Tag: literature

Utilising Goodreads for book promotion

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On many of the forums that I participate in, I repeatedly hear that Goodreads is a great place for book promotion. I’ve never really used Goodreads much before, mostly because I’m normally so busy writing that I don’t read many books. I’m a slow reader. I’m intent on reading every word rather than skimming through pages, to the point that if I feel I’ve missed something, I’ll re-read a paragraph. Thus, I don’t get through many books at all and therefore can’t participate in many of the discussion’s within Goodread’s boards.

Many people seem to warn against simply spamming Goodreads with book links, or risk facing a rebellion of readers and a multitude of one star reviews. I completely agree with this. I’d far prefer to not participate at all, than to simply dip in and out, posting book links all over the place. Communities such as forums and Goodreads are about communicating and being part of the group, and so I feel that you should never look to simply advertise. You get far more out of a community by actively engaging with people, than by being the annoyance who self-promotes and gives nothing back.

Herein lies my issue with Goodreads though because, whilst it seems to be highly populated, I HATE its interface. It’s forum interface must be one of the most horrible things I’ve ever come across, and I find it very hard to want to participate in groups. Not only is finding active discussions near impossible, but trying to keep updated with everything that is going on can be quite hard.

In the next month I’m going to persevere with Goodreads and see if I can get to grips with its horrible UI. If this challenge can be overcome, I’m sure I might be able to find some friends, readers, and even sell a few books. I’ll keep you updated on my findings. In the meantime, if anyone has any helpful pointers, I’d be more than happy to hear them.

Creating Characters

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There’s nothing more I love than creating characters. Not than I can take the sole responsibility of  forming these people. More often than not they present themselves in staggering vividness, and I have only to put finger to keyboard to allow their personalities to start appearing.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been seriously working on the sequel to Inside Evil. For my main character, Roberta Arlington, there’s a great transition to take place and I’m finding that, rather than being the strong willed and determined women I thought her to be, she’s actually decided to be far more fearful than I imagined. This has had a great effect on another major character for book two, who seems to be positively flourishing. Though only mentioned in the first title of the series, this secondary character plays a large role in future titles. However, I’ll refrain from actually writing their name here, for those who haven’t thought ahead and worked out who it is. 🙂

One of the things I love most about creating characters is how they transform and flesh themselves out with little help from me. A small grain of an idea, from a name, a face shape, or a simple spoken word, starts to snowball. Before long, you have this creation who has, by all accounts, pushed themselves into your mind and text on their own. I almost see it as a flashing of images. You never can quite catch their entire face in one moment, but the glint an an eye or the clench of a jaw pushes its way through the subconscious and makes them real.

I’m already loving writing again, rather than being plagued by the long winded editing process. It’s once again shown me just how intense and incredible writing can me. Where pages right themselves, and events which you’d never plotted, burst into animated life and start to shape your book. Though I had a specific idea for Roberta, she’s simply not playing ball. However, her resistance has proved vital for someone else’s growth, and I’m excited to see where this leads.

A Break from Advertising

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When writing a book for the first time, you think that THAT is the hard part. However, when you hit that ‘publish’ button, whether it’s on Smashwords, Amazon or the various other places available for self-publishing, you discover that it’s only then that the hard work begins.

Unfortunately, most books simply don’t sell themselves. There needs to be time and effort into promoting, building a fan base, surfing forums (and by this I mean actively engaging in the community and not simply spamming book links) and getting your book and author name known. It’s a hard process. And, it takes a lot of time.

Having read on many forums and blogs that touting a single novel is often a waste of time because though you’ll get sales on one book, there’s no back catalogue for fans to then purchase, I’ve decided to cut back on advertising. Book sales are slow, but having done no real promoting in two weeks, I’m still getting the odd sale here and there. Meanwhile, the extra time means I can plough myself into writing the next Inside Evil  book which, incidentally, is coming on rather well.

I think taking a break is probably a healthy option, and stops the advertising wheel from taking over your life. And, if I can put my energies into writing and publishing more work, it can only be a good step to take.

MYO – a new publishing resource

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There are a number of ways for indie writers to publish, including utilising Amazon, Smashwords and Barnes and Noble’s own self publishing kit, PubIt. Another small but growing resource is Make Your Offer (MYO) which offers a sales space to sell and barter for Ebooks.

The premise is quite good. Setting a price point on a book can be quite hard, especially if you only have a small number of titles out and can’t readily create a loss leader to encourage sales on other works. MYO allows the option for users to bid on your book, offering people the chance to read your sample and then make an offer on what they’ll pay for the title. You can specify a minimum approved bid and set the system to auto accept. Or, you can opt out of the bidding system and sell at a set price.

This is a growing community with currently less than 100 books available and a small number of members. But, everything has to start off small. The developers of MYO are constantly striving to make improvements which could see MYO continue to grow exponentially in the future. You can’t expect huge sales here, but you can expect a book community ready to make purchases and offer feedback.

I’m interested in how this website will work out, and for a first time novelist like me, who’s work got lost in the black hole of Amazon’s Kindle rankings almost immediately, the ability to have Inside Evil remaining visible for an extended period of time is welcomed. I’ll report back on how sales go, but any new way of selling and promoting Ebooks is surely of great use to the indie community.

My Newbie Editing Faux Pas

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You’d think that, as a professional copywriter and blogger, I’d have adequate skills to proofread and edit my own novel. Wrong.  The past few days I’ve been hermited away correcting an embarrassing amount of errors in Inside Evil. Luckily, due to my lack of promoting and poor first two week sales, few people have purchased the book. But, this is a rookie mistake that I won’t make again.

Matters first came to light when my sister bought the book and found a mistake on the FIRST PAGE.  Talk about trying to get that first 10% sample correct, I’d failed miserably at the outset. As she read further, I became increasingly concerned over the number of problems she was finding. She’s a medical secretary and very anally retentive about her work lest something strewn with errors be placed in front of a consultant. She was very happy to correct my work, and I was glad to have her input, but it highlighted the vital need to EDIT, PROOFREAD and EDIT again.

Part of the problem with Inside Evil is that it’s been in my head for so many years that I know it off by heart. However, this makes editing and proofreading that bit harder as you’re far more likely to not notice mistakes because, though you think you’re carefully tinkering with each line, you’re actually scanning it.

Hiring an editor

There are various people in self publishing who say that using an editor is an essential requirement for any self publisher. Along with using freelance artists to create stunning and eye capturing covers, proofreaders and editors are essential if you’re to rid as many errors as possible and ensure an enjoyable read not stymied by poor writing skills.

Going it alone

However, editors cost money, and there are other self published authors who attest to editing yourself and not having to fork out hundreds of pounds on a novel which you have no idea how well it will do. Money made off the back of sold novels can be used for hiring professionals down the line for later works, but large expense shouldn’t be made at the outset.

I’d love to have the money to hire an editor, but that option is simply not open to me. However, with my sister’s eagle eye, it has proved that using someone else to look over your manuscript is vital. So too, is taking a break between finishing your novel and the final proofread. I wrote, edited, proofed and finished in one straight line; a probable reason for some mistakes. Taking some time out allows your mind to forget a little, and come back with fresh eyes.

If there’s one thing that you want to get right, it’s the editing. Who can enjoy a story when it’s riddled with mistakes? It’s an embarrassment for the author and it could result in a 1/2 star review which could throw your novel into the pit of never being bought again.

I’ll never make this rookie mistake again, and even if you can’t afford an editor, take a few days break before trying to proof yourself. Read your work aloud, tracing your finger along each line to give you even more of a chance to spot problems. As a minimum, also get someone else unafraid of highlighting every error, to take a look; you’ll be thankful to them in the long run.

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 Free Ebook

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When it comes to self publishing, the price point can be key. It seems to be generally regarded that $2.99 is a good price for a novel, offering value to readers whilst providing authors with a reasonable royalty. After you’ve written several novels in a series, you might like to drop the first book to just .99cents or even make it free, providing huge incentive for readers to explore your characters and get hooked on a series which ultimately leads them to buy later books. However, as a first time publisher, when you only have a single sole novel for sale, this is not possible.

Over at the fantastic blog by Lindsay Buroker, I was reading about advertising strategies, and the possibility of offering a free ebook. It’s a great plan if, as I’ve mentioned, you already have several books out. If you’re making your first forays into self publishing like me, it’s a bit of a non-starter. However, something has to be done to get that trickle of initial sales, and having a freebie is definitely attractive.

Momentarily touched upon in Lindsay’s blog was the prospect of writing a short story or novella as a way of leading readers to your main title. This could then be offered for free and would, hopefully, encourage fans of this short work to check out your debut book. It got me thinking…how could this be done?

I have many areas within Inside Evil that I could explore in a short story. Could I write and offer them for free? Yes. Would I want to? No, and here’s why. To write a short story on an aspect of a debut novel means that you effectively give spoilers to readers. I want people to discover and learn about my characters through their read of Inside Evil, not already know who they are at the outset. Writing about peripheral characters could be a possibility, but this means that when they appear in your main novel, their character is of no surprise. In fact, readers may be waiting for their appearance and thus many elements of storytelling are removed. For example, your lead character may be about to discover someone they’ve never met  who has surprising or hidden secrets. But, if a reader has already downloaded the free ebook, none of the emerging details are a surprise in the slightest.

It results in a circumstance where you either have to give so much away in a short story that reader enjoyment is spoiled, or you create a dull read with little excitement which will definitely not engage anyone enough so as to make your main work an attractive purchase. As a result, I truly feel that free ebooks should be left for first titles in an extensive series. But then, you’re brought back to the initial question, how do I attract readers when I have just one novel?

I don’t know the answer yet, and though offering free ebooks should be seriously considered at some point, it’s not for the first time self publisher. If you’ve had any luck with offering free ebooks let me know. Did you write several books before making the first in the series free? Or was it a side story to attract readers to your debut title? The hunt for answers continues…..

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?