My First Con As A Writer

I mentioned last week that I was planning to attend GenCon. Living on the north edge of Indianapolis makes me a local, so it's really a no-brainer for me to hit up this convention. I don't to go to a lot of the bigger ones held on the coasts. Simply too far for me to travel (without scheduling some sort of vacation). I've been to GenCon before, but this is the first time I can honestly say I attended as a writer.

Perhaps that's being a bit disingenuous. I mean, I've always been a writer. It's sort of like saying this is the first time I attended GenCon as a white male (which is almost equally unique in the crowd, mind you). Still, while I may have been a writer at heart before, this is the first time I attended with an eye looking out for ways to improve my writing.

I checked out the book booths, mainly out of curiosity. Someday, maybe I'll get one. A friend suggested that I should have carried a stack of cards with a free Smashwords code on the back and handed them out to all and sundry. Plenty of folks were doing that, too. I guess I fail when it comes to shout-it-from-the-rooftops marketing. I'm still a little embarrassed about my books. Not that I'm not proud of them, just that I don't feel comfortable "forcing" them on people. I wrote what I enjoy reading. I think other people might enjoy them, but I'm a reader first and foremost. I know that not every book is for everyone.

That's a terrible sales pitch, am I right?

Ah, well. It's not all about sales. Even if I sell exactly 0 books from today onward, I will still look back on this time with pride. Publishing a book is an accomplishment, even if you sell nothing. I don't care what anyone else says. It's a Cool Thing You Did. Period. We wish to make it more than "cool," but you're starting from a basis of cool. It would probably serve writers well to remember that.

I promise I didn't just spend GenCon musing about all the marketing things I'm not doing. I attended panels and readings as well. Pretty much anything with Brandon Sanderson. (Though I found out about two other panels he was on that I missed. They were late additions and I didn't hear about them. Bad fan/author!) And I promise that I didn't spend these entire panels thinking about how much better all the folks up there are than me. Brandon was sitting there, gushing about how awesome Patrick Rothfuss is at prose, decrying his own prose as "merely passable," and I'm looking at my shoes thinking: What chance in fel do I have?

Sounds like a common case of Writer's Guilt. Symptoms: uselessly stacking yourself up against anyone and everyone and finding your own work wanting by comparison. It's an illness that likely shares more with Delirium Caused By Spontaneous Fever than Excessive Dosage of Truth Serum.

The comforting part was when I realized I understood pretty much everything they were talking about. If you've ever attended a writer's panel, you know that they can slip into jargon pretty easily. For such smooth written communicators, writers aren't always great and verbal communication. There are a lot of common constructs used to describe complex creative writing ideas. These get bandied about with a certain carelessness that can render a listener baffled at times.

It is perhaps a credit to me when I say that I followed all of the jargon. I even found myself anticipating a remark or nodding when a panelist picked up exactly where I would have. I have no proof on any of this, so you'll just have to trust me. I felt like: These are My People. I *get* this.

So yeah, attended GenCon as a writer. First time. That means something, right?

Read more

Word of Mouth

There was a focus in several articles over the last few days about the importance of word of mouth among self-publishers. Really, word of mouth is pretty important for any marketing venture, but especially for those of us that are crunched for time and funds. And, as a reader, word of mouth is perhaps the biggest reason for me to pick up a book. That isn't to say I just go for "popular" titles. Instead, I go for the books that my friends and family are reading. A lot of times (especially with my friends and family), we're not exactly reading popular things.

Personally, I think I'm a terrible reviewer. I pretty much like anything with words in it. This isn't to say I can't recognize superb quality when I see it, just that books that I've seen people rate as pretty "average" were fun reads. Also, I guess I sometimes struggle to expand on why I liked a book. If there's something particularly amazing, I can certainly pick it out, but otherwise you'd get something like: "I don't know, it was a fun read." Which is a terrible review. Even so, I try to at least give things stars on different sites when I read. Also, I'm a big fan of Goodreads. It's like a big, public, personal bookshelf, and I like to let my shelf do the talking.

Anyway, here are two articles that caught my eye. The first I found through The Passive Voice from Dave Farland. The other was from self-publishers Derek J Canyon, who is always generous with the advice. The parts that resonated with me, specifically?

From David:

As authors, we ought to be spending more time trying to connect with readers than with writers.

And from Derek:

Posting on forums, updating blogs, sending out emails, trying to get interviews and reviews on big websites, and so on takes a LOT of time. Every hour of promotion is one less precious hour the author has for writing the next book in the series you love.

I've mentioned before that my current marketing plan is to basically do no marketing for five years. Great plan, huh? Certainly it's reflected in my meager sales. Yet, I have two books and a novelette out there. I doubt I would have that much had a spent more time with marketing. I wish I could do both, but if I'm going to keep one thing, it's definitely going to be the writing.

At the very core, here is my rationale. If, ten years from now, I look back and say... man, I have all these books that I wrote and no one ever really purchased, that's not an awful place to be. Hopefully my writing will have improved. Hopefully I don't just suck. At the very least, I've seen projects through to their completion and given myself a chance. There is no shame in that (especially if you love writing anyway).

If I looked back and said... shoot, I wish I had more books. Unless I stumbled upon a magic book that catapults me to instant fame and riches (not likely even if I were chasing this full-time), then how far have I really gotten? I think I have better chance at success if I write more books than if I marketed the hell out of the few I have. At some point, I'll bet there's a gray area where I really should market what I have if I want to write more books. I'm not at that point yet.

Ineffective marketing is wasted time. Ineffective writing can still be a learning experience. At least that's my opinion. In the mean time, I read a whole bunch of blogs daily and am taking notes on what works for people.

My favorite marketing experience so far? Book bloggers. I have just a couple that I have a good relationship with, and I love sending them my books. They don't even have to write about them or hype them up. They're simply cool folks that have been supportive and enjoy reading. I wouldn't otherwise have met them had I not ventured out here. I hope that as the publishing dust settles, book bloggers continue to have an important (and hopefully increased) role.

Until then, support your favorite authors... at least with stars!

Read more

#ROW80 - Pet The Furry Wall

It was a nice week off. We spent the weekend bonding bunnies. My wife is a big pet person, and I'm a huge fan of rescuing animals. We don't exactly have a barnyard (up to two rabbits and two sugar gliders now), but we're working on it. A very cuddly barnyard. We added our second rabbit on Thursday, and had to figure out a way to get our resident Flemish Giant to accept her into the household (the humans, it seems, are the easy ones).

I was only bitten twice.

I think my wife has some pictures on her Facebook of them cuddling now. Rocky beginnings can lead to furry, achingly-cute endings. It basically took my wife locking herself in a neutral room with them for 24 hours straight, and getting it all figured out.

Anyway, I promised this week I'd get back on track with my goals. I basically took a week off after my latest release, and caught up on some of the less writerly pursuits in my life. (aka: I played a lot of Diablo.) Here are the goals:

• Lesson Learned - Breaks are as important as writing. It's important to get one's head on straight before diving into the next project, no matter how much you may wish you had a dozen books out.
• WIP - There are still some minor things with the print version of Fates' Motif we need to tweak, but the e-book versions have already been downloaded several times. I hope people are enjoying it. If you'd like a free version for helping me promote somewhere on the Internet (your blog, B&N... doesn't even have to be overwhelmingly positive or anything. Can just be: "yep, checking this out"), I'm more than happy to give them away. Just shoot me an email.
• Blogging - This will only be 2/3 here, which is okay. I was 3/3 on the gaming blog, which makes sense since it was an "off week." I knocked out my personal post, too. Just in the nick of time.
• Reading Goal - Posted the first of my Group Read entries yesterday. I'm glad I decided to do this, got some great comments and enjoyed seeing the responses of others. It's amazing how we can all read the same words, and take away such different ideas.

The WIP goal should get back to a writing goal this week. I'm going to start on my next novel, a sequel to The Binder's Daughter. I'm not sure sequel is the right word. Next in the series. I'm trying to make these more standalone. In any case, I plan to try to start off writing a page a day with the weekend off (or for catch-up). I still have a couple of post-release activities going on for Fates' Motif, so I'm keeping the goal conservative for now. I will probably try to speed up once I put the first few chapters behind me.

Here's a look at my "off-week" word count:

• Since last check in: 2,685
• New Fiction: 0 - In Between Projects
• Round 2 Total: 21,974

Read more

Fates' Motif = Released!

The ebook for Fates' Motif has gone live everywhere! Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords. Smashwords should trickle it out to the other vendors. Our POD print version will follow this week. We need to get proofs and such, but if all goes well, we should have up this weekend. We also will send out a release email through our mailing list with coupons. If you're looking for cheap reads, sign up for our newsletter (we rarely send emails, less than once a month, so no spam, promise) to get the Smashwords codes.

I'm really excited to share this story. It's also my second full-length release, which (to me) is a huge milestone. Both of my novels clock in over 100k words, which are large works. The Binder's Daughter took me almost five years to release (by the time you factor in writing, establishing my process, and learning how to e-publish). Fate's Motif took only about a year and a half. The releases have actually happened within a year of each other. That's a great pace for fantasy, I think. At least, it's good for me.

There was a lot of learning in this story. Everything from what to do about maps to writing in third person limited. We tackled the challenges, and I think the story came out stellar. Now, hopefully, I can get some people to read it. Promotion has been my weak suit so far, but I'm not at my five year mark yet. I need more works out before I worry too much about promotion. For that, it means back to the grindstone. The second book in the Spirit Binder Series is calling me.

I hope you'll give Fates' Motif a read. I really hope you enjoy it. I look forward to re-visiting this world as soon as possible for the next part of the adventure.

Read more

Cover Preview: Fates' Motif

I finished editing last night. It's always a huge relief when I turn that final page and say: I'm done. I have to fight the inner critic that always wants to do more, always could find something to improve on. If I let him have his way, nothing would ever get published. So when I hit that special point that I feel like I can tell him, in good conscience, to BACK THE F- OFF... yeah, that's a good feeling.

In celebration, I wanted to share a preview of the cover. My wife had it done super-early this time (she stumbled across the perfect picture to start), and I've been holding onto it for a bit, wanting to finish editing before putting this out there. Anyway, editing is done, so here is the cover:

What do you think?

Read more

Google Promotions

Oh, I didn't tell you guys? I got picked up by Google. They're doing my book promotions now. Hard hitting stuff. Like today, when they redid their entire website to help advertise my novelette. They really want me to succeed. I mean, look:

Now, Google claims that they're honoring Gideon Sundback, the inventor of the zipper. But if you read the article about it, it's hardly a clear-cut claim. No, we can read between the lines. This is Google starting to get into the publishing business. (Even though, you know, there's no link to my novelette anywhere. It's Google, they're tricky like that.)

Some time soon, we're getting set up to honor the inventor of the sparkle. They don't actually tell me when they're going to promote me. It's sort of this new surprise promotion thing they're doing.

Read more

#ROW80 - Mondo Week

It has been a productive and exciting week. Yep, every now and then you'll have those, right? This past one saw me release my second-ever work for public consumption. In one literary stroke, I've doubled my portfolio. Exciting, to be sure.

Now, it was only a novelette. I always feel like I have to qualify that. Perhaps I shouldn't, but one of my biggest fears of releasing a shorter work is that a reader will pick it up and be all: "WHAT?! I THOUGHT THIS WAS A FULL NOVEL! /RAGEQUIT READING FOREVER!" Okay, so that's very unlikely, but I'm sure I'm not the only author that is obsessive about making their readers happy. (This isn't to say I believe I can make everyone happy... just that the ones I can, I want to knock that out of the park.)

Still, The Only Sparkle is on sale, links here. We've sent out a Newsletter with an unlimited free code in it. If you missed out, sign up for our newsletter and then shoot us an email letting us know you'd like the code. I'm more than happy to give it out. Or just pick on someone that did get the code. We've tried to be encouraging as far as sharing goes. I want to give you guys the "hook ups!"

This isn't promo-post, though. This is #ROW80 check-in post. Thus, we need to check on the goals:

• Lesson Learned - I wrote a bit about titles yesterday. In the past week, I learned that apparently I contributed to a naming trend with The Binder's Daughter. The good news is that I'm the only one talking about Binders; it's the daughter part that's been hot lately. As fellow ROWer Nadja pointed out in the comments, following a trend can be a bit of a double-edged sword. You'd like to be original, but snagging the occasional lucky search hit isn't a terrible consequence. Basically what I learned here is more a reaffirmation of my titling process. It treads firmly in the middle ground that I'd like to reside in.
• WIP Progress - The goal was to get TOS up. Nailed it. 'Nuff said here. I've also nearly completely my latest round of editing for Fates' Motif. I plan to enter the final round in this next week and have it out by the end of this month. A two release month! When it rains, it pours.
• Blogging - 4/3 here. The extra release posting helps pad things. 3/3 on the gaming blog, and I knocked out a personal post. Go me.
• The Not Goal - So far, I hath resisted the siren's call of reading (apart from my usual steady diet of blogs and news and such). It's been good, as I've been getting to bed early while getting things done. The problem with loving reading is that, even when my nights are full, I'll stay up an extra hour to get in that chapter. Not always a good thing. Taking a reading break has helped me focus on these releases.

All in all, like I said, a pretty stellar week. I'm mondo-excited (because mondo is unappreciated this days) about people reading TOS. I had a blast writing it and am hoping it's as hilarious for everyone else as it was for me to cook up. It's really my first foray into a less serious side of fantasy, but I think it turned out wonderful.

We'll end with the traditional look at the word counts:

• Since last check in: 3,841
• New Fiction: 0 - Editing Mode
• Round 2 Total: 7,554

Read more

Cover Preview: The Only Sparkle

We fast-tracked my novelette, The Only Sparkle, so that we could get it out before Fates' Motif. Shorter works are easier to edit and prepare, so it just made sense. I'm still hacking away at FM, but TOS made quick work of TOS. My wife also cooked up a cover, and I wanted to share it today. I think she nailed it.

We're still shooting to get this story out by the end of this week, perhaps early next week. What do you think?

Read more

A List! A List!

At first, I was reluctant to set up a mailing list. I'm not sure why. I guess I just thought I wasn't even remotely "cool" enough yet to justify a mailing list. That's only for when you have gobs of fans, right?

Well, I still don't think I'm all that cool, but I do have a small handful of fans. (To be fair, I don't even like to say "fans." Most of you I think of as friends, even if we've only chatted through the Internet.) As I'm getting ready to release both a new short story and a new novel, it occurred to me that I'd really like to offer my dedicated few some good deals and sweet pricing. Like, of the free variety. Especially with the short story.

I was starting to make a list of people I wanted to contact via email and offer free copies of my short story, when I thought: isn't there an app for this? Or, more specifically, a chimp for this? Email newsletters are hardly a new idea, yet it didn't take much thought to figure out that they're perfect for what I want to do. A list of folks that I can send a pretty email to in one, easy step? Now wai!

You'll find the sign up on the left there. The heading is "Only the important stuff..." That's how I view the newsletter. I'm am NOT going to spam you. In fact, if you sign up, you may only see one or two emails per year from me. I only plan to send out notification of new releases and special deals. The deals will likely be in the form of a Smashwords code, allowing you to snag a story for a discount in whatever format you'd like. You'd also be completely free (and even encouraged) to pass your "exclusive" deals along to friends. The more the merrier.

Sign ups are open now. We'll probably shoot out a "practice" mail to start, featuring The Binder's Daughter. In fact, we'll probably include a real code with it. Maybe in the next week or so, depends on how quickly we can make it look good. In any case, the list should be a great way to just get the "good stuff." Sign up if you're interested. We'll see how it goes.

Read more

Fates' Motif Description

I mentioned yesterday that I've been finalizing the blurb for Fates' Motif. I wanted to share what I've got today. It's short and simple, which seems to be a trend among fantasy books. I find that funny given the average length of such works, but I now understand why. Fantasy can be complicated, and it's as much about discovery and world building as plot (sometimes)... you don't want to give away too much. It made me feel like I was being all mysterious and such, but there are worse ways to feel about a blurb. I also end it with a question, which I think of as a somewhat "cheap trick," but I suppose I'm not above such conventions. Okay, okay, enough hedging. Here it is:

“A Song for everything, and in everything, a Song. Muses exist to inspire creation, Sharee. It's what we do.” – Renee Swift

Werim and Sharee Swift, teenage siblings living in an idyllic mountain village, have known nothing but the sweet song of peace. When that melody is destroyed and their mother slain by an invading dark Warlord, they discover that growing up can be a discordant tune. Escaping to find a nation steeped in turmoil, the two must learn to play their own song as counterpoint to the clangor of war. Will they grow to embrace their inner power, or be silently swept away by the savage horde?

~ + ~ 

Fates’ Motif is a full-length fantasy adventure, the first installment of a new series from author Matt Hofferth.

What do you think? Enough? Too much? Would you read this book?

Read more

#ROW80 - Price Experiment

Sales were pretty "blah" again last month.  Yesterday I wrote about being patient, and I'm terrible at taking my own advice.  Like I said in that post, I believe my monthly average of sales is just fine, and probably will be for another six months (even if I sell nothing).  The real next step, then, is to simply get another book out.  There have been a lot of experiments out there, but one general rule of thumb has held: the best promotion for a new writer is to get more books up.  Unless you hit it really lucky, one book is not going to carry you.  I think a good goal is to aim for five or six before you really contemplate any effects on your day job.

Speaking of goals, let's take a quick look at mine before I detail my experiment...

• Lesson Learned - Average sales of ~12 books per month for the first 5 months of a career, doing minimal promotion, and having only one book up... is really not bad at all (though it feels like it some days).  It can be hard to be patient at times, since obviously I wish I had the sales to support leaving a day job behind, but the thing that separates "real" writers from fad chasers is going to be what you do in the long haul.  It's pretty simple for writers: writers write. Five years from now, I'll still be writing. I enjoy sharing stories too much to quit.  Maybe I'll always have a day job, but I'll also always be writing in one way or another. It's not a matter of "if" I'll succeed.  In sharing my first story, I already have.  It's just a matter of when the rest of the cosmic balance wants to acknowledge that.
• WIP Editing - I knocked off 8/10 chapters this week. I only have two left to finish by the end of the week, so I'm in good shape.  Everything runs slow (including me) around the holidays, so I've already decided to give myself a bit of a pass.  The book will likely be launched shortly after the first of the year. Not a bad time to be launching.  I'm missing Christmas, but it'll take people a few weeks to figure out where the power button their new Kindles are anyway, right? :-)
• Blogging - Since I'm in editing mode (and thus not writing new fiction), it's more important than ever to keep up with the blogging goal.  After all, this is my only writing practice each day now.  I was 4/3 on the gaming blog, and this will make 4/3 here.  I also have a personal post ready to go (I just need to throw it up)... so this has been the bright spot.  Most of my writing has been a bit "writer-centric," but I'm not sure I can help it while wearing my editing hat.  I'll get back to fiction and character close-ups once I can don the creative cap again, though I may start with the close-ups sooner.

Okay, so I'm good on the goals.  Short on some, ahead on others, but generally still progressing to where I want to be.  Patience, Matt, Patience.

Which brings us back to the pricing experiment.  I recently read an article regarding pricing on JA Konrath's blog.  The gist of it was that there may perhaps be a bit of a stigma at both the 99 cent price mark, and the $2.99 price mark.  Basically, some jokers with poor quality have ruined it for the rest of us.  Readers, when they get burned, generally don't put their hand back on the stove, it seems.  Can't blame them for that (though different tolerances for heat abound).

Point being, some people have reported seeing sales increases by raising prices.  Yes, raising.  Seems counter-intuitive, but to a psychology hobbyist, it makes sense.  I completely understand the "Starbucks theory" as laid out in the article.  As such, it seemed a good idea for me to raise the price on my book from $2.99 to $4.99.

Sounds crazy, and maybe it is, but I had this rationalization in mind: I've spent $5 (or more) on a couple of candy bars in order to support things before.  And I can promise you, those candy bars brought me a whole lot less entertainment and enjoyment than a novel.  Perhaps I'm biased, because I love books (plus they're better for me than candy bars), but I don't think $5 is a ridiculous price.  The writing may be from a learning author, but the formatting and copy-editing is on par with any professional book out there right now, even the >$10 ones (some of which I've found a plethora of errors in).  In other words, this is still a steal, as I see it, and I certainly didn't want to give the impression of a low quality book.  You can say what you want about the writing, but I'm supremely confident about the formatting.  These tools are right up my engineering alley.

Also, a big part of my marketing plan is to offer a lot of ways to get the book for free.  I'm all for giveaways and partnerships.  I'm not concerned at all about piracy.  I see the "pay" feature more as a way of a reader being able to say "yes, I want this guy to keep writing, and here's my $5 vote."  If you're unsure, or didn't think it was worth $5... well I believe Amazon lets you return books for a full refund.  Also, all you really need to do is send me an email and I'll basically give you a book for free to try.  I detail several ways under that Special Offers page linked up there, and one of them is simply: free e-book for an honest review on Amazon/Goodreads/Whatever.  Anyone can take advantage of that.  And it doesn't even have to be particularly insightful (though I'm enormously thankful for those that take the time).

So I don't see the increase as a hurdle or an attempt to gouge anyone (and I hope no one sees it that way, either).  Instead, I see it as a vote of confidence by me in the quality of the offering.  And trust me, that confidence is hard won.  Confidence isn't something that comes naturally to a writer.  

At the end of the day, this is just an experiment.  I'll let you guys know how it goes.  If there are complaints, if sales dry up further (I'm not sure how they can), I can always move it back.  It's yet another perk of Indie Publishing (this flexibility of pricing).  Why not exercise it?  Especially when I plan to offer deals and freebies for just about any reason.

Heck, I'll even throw a new offer up at the bottom of that page of mine.  Merry Christmas: Free e-book if you simply convince me that you love to read.  Could be a picture or an anecdote, whatever.  I think reading is awesome, and want to support that.  I don't want a price tag turn potential readers away, whether it be too much or too little.

Read more

Author Partnership: Isaac McBeth

I mentioned that I was partnering with Isaac McBeth last week when I checked in. I wanted to make an official post to that effect. I've made a home for the cliff-note details and links over in the Special Offers section, but wanted to pass along a little about the book and Isaac.

First, the deal.  Very simple.  Buy my book, get his free.  Buy his book, get my ebook free.  Easy as pie, right?  How to take advantage, you might ask... well, Isaac's got a nifty form on his site.  For me, I'll just simply take an email and we'll work things out.  We've already had one taker (like the day his book went live), and I've passed along a Smashwords code for the free download.  We figure that if you're going to support one young fantasy author, why not get a free book from another to boot.  Seems win-win to us.

As I mention in the Special Offers section, my best friend (best man at my wedding) is a friend of Isaac's and put us in touch when he realized we were both writing books.  Ironically, our mutual friend is on record (with us at least) as having a strong dislike of books.  As he once said to me: he's never met a book that wouldn't be better as a movie.  Isaac and I obviously don't exactly share that sentiment, though I doubt either of us would object to a movie being made from one of our books.  In any case, to get our friend to care about books is no small feat, so we're happy to have done it and be able to offer this deal.

Here's a picture of the cover and the blurb from the book, in case you're interested in knowing more...

Alexander Wisbal and the Hall of Heroes is the first of several books by author Isaac McBeth focusing on the adventures of a young University of Richmond law student named Alexander Wisbal.

Unbeknownst to Alexander, an extremely talented individual, it is his destiny to become the leader of a one-world government. It is this very destiny that has caused Alexander to catch the eye of a dark warrior named Alistair. Once a prominent general of Alexander the Great, Alistair's only desire is to bring about the fall of humanity and leave the world in ruin. Knowing Alexander will one day assume the role of world leader, Alistair believes his goal of humanity's destruction can be accomplished by transforming Alexander's heart into one of hatred and malice so that Alexander will desire the same.

Humanity's only hope now lies with the Hall of Heroes--a special union of great figures from history that continue to work for the best of mankind from a special plane of existence called Sententia. Alexander is brought to the Hall where he is informed of Alistair's plans. In the months that follow, he will learn combat skills from some of the greatest warriors in history, travel throughout the dangerous lands of the Iudicium, and battle against Gero--the master of the dead.

Underlying the story filled with magic, mystery, and adventure is a question that all readers can relate to...is there such a thing as destiny? If we are aware of our destiny, can we avoid it or will every choice we make simply bring us closer to it? In Alexander Wisbal and the Hall of Heroes, history's greatest warriors will put destiny to the test in hopes that the world may be saved through fellowship, strength in battle, and sacrifice.

For more information about Isaac and his books, check out his website here.

Pleasant adventuring!

Read more

#ROW80 - Pre-Holiday Pep Talk

The holidays were already a busy time for me, as they are for most folks. This is really my first holiday season as an author, though, and it adds a new dimension to the chaos.  Honestly, and I'm sure other authors will back me up, this is the busiest season of the year.  There are so many giveaways and chances for exposure, and, if you're like me, you're probably trying to squeeze out your latest project, too.  It's a prime time to be a reader, I tell you.  There's so much to pay attention to.

But before I get into that too deeply, let's take a look at the goals:

• Lesson Learned - I'm dreaming of a write Christmas.  Get it?  It's better if you sing it, trust me.  The lesson?  Christmas time is a time of writerly dreams.  A good Christmas season can totally make your year.  It's a great time for interviews and giveaways.  It all generates good Christmas cheer, which can get you readers in the long run.  It's a gift that goes both ways.  You readers get free books, free chances to know you better, or a free introduction... and you get more readers.  So best of luck, my fellow writers, at making the most of this Christmas season.  Try to look at it as an opportunity (and not just stressful... I know it's hard).
• WIP Editing - 12/14 chapters.  For the editing goal, I'm not really giving myself my customary 1 day per week off.  Two chapters a day, 7 days, means 14 chapters.  Considering the holiday weekend, I'm thrilled about 12.  I only did one chapter two of those days (so it was sort of two half days), but that's still pretty good.  I'm chugging along and I should have my first past done well before I start getting feedback from betas/editors, which is the real goal.
• Blogging - 3/3 at the gaming blog.  This makes 3/3 here.  I even drafted my monthly personal post this morning, so that'll go up tonight.  I'm not writing as much fiction (I've paused the story here), but I find it tough to write fiction when I'm in "editor" mode.  The important thing is to keep writing, even if it's not fiction, and I nailed that.

A good week, all things considered.  Typtophan ain't got $#!+ on me.  It may have been a bit of a struggle (especially with the video gaming I mentioned yesterday), but I'm keeping up with things.

I have several neat events coming up this week, as well.  Tomorrow, I plan to post my Christmas memory for fellow ROWer Nadja Notariani's 12 Days of Christmas Reading List.  There'll be a giveaway of a whole host of books through her site, so check it out.  Also, I have a review and interview slated to go up really soon on Once Upon A Time, a book blog run by a gaming friend.  She'll be doing a giveaway involving my book as well.  That's two chances for a free copy!  (Or, you could take advantage of any of my  Special Offers, which can almost be boiled down to: email me and I'll probably give you a free ebook.)  

Finally, I've got a partnership going with another author, Isaac McBeth.  He's a friend of a friend (best man at my wedding hooked us up), and we've had the pleasure of chatting via email and on the phone a few times.  Great guy, and he has a book (epic fantasy, so right up my alley, though I've not had a chance to read it yet) coming out just in time for Christmas, and wanted to offer my book free with his (and visa versa)!  Sounded like a great idea to me, so we're getting that set up as well.  Look for more info to follow.

In case you couldn't tell, I'm in a bit of a Christmas giving kind of mood.  I love giving away free ebooks!  I guess you could say that I'm simply confident you'll enjoy what I've written enough to come back and support me.  Plus, I would hate to have money be the hurdle keeping you from good stories.  I mean, we authors want to make a living at this, and supporting us really is in your best interest (I could write so much more if I could ditch the day job), but I don't want to bankrupt anyone, either.  There are plenty of ways to support an author that aren't monetary (spread the word!), so really, don't let stories just be about the $$ this  Christmas.  Sharing is caring, they say.

And to my ROW friends out there reading this, I'm more than happy to partner with any of you as well (just shoot me an email).  In fact, my brain child (had I the time and talent to make it a reality) would be a bookstore that worked sort of like Google+, where we could add each other to partner "circles" that simply allow people to "buy one get one free" with any of our books.  Just imagine the choices!  Plus, we're all in this boat together.  I don't look at any of you as competitors, but rather as co-ROWers (both metaphorically and, uh, acronymically?): if we all pull as hard as we can, the whole boat can take us to some pretty cool places.  And there's room for plenty of success stories on this ship.

So, I guess that's my little pre-holiday pep talk.  We'll close with the ever-popular glance at the word counts:

• Project Fiction: 0 (Editing Mode)
• Since last check in: 4,147
• Grand Total for Round 4: 47,302

Read more

Real Quick

Hope everyone had a fun turkey day that celebrates it. I'm equal parts still full and tired. How long before the tryptophan gets out of our system?  I think mine might be pitching a tent and planning to stay until Christmas.

I mentioned on my Facebook page, but I wanted to reiterate here: got my first proofs of Fates' Motif in.  I showed them off at the family Thanksgiving gathering, and have my mom helping me get them in the hands of my editors.  I'm hoping to have the edits back by Christmas and then go through the revision gauntlet once again.  I've taken that whole week off, so I'm hoping I can squeeze it all in before New Years Eve.  More than likely, we're looking at a release date somewhere around my birthday (January 17th).  I'm going to try hard to beat that, though.

We've got some good ideas for the cover, so I'll share that as soon as my wife gets a good first hack done.  Also, I've got a review and interview going up this week over at the Once Upon A Time blog.  I'll throw up some links and an announcement when it goes live.  Hannah is a friend that I met through my WoW blogging, actually, so I'm excited to see what she has to say.  I'll let her scoop it, but I think I'll re-post the interview over here maybe next week or something.  I like to have those sorts of things in my archive for folks in the future.

Well, I need to jet outta here.  First Mondays back from a holiday are always hectic, are they not?

Read more

Quick Commercial Break

I wasn't planning to write anything the rest of this week (owing to being busy finishing up the ole WIP), but I gotta do a quick promo post.  Recently, Amazon opened up their Kindle monthly subscription platform to all blogs.  (Previously I guess it had been limited).  We here at OTJW decided to go ahead and jump on that bandwagon. 

If you have a Kindle, you can now subscribe to this blog for the low monthly fee of $0.99.  (There isn't a free option, and Amazon sets the price, not me).  We don't expect a whole lot of people to pay for the convenience, but wanted to let you know that the option is there.  The blog author only gets 30% of the sub (I think), so it's not really even a great support mechanism.  I mean, I'd much rather you just buy my book, get something extra out of it (you know, the book), and give away multiples.  Then keep reading here for free.

However, the convenience may be worth it to some, and an extra revenue stream is nothing to sniff at in my position.  I'll certainly appreciate anyone who is willing to shell out a buck a month to read this stuff.  It is sort of a vote of confidence. 

Alas, it's only available for Kindles.

Just wanted to let y'all know.  'Cuz the more you know... *jingle*  Back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Read more

ROW80: Building Sandcastles

It's going to be a quick one today. Things have been pretty busy and I'm just hanging on with my teeth. Still, I've managed to chew through some words, so that's good. Here's a quick look at the goals:

• Publishing Lesson Learned - I'm simply going to link this wonderful article by Michael J. Sullivan.  He has swiftly become one of my idols in this brave new publishing world.  I think he and his wife have their stuff together and it shows.  In the article, he simply expresses how difficult it can seem to start from scratch as far as an audience is concerned.  Yet you build it one person at a time.  There is no secret here.  Word of mouth is all about personal connections.  I've been blessed so far to run into some top notch folks (see yesterday's post) that have been hugely supportive.  And it's all happened by retaining that focus on forming real relationships with people, and not just going for a sale.
• WIP Pages - 6/6.  I think.  Sometimes the days blur together and I find it hard to keep track.  I'm pretty sure I only took two days off this week but made up for it with a two-pager on Monday.  I'm rocketing into the final battle scene in my WIP, and those type of scenes always go faster.  I wouldn't be surprised to beat this next week.
• Blogging - This makes 3/3 here, though I did not squeeze a fiction post in.  On the other blog, I took the week off of my serial fiction as well.  I was focused on my WIP.  Still, I hit 3/3.  Seeing as how it's a new month, I have a personal post to make sometime soon.  That should be no problem.

So, I hit all the goals this week.  It was touch and go for a bit, but worked out.  That's all I've got for this week.   I thanked several of my fellow ROWers yesterday, so you may want to check that out if you haven't seen it.  Otherwise, I'll end with my word counts:

• Since last check-in: 4,869
• Fiction: 2,130
• 44% New Fiction
• Grand Total for the challenge: 62,059

Read more

Grassroots Promoting

Over the years, I've struggled to come to terms with my writing. That may be an odd way of putting it, but it more accurately reflects my feelings. Writing was never just something to do, rather it was more a part of me, and as one matures, a natural part of the process is the struggle to understand the different aspects of self.

As such, my writing wasn't something I was really ready to share until I had grown used to it. Confidence is something that I think every writer is going to struggle with at some point or another, but there's a tipping point where you start to win more than you lose. That's precisely where I've just passed. Fortunately, another trait common to writers is harsh self-criticism. Thus, where I set the bar was probably a lot higher than an outside observer may have set it.

The problem with attempting to "break in" to writing, as I see it now, isn't so much with your confidence as a writer. There are a plenty of writers that develop a healthy confidence in their talents and never succeed in selling anything. No, the problem for me is when it comes to promoting. It's becoming easier for me to share my musings with people. The more I blog, the more fiction I write online, the more feedback I get... the more comfortable I am in my growing writerly body.

Promotion is something I'm new at, however. How can I, in good faith, ask people to pay me money for simply expressing a part of myself? I struggle with the idea of promotion. I'm pretty realistic I think when it comes to my writing. Some people are going to like it. Others, not so much. When I write my stories, I keep a very narrow audience in mind. It stands to reason, then, that I'm not going to please everyone. So how can I do the self-promotion thing if I really don't believe my stuff is for "everyone?" (Some days I still have a hard time believing it's for "anyone," but that's a confidence thing.)

I mean, I feel uncomfortable asking someone to read my books. That is a problem. But to me, reading is a very intimate relationship between reader and author. Like a vampire at the door, the reader must invite the author in, and with the invitation accept a certain amount of vulnerability. In my mind, I can't shake the vision that asking someone to buy my book is the same as going up to someone in a bar and asking to suck on their neck for a bit. It's just so personal.

The solution I've found has to do with framing. Psychologically speaking, we can do a lot of things if only we frame them correctly. As long as I look at the topic of self promotion through the eyes of a vampire, I'm going to shy away from it. As much as I may day dream of being an immortal, I'm really much too nice to force myself on people like that. Plus, I'm not really selling a good, rather I'm selling an idea.

So I looked toward the masters of idea selling: politicians. I'm sure you've heard the term "Grassroots" before. As in: "Oh, it's a grassroots movement." These type of political ideas tend to start of local and gain moment through the promotion of the members within the community, often through simple word of mouth. It's simply people talking to people, connecting on the common ground of the shared belief or idea.

I want to take a "grassroots" approach to promoting. It's not the quickest route to big sales, but I'm not going for quick. I'm shooting for loyal. I'm shooting for a community of readers that simply enjoy what I write and want to see more of it. That's what you'd be investing your money in: a cause you believe in. I'm not trying to drain anyone of blood, I'm trying to provide entertainment in the form of stories.

This mentality really reflects itself in the production of my books. I don't have a bunch of money to throw at the venture right now. I can't afford to spend a thousand dollars on a professional editor, or hire a publicist, or whatever. This is DIY. This is self-publishing as a "night job." (This is NOT an excuse for poor quality!)

When I took my first tentative steps on this road, I realized I didn't have any friends "in the biz." I don't know any editors or agents, or even anyone in a local writing group. My social network isn't plugged in to the "right" people. So I went outside the box. What did I have? I know a lot of teachers. I know a lot of avid readers. Those are the folks I'm going to for help. English teachers are really good at marking up a paper. Avid readers have seen a lot of successful novels and can give great feedback about what works and what doesn't. Art teachers can help me hammer out a cover design. Now, I know theses aren't professionals with professional experience, but they are what I have, and if I'm asking them to believe in me, I should start by believing in them. It's grassroots. That's what this is all about.

I'm sure I'll learn to be better at promotion. Along the way, I hope to gather and connect with people that can help me be the writer I want to be. But I don't expect it to happen quickly. Some of the best dishes are made by slow roasting over a careful tended flame. I don't need another pressure cooker in my kitchen. Life's got enough of those as it is.

I guess I just wanted to let you guys know where I'm coming from and how I'm approaching this. A lot of the successful self-publishers out there are advocating putting a lot of money into your book to try and get an extremely professional product. It's a great idea... if you have the money. I'd like to think that, with the support of the smart and talented people I already know, we could do just as good of a job. Nothing against the professionals, this is just where I'm starting. Maybe it grows into something bigger, maybe not. The point is that I've found a process I can believe in.

And I'm learning. Always learning.

Read more