Category: Inside Evil

Self Publishing – Providing the Crucial Bait

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Today I was told that I had Anne Rice Syndrome. This is a very nice way of telling me that I’m doing something wrong. Anne Rice, the award winning author behind titles such as Interview with a Vampire and The Witching Hour is known for her long descriptive passages, causing readers to skip portions of the book. This is all very well for a well known author who’s work spreads by word of mouth and who doesn’t necessarily need that first paragraph hook. For me, however, changes need to be made to grip the reader immediately, rather than first setting the scene.

I’ve known that the first few pages of Inside Evil go to set the scene rather than jumping into the story. I’m no Tolkien, so I don’t spend 100 pages describing what Bilbo had for dinner, but the first 3/4 pages do set the scene of the craggy landscape where Ridgewood is set. If I were a well known author with lots of five star reviews, then yes, people would probably pick up, buy and read. However, i’m not, so a lack of instant appeal may cause readers to pass me by.

Ebooks, I feel, have a lot to do with this. As does Amazon’s Look Inside feature. Traditionally, if you bought a book, then you’d sit and read and indulge in descriptions. Certainly, I love that sort of written passage. However, with readers zapping through Amazon’s Look Inside feature and making decisions within paragraphs and pages, that instant grab factor has become vital.

So, what does it mean for me? My well meaning critique applauded my writing but suggested a first chapter rework so that readers are grabbed straight away. I’m considering it. I had hoped that the quality of writing would prevail and readers would become drawn into my described world. Perhaps i was wrong. I may attempt a rework, and then compare purchases to see if that first line hook is crucial in the long run. I will update on my findings!

Writing Goals

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It seems that wherever I look, people are saying that to sell more books you need to write more books. Well, that’s no surprise. However, it is a little daunting for a newly self published author who’s written and released their first book to suddenly be faced with having to plunge back into the writing process.

I’d always imagined writing more books and sequels, but I had envisioned publishing Inside Evil, promoting and advertising it, and then noting the feedback. This would have helped enormously with future works and indeed the publishing process itself. However, wading my way through blogs and forums, there are many top authors indicating that there is actually little point going into promotion overdrive when you only have one title available. Instead, you should concentrate of your next piece and allow sales to slowly drift up on already published works.

So, with that said, Monday 26th March, 2012, I will start Part II of Inside Evil. My challenge: write 1,000 words a day as a minimum. I envisage that this will allow me to complete the first draft in the next two to three months, and hopefully have the sequel up and running within six months.

I’m actually quite excited. To get away from the editing process and indulge in sheer, pure and unadulterated creativity for a couple of months will be bliss. Sure, I’ll edit as I go along, but not to any huge extent. I want the story to write itself and my mind is already burning with ideas and tales to spin into Roberta’s newest adventure within the strange world of Gathin.

The First Book Sale

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I’ve just done a small leap of excited joy. I got it. That elusive first book sale. I’m over the moon!

I’d never thought about self publishing before. That was, until I read the article with Amanda Hocking on The Guardian website which outlined her supreme success at making it as an e-author. Suddenly, an entire new world came into focus and I realised that the novels which had been languishing in my computer files could actually become something. Yes, they’d need some work, some hard hours and many edits to get them to a stage where I’d be happy to publish them. But, I could publish them, me, myself. I could put them online for everyone to see and reap the rewards and disappointments as they came.

So, in earnest, I set out to complete Inside Evil. A couple of months later and several extreme edits and rewrites, I uploaded to Amazon in less than a huge fanfare. In fact, I’ve been so secretive about my works that I haven’t shared it on Twitter or Facebook…surely a HUGE marketing faux pas. It’s not my fear of being rejected as such, but the fear of friends and family having to go through the motions of pretending to love my work whilst secretly hiding their true feelings. That’s what I truly fear. Releasing works which those who I love actually think are not worth the paper that they’re written on yet cannot say such things to my face. I can cope with strangers hating my work and criticising. From loved ones; that’s a whole other ballgame.

Having done NOTHING in the way of research into self publishing and marketing, I’m brand new at this whole venture. My sister bought the first copy of the book, but, to my delight, I’ve just signed into my account and almost a week to the hour after first uploading, I’ve my first sale. I’ve really done nothing in the way of marketing, other than setting up this blog and though one tiny, little, insignificant sale may seem like nothing, I’m overjoyed.

I’m now an author. I’ve published, I’ve sold. What an incredible feeling. And now I have to strive to continue this feeling for the upwards struggle!

A Monumental Achievement

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I can’t quite believe that I’ve finally managed to release an e-novel. I’ve been a writer for as long as I can remember; even as a child I used to create fantasy stories about families of frogs and invading toads, or little communities of insects living in the garden. I was fascinated with nature, and telling tales of their lives, and this storytelling has stayed with me as an adult. However, writing a full length novel is as monumentally different from a few scraps of paper as a boy as it gets, and it can take an extraordinary time to actually complete such works when trying to fit writing alongside every day life.

I started work on Inside Evil many, many years ago. I felt great pride and relief when I finished it but, upon reading it, realised that I had many errors to fix and stories to change. The edit process became time consuming and I had another spark in my head for an alternate novel. So, off I went writing a science fiction tale, leaving poor Inside Evil languishing in my computer files.

That was, until January 2012 when I suddenly realised that there was an entire e-book market open to me. I dusted Inside Evil off, took the time to rewrite, change, indulge and once again, get into the writing flow. Finally, I’ve completed the process and waded my way through the reams of formatting guidelines laid out by Smashwords and Amazon to upload Inside Evil for the Kindle, Sony Reader, iBook and many other platforms.

Having actually finished the novel in itself is a huge achievement. However, with marketing and sales now to come, the end is far from over.