Category: Novel Writing

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.

Finding Inspiration

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If you read Inside Evil, you’ll often discover that there are some instances of what I like to call ‘nature-love’. Whilst the book may be, at it’s foundation, the story of a woman trying to save her life whilst another copes with the death of her daughter, from time to time my love of nature rears it’s head. Take Elrick, the tiny spider that helps Roberta enter the mysterious world of Gathin. Or the moths that help to offer hope in the darkest of situations . Or even the changing season as the first snow descends on Ridgewood. When I write, I can’t help but to put these touches in.

Many of these elements, whether predetermined or not, are led by my love of the natural world. Away from writing, I’m a landscape gardener and horticultural copywriter. My days are spent either amongst plants and creatures or at my desk writing about plants and creatures. One of the things I’ve discovered is that inspiration often comes to me when I’m away from my desk and ensconced in my latest gardening project, whether I’m digging down on my allotment or visiting a clients garden for some maintenance work. These quiet hours, surrounded by plants and wildlife allow my mind to drift. Sentences form in my mind, and paragraphs of text develop that are put into my WIPs. They are not generally major story changes or milestones, but can often subtlety change the direction of a chapter without me really knowing.

Whilst we’ve all probably encountered writers block, where we sit down to write and nothing flows or sounds right, I find inspiration is everywhere. It’s the actual lumping oneself down in front of a monitor to type that can be the problem. It’s certainly meant that Inside Evil was published years after it was first conceived.

So my question is this…how do you find inspiration? Do you actively look for it, or does it come naturally? Does inspiration come to you as you write, or as a moment of clarity in regular life which suddenly starts your mind whirring, and your fingers desperate to get home and start tapping away?

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!

How do authors write book series?

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I’m often intrigued by the various ways in which people write their book series. Do they write a well received title which they then see has an opportunity to further and make more money? Do they put words to print with sequels always in mind IF a book does well? Or, is a series of books always predefined, with individual novels simply being milestones between a predestined beginning and ending?

Such distinguishing isn’t always needed for all novel series. For example, many crime books are open and shut titles but have one continuing character who solves case after case as the series goes on. However, many series complete an overall story-arc, and it is this that intrigues me.  J.K Rowling always had seven books in mind, whilst the Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley-Robinson were also predetermined. But do others have a set out quota of books before they sit down?

I’ve always found that my own writing process has been rather organic. Both of my WIPs are lengthy, and my start and end goals have always been pre-written into a number of books. I don’t know exactly, to the full-stop, how they will end, but I know the overall tone, setting and character developments which the  books will close with. Other than that, I write each book with milestones to reach and specific moments to include, but a lot is left down to the characters themselves. In Inside Evil, for example, there are several instances where I was shocked at the route which a character took.

However, this organic process does allow for books to lose their way and become rather rambling, so a certain degree of structure needs to be taken; the reigns need to be held. In terms of developing a book sequence, it can soon become apparent in the book writing process, that the drama unfolding will never fit into one epic novel, and that the story needs to be broken down into smaller chunks.

I’m interested to see if other writers find that their book series evolve this way, or whether they write a sole title, note it doing extremely well and decide to pick up their characters where they left off. What works for you? Do your series create themselves, do you sit down with a clear number of novels to write, or have you simply attempted to maximise sales by taking favourite characters and giving them a new situation to play in?

When to Write Again

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Finishing a book is a funny thing. First, there’s utter relief, a sense of pride, the feeling that you’ve finally made it – you’re an author. Then, you look to publish, and whether you go down traditional routes or start off as a self published e-novel author, there’s that desperate hope of hitting the jackpot and making sales. And then, a few days after your book has gone on sale, regardless of how many copies have been bought, there’s that instant need to write again.

Many say that being a writer is like having homework for the rest of your life. Whilst you may procrastinate and find it hard to actually sit down and write, once you’ve finished a story, you’re eager to start another. You can be walking down the street and a certain scene, smell or sound sparks something in your imagination and off you go. I’ve never found that I’ve had to actually sit and think, ‘I want to write, what shall it be about?’. There’s always some idea, some unfinished work, or the possibility of a novel sequel in the offing.

The best time to write again is immediately after you’ve finished your current WIP (Work in Progress). If you’ve been published by an agent, then you may be busy doing readings, looking at artwork or going to constant edit meetings. If you’re self published, then a vast amount of time will be taken up with your own marketing and advertising. But, amongst all of these extras, don’t forget to stop writing. Especially if you’re releasing your first book, then taking the plunge and working on the next novel will help you no end as you’ll be able to offer a catalogue of titles to readers throughout the years. You only need a reader to love one novel, to gain many more sales from your other titles.

So, though Inside Evil may only just be published, I’m already preparing to sit down and start writing again. Will it be to finish my other science fiction novel, or work on a sequel to my début book? Of that, I’m not quite sure yet. But, whilst the marketing process beings, one thing that will help keen me sane is beginning the writing process all over again.

Maximise Your Exposure With E-Novel Self Publishing

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One of the things I’ve very quickly come to discover with releasing an e-novel is that you need maximum exposure. Gone are the days when the niche was in its infancy and a new book appeared on the ‘recently published’ screen for days. Now, with the ease of publishing, you will find that your book very quickly disappears off that first page and is lost amongst a sea of other authors also trying have the words noticed. If you’re waiting to sit back and see the book sales come in, then don’t have high expectations, because the chance of readers actually finding your novel are slim.

One of the best ways to maximise your novel in the first few days of publishing is by spreading across many platforms. Amazon’s Kindle is obviously a leading device in the area of e-novels, and you should look to use it as a number one resource. You should create author pages so that customers can more easily browse your work. Annoyingly,  you’ll need to create an author page for each of Kindle’s markets including .com, .co.uk, .de etc, but it’s well worth the effort. Amazon also have their Kindle Library which offers you the chance the lend your book, for free, to customers whilst taking a cut of a sizeable authors fund. However, if you’re looking for maximum exposure as quickly as possible, I’d suggest not taking this route.

The Amazon Kindle Library (KDP Select) requires you to make your novel exclusive to Amazon for 90 days. In return, you’ll get a cut of the $600,000 author fund in relation to how many times your book is borrowed. However, if you’re not expecting to make a splash with your publication, you very unlikely to get a large cut of the fund.

Instead, it’s worthwhile heading to Smashwords, a website very similar to Amazon in that you can publish your novel there. From here, Smashwords allows you to spread your e-novel to iBooks, the Nook, Sony Reader and multiple other platforms. Royalty rates are high and the spread of your novel is vast. Formatting, whilst slightly different to Amazon, is very easy, especially if you’ve already gone through the process with Amazon, and you can be completed in mere hours.

Rather than publishing only on Amazon and thinking as Smashwords as an additional option, you should look to both platforms as having equal pegging on the priority ladder. And, though you may miss out on KDP Select payments, the opportunity to maximise sales on other platforms is well worth it.

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.

Breaking the ‘Writing-Place’ Myth

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When it comes to finding the perfect writing place, I’m the king of procrastination. ‘I’m not ready to write’, ‘I need to work in a clean environment’, ‘I only write late at night’ are all excuses I’ve used. There’s often a romance that surrounds writing and many people, including myself, have become caught into the idea that an idyllic setting is needed for writing. Sitting in a park on a warm summers day. Sat by the cracking fire and wrapped in a rug. Taking a week off to go to a secluded country cottage simply to write. However, I hate to break this misconception but it’s simply not true.

I remember seeing a documentary with J.K. Rowling. She was putting the last finishing touches to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in a sparse, dull hotel room. No, I kid you not, she wrote the Harry Potter novels not in some ancient Scottish castle with dancing fire and romanticised candles, but in plain old ordinary settings.

Really, the key to writing is to just sit down and do it. That’s easy for me to say, but as a HUGE procrastinator myself, it really is the only way you’ll ever get anything done. Ok, so having an evening writing after a long soak, cleaning the house, and lighting some candles did get some chapters done. But, most of the time I was either in front of my old PC or in bed with a laptop and dribbling cat next to me. Not the perfect writing scene you may have imagined.

So, instead of waiting for the right moment to write, or the best environment to start tapping away, simply get scribbling. Setting aside some set personal writing time and not getting caught in the writers environment trap could make the difference to finishing your novel and not.