Unspun Anthology: I'm getting published!

[ccstat]

I’m getting published!

A short story I wrote is coming out in the anthology Unspun: A Collection of Tattered Fairy Tales, which is being released on April 10. I’ve read all the pieces and highly recommend the book. My story is called "Heart of a Thief" and follows the man who bought Jack's cow for a handful of magic beans. I had a lot of fun figuring out why someone would make such a purchase. Hopefully you will too!

Edit: The book it's now available for order on Amazon and is listed on Goodreads.

Here are the basics: Unspun is a collection of short stories about what comes after the “ever after” of classic fairy tales. You can learn more in my blog posts about the collection and about my story. 

Here is the publisher’s description:

Quote

Whatever happened to “happily ever after”? 

Heroes search for happiness, villains plot revenge, and nothing is as easy as it once seemed. Gretel suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, an orphan girl questions Rumpelstiltskin’s legacy, a monster cat searches for a child to eat, and the pied piper realizes stealing a hundred and thirty children may not have been his smartest idea. 

Fairy tales have endured for centuries even though—or perhaps because—their conclusions are often more unsettling than satisfying. In Unspun, eleven storytellers come together to challenge and explore a few of those classic tales. Unexpected twists are sure to provoke both thought and laughter.  

Gorgeous illustrations by Ruth Nickle accompany each piece.

I want to gush for a moment about some of the other stories in Unspun. There are three that by themselves make this absolutely worth buying. One of these is a novella by Katherine Cowley. It is based on the less well-known fairy tale of Tatterhood, who is an ugly princess with a magic wooden spoon. The storytelling and worldbuilding and magic of Cowley's story are an excellent fit for Sanderfans, and the story itself is wonderful. It's about beauty and acceptance, about marriage and loyalty, and about coming to know yourself and others. Plus it features Tatterhood's awesome sidekick, a parkour-loving goat.

Another fantastic piece in the anthology is by Jeanna Mason Stay and is about Gretel dealing with PTSD after what she experienced in the gingerbread house. The prose is simply beautiful and I love how every word puts you right in Gretel's mind. Jeanna wrote about the anthology on her blog here.

The other story I love is by Kaki Olsen and based on The Nutcracker. The main character inherits the nutcracker from her mother and has to deal with the discovery of its magic at the same time she is dealing with her grief over her mother's death. The way her emotional state intersects with the excitement of the plot is perfect, and I really want to read more stories about these characters.

Those are my three favorites, but the rest are also great. The pied piper tries to figure out what to do with the children following him, Prince Ivan's mother tries to understand how her unpromising son acquired a firebird and a wife during her short absence, and the little mermaid (now just sea foam) tries to speak to her family. There are also stories based on Rumplestiltskin, Snow White, and the Princess and the Pea. I am thrilled to have my story included with them.

Overall the collection contains two novellas, seven short stories, and two shorter works (a poem and a piece of flash fiction). In addition, the cover artist drew illustrations to accompany each piece, which is something I am extra excited about. My experience with the editors was wonderful, and I can't wait to see the actual finished product. It will be available on release day in both print and ebook, and I hope you love it!

Edited March 30, 2018 by ccstat

[Argent]

Aw, it's not on Goodreads?

[ccstat]

7 hours ago, Argent said:

Aw, it's not on Goodreads?

Not yet, but it will be soon. It is a small press, and last I heard the ISBN was still pending or something like that. As soon as it goes up on Goodreads I'll post a link.

Edited March 26, 2018 by ccstat

[Argent]

2 hours ago, ccstat said:

Not yet, but it will be soon. It is a small press, and last I heard the ISBN was still pending or something like that. As soon as it goes up on Goodreads I'll post a link.

Mind pinging me (either here or on Discord) so I can add it to my list?

[SilverTiger]

That's awesome! Good for you!

[ccstat]

The Amazon and Goodreads pages are live now! Links added to the OP. 

The ebook ($5) can be pre-ordered now, and the print version ($13) will be available for order on April 10. 

Pinging @Argent and @Extesian, who wanted to be notified.

 

[+Extesian]

54 minutes ago, ccstat said:

The Amazon and Goodreads pages are live now! Links added to the OP. 

The ebook ($5) can be pre-ordered now, and the print version ($13) will be available for order on April 10. 

Pinging @Argent and @Extesian, who wanted to be notified.

 

Sweet cc! This sounds cool, and I see you're the first story! And seeing your real name suddenly makes your nick makes more sense I've preordered man, looking forward to reading your work. And congratulations again dude!

[ccstat]

3 hours ago, Extesian said:

Sweet cc! This sounds cool, and I see you're the first story! And seeing your real name suddenly makes your nick makes more sense I've preordered man, looking forward to reading your work. And congratulations again dude!

Awesome! I'm excited to share it, and I'm stoked about being everyone's first impression of the anthology. I have been wanting to ask the editor what factors went into deciding the order of the stories. Mine is the longest of the short-story-length pieces (7400 words) and one of the better ones (I might be biased), but I don't know if those factors were important, or if the order was determined more by tone (silly vs adventurous vs introspective), pagination to get the illustrations on the right pages, or something else entirely. 

It's silly, but one of the things I'm really looking forward to is the little "goodreads author" badge that I get to claim. And, of course, the instant fame and fortune that come from being a published author. Can't forget that.

And yeah, CC are my initials. I've frequently considered switching to something more easily parsed or pronounced, but haven't settled on anything I like. I've used that username for everything social for almost 20 years (good grief!) primarily because it is unique and therefore available on any new site I join. Usually people who see that ccstat think I really like statistics, but it originally comes from a high school joke when a friend quoted a medical-based TV show, "give me 50 cc's, stat!" 

[StrikerEZ]

Dude, this is so cool! I'll have to check it out soon!

[thegatorgirl00]

@ccstat, I noticed the anthology is available on kindle unlimited. I'm curious how it works for the authors when people read it through that instead of buying it. Does having KU end up hurting the authors I read on it? 

[ccstat]

2 hours ago, thegatorgirl00 said:

@ccstat, I noticed the anthology is available on kindle unlimited. I'm curious how it works for the authors when people read it through that instead of buying it. Does having KU end up hurting the authors I read on it? 

Great question! The short answer is no, that doesn't hurt the authors. I don't remember the numbers, but authors get a royalty based on the number of readers who get a book via Kindle Unlimited, just like we get a percentage off of each book sold.

Basically, we may not make as much in royalties from a KU reader as from someone who buys the book, but the value of having you read the book is much greater than the loose change that trickles in from a single book sale. (This is especially true for things like this anthology, where the royalties get split between the contributing authors.) The important part is to have readers tell their friends when they like something, so that word will spread.

You are never going to single handedly support an author by buying their books. But if you convince someone else to get my book, you've just doubled the royalty I would have gotten from you. If you get my book from a library and tell people you liked it, that's just as good.

If you want to help the authors you like, the very best thing to do is buy a copy of the book for every person you know. In the event that you can't do that for every book release, there are three things that are almost as good. First, tell your friends. Recommendations from someone they trust are the most likely to get them interested in a book.

Second, rate the book on Amazon (or other book merchant) and on Goodreads. Those sites influence a lot of people's buying decisions, so your recommendation will have the farthest reach there. Also, at least on Amazon, there are set thresholds for the number of ratings a book has to have before they will market it in certain ways. For example, once a book has 50 reviews it will start to show up under other books in the "People also read..." section.

Third, if you plan to buy the book, buy it on release day. Release-week sale numbers tell publishers how much effort to put into marketing a book, and those numbers determine placement in best-seller lists, which is huge for visibility. (This one isn't as important in my case since Unspun is being published by a small indie press that has already made all the marketing allocations it plans to. Also because I don't have a publication backlist that would get a boost from having my name on a high-selling list.)

Disclaimer: This is the first piece of writing that i am actually selling to people for money, so it's possible there are additional moving parts here I don't know about.

Edited April 10, 2018 by ccstat

[+Extesian]

@ccstat I finally got around to reading your tale. I really enjoyed it dude. The story was fascinating, the PoV writing spot on and you have a lovely way with prose, some lovely language in there. I enjoyed the Rothfuss-style symmetry explaining the different types off thieves. And I had a good laugh at Gerund's nickname being Ing

I hope we'll see more of your stuff in the future! Congratulations again. 

To any other Sharders, I haven't read the other stories in the anthology but Chris' story is great and well worth supporting him. 

[ccstat]

On 4/18/2018 at 1:53 AM, Extesian said:

@ccstat I finally got around to reading your tale. I really enjoyed it dude.

Thank you for the kind feedback! I'm really glad you liked it. Naming him Gerund/Ing was super funny to me, and I'm happy with the timing of the joke. (I'm actually pretty curious what portion of readers will appreciate it. Of the three editors who gave feedback, one thought it was hilarious, one rolled her eyes, andone didn't even notice.) I'm flattered at the Rothfuss comparison. I hadn't thought about it, but that may well have been an unconscious influence on structuring the intro.

@thegatorgirl00, I confirmed the Kindle Unlimited situation. Yes, authors get a royalty when you read via KU. The amount varies, though. As I understand it, there is a monthly pot of royalty money that gets split between all KU authors based on a monthly count of pages read, number of readers, and the list price. So I have no sense yet for how the KU royalty compares to a sale royalty in hard numbers.

[Kidpen]

I need to remind myself to put this on my want-to-read once I get home.