Jon Lymon's Blog
February 18, 2018
Excerpt from A Big Bluff And Some Green Stuff
The temperature outside had dropped several degrees, but Friedrich’s rose when he realised the exterior display he had crafted at Specifics had fallen victim to the invaders. Three fishing nets were missing, four beach balls had gone and there was a surfboard-size hole in the display.
About to fish out his keys from his jacket, Friedrich saw the shop door was ajar. He looked back toward the village hall. He ought to go back. Get someone else to come with him. But who in there would be able to or want to help? He took a deep breath, picked up one of the remaining nets, poked it through the gap and pushed open the door. He was greeted by the usual reassuring chime. Quaint.
Friedrich tried the light. It didn’t work. Not quaint. Worse still, the delicately balanced shelving and end of aisle displays had all been toppled, colouring pads and books and postcards carpeting the floor.
“Bloody…”
Something moved at the far end of the store by the fancy dress section.
“Who is that?” Friedrich called out, unable to see much in the dark.
A clatter of iron.
“This shop is shut. Show yourselves.”
Friedrich dropped the useless net and reached for a slightly less useless plastic scimitar that he’d been unsuccessfully trying to sell for two years.
“If that’s you Potts brothers…” He heard a soft snarl that didn’t sound like the brothers, more like a warning from a cornered fox.
“Whoever, whatever you are, you need to leave. This is my shop. We are closed for the Christmas season.”
Something moved by the vertical display of multi-coloured feather boas. Friedrich gasped and stepped back. That wasn’t… it can’t have been… a skull?
Friedrich stepped forward. “Put that mask back, or pay for it,” he yelled.
A second skull appeared behind the first, this one sporting a tricorn.
“That hat will cost you an extra six pounds and ninety-nine pence.”
Friedrich took another step forward, his plastic weapon drawn, but giving him little confidence.
Two figures with skeletal faces and black capes draped over their bony shoulders stepped out into the aisle and threw off their capes.
Friedrich didn’t like being able to see the one standing at the back through the hollow ribcage of the one in front. That wasn’t right. An anomaly, Murphy might say. If only he were here now. Maybe it wasn’t an anomaly, but a clever trick. Yes, of course. It was scientifically possible, Friedrich knew, through the manipulation of certain light wavelengths to become invisible. But that didn’t explain how their skeletal masks were far more detailed than anything he stocked.
Both figures held full-size cutlasses that dwarfed Friedrich’s toy weapon.
They rasped with disdain and shuffled toward the shop owner, their bony feet clattering against the shop’s cold linoleum floor.
“Who are you?” Friedrich garbled, backing away, still trying to process what he was seeing.
He reached down and tipped over a tub of bouncy balls, the multi-coloured contents hopping down the aisle between him and them. The intruders were both fascinated and frightened by the living balls of plastic.
They backed off. The first jabbed at them with his sword, impaling a red one on the ultra-sharp tip of his blade. As the figure drew it up to his face to take a closer look, Friedrich saw its arm was formed of exposed bone, the hand devoid of skin too with a silver, skull-shaped ring adorning the index finger. In the half light, Friedrich saw the face wasn’t totally skeletal. There were patches of loose grey skin flapping about its cheeks. Its eyes were deep set, pupils an unhealthy yellow and rimmed red. Its lips had gone, exposing teeth yellowed and blackened to their roots.
The figure popped the ball in his mouth and Friedrich watched in terrified fascination as the ball fell through the skull and ribcage, bouncing off the thigh bone on its way down to the floor.
About to fish out his keys from his jacket, Friedrich saw the shop door was ajar. He looked back toward the village hall. He ought to go back. Get someone else to come with him. But who in there would be able to or want to help? He took a deep breath, picked up one of the remaining nets, poked it through the gap and pushed open the door. He was greeted by the usual reassuring chime. Quaint.
Friedrich tried the light. It didn’t work. Not quaint. Worse still, the delicately balanced shelving and end of aisle displays had all been toppled, colouring pads and books and postcards carpeting the floor.
“Bloody…”
Something moved at the far end of the store by the fancy dress section.
“Who is that?” Friedrich called out, unable to see much in the dark.
A clatter of iron.
“This shop is shut. Show yourselves.”
Friedrich dropped the useless net and reached for a slightly less useless plastic scimitar that he’d been unsuccessfully trying to sell for two years.
“If that’s you Potts brothers…” He heard a soft snarl that didn’t sound like the brothers, more like a warning from a cornered fox.
“Whoever, whatever you are, you need to leave. This is my shop. We are closed for the Christmas season.”
Something moved by the vertical display of multi-coloured feather boas. Friedrich gasped and stepped back. That wasn’t… it can’t have been… a skull?
Friedrich stepped forward. “Put that mask back, or pay for it,” he yelled.
A second skull appeared behind the first, this one sporting a tricorn.
“That hat will cost you an extra six pounds and ninety-nine pence.”
Friedrich took another step forward, his plastic weapon drawn, but giving him little confidence.
Two figures with skeletal faces and black capes draped over their bony shoulders stepped out into the aisle and threw off their capes.
Friedrich didn’t like being able to see the one standing at the back through the hollow ribcage of the one in front. That wasn’t right. An anomaly, Murphy might say. If only he were here now. Maybe it wasn’t an anomaly, but a clever trick. Yes, of course. It was scientifically possible, Friedrich knew, through the manipulation of certain light wavelengths to become invisible. But that didn’t explain how their skeletal masks were far more detailed than anything he stocked.
Both figures held full-size cutlasses that dwarfed Friedrich’s toy weapon.
They rasped with disdain and shuffled toward the shop owner, their bony feet clattering against the shop’s cold linoleum floor.
“Who are you?” Friedrich garbled, backing away, still trying to process what he was seeing.
He reached down and tipped over a tub of bouncy balls, the multi-coloured contents hopping down the aisle between him and them. The intruders were both fascinated and frightened by the living balls of plastic.
They backed off. The first jabbed at them with his sword, impaling a red one on the ultra-sharp tip of his blade. As the figure drew it up to his face to take a closer look, Friedrich saw its arm was formed of exposed bone, the hand devoid of skin too with a silver, skull-shaped ring adorning the index finger. In the half light, Friedrich saw the face wasn’t totally skeletal. There were patches of loose grey skin flapping about its cheeks. Its eyes were deep set, pupils an unhealthy yellow and rimmed red. Its lips had gone, exposing teeth yellowed and blackened to their roots.
The figure popped the ball in his mouth and Friedrich watched in terrified fascination as the ball fell through the skull and ribcage, bouncing off the thigh bone on its way down to the floor.
January 20, 2017
Is CreateSpace finished?
So Amazon KDP is now providing the same service as CreateSpace. Print on demand for your digital books. Does that mean CreateSpace is finished? Kaput? Finito?
The upside - the price. CreateSpace's printing costs were so exorbitant, your beloved paperback had to retail at silly dollars per copy for you to make any kind of royalty.
Hence sales were slow to the point of non-existent.
The might of Amazon means they can print your slaved-over words on request for a fraction of the price, so a paperback of your work now needn't cost north of a newly released hardback, signed, with a gold foil finish dust jacket.
The downside? Of course there is one. If you let Amazon paperback your words, you have to remove them from CreateSpace. Forever.
For. Ever.
And unlike CreateSpace, Amazon won't be making your paperbacks available to rivals like Barnes & Noble. Oh no. This is a move towards monopolisation. And I, for one, am backing it.
In my experience, CreateSpace wasn't a viable revenue stream. Sure, I sold a few copies. But the price was a barrier. At least on Amazon, my paperbacks can be sold for a reasonable price.
So I've shifted over my novels. And I have to say the whole procedure was embarrassingly easy, especially for books already on CreateSpace.
The jury's still out as to whether or not I've made a good move. But with paperbacks making a vinyl style comeback, here's hoping more self-pubbed authors can jump a bit of that bandwagon.
The upside - the price. CreateSpace's printing costs were so exorbitant, your beloved paperback had to retail at silly dollars per copy for you to make any kind of royalty.
Hence sales were slow to the point of non-existent.
The might of Amazon means they can print your slaved-over words on request for a fraction of the price, so a paperback of your work now needn't cost north of a newly released hardback, signed, with a gold foil finish dust jacket.
The downside? Of course there is one. If you let Amazon paperback your words, you have to remove them from CreateSpace. Forever.
For. Ever.
And unlike CreateSpace, Amazon won't be making your paperbacks available to rivals like Barnes & Noble. Oh no. This is a move towards monopolisation. And I, for one, am backing it.
In my experience, CreateSpace wasn't a viable revenue stream. Sure, I sold a few copies. But the price was a barrier. At least on Amazon, my paperbacks can be sold for a reasonable price.
So I've shifted over my novels. And I have to say the whole procedure was embarrassingly easy, especially for books already on CreateSpace.
The jury's still out as to whether or not I've made a good move. But with paperbacks making a vinyl style comeback, here's hoping more self-pubbed authors can jump a bit of that bandwagon.
October 21, 2016
Why Getting A 1-star Book Review Could Be Worse
Yes, a couple of my books have had a 1-star review recently. They probably would have got zero stars had that option been available.
But, do you know what? I prefer getting the lowest possible rating than a 2 or 3 out of 5. And that's not just me trying to look on the bright side.
Two or three stars is mediocrity. It's so-so. It's this book made no discernible impact on my life. It's the white lines on the road. It's plain Rich Tea biscuits. Bland. Vanilla. Insipid.
At least if you get a 1 or zero, you know you've royally pissed off someone, or disgusted them. or disappointed them to such an extent they want to bury your book in an allotment, or set it on fire, or whatever the digital equivalent of that is.
One is a snarl. Two or three is a shrug of the shoulders.
So if your book gets a review with the lowest rating possible, look on it positively. Regard it as preferable to a 2 or 3, but obviously not as good as a 4 or 5.
Then go off and write something that everyone just has to give 5 out of 5.
But, do you know what? I prefer getting the lowest possible rating than a 2 or 3 out of 5. And that's not just me trying to look on the bright side.
Two or three stars is mediocrity. It's so-so. It's this book made no discernible impact on my life. It's the white lines on the road. It's plain Rich Tea biscuits. Bland. Vanilla. Insipid.
At least if you get a 1 or zero, you know you've royally pissed off someone, or disgusted them. or disappointed them to such an extent they want to bury your book in an allotment, or set it on fire, or whatever the digital equivalent of that is.
One is a snarl. Two or three is a shrug of the shoulders.
So if your book gets a review with the lowest rating possible, look on it positively. Regard it as preferable to a 2 or 3, but obviously not as good as a 4 or 5.
Then go off and write something that everyone just has to give 5 out of 5.
October 17, 2016
Writing A Book Blurb
Blubbering into your laptop.
That’s how having to write your book blurb can leave you.
After slaving away over your work for months/years/decades, you’re finally finished. Except you’re not.
Unless you’re lucky enough to have someone else to do it for you, you’re going to have to sum it all up in a few snappy, salesy sentences.
Good luck.
No, sorry, actually the point of this post was to say that the task can be made easier by writing a blurb after each draft.
Even if you haven’t finished your story, a blurb after each draft can help you write the next draft, giving you more focus and a better (or even a new) idea of where your story needs to go.
I started doing this after finishing an earlier novel and writing a blurb that outlined a story that was tighter, better structured and more exciting than the one I’d just finished.
Naturally, I had to rewrite the whole thing to fit the blurb, but the book was better for it.
I’ve also found that blurbs are easier to write months after you’ve finished a book. A bit of distance clears the air, brings things into sharper focus. Though I have to say, more than a year after finishing it, I still haven’t written a blurb I’m happy with for A Dead Chick And Some Dirty Tricks.
That’s how having to write your book blurb can leave you.
After slaving away over your work for months/years/decades, you’re finally finished. Except you’re not.
Unless you’re lucky enough to have someone else to do it for you, you’re going to have to sum it all up in a few snappy, salesy sentences.
Good luck.
No, sorry, actually the point of this post was to say that the task can be made easier by writing a blurb after each draft.
Even if you haven’t finished your story, a blurb after each draft can help you write the next draft, giving you more focus and a better (or even a new) idea of where your story needs to go.
I started doing this after finishing an earlier novel and writing a blurb that outlined a story that was tighter, better structured and more exciting than the one I’d just finished.
Naturally, I had to rewrite the whole thing to fit the blurb, but the book was better for it.
I’ve also found that blurbs are easier to write months after you’ve finished a book. A bit of distance clears the air, brings things into sharper focus. Though I have to say, more than a year after finishing it, I still haven’t written a blurb I’m happy with for A Dead Chick And Some Dirty Tricks.
November 17, 2015
So many Book Promoters. Are they running out of names?
Book Gargantuans. Book Promoters Extraordinaire. Book Blimmin' Big Balls Agents.
There are plenty of people (companies, entrepreneurs) out there, willing to promote your book on their site and across their social channels, aren't there? So many in fact, they are running out of names for their businesses that haven't already been taken - the one's above are still available as far as I'm aware.
But how useful are these promoters? I've limited experience, myself. I did something with Ask David a couple of years back and don't remember much of a sales spike as a result.
But an email I got from one such 'business' earlier today irked a little. Here's what it said (I've removed the company details)
Dear Jon Lymon,
I just saw your book "The Diamond Rush". I would love to write a post about it and list it on my website [WEB ADDRESS]
One more thing, if you are running a promotion for "The Diamond Rush" then you can use our service called - Book of the Day to promote "The Diamond Rush" to more than 400,000 readers across the globe.
Check it out here [WEB ADDRESS]
Thank you & all the best
My problems with it: First up, there was no name at the bottom. Equals not very personal.
Then the opening line, or is it more of an opening gambit? My reaction to reading 'I would love to write a post about it' is, well, go on then. You don't need my permission. Go ahead, write away. Slate the book if necessary. And while you're at it, yes, you can list it on your own website too. No need to ask me. Go list crazy. Look, you've even included a link to your own web address... ah wait a minute, you want me to click on your website to take a look. So that's what this email's really about.
The next paragraph confirms my suspicions. By 'one more thing' what you really mean is here's the crux of the message, here's the real reason I'm sending this email, but I'll try and disguise it, downplay it, introduce it as an aside. You want to tell me about your Book Of The Day feature, which I have to pay for. Gotcha. Thanks. Next...
Am I just being cynical? I work as a copywriter, so I know a few tricks of the advertising trade, but there is a thing called Passing Off, where you pretend not to be selling when that's really exactly what you're doing.
Maybe this email just arrived in my inbox when I was a bit grumpy, dunno. But if anyone's ever replied to one of these, and got their book listed and gone on to sell a million, let me know!
There are plenty of people (companies, entrepreneurs) out there, willing to promote your book on their site and across their social channels, aren't there? So many in fact, they are running out of names for their businesses that haven't already been taken - the one's above are still available as far as I'm aware.
But how useful are these promoters? I've limited experience, myself. I did something with Ask David a couple of years back and don't remember much of a sales spike as a result.
But an email I got from one such 'business' earlier today irked a little. Here's what it said (I've removed the company details)
Dear Jon Lymon,
I just saw your book "The Diamond Rush". I would love to write a post about it and list it on my website [WEB ADDRESS]
One more thing, if you are running a promotion for "The Diamond Rush" then you can use our service called - Book of the Day to promote "The Diamond Rush" to more than 400,000 readers across the globe.
Check it out here [WEB ADDRESS]
Thank you & all the best
My problems with it: First up, there was no name at the bottom. Equals not very personal.
Then the opening line, or is it more of an opening gambit? My reaction to reading 'I would love to write a post about it' is, well, go on then. You don't need my permission. Go ahead, write away. Slate the book if necessary. And while you're at it, yes, you can list it on your own website too. No need to ask me. Go list crazy. Look, you've even included a link to your own web address... ah wait a minute, you want me to click on your website to take a look. So that's what this email's really about.
The next paragraph confirms my suspicions. By 'one more thing' what you really mean is here's the crux of the message, here's the real reason I'm sending this email, but I'll try and disguise it, downplay it, introduce it as an aside. You want to tell me about your Book Of The Day feature, which I have to pay for. Gotcha. Thanks. Next...
Am I just being cynical? I work as a copywriter, so I know a few tricks of the advertising trade, but there is a thing called Passing Off, where you pretend not to be selling when that's really exactly what you're doing.
Maybe this email just arrived in my inbox when I was a bit grumpy, dunno. But if anyone's ever replied to one of these, and got their book listed and gone on to sell a million, let me know!
August 9, 2015
Free digital books. Why should anyone pay?
Everyone bar the most extreme Analogue Activist can see that digital book sales will soon far outstrip revenues generated by hardbacks and paperbacks.
Good news for self-publishers like myself and a few million others. Or is it?
The way I see it is there’s weakness in numbers when it comes to self-published authors. With so many of us scribbling away and uploading our words to Amazon and Smashwords and Kobo and Draft2Digital, the market is saturated with works by authors 99.9% of the book buying public have never heard of.
Why should these people risk even 0.99 cents buying and trying our work when there are thousands of books by thousands of better known authors they can fill their preciously small amount of spare time reading?
To make someone want to pay for our work, we need to give them strong reasons to buy. Our titles need to be eye-opening and our opening few chapters need to be gripping, no, stunning, to hold their attention and get that cursor clicking on “buy”.
Or we have to bite the bullet and offer our novels for free. Yep. Free downloads. $0.00.
No one likes giving away work they’ve spent the equivalent of six months of their lives crafting. But, as someone more wordy wise than I once said: I write perchance to be read.
If you write to be read, free is the way to go. If you write to make money, free is the way to go. Initially, anyway, until you can break out of a pack of wannabe writers that is millions strong, with words delivered in such a compelling order, you get your name known.
All this advice is freely given and, of course, you are free to totally ignore it.
Good news for self-publishers like myself and a few million others. Or is it?
The way I see it is there’s weakness in numbers when it comes to self-published authors. With so many of us scribbling away and uploading our words to Amazon and Smashwords and Kobo and Draft2Digital, the market is saturated with works by authors 99.9% of the book buying public have never heard of.
Why should these people risk even 0.99 cents buying and trying our work when there are thousands of books by thousands of better known authors they can fill their preciously small amount of spare time reading?
To make someone want to pay for our work, we need to give them strong reasons to buy. Our titles need to be eye-opening and our opening few chapters need to be gripping, no, stunning, to hold their attention and get that cursor clicking on “buy”.
Or we have to bite the bullet and offer our novels for free. Yep. Free downloads. $0.00.
No one likes giving away work they’ve spent the equivalent of six months of their lives crafting. But, as someone more wordy wise than I once said: I write perchance to be read.
If you write to be read, free is the way to go. If you write to make money, free is the way to go. Initially, anyway, until you can break out of a pack of wannabe writers that is millions strong, with words delivered in such a compelling order, you get your name known.
All this advice is freely given and, of course, you are free to totally ignore it.
February 9, 2015
When To Abandon A Writing Project
How do you know when a project isn't working?
When a short story is short of an exciting lead character or a brilliant ending, or a gripping beginning, or all three?
Or when writing a novel turns out to be not quite so novel as you imagined it when you first thought of the idea?
We've all got projects lying abandoned in drawers like shopping cart left in multi-storey car parks. We know they won't be there forever, but right now we can't get them in the place they ought to be. Maybe we'll pillage the best bits and get the hell out of there, feeling a little guilty about leaving it abandoned.
But how long do you flog the dead horse before you realise it will neigh no more?
I think it's all down to how much time you've invested in the project or, to use poker parlance, how pot committed you are. If you've planned for months and written a whole draft or two, giving up that baby there and then isn't going to be easy. You're going to try and make it work, no matter what. You may be tempted to get the script out there for others to feed back on. Maybe it's not as bad as you think? It usually is.
For me, I seldom get as far as writing a draft. I'll spend ages planning it out, hoping a spark might save it from the oblivion of unfinished-dom. Yearning for a plot twist to turn it on its head and save it from the dreaded Drawer Of The Poor.
If nothing happens for a month, I'll move onto something else. But there's no escaping that feeling of failure, especially every time I go shopping and see those abandoned carts...
When a short story is short of an exciting lead character or a brilliant ending, or a gripping beginning, or all three?
Or when writing a novel turns out to be not quite so novel as you imagined it when you first thought of the idea?
We've all got projects lying abandoned in drawers like shopping cart left in multi-storey car parks. We know they won't be there forever, but right now we can't get them in the place they ought to be. Maybe we'll pillage the best bits and get the hell out of there, feeling a little guilty about leaving it abandoned.
But how long do you flog the dead horse before you realise it will neigh no more?
I think it's all down to how much time you've invested in the project or, to use poker parlance, how pot committed you are. If you've planned for months and written a whole draft or two, giving up that baby there and then isn't going to be easy. You're going to try and make it work, no matter what. You may be tempted to get the script out there for others to feed back on. Maybe it's not as bad as you think? It usually is.
For me, I seldom get as far as writing a draft. I'll spend ages planning it out, hoping a spark might save it from the oblivion of unfinished-dom. Yearning for a plot twist to turn it on its head and save it from the dreaded Drawer Of The Poor.
If nothing happens for a month, I'll move onto something else. But there's no escaping that feeling of failure, especially every time I go shopping and see those abandoned carts...
June 22, 2013
Six Reasons Why You Might Be Putting Off Starting Your Next Novel
My fourth novel is all planned. Just need to write it. And think of a title for it.
It's been ready to write since April. Yet I haven't got round to writing it. I know it's there, sending me nudging reminders, and yet I've been putting off double-clicking the icon on my desktop that'll take me there.
I know for a fact I'm not the only writer to suffer from this procrastination, but what can be the cause of it, and how can you stop yourself getting really good at it? Here's a few theories behind what might be causing it:
1) LAZINESS. Obvious cause, but most writers aren't lazy. Most of us are writing books in the spare time we get between working jobs that pay and looking after kids that cost.
2) THE BOOK SEEMS SO GREAT IN MY MIND. WHAT IF IT DOESN'T LIVE UP TO EXPECTATIONS WHEN I WRITE IT? All the excitement of the possibilities that you feel during the planning of a book have to be realised when you start writing the thing. And sometimes they're not. Sometimes that twist that seemed so groundbreaking during your planning phase just doesn't work when you start turning notes and thoughts into prose. It's this fear of your book turning out to be more average that you pictured it being that can stop you taking the plunge in the first place.
3) THERE'S OTHER STUFF YOU'D RATHER BE WRITING RIGHT NOW. Maybe your last novel was a bit of a hassle to write (mine was) and you're waiting for the scars to heal. Writing short stories or something under an alias for a totally different market seems more appealing right now. You need to pen something you'll enjoy, and you know a novel is six months of your life signed away.
4) WRITER'S BLOCK It's the big fear that loiters in the back of all writers' minds. Have my ideas dried up? Have I exhausted all the energy needed to commit to a novel? The only way around it is to start writing something, however bad.
5) WAITING FOR INSPIRATION This is usually a bad idea. Often, inspiration comes while you're writing. It shouldn't be used as the spark to get you writing. Best to get your head down and stuck in, however unappealing the prospect may be.
6) DEMORALISED BY THE SALES OF YOUR PREVIOUS BOOK All this self-publishing has brought the idea of making a living out of writing tantalisingly close to everyone with a computer and an internet connection. Just write, package, do a bit of marketing and watch the sales roll in. But if that's not happening, it takes a lot of willpower to start another project from scratch. What's going to make this new book perform better than the old one that's shifting at best a copy a month? How are you going to make anything new you write stand out when your old stuff is hidden among the thousands who are uploading to Amazon and Smashwords every day?
It's been ready to write since April. Yet I haven't got round to writing it. I know it's there, sending me nudging reminders, and yet I've been putting off double-clicking the icon on my desktop that'll take me there.
I know for a fact I'm not the only writer to suffer from this procrastination, but what can be the cause of it, and how can you stop yourself getting really good at it? Here's a few theories behind what might be causing it:
1) LAZINESS. Obvious cause, but most writers aren't lazy. Most of us are writing books in the spare time we get between working jobs that pay and looking after kids that cost.
2) THE BOOK SEEMS SO GREAT IN MY MIND. WHAT IF IT DOESN'T LIVE UP TO EXPECTATIONS WHEN I WRITE IT? All the excitement of the possibilities that you feel during the planning of a book have to be realised when you start writing the thing. And sometimes they're not. Sometimes that twist that seemed so groundbreaking during your planning phase just doesn't work when you start turning notes and thoughts into prose. It's this fear of your book turning out to be more average that you pictured it being that can stop you taking the plunge in the first place.
3) THERE'S OTHER STUFF YOU'D RATHER BE WRITING RIGHT NOW. Maybe your last novel was a bit of a hassle to write (mine was) and you're waiting for the scars to heal. Writing short stories or something under an alias for a totally different market seems more appealing right now. You need to pen something you'll enjoy, and you know a novel is six months of your life signed away.
4) WRITER'S BLOCK It's the big fear that loiters in the back of all writers' minds. Have my ideas dried up? Have I exhausted all the energy needed to commit to a novel? The only way around it is to start writing something, however bad.
5) WAITING FOR INSPIRATION This is usually a bad idea. Often, inspiration comes while you're writing. It shouldn't be used as the spark to get you writing. Best to get your head down and stuck in, however unappealing the prospect may be.
6) DEMORALISED BY THE SALES OF YOUR PREVIOUS BOOK All this self-publishing has brought the idea of making a living out of writing tantalisingly close to everyone with a computer and an internet connection. Just write, package, do a bit of marketing and watch the sales roll in. But if that's not happening, it takes a lot of willpower to start another project from scratch. What's going to make this new book perform better than the old one that's shifting at best a copy a month? How are you going to make anything new you write stand out when your old stuff is hidden among the thousands who are uploading to Amazon and Smashwords every day?
May 31, 2013
Changing The Title Of Your Novel
Michael Caine. Cliff Richard. That other fella. They've all changed their names and found success. So why not a book, I ask you?
It can't be a good idea, can it? Not a year after its release. In fact, it's so far from being a good idea that I can barely see it from where I'm standing here on the shoreline of Good Idea Land.
And yet I'm seriously considering doing it.
The novel in question is my debut, The Money Star.
Sales are sluggier than a sluggish slug, and although that's not all down to the title I suspect (I was naive back then, and wrote the thing without a genre in mind, so marketing it has been tricky to say the least) the title isn't doing it any favours methinks.
The title that methinks might do it a bit more of a favour is The Diamond Rush. That's what it's about, essentially a 21st Century space version of The Gold Rush.
And the title will sit well with the current cover artwork, so what's to lose apart from sales that I'm not getting?
Dear faithful, solitary reader, I shall let you know how I get on as soon as I get on and do it.
Wish me luck, and plenteous sales.
It can't be a good idea, can it? Not a year after its release. In fact, it's so far from being a good idea that I can barely see it from where I'm standing here on the shoreline of Good Idea Land.
And yet I'm seriously considering doing it.
The novel in question is my debut, The Money Star.
Sales are sluggier than a sluggish slug, and although that's not all down to the title I suspect (I was naive back then, and wrote the thing without a genre in mind, so marketing it has been tricky to say the least) the title isn't doing it any favours methinks.
The title that methinks might do it a bit more of a favour is The Diamond Rush. That's what it's about, essentially a 21st Century space version of The Gold Rush.
And the title will sit well with the current cover artwork, so what's to lose apart from sales that I'm not getting?
Dear faithful, solitary reader, I shall let you know how I get on as soon as I get on and do it.
Wish me luck, and plenteous sales.
March 2, 2013
When a reader wants their money back
A paper cut to that flap of skin between thumb and forefinger. An errant hair plucked from your nostril. A blunt stake driven through your heart. None is as painful as checking your KDP reports and finding someone who bought your book has asked for a refund.
The first time it happened to me was for a book that was free. Yes, someone had downloaded a non-fiction book. by me, for free, and disliked it so much, they demanded a refund of all the money they hadn’t spent on it. That is dislike, writ large.
The second refund happened just last week, hours after the purchase, it seems.
Why, why, why? are the thoughts that run through your mind. They hated it and hate me. They think I can’t write or my plotting’s crap, my characters cardboard and they’re going to tell everyone they know not to touch my stuff.
After this vicious paranoia came a spell where I tried to reassure myself. They only had the book a few hours, maybe they downloaded it by mistake, they were looking for a similar title and got it all wrong. Fair enough, no problem.
Then the paranoia returned. They read the first chapter and laughingly threw the book aside. (Bit difficult, when it’s digital, but that sort of thing) They disliked it so much, they couldn’t get their money back quickly enough.
That attack eventually died down, and now I’ve come to accept that I’ll never know who downloaded it and why they asked for a refund. It’s just part of the process. But I’ll be waiting for that paranoia to return when the next refund gets processed…
How do you handle your book getting refunded?
The first time it happened to me was for a book that was free. Yes, someone had downloaded a non-fiction book. by me, for free, and disliked it so much, they demanded a refund of all the money they hadn’t spent on it. That is dislike, writ large.
The second refund happened just last week, hours after the purchase, it seems.
Why, why, why? are the thoughts that run through your mind. They hated it and hate me. They think I can’t write or my plotting’s crap, my characters cardboard and they’re going to tell everyone they know not to touch my stuff.
After this vicious paranoia came a spell where I tried to reassure myself. They only had the book a few hours, maybe they downloaded it by mistake, they were looking for a similar title and got it all wrong. Fair enough, no problem.
Then the paranoia returned. They read the first chapter and laughingly threw the book aside. (Bit difficult, when it’s digital, but that sort of thing) They disliked it so much, they couldn’t get their money back quickly enough.
That attack eventually died down, and now I’ve come to accept that I’ll never know who downloaded it and why they asked for a refund. It’s just part of the process. But I’ll be waiting for that paranoia to return when the next refund gets processed…
How do you handle your book getting refunded?
