW to send you a copy of Red Hood (or any of my DAW titles), please let me know and I’ll see what we can do.

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Earlier this week I stumbled into a conversation about the practice of reviewers turning around and selling review copies on eBay.  This includes both advanced review copies (ARCs) and copies of the finished books.

I admit I get a little annoyed when I see one of my ARCs up for sale before the book comes out.  Come on, people.  The ARC says “Not for resale” for a reason.  It just feels rude.

It’s also not something I’m going to waste a lot of time worrying about.  For something like Harry Potter, I understand why it’s important to keep spoilers locked down until the release date.  For the rest of us — for me — why is this a big deal?  Why should I care if a handful of review copies leak out ahead of time?  Uncool, yes.  But on the list of things worth my time and stress, this isn’t even a footnote.

It turns out some people are quite passionate about reviewers selling their books.  In one comment, I learned that not worrying about ARCs on eBay meant I was supporting all of The Evil Book Pirates.  I was also told I should get a job at BP telling people their oil spill “isn’t worth stressing about” either.  (The BP bit did include the rhetorical “Ha ha, I’m just kidding” trick at the end.  As it turns out, adding “Just kidding” does not alter the fact that you’re saying something asinine.)

So I’m curious what other people think.  Should reviewers be prohibited from selling review copies?  Does it make a difference if it’s an ARC or a finished book?  What about solicited vs. unsolicited books?  I.e., if I beg Tor for a review copy of Tobias Buckell’s latest, are my reselling obligations different than if a a publicist sends me a book I didn’t ask for?

Discussion and disagreement are welcome, as always.  However, if you try to equate the Review Copy Gray Market with BP spilling millions of barrels of oil into our oceans, please understand that you will be mocked and sporkstabbed.

Even if you’re “just kidding.”

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

I think I’ve mentioned the Ego Shelf once or twice before.  We joke about authors and their egos, and there is some truth to the jabs.  Authors do tend toward the egotistical.  After all, we think our words are good enough that you should pay money just to read them.

But the ego shelf isn’t about feeding the ego.  (Not just about that, at least.)  It’s not “Look upon this shelf and bask in my awesomeness!”  It’s not about whose shelf is longer.  It’s about … let’s call it positive reinforcement.

That shelf holds a copy of almost¹ every magazine, anthology, and novel (both English and translated) I’ve ever done, along with my Writers of the Future trophy there on the left.  And you know what?  I’m damn proud of that shelf.

I’ve been told pride is a sin, and I realize pride can get you into trouble.  But I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with taking a moment to feel good about what I’ve accomplished over the past fifteen years.  It’s a good reminder, something to get me through the slumps.  I’ve spent ten months working on The Snow Queen’s Shadow, and it helps to look up and remember that in a year or so I’ll be adding another book to the shelf, and people all over the world will (I hope) be reading and enjoying it.

I’d love to someday have an entire Ego Bookcase.  And it would be fun to add a few more trophies.  But no matter where you are in your career, I think it’s important to recognize and honor the work you’ve done, to feel good about that.  Even when I only had a few semi-pro magazines on display … heck, back before I sold anything, I taped my rejection letters up because I was proud of them too.  Because they meant I was writing and submitting and working, dammit!

Writing is hard.  It’s okay to be proud of your work.  Not only okay, I think it’s important.

Oh — and those of you with keen eyes or good monitors might have spotted something there on the right.  Let me give you a close-up.

Oh, yes.  Author copies of Red Hood’s Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] have arrived at the Hines household, and there was much rejoicing.  Don’t they look pretty all lined up together like that?

To celebrate, I’ve updated my web site with the teaser for The Snow Queen’s Shadow.  This is the same text that appears in the back of Red Hood.  If you want to see what’s coming next summer, feel free to take a peek.

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Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Hm … I think I have ginmar to thank for the influx of new LJ friends.  Welcome all, and please feel free to say hello!  Or not, if you prefer.  It’s all good.

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My next book, Red Hood’s Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] comes out on July 6, and I’m counting down the days by giving away a book each week.  Congratulations to @bkwrrm_tx who won the Twitter giveaway.

Today’s contest is a little different.  My friend Lisa Shearin (author of the Raine Benares series) has an excerpt and giveaway for The Stepsister Scheme over on her blog.  To be entered to win an autographed copy of Stepsister, just head over and comment on the blog post.

Lisa will be drawing a winner tonight, so if you want to enter this one, you’ll have to be quick.

And tune in tomorrow for … actually, I haven’t decided yet.  Maybe another diabetes post.  Maybe a follow-up to the whole “friending/defriending” phenomenon on social networks.  Or maybe I’ll just talk about the crazy involved in trying to wrap up the second draft of this book…

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Red Hood’s Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] comes out on July 6, and I’m counting down the days by giving away a book each week.  Congratulations to Jenn Johnson, who won the third giveaway.

This week, I think I’m going to go with something simple and straightforward.  Next Tuesday I’ll randomly select one of my Twitter followers to receive an autographed copy of one of the following books (your choice):

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Like many authors, I don’t get much info on how things are doing behind the scenes.  It’s one of the reasons many of us obsess over Amazon rankings.  Those rankings might not mean much in the big picture, but they’re the only indication I get about preorders.

I use TitleZ to track my books on Amazon.  It’s a dangerous tool, allowing authors to completely obsess, but I like it.  Among other things, I can pull up a graph of sales rankings over time:

Every one of those dips represents at least one person who was excited enough to order Red Hood’s Revenge.  I have no way of knowing exactly how many orders this represents, but it’s significantly better than the preorders for Mermaid’s Madness.

So thank you.  At the risk of getting all sappy, I very much appreciate your trust.  I know this series isn’t for everyone, but it’s an incredible feeling to realize so many people are excited about the story and the characters.  And it makes me want to work even harder on Snow Queen, to do everything I can to live up to that trust.

Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.

Red Hood’s Revenge [B&N | Mysterious Galaxy | Amazon] comes out in six weeks.  SciFiChick has posted an early review, and says:

“More dramatic than previous installments, this latest story revolves mainly around Talia and Roudette, bringing to light more of their dark and horrible pasts … There’s plenty of the suspense and action that make this fantasy series great. Hines’ princess heroines from fairy tale lore are truly unique and completely enjoyable from start to finish.”

Congratulations to mskiara, who won the second giveaway!  For the rest of you, don’t worry — I’ve got six more chances for people to win.

For the past two weeks, I’ve had a blast reading your creative and entertaining entries, so let’s keep going with the fun.  To enter this week’s contest, imagine a princess video game.  Danielle, Snow, and Talia vs. all manner of nastiness.

Who would be the ultimate boss at the end of the game, and how do the princesses defeat said boss?¹

Leave your answer in the comments, and I’ll select one person to win an autographed copy of one of the following books (your choice):

As in previous weeks, the winner will be chosen at random, so there’s no pressure.  Just have fun.

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Mirrored from Jim C. Hines.