C h a z z W r i t e s . c o m

See all my books at AllThatChazz.com.

03/27/2012 • 9:18 AM 0

What Is a Literary Novel? | Jane Friedman

Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction

Does this book qualify as "literary" fiction? I don't know.

I reject the distinction many people make between literary writing and fiction. I think good writing is good writing.

Is literary fiction a different genre? Perhaps, but since all good fiction has depth, style and character and can be intellectual, the boundaries are fuzzy. Still, the arguments people make for those distinctions are no less interesting.

Maybe the literary novel is like pornography: undefinable but you recognize it when you see it. I don’t necessarily recognize it, though. Is my book Self-help for Stoners literary fiction? It has all the elements listed in the link, but I really don’t know. I just call it suspense. If you figure out if Self-help for Stoners is “literary” or not, please email me. I’d love to know! Click Jane Friedman’s link below to see if you can puzzle it out. ~ Chazz

Via janefriedman.com

Filed under: publishing, book, fiction, jane friedman, Literary fiction, Literature, Sex Death & Mind Control

03/07/2012 • 9:27 AM 1

The Writing World: Author Interview- Robert Chazz Chute

Via Scoop.it – Devolution

This was a big bucket of fun. RaeBeth McGee over at The Writing World interviews me on my weaknesses (carefully hidden), my books (mostly obscure but gaining ground) and the bodies (corporate and otherwise) strewn behind me.

Fun interviews are one of the perks of this job. I love having fun with author interviews. Click the link to The Writing World and have a laugh. ~ Chazz
Via raebethmcgeeswriting.blogspot.com

Podcast: The Death By Fire Edition (allthatchazz.com)
Hot Sweaty Hottie Motivation (allthatchazz.com)

Filed under: All That Chazz, Author profiles, Books, publishing, Useful writing links, What about Chazz?, What about you?, Writers, writing tips, Author, author interview, fiction, jokes, publishing, raebeth mcgee, Robert Chazz Chute, self-publishing, suspense, the writing world, Writers Resources

03/05/2012 • 9:49 PM 0

Between Fact and Fiction: 10 Things I Wish I Would Have Done Differently

Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction

(Natalie Whipple of Between Fact & Fiction details 10 things she wishes she had done differently on her publishing journey. Good tips here and a good blog. Check it out. ~ Chazz)
Via betweenfactandfiction.blogspot.com

PayPal cracks down on erotica e-book sales | TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics (chazzwrites.com)

Filed under: authors, publishing, Useful writing links, writing tips, Arts, between fact & fiction, fiction, natalie Whipple, publishing, Writers Resources, writing

03/05/2012 • 1:12 PM 1

Scrivener: 3 Reasons You Should Use It For Your Book

Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction

(I just started using Scrivener for a new book. The learning curve was a bit steep at first, but I’m starting to like it now that I’m getting used to it. The Video Tutorials help, though Joanna references a manual in this article, too. ~ Chazz)
I used Scrivener for my latest book, Prophecy.
Via www.thecreativepenn.com

Scrivener Complicated but Worth the Effort (everythingscrivener.wordpress.com)
Playing Around With Scrivener (everythingscrivener.wordpress.com)
I have discovered Scrivener (everythingscrivener.wordpress.com)
How to Export to an E-Book Using Scrivener (everythingscrivener.wordpress.com)
Book Review: Writing a Novel with Scrivener by David Hewson (laydilejur.com)

Filed under: ebooks, publishing, scriptwriting, self-publishing, writing tips, ebooks, epub, fiction, formatting, Literature, mobi, Scrivener, Writers Resources, writing

02/27/2012 • 6:16 PM 0

Two Legs Bad: An Open Letter to Mark Coker | Remittance Girl : Erotic Fiction, Stories and Series

Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction

This post is a public response to an email sent by Mark Coker, founder of Smashwords, asking all erotic writers to take down any books that contravene their…
Via remittancegirl.com

PayPal cracks down on erotica e-book sales | TeleRead: News and views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics (chazzwrites.com)
Smashwords, erotica and Paypal (gillyfraser.wordpress.com)
Speak up against PayPal’s censorship (sherihart.com)
The Censorgasm (jswayne.wordpress.com)
PayPal As Moral Police? Forces E-Book Sellers To Remove Certain Erotica Content (techcrunch.com)

Filed under: censors, censorship, publishing, self-publishing, Useful writing links, censors, censorship, erotica, fiction, Mark Coker, PayPal, porn, publishing, Smashwords, Writers Resources

02/25/2012 • 3:26 PM 4

Ebook sales are being driven by downmarket genre fiction

Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction

Somebody’s going to find this piece insulting even if it’s right. Especially if it’s right. My favorite quote from this piece from the Guardian is, “The reading public in private is lazy and smutty.” This article does raise the question, “Am I busting my brains too hard writing a literary apocalyptic novel from the point of view of an autistic child with a fondness for Latin phrases?” Or should I relax my literary aspirations and ape The Road Warrior instead? Doesn’t matter this time. I’m already in love with my book and it’s almost done. But how much should we consider the market before we start out? I mean, baby’s gotta eat, too. Click the Scoopit! link below to check out the Guardian piece and let the outrage mixed withplacid agreement commence.~ Chazz
Via www.guardian.co.uk

Genre fiction makes the e-world go ’round (teleread.com)

Filed under: publishing, self-publishing, Amazon Kindle, Arts, downmarket books, E-book, erotica, fiction, genre, Genre fiction, Guardian, Literature, Print culture, publishing, smut

02/01/2012 • 12:08 PM 0

Plots and Plans: The great ebook giveaway & other book marketing thoughts

I promised a follow-up report on the Corrective Measures giveaway. After two weeks, 113 people downloaded the free short story about the serial killer who wants to kill someone over a parking space dispute. I received a

CLICK HERE TO CHECK IT OUT

couple of nice reviews immediately and I’m hoping for more when people get around to it soon. The upshot of the gift giving is, I don’t know how well it did yet. People kindly took me up on the offer, but who knows how long it will take them to get around to reading and reviewing it? The toughest thing has got to be getting reviews. Several people have told me how happy they were with my work and that they intend to write reviews. However, they have lives, too, and I can only hope they’ll get to it. Soonish.

So what’s the next step? Patience and see what happens with Corrective Measures. It’s now for sale at the same price as all the other short stories (a colossal 99 cents!)

But that’s just one thing. I’ve got lots of egg baskets. Tomorrow, another brick in the marketing campaign for Self-help for Stoners hits and next week I’ll be running an ad on Smodcast Internet Radio that ties in with said brick. I’m also planning for another ad (on a different podcast) for Sex, Death & Mind Control (for fun and profit). My podcast is up every week, as well, reaching people I wouldn’t ordinarily meet. Yesterday I fired off a pdf of The Dangerous Kind for a book blogger to review.

I think there is one area I need to focus upon: Send out more review copies to book reviewers.

Most important? Get on with the next book. I’m aiming for April 20 for the release of my novel; think Incredible Journey meets autistic boy’s family in the post-apocalypse. It’s called This Plague of Days and it is a very ambitious story. Stay tuned.

FOR MORE SCARY THOUGHTS ON FREEBIE BOOK PROMOTION,

READ THE VANDAL HERE.

And now…back to work.

~ I am Robert Chazz Chute, author of Self-help for Stoners, the bathroom book of suspense, packed with points and punches. It’s not what you think it is: you don’t have to be a stoner to love it. (Check a sample here.) Sex, Death & Mind Control is a dark short story collection that includes a couple of award winners; try the magical realism express. The Dangerous Kind is a suspenseful novella packed with edgy family dynamics and small-town claustrophobia. I write from experience. My home town fit me like a fat kid fits in a sandpaper leotard. (Came up with that simile in a writers’ forum this morning. Weird images make me chuckle.)

Maxwell Cynn: A Life Changing Event – Leukemia (chazzwrites.com)
Self-help for Stoners: The Mind Bend Edition (allthatchazz.com)
The ebook marketing experiment (chazzwrites.com)
Book Marketing: What I didn’t know about resistance to ebooks (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
The 99 cent ebook sale (allthatchazz.com)
The ebook pricing and gifting experiment (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
The Jesus Harold Christ Edition (allthatchazz.com)

Filed under: podcasts, Publicity & Promotion, publishing, reviews, self-publishing, What about Chazz?, What about you?, book marketing, book promotion, book reviewers, Corrective Measures, fiction, Internet radio, marketing strategies, plots and plans, Robert Chazz Chute, short story, Stoners

12/27/2011 • 12:27 AM 1

A Series is Born: Free ebook and Parting Shots, a new short story

Have you taken advantage of the COUPON CODE at my Goodreads blog yet? Get Asia Unbound for free! The coupon expires Jan 1.

At the risk of sounding like an infomercial, but wait there’s more! The new short story, Parting Shots is what happens the morning after the events that occurred in Asia Unbound. The stories are complete and can stand alone, or read both to discover the weave. Parting Shots is available at my Smashwords page.

In Parting Shots, Marcus in the Morning gets into an argument about God and the nature of the universe,

proving that sometimes when you win, you lose.

Poeticule Bay, Maine is a mix of towns I grew up in on the east coast. Think Stephen King minus the fun clown in It and you have the flavor of my childhood. The small-town claustrophobia and dark family dynamics kept showing up in my fiction so much, I had to succumb to the call and admit escape, redemption, sacrifice and the twisted and twisty were recurring themes. There’s no sense fighting the muse. I look forward to writing many books that will take place in my favorite foggy inlet tucked away from the world. Even though it’s tucked away, Poeticule Bay is not immune from the world’s ills. Instead, its small size amplifies the darkness in a microcosm. Check out the books now and you’ll see the evolution behind the suspense series.

The Poeticule Bay stories evolved organically, so some characters recur across the Fictionscape. The novelette, The Dangerous Kind, all takes place in Poeticule Bay. Asia in Asia Unbound was born years ago in my imagination. However, an incarnation of that character, Legs Gabrielle, returns to Poeticule Bay to confront her past in Self-help for Stoners. If you’ve read the short story Context, at the end of Self-help for Stoners, you might have picked up on the clue that the alcoholic cop is Asia’s uncle in Asia Unbound. I’m working on a Poeticule Bay novel that brings back several characters from these stories: Sheriff Rose, Joey and Jason (from The Dangerous Kind). Legs Gabrielle from Self-help for Stoners is the main character in the novel. (More on that later.)

Please check out all the books through the Smashwords link above.

But Chazz! I only read paper books! Sure! Check out the Self-help for Stoners paperback here.

I hope you enjoy them all. Happy Boxing Week!

My new short story: Asia Unbound (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
I just received my first review on Goodreads! And it’s a good’un! (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Don’t we all draw on childhood trauma for our fiction? (allthatchazz.com)
Book Marketing: What I didn’t know about resistance to ebooks (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Self-help for Stoners is now available on Stitcher (plus the Christmas message of hope and gooeyness) (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Sex Alert! It’s here to take you away (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
The downside of cheap ebooks (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)

Filed under: All That Chazz, Books, ebooks, getting it done, self-publishing, What about Chazz?, fiction, genre, My fiction, origins, short stories

10/06/2011 • 9:48 AM 0

Common Errors in Fiction Manuacripts

Lorina Stephens breaks it down for you with a concise list of what to look out for. (By the way, did you catch the error in the title above? Wink!)

Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction
Common Errors in Fiction Manuscripts In varying degrees I’ve previously written how to prepare a manuscript for submission to Five Rivers.
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Is your fiction “just made up”? (chazzwrites.wordpress.com)
Don’t we all draw on childhood trauma for our fiction? (allthatchazz.com)

Filed under: publishing, writing tips, common errors, common mistakes, fiction, writer, Writer Resources

09/25/2011 • 10:04 PM 0

Curiosity Quills Interviews Polly Courtney | Curiosity Quills

Polly Courtney was the author who dumped her publisher at the book launch. Now that she’s telling her side of the story, the plot sickens. Check it out. ~ Chazz

Via Scoop.it – Writing and reading fiction

So, you’ve finished the backbreaking work of writing, polishing, and packaging your novel for release.
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