aroslav: Blog

This is number 126 in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.

“HE WAS TALLER than I am by a couple of inches, weighing a little over 200. He had sandy hair that stuck out like he’d slept on it when it was wet. No, a little longer. I’d say his face was a little rounder than that, but not fat. Just shaped like a balloon. Thin lips. Nose was sort of flat, like it had been hit a few times. He squinted all the time, like he wasn’t used to the light. Yes. That’s it.”

“Based on your description, we have brought in five suspects. Could you take a look at these five men and tell me if any of them was the man who assaulted you?”

“Well, he was about the height of number three. The eyes were like number five. I think number one is too short…”

Now, if you were describing your novel, would a reader be able to pick it out of a lineup? That’s the next step in selling your novel. The logline is an eye-stopper. The elevator pitch sparks interest. The blurb makes a person open the listing to see what it’s all about. But the description is what causes the nickel to drop. Or the $5.95, as the case may be.

Do you recall the blurb I presented last week for an imaginary novel I might write in November? Here it is.

“What if your whole life was condensed into a single year and everything important in it happened that year. For fifty years, Lowell has lived in the memories of his life in 1979. As the song goes, ‘I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a king.’ And Lowell was all those things in just one year! These are his memories of that one incredible year.”

When you post a book for sale, you typically have two different boxes for describing it. The first is the blurb (less than 400 characters) and the second is the description (less than 4,000 characters). The description is the author’s opportunity to finally convince the reader to buy his book. Here’s what I created for The Year I Lived.

Lowell’s life was nothing but ordinary from the day he was born to the day he died—except that one year from the summer of 1979 to the summer of 1980. That year gave him enough memories to last a lifetime. In fact, for the past fifty years, he’s been caught in a loop, reliving all those memories.

When he tells people what happened to him, they assume he’s just telling stories made up from a reasonably long life, but no one believes they all happened in a single twelve-month period, give or take a few weeks. And those who have known him for any length of time can’t believe they happened at all. But from June 1979 to June 1980, Lowell lived an entire life’s worth of adventure and excitement.

He didn’t start off rich or noble, nor did he end rich or noble. He was caught up in an extraordinary adventure and was left just an ordinary guy. Of course, there were changes. Life before the year, he was on one course, certain that he had his career, family, and spirit set on a permanent trajectory. Life since the year, found him also on a course with a career, family, and spirit set on a permanent trajectory. It was just a different one than before the year.

Of course, you’ll need to know a little about his life before the year—a topic Lowell has always avoided—in order to understand how extraordinary that one year was. His totally unremarkable life was coming to a depressing end as his divorce was finalized. He was completely unprepared for what came after. (1467 characters)

The purpose of the description is to draw the reader into the story just far enough that he or she wants to know what happened. The reader has invested two minutes at this point and is ready to invest a few hours learning about Lowell’s life.

I’ve been spending most of September preparing the Signature Edition of my three-volume work, Bob’s Memoir: 4,000 Years as a Free Demon. It’s scheduled for release November 1, 2025. The book (Signature Edition is only available as a hardcover print edition) will sell for $49.95. The most expensive book I’ve ever produced. Who would ever buy it?

I don’t really care. I created it so I could put it on my bookshelf of Signature Editions. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t thought everything through about the book. Why do I think it’s worth it?

“Hi! I’m Bob and I’ll be your demon tonight.”

So begins the adventure of a free demon, loosed on the world by an inept adept some 4,000 years ago. But Bob is not your ordinary demon. He was not imbued with any traits of evil when he was summoned and as a result is rather benign. He’s just your everyday, slightly horny, happy-go-lucky (mostly lucky) demon.

It’s a romp through the annals of human history from a unique perspective. A little bit spooky. A little bit sexy. A lot funny.

That 395-character blurb is what truly inspired me to write the three-volume series, all combined in a single book for the Signature Edition. But if anyone is going to look further than the blurb for a $50 book, they’ll need to have a little more to go on. Here’s the description:

This Signature Edition of Bob’s Memoir: 4,000 Years as a Free Demon contains all three volumes of Bob’s seminal work on the history of the world for the past four millennia. It has been designed in a way that seems appropriate for the work of an immortal sharing his insights on the development of humanity and inhumanity. Bob has experienced all aspects.

It was a difficult thing for a poor defenseless demon to endure, especially finding how terribly wrong the history books and religious teachings and scientific writings have gotten the story over the years. It is his attempt to set the record straight. He’s done everything possible to make the work simple and understandable, stopping short of labeling chapter and verse all the way through.

As a Signature Edition, this volume includes a digitally signed photo of the real author, Devon Layne, and an interview. Devon (me) wishes to assure you that he is not a 4,000-year-old demon, no matter what his ex-wives might say. He has merely acted as the intermediary for Bob, who introduced himself as Devon was driving on US Route 95 through Idaho, in search of inspiration and groceries.

Bob introduced himself politely as if he were a passenger in the cab of Devon’s truck, and told him he would be dictating his story and as soon as Devon was conveniently settled in front of his computer, the story would begin. And thus, it began.

As Devon sat naked in front of his campfire that night, fellow nudist and story consultant Doug showed up to share a beer and discuss the latest story. Devon told him about Bob’s arrival on the scene and a little about what he’d been told so far. Doug nodded, downed another beer, and stared into the fire.

“I get it,” he said. “Bob is just your everyday, slightly horny, happy-go-lucky—mostly lucky—demon.”

“That Doug,” Bob whispered in Devon’s ear. “He shows up every century or two. He gets it.”

And so, it proved to be. Of course, Doug was only a little of the story Bob told when compared to the many, many women who crossed Bob’s path—some of whom, came to stay.

So, I, Devon Layne, have endeavored faithfully to record Bob’s story, even when it seemed disjointed and to extend into a future not yet seen. Enjoy!

The description sets the tone of the story and encourages the reader to shell out the funds necessary to read it. Personally, I’ve read it at least a dozen times.

Of course, the three normal eBooks of Bob’s Memoir can be purchased from ZBookStore for just $4.99 each or the set for $12.00. An all-new second edition of Volume 3 will be released on October 12 and is unavailable until then, and as always, my works can be read online for free at SOL or at my own website. The current edition of Volume 3 will remain at SOL until next Sunday when I'll begin replacing it with the 2nd edition.

Next week, I’ll discuss other important tools and documents you might be asked for in attempting to publish your book. The synopsis, the outline, the first twenty pages, keywords, and categories remain to be covered. Starting next week.

This is number 125 in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.

“WHAT IF YOUR WHOLE LIFE was condensed into a single year and everything important in it happened that year? For fifty years, Lowell has lived in the memories of his life in 1979. As the song goes, ‘I’ve been a puppet, a pauper, a pirate, a poet, a pawn, and a king.’ And Lowell was all those things in just one year! These are his memories of that one incredible year.”

The most important thing an author writes to promote his or her work is the blurb. The earlier you start working on it, the more useful it will be. It should fully encapsulate exactly what the story is while piquing the interest of the reader to open the book. It should also inspire you to write the work! When you read your blurb, you should clap your hands together and say, “I can’t wait to write this!”

If it doesn’t inspire you to write it, it’s not likely to inspire a reader to read it.

In 2015, when I decided to write a story in the ‘Damsels in Distress’ universe, I first read all the stories I could find that were set in that universe. The heroes were overwhelmingly former military men, trained and experienced in combat and survival. They’d been through war and were upright men with honorable character. Much like most of the retired servicemen I have known.

But I am not ex-military. Writing about characters in the military and their experiences is not in my ‘wheelhouse,’ as my dental hygienist put it this week. I had to consider what other things went into the making of a hero and when I came up with a theatre student who saves the lives of his niece and sister-in-law, but is crippled by the act, I knew I had a hero. I went to work on describing him in the blurb for Sleight of Hand.

Crippled while saving his niece and sister-in-law from a drunk driver, Lincoln has struggled five years to 'never give up' at their encouragement. When his friend and magic tutor Seth is suddenly killed on Chaos, though, Lincoln is forced to consider that the stories his mentor told him were more than a LARP. But what kind of hero could a guy in a wheelchair become?

And, indeed, when I came up with this blurb, I couldn’t wait to start writing the story. It’s short as compared to most of my novels. Just eight chapters. But in it, Lincoln gets to Crossroads where his paralysis is healed and he learns to become a different kind of hero, using his magic tricks and theatrics to rescue the damsels in distress.

Sleight of Hand and the entire Hero Lincoln Trilogy are available in eBook from ZBookStore, and as a single volume paperback at online retailers.

There are some key things to remember when writing your blurb. First is to identify who your story’s protagonist is and what type of person he or she is. Then put the protagonist in the key conflict of the story—what does he have to do or overcome? And finally, how did the protagonist get in this predicament?

Many blurbs also include how the protagonist completes his goal, but that is not as necessary as the other three ingredients. Later, however, that will become critical.

Brian was the geekiest shrimp in his class—frequent target of neighborhood and school bullies. But his next-door neighbor, “Heaven,” was watching over him, keeping him safe and protected—until the day Brian became the protector. Brian Frost, would-be chemist and aspiring cook, loyal enough to his friends that they become fiercely loyal to him. All because Heaven told them a fairy tale.

First, who is the protagonist—the person the story is about? Brian, a little geek who is often picked on. What does Brian have to overcome? He has to change from a weak person who is being protected to a person strong enough to protect others. How did it all happen? Heaven, a protector, told a story to Brian’s friends that brought them closer to Brian.

This blurb is 388 characters long. Most of the places you will use a blurb have a character limit. It may vary, but the most prevalent is 400 characters. Use as many of them as you can, but only include essential information. Don’t try to tell the whole story in the blurb. Get those details out that will inspire you to write the story and will sell people on reading what you’ve written.

Go to the story links page at Stories Online. Read the blurbs for the stories posted today. Some are extremely short. Some come close to the full 400-character limit. But which are the ones that make you think you’d like to read them (or write them)? Look at what turns you off of other books.

Of course, your personal interests will affect your interest in the story as well. The author can’t do anything about that. In fact, I want the blurb to warn you away from my story as well as attract you to it.

Part of the motivation for this series of posts was an email I received from ‘Johnny’ who pointed out the number of blurbs that contained poor writing. That included poor English, punctuation, spelling, and word-choice. He said, and I agree, that readers are often turned off from reading a story because the blurb is poorly written. I have to agree, but I’m not going to post any of the ‘bad examples’ he forwarded to me.

The blurb should be an example of the best of your writing. I believe the problems with most of the bad examples were the result of being treated as an afterthought. The person posting the story—and this is just as true of people publishing an eBook or paperback through one of the major vendors—seems often to forget they will need a blurb until they are in the process of posting. So, they hurriedly jot something in the text box and move on.

The blurb should not be an afterthought!

It should be planned, written, and edited in advance. Don’t start posting a story until you have given thought to the blurb. (I believe you shouldn’t start writing the story until you have given thought to the blurb.)

Write your blurb with the care of a Madison Avenue advertising exec intending to sell a million copies. Those sales will all be based on this 400-character blurb.

Of course, the blurb is not the only tool you have to sell your story. Most distribution sites for your eBook or paperback also include the opportunity to give a longer description. We’ll talk about the description and synopsis next week.

This is number 124 in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.

“IT’S AN INTELLECTUAL THRILLER with high stakes and fast action, but a low body count.”

If you look at this and have your interest piqued, it’s a successful logline. It means you are one step closer to reading the story. If you just keep scrolling, it was not successful. The purpose of the logline in today’s world—it changes over time—is to stop the reader from scrolling. If we are being unkind, we can also call it click-bait.

A lot of the time, it is all a reader will see as they are scrolling through titles. You have literally an eyeblink to capture their attention.

Consider what happens when you look through an onscreen directory of movies to find something that matches your mood at the moment. Here is all you see:

A CIA decoder hunts for his wife’s killers, his intelligence serving as his ultimate weapon.

Did it make you stop scrolling long enough to watch a preview or read a longer description?

A pretty, popular teenager can’t go out on a date until her ill-tempered older sister does.

Hmm. I think that’s a modern adaptation of a Shakespeare play. I’d check it out.

Amid cosmic clashes and interplanetary politics, an heir must harness mystical powers and lead a rebellion against an oppressive regime.

I think I’ve seen at least half of those movies, so I’ll probably look to see if I’m interested in this one, too. If you are upset that I’m not telling you what movie any of these loglines are for, then they were obviously effective. They made you stop and want to check out the movie a little more.

This is number 123 in the blog series, “My Life in Erotica.” I encourage you to join my Patreon community to support my writing.

LAST WEEK, I got an interesting email from SOL reader Johnny: “Oh, I pass this to you as I think you would do a much better job of presenting it than I could. The topic is creating a title and description that attracts readers. Forgive me if you’ve already written on this. I’ll claim Alzheimer’s.”

Don’t imagine that I never listen to my readers! This email hit me at the perfect time. Just as I was trying to get the perfect blurb for Forever Yours! I don’t know if I nailed it, but it’s better than what I originally thought up.

Back in the old days when my business partners and I started the boutique publishing house LongTale Press, we started receiving manuscript samples and blurbs from a lot of aspiring authors. Most of them were really crappy, so we were invited to several different venues to talk about and coach people on creating a title and perfect pitch for their novels.

There are five levels that I want to talk about.
1. The Title
2. The Logline
3. The Blurb
4. The Description
5. The Synopsis

Each of them deserves a lot of consideration on the part of you, the author. Let’s start with the title and we’ll see if this is a one-week post or two weeks, or more. It’s really a big topic!

Sometimes we get the perfect title when we first think of the story. That is what happened to me when I was struck by the title Living Next Door to Heaven as I was parked on a beach in Alabama in March of 2014. It was perfect and I could immediately imagine the complete story line that would cover some ten or fifteen years. Well, it turned out to be a great series name, but covering that much time and detail, it ended up being nine different books and I needed to come up with an actual title for each of the books. Bummer.

More often, the perfect title comes long after the first—and sometimes the second or third—draft is finished. That was the case with Nathan Everett’s (Wayzgoose) first published novel. We released it as part of an anthology of NaNoWriMo books in 2006 with the title Security and Exchange. Since the anthology was released as a fund-raiser for libraries during Microsoft’s Giving Campaign, a lot of people asked me if it was about protecting email servers. ????

Four years later, when it was released as part of the launch of LongTale Press, it had been extensively edited, rewritten, and retitled: For Blood or Money. That title reflects the contemporary noir mystery that the book actually contains. Much better, and a good seller.

Today marks the commercial release of my newest novel, Forever Yours, in both eBook and Signature Edition paperback. So, why not use it as an example? This book started out with a working title of “Sisyphus, a Modern Myth.” Thrilling title, isn’t it? It was more a reminder to me of how I perceived this contemporary story. I would retell the ancient Sisyphus myth—the guy condemned to roll a stone up a mountain that would roll back down each day for eternity—with my own twists on the story.

After that first draft was completed, which followed my outline exactly, I realized that not only was the title boring, the story was less than interesting. I went out to a nice brunch with my friend and alpha reader Les and his wife, and we talked about what I wanted to do with the story and how the whole thing was really about artificial intelligence and the prospect of creating a singularity in which man and machine were somehow united.

But I was struggling with a title for the new work.

Les had read the entire first draft and a particular phrase stuck out to him: Forever Yours. It was the name of the AI program that became the protagonist’s singularity. The title immediately struck me, not only as a good summary, but also as a guiding light as I re-wrote the novel.

Forever Yours is available as an eBook at ZBookStore. The Signature Edition paperback is available at my own Ingram Spark bookstore.

My newest work, Forever Yours, is now in pre-release on ZBookStore and will be released on Sunday! I know it's been a wait, but I wanted to make sure all edits had been reviewed before I pulled the trigger.

Artificial Intelligence programming prodigy Henry Pascal pulls three other friends with him to create a new company with $billion prospects. Getting through jealousies, college, loves, virtual and physical attacks, takeover challenges, and family life, Henry succeeds in creating a singularity AI--one that can contain all the data from one's life. But how will it be used?

Is this science fiction? Certainly, it is speculative, but the reality of artificial intelligence and the impending singularity are so near, that part may not be fiction much longer. It is not a case of if we get there, but how and how soon?

Is this erotica? If your only definition of erotica is whether the book has sex scenes, then yes. If that's why you choose to read it, you will be disappointed.
Ray Kurzweil's book "The Singularity Is Near" was influential in conceiving of this work.

Enjoy!