Journey of a Falcon Cover Reveal

Who’s excited to finally meet Alex and get all the answers for the outstanding question left from Journey of a Butterfly?

Journey of a Falcon is coming on the 5th of January!

What to expect?
✔️Secrets
✔️Confrontations
✔️More drama & gossip
✔️Even more dancing

Blurb:

He got away with one secret. But this one can cost him all.

All Alex ever wanted was to be a normal teenager: to quit…

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Don’t Sleep on Indie Publishers

Nothing feels better than holding a finished manuscript in your hand other than seeing it on a bookshelf. And I’m here to tell you there are alternatives to traditional publishing you may want to check out. #writingcommunity #indiepublishing #books

Nothing feels better than holding a finished manuscript in your hand…or on your computer. You feel accomplished, like your life has purpose, and then you remember that no one will ever see your hard work unless it’s published. You try the traditional route or even query agents trying to convince them why your book is so special. You spend hours tirelessly scouring the internet for tips on how to…

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Background

A group of Twitter users most notorious for driving the Santino Hassell debacle have kept active in the wank-realm of publishing. After #CopyPasteKris erupted, there’s been many discussions among industry members over Amazon’s different methods of selling books. One such discussion drew the attention of the Santino Hassell group.

Setting

Nick Mamatas, a Very Online tweeter and author, posted a negative reaction towards “20booksto50k,” a group that promotes writing 20 books in a year and netting 50,000 dollars (and, apparently supported cockygate’s, Faleena Thompkins).

Tanya Chris, a romance author, responds with her opinion.

A debate of Kindle Unlimited’s merits follows, with Nick Mamatas using abrasive language to forward his points. He is against KU while Tanya is forKU.

A brief break down of Kindle Unlimited: Authors agree to exclusively offering their work for Amazon’s subscription service and receive a certain amount of money with each page of their book read after the reader has passed a certain marker. Research has shown that Amazon’s monopoly on book selling has driven down author income.

Time For Quote Tweets

Mamatas then quote tweets Tanya Chris, which is when third author MK joins the discussion.

Their discussion, while heated, has no markers of trolling. They continue the debate over Kindle Unlimited.

But, this is when things really start to get interesting.

Catalyst

Let’s break this tweet down:

1. Kindle Unlimited users pay a base rate to read an unlimited amount of books.

2. Authors are paid per page view BUT how much they’re paid per page changes month to month based on Amazon’s ‘global fund’

3. MK doesn’t like this.

At this point, the conversation branches out in several directions, and new players (well, old to those who pay attention) join in. At the point of this post being written, all tweets are still available. However, here we’re going to focus on a core group of tweeters.

Angela reads books and tweets. She first appears in this discussion about publishing between authors by asking MK where her books can be found on Goodreads. She was also a primary member of Santino Hassell’s exposure and takedown.

When MK does not respond, Angela continues by tagging MK’s literary agent.

Others from Angela’s sphere join, including Samantha Derr — a co-owner of Less Than Three Press.

(Side-note: typically, in the publishing industry, authors are paid once for an anthology and don’t have immediate control over where they are published.)

More Quote Tweeting

Concurrently, Angela is also having a quote tweet conversation with Nick Mamatas.

As seen above, Angela replies with a screenshot of Nick’s book on Goodreads. Nick replies by encouraging Angela to go leave a review:

Here, readers, is where we face an interesting response from Angela. Let’s break it down.

1. She informs Nick that Goodreads shelves are not reviews

2. She declares she has a right to do so

The conversation drags on a bit, but there are some fascinating moments. Most interestingly, Angela starts introducing some new accusations against Nick Mamatas.

Accusation: Nick Mamatas is trying to get his followers to attack Angela.

Accusation: Declares Nick called her a troll for disagreeing with him. [This claim can be proven false by reviewing previous tweets.] However, Mamatas participates in some trolling of his own by saying “homophobe” to a gif Angela sent that said “butthurt.”

Accusation:Veiled, but has the implication that Mamatas is misogynistic.

Well, then.

As seen above, Angela uses the hallmark techniques of trolls— misdirection, weird accusations, and ignoring actual responses.

To recap: Mamatas, Tanya Chris, and MK were discussing the merits of Kindle Unlimited from the perspective of authors. Yes, the language was abrasive. But it was not abusive.

Angela tried to introduce real world harm to MK by tagging her agent and stated it was to ‘show him how she treats her peers.’

Below is Nick’s final quote tweet because Angela did not respond.

(And, we might add, where Angela introduced another accusation, this time implying harassment of a woman of color.)

Perhaps she found him a harder target than she could have predicted? Mamata appeared hard to fluster and rattle, so there may have come a point when the effort felt wasted.

However, her conversation with MK produced much more satisfying dividends.

Back in the Ring

To put it bluntly, the “conversation” between MK and Angela devolved almost immediately. A sampling:

Winding Down

Of note - Angela’s group of twitter friends started tweeting at MK. One example:

Finally Angela bows out with this note:

Addendum

The crew lobbed a second volley at Nick Mamatas after the writing of this post. More trolling tactics were used, including muddying the timeline of events and portraying Nick’s responses to their tweets as harassment.

To expand further: They provoke people and then blame and mock them for responding.

Angela and her friends push to make the reader a “protected class” while the author is the villain. If an author voices dissatisfaction with how KU operates, it’s an attack on readers and not a stand for valuing their work higher than what Amazon dictates.

As of now, multiple individuals in Angela’s sphere have locked down their Twitter accounts. Is this the calm before a storm?

It’s here!!

HYP are the proud publishers of The Resilience of Being, an Anthology of short stories edited by @e.willingham

Grab yourself a copy on Amazon! You won’t regret it!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1916491618/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1597958002&sr=8-3

#anthology #publishing #bodypositivityart

Watch “INTERLUDE: Interview with Selfies Award-Winner (Adult Fiction) - Ivan D Wainewright” on YouTube

Guuuuuuuys. Guys, the print version of Sisters of the Moon is NOW AVAILABLE! Eeeeeee!!

Find it here if you, too, can’t stop staring deep into that cover art:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08YQM3VLP/ref=cm_sw_r_em_api_glt_fabc_YKSKRWC5SVKG3A0SQ4NW

Sisters of the Moon: Burkhart, Molly: 9798721624599: Amazon.com: Books

Guys, guess what!!

Yup, the book is LIVE! Currently ebook only (waiting for the awesome cover lady to finish the wrap), but if that’s your thing, clickety click!

https://books2read.com/sistermoon

Available now at your favorite digital store!

I hope hope HOPE you guys enjoy if you do read. I miss presenting you with fic!!

I had an incredible MCM Comic Con London, thank you to everyone who bought my latest books! I’ve now listed lots of options/bundles from The Chronicles Of Ciel on my Ko-Fi shop, collect them all!

Visit Sonia Leong’s Ko-fi Shop!

It’s finally here!!! A Spell Of Scarlet is in print! Look out for it this weekend at the Sweatdrop Studios stand near Artists Alley at MCM Comic Con London ❤️

“Rua remains Queen’s Champion for as long as she deems us worthy enough to serve… and so far, we’ve all been sensible enough not to piss her off.”

~Queen Éilís, ‘A Spell Of Scarlet’ by Sonia Leong

Rua’s queen is a hardened battle axe of a woman! Shown here performing her royal duty of dragonslaying!

Ah, the book is sooo close, they’re supposed to arrive from the printers tomorrow aaaaa HYPE

Buy from the Sweatdrop stand near Artists Alley at MCM Comic Con London this weekend or from my Ko-fi shop!

The Spectrum Of Scarlet artbook is here! 40 pages of colourful goodness~ £10 or less with discounts if bought with other titles from The Chronicles of Ciel series! Available from the Sweatdrop Studios stand at MCM London Comic Con this weekend!

(or buy online from my Ko-fi shop, www.ko-fi.com/sonialeong/shop)

“Don’t make me pull my knife on you again.”

-Rua, ‘A Spell Of Scarlet’ by Sonia Leong

Her lying, cheating, gambling ex-boyfriend shows up in this book… And she is not pleased.

Pre-order from my Ko-fi shop (dispatch 31 May) or buy at MCM Comic Con London 27-29 May!

‘He’s so young, so pure. No woman in the world is worthy of him.’

-Rua, A Spell Of Scarlet

Poor Rua is so full of self-loathing she doesn’t know how to give in to her feelings and let him in

A Spell Of Scarlet is out next week! Pre-order from my Ko-fi shop for delivery end of May or buy at MCM Comic Con London 27-29 May

“I will not love you any less for being yourself, Rua.”

~Silas, A Spell Of Scarlet

Now that I’ve sent the book to print, I’m gonna hype my Chronicles Of Ciel series by highlighting some art/text ❤️ Out next week!

A Spell Of Scarlet: the printer proofs came and they are ✨CRISPY✨ You can still preorder them from my Ko-fi Shop for dispatch end of May or come see the Sweatdrop Studios stand at MCM Comic Con London 27-29 May to buy the book!!!

This is the last week to get the Early Bird Discount on pre-orders of A Spell Of Scarlet and its bundles! Go to my Ko-Fi shop to get your orders in now if you want a bargain :) Some pages shown here to tempt you…

Visit Sonia Leong’s Ko-fi Shop!

Perfection Goblins

So I was going through a manuscript today…previously published. I am oddly confident in what I publish. I am aware that every book – even the ones published by the big publishers – often still have typos and other minor issues. There was only 2 minor typos. I was quite impressed. Now that being said…I wonder how many times I have missed errors. I employ a multiple eyes on a project policy. This…

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