Cover Reveal: Adamant (Alliance, #1) by Emma L. Adams

It's finally time to reveal the cover of my first self-published novel, Adamant! It's no secret that I love this series, and I was so thrilled when Amy (who designed my Darkworld book covers) agreed to help me with the covers. And the result...

*drum roll*

*squeeee*




I love it so much I can't even find words. So I'll just post the blurb:

On an alternative 21st-century Earth in which our world is one of many in the Multiverse, the Inter-World Alliance exists to keep the peace between the worlds, and keep the monsters out.

Ada Fletcher is twenty-one, keeps a collection of knives in her room, and is more interested in fighting than her day job as a cashier. She also risks her life on a daily basis, helping refugees from a devastating magical war on her homeworld hide on the low-magic Earth. But when she’s taken into custody by the Alliance, her unusual magic makes her a prime suspect for a supervisor’s suspicious death.

For Kay Walker, whose family founded the organization, there has never been any doubt that his future is with the Alliance – even if it means dealing with sarcastic centaurs and dangerous monsters in the dark Passages between worlds. But when his supervisor is murdered, Kay discovers that a research project might have been the reason, and faces the choice of whether to ignore his instincts or risk becoming the next target, not to mention digging into the Alliance’s history and memories he’d rather keep buried. And there’s something not quite right about the strange, fierce girl he arrested as a suspect.

The last thing Ada wants is to help the infuriating Alliance guard who arrested her, but it soon becomes clear that the Alliance knows too much about Ada’s offworld origins. More, in fact, than she knows herself. Now she has to choose between loyalty to her family, and helping the Alliance save the Earth – and the Multiverse – from a deadly enemy.

I'm so stoked to share the Alliance series! You can pre-order Adamant right now, and it'll be delivered to your e-reader on the 11th March!

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There's also a giveaway! Thank you to Lola at Lola's Blog Tours for organising the cover reveal and promo! :)

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Some tips for planning a series!

When planning my latest series, I noticed that there were very few blog posts on the subject, so after several people asked me to write one, I thought it couldn’t hurt to write about my process.

When I get an idea for a new book, I like to decide fairly early on whether it’ll be a series or a standalone. I’ve only ever written one standalone (a YA fantasy) - I’m naturally drawn to big, world-spanning ideas which would take several books to do justice to. But sometimes when reading a series, I get the sense that it’s being dragged out too much, and that fewer books would mean a tighter, better story. People talk about “middle book syndrome” (usually when discussing trilogies) and I think that can happen when an author tries to stretch a story too far, resulting in filler and a slow pace. To avoid this, I try to plan in advance.

Firstly, there are two types of series. One is effectively one long story broken into smaller sections which are, usually, complete stories in themselves (the Harry Potter series comes to mind) and are intended to be read in one order. And the other is a series of interconnected self-contained stories set in the same world (a famous example is the Sherlock Holmes series) which can be read in any order. I write the first kind of series, where each book builds on the last, until it comes to a natural end-point. Some writers expand their books into longer series when fans demand it, others write the first book and figure the rest out later. But as an outliner, I always want to figure out as early as possible how long a series will take to complete. It depends on the following:

1. Overarching idea. If it’s a big, world-spanning idea, I need to figure out how many books it will naturally take to resolve the overall plot. From the beginning, I knew the Alliance series would be at least five or six books because of the nature of the plot: it’s big. There are several entire worlds involved, and various conspiracies, conflicts and earth-shattering - possibly literally ;) - secrets.

2. Characters. The central characters need to be strong enough to carry the series over the course of more than one story and to undergo believable development.

3. Genre, to some extent. Certain genres, especially sci-fi and fantasy, are more likely to be part of a series because they are often - but not always - based on big ideas. If you’ve created an expansive world packed with exciting conflict, wrapping it up in one book can be a challenge. On the other hand, romance novels are more likely to be standalones. The danger of dragging out a romance in a series is that obstacles can start to feel contrived. (On the other hand, I’ve noticed quite a few romance authors having success with the second type of series, where each book is focused on a different couple but set in the same “story world” as the others.)

So, here are some of my tips for planning and writing a series.

1. Give each book its own storyline. Many readers hate cliffhangers, especially if they picked up the book without realising it was part of a series. It’s fine not to resolve everything in the first book, but I try to create one major problem to solve per book, and then have some other, bigger conflicts to leave hanging in the background until it’s their time to come forward. A lot of authors use this method - again, the Harry Potter series is a great example. In the first book, the conflict revolves around the Philosopher’s Stone and is solved by the end. But the ultimate series goal - defeating Voldemort - doesn’t fully come into play until later in the series. As each book is a complete, satisfying story, readers don’t feel cheated or impatient. This is a great lesson to learn.

2. Raise the stakes with each book. One danger is repetitiveness, so to avoid this, I try to plan so that each story’s conflict builds on the previous ones. This is really tricky, I admit. But think of the series as one big story, with its own three acts, and plan accordingly. The first act is setup. The second builds the conflict, and the third is the climax. The first book in a series has its own major conflict which is resolved by the end, but it's also an introduction to the series as a whole. The second ups the stakes, introduces more of the world, sometimes new characters and settings. And in a trilogy, the third is where the climax begins and the stakes are sky-high. Managing the timing over a longer series can be a challenge, but you can still use the three-act structure as a guide.  This blog post is a great help. I also used this post on planning character arcs across a series. And to write a synopsis, this post is a lifesaver!

For the actual planning, a lot depends on your own writing method. Even if you're a panster, I definitely recommend writing down certain things like character appearances and the "rules" of your story's world (if you're writing fantasy) - trust me, you'll need them later on. Personally, I'd recommend a series notebook, or a document in Scrivener, which I use to plan all my books now. I create separate folders for each book, and others for characters, settings, and a "series bible" with the rules on magic and the various worldbuilding areas.

I outline based on the snowflake method, where I'll start with a one-sentence summary for each book, centred on the main conflict. Like I said, I want the stakes to get higher with each volume, so by figuring out what the conflict actually is, before anything else, I can hopefully avoid issues later down the line. There'll always be one huge conflict happening either in the background or even in plain sight, which will take the whole series to resolve. Each book then needs a smaller dilemma. With the Alliance series, Adamant starts with a murder (which then escalates into something bigger). The second book involves a more high-profile killing (which again escalates), and the third involves the fate of an entire world. And so on. 

I then write a paragraph-long summary for each book. For each main character, I also write down their goal, motivation, flaw and conflict, in each book, and then a one-paragraph summary. Now I've written more than one series, I know I have a habit of wandering off-outline, but the one thing that stays the same is the main character's arc. An excellent resource for planning a novel/series based on the main character's flaw is Libbie Hawker's book,  Take Off Your Pants: Outline Your Books for Faster, Better Writing. By keeping the main character's journey at the centre, I find it easier to work out what direction the story will take even if it ends up looking very different to the original outline.

Then I write a synopsis for each book, which I expand into an outline. I don't plot every single detail, and I like to leave space in case the characters take the story in directions I didn't expect. Sometimes things just naturally come together as I'm writing, so I make a note of them in the Scrivener file and carry on. Obviously, this is only one way of doing things. I sometimes just write short synopses for sequels before drafting the first book, and expand them into outlines later. With the Alliance series, I've been revisiting my outlines after I complete each book and adapting them to fit with any changes I've made. I always do this while drafting, which is why I consider myself a "plotser" - I know the main pieces of the plot and the key background information, but not every single scene, and sometimes my characters surprise me. 

I also like to draft series books back-to-back if I can (as I'm doing with my Alliance series) in order to minimise inconsistencies and make sure the foreshadowing works. But this is because I'm self-publishing. If I was querying the first book, I'd then move on to a new project, because the first book might not sell (I've made this mistake before, spending a year drafting the sequel to the first book I queried, before I realised the whole series was deeply flawed). On the other hand, it can be an advantage to have synopses for the other books in the series ready if your agent or publisher asks for them. And, of course, it can be hard to leave your characters behind once you've finished the first book. Ultimately, it's up to you as the writer.

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Why I decided to self-publish the Alliance Series

Adamant was my fifteenth drafted novel. Of the other fourteen, only the Darkworld series (five books total) is under contract with a publisher. I’ve queried four of the other novels and shelved three. I’ve been writing novels for over ten years, and until 2012, I always dreamed of an agent and a traditional publishing deal. Then, after two years of rejections, three shelved projects, and making about every newbie error possible, I wrote Darkness Watching, an upper-YA urban fantasy/paranormal novel. It was a story I wanted to tell, and really wanted to publish. I was a student and didn’t have the time or money to commit to self-publishing, but nobody was buying paranormal or urban fantasy… except small presses. So I queried a select group of indie publishers, and I was offered a contract with Curiosity Quills in February 2013. Happily, CQ have been brilliant to work with and have offered contracts for the other four books in my series.

Yet I’ve still never had interest from an agent, and subjectivity seems to be the major cause - all the agent feedback I've had in the past two years has been positive, and always comes back to "I just didn't love it". Understandably, agents really have to love a book to take a chance on it. But with six publishing contracts in hand, glowing feedback from professionals, and still not so much as a single full request, I did find myself questioning why I invested countless hours in researching agencies and crafting query letters and yet I seemed no closer to achieving my goal, four years and fourteen manuscripts after I started querying.

At heart, I’m a control-freak, as far as my career is concerned. I’ve never been entirely comfortable with the idea that subjective outside opinions have the power to decide my entire career. What would happen if I never wrote a book which an agent connected with? Or if they liked one book, but nothing else that I wrote? Or if I wrote a series and then the publisher cancelled it at the second or third book? (All things that, sad to say, I’ve seen happen more than once over the past few years.) I don't write in popular genres, I write weird fantasy and sci-fi. People have commented on the originality of my plots and the worlds I create in my books... but that doesn't make a bestseller.

Writing is how I make sense of the world. It makes me feel like I’m in control – and for someone with anxiety and OCD, that’s pretty important. The submissions process takes that away. And while getting a traditional deal would undeniably be worth it, I reached the point this summer where it was starting to mess with my productivity to know that I was spending months drafting, revising, and editing each project, only for it to be taken out of my hands and indefinitely put on hold. My inbox was becoming one huge anxiety trigger, and it was completely distracting me from making any progress. Subjectivity is a fact of the business for writers at all stages of the journey, but the idea of spending another year writing, editing and shelving projects in the hope that one of them might, someday, lead to a “yes”, just felt too much like placing my future in a lottery. There’s never been any question that I want writing to be my career. I’ve treated writing as a job since I was fourteen, and now have three books published and three more under contract. I'm more than happy to make compromises and I totally understand the traditional publishing process - but I also understand that in the current age of publishing, writers have other options, and need not commit to one path for life.

I’ve thought long and hard about self-publishing, as I know the worst mistake to make is to publish too soon. After I finished the Darkworld series, I moved onto YA and MG projects that I felt were more suited for traditional publishing, but I kept the option at the back of  my mind. So I waited, researching the process, and kept querying. I thought my middle-grade fantasy adventure, The Clockmaker's Key, might be the one to land me an agent, and my critique partners and beta readers agreed. After I'd polished it to the best of my ability, honed my query letter and synopsis and formed a carefully-targeted list of agents, I began querying in August. I'd had an idea for a new Multiverse series that had been bugging me for months, and I decided to make it my "sanity project". 

When I'd finished planning the Alliance series, I was left with a dilemma. I could carry on querying, but if no one wanted my quirky MG fantasy, which is a genre agents are actually looking for, then the odds weren't great for my adult urban fantasy/sci-fi/Multiverse hybrid. And I thought: this is it. I didn’t want to put this new series through the long progress of hope and disappointment until I lost all connection with it. I loved this series, and I wanted to publish it. Self-publishing was still a leap into the dark, because if my work didn't appeal to agents, it was entirely possible it wouldn't appeal to readers, either. Yet people responded positively to the concept, and I've absolutely loved interacting with readers who've enjoyed the Darkworld series. And ultimately, reader feedback means more to me than near-miss rejections.

So I planned the series with the conviction that I’d be able to finish and publish all six books, whatever happened in publishing. I want to have fun with it, and I wanted to take back that control. I felt totally empowered to give it my absolute best effort, with none of the crippling self-doubt and confidence issues that plagued every other project I’ve worked on since finishing the Darkworld series. I threw myself headlong into the story, and I feel like it’s one of the best things I’ve ever written.

And I’m publishing it. This year.

Of course, the rest of the Darkworld series is under contract with Curiosity Quills, and I have several other projects completed, too. And I’m not ruling out traditional publishing, not at all - in fact, if I hadn't invested so much time into this project, I'd still be querying. I write middle-grade books as well as YA and adult, and I know I’d only be able to fully reach my audience if I published through a mainstream publisher. But my YA and adult novels don’t have that handicap. The truth is, it’s difficult for writers, traditionally-published or otherwise, to make a living at this business. And at this point, I’m ready to make the jump into self-publishing. Ultimately, I want to share my stories. I’m enough of a workaholic, hyper-organised control-freak to want to be in control of the process with this series, and I’m a hundred percent committed to putting out the absolute best work I can. Once I was certain of all these things, the decision was easy to make. I’m excited to join the indie team! ^_^

Resources I recommend for writers interested in self-publishing.

http://www.susankayequinn.com/p/for-writers.html

http://www.lindsayburoker.com/

http://www.thecreativepenn.com/

Let’s Get Visible - David Gaughran

Indie Author Survival Guide – Susan Kaye Quinn

Let’s Get Digital – David Gaughran

Write. Publish. Repeat – Sean Platt & Johnny B. Truant

How to Market a Book – Joanna Penn

The last three are available in a collection, The Indie Author Power Pack: How to Write, Publish & Market Your Book, which was only 77p (99 cents) on Kindle when I bought it – a bargain!


Look out for some more blog posts from me in the next few months, on planning a series, the self-publishing process, and my new writing process as an indie author!