Authors Lounge discussion

OK, I'm celebrating to day because my new paranormal/horror novella, 'Cold Revenge' has just been published by Etopia Press as an ebook and is up on Amazon. Barnes and Noble et al will follow in due course. If anyone would like to see more and read an excerpt, here's a link: http://www.catherinecavendish.com/p/c...

Thank you Carroll. It certainly is!

My problem is that my works don't fit easily into genres, unless, I guess, literary. Kiss of death. I've been toying with the positive description of "genre-defying" any other suggestions. List of works with really short descriptions at randyattwood.blogspot.com

I write a lot of cross Genera myself such as post-apopoliptic / Enviromental / medical / political / adventure. I think the trick is to find an unbrella that covers most of it. I list as science fiction for the most part.

We are herd animals. And we like to categorize things because we think it means understanding. So if we read one book we like, then we like to have it categorized so we can then go seek out that category thinking that if it fits into that category, then we'll like it. Writers, knowing that, started writing to those categories. I've always felt the better a work is, the less does it fit into a category. Easy to call John Le Carre a writer of spy novels; misses the point entirely of what he was doing in his fiction. Would you call a Farewell to Arms a war story? Yes, but misses the point. I could go on.

Catherine wrote: "OK, I'm celebrating to day because my new paranormal/horror novella, 'Cold Revenge' has just been published by Etopia Press as an ebook and is up on Amazon. Barnes and Noble et al will follow in du..."

Congrats, Catherine. Why publish through Etopia Press. Did they provide cover art and are doing marketing for you? And how is everything work with them?

Came across a diary entry from 2005 at a particularly down time in my life. Epublishing has come along to save my dreary little soul:


Is getting published a war? If so, I certainly haven't waged it well. Writing fills me with confidence. Trying to get published floods me with self-doubt. In fact, I stopped trying to get published five years ago and just concentrated on writing, developing what was in me, making sure I had my voice and not a formula voice, making sure that each novel was unique to itself, was its own world and knowing they were finished when I found myself emotionally satisfied at their final sentence.

Then I started sharing my work with others: People who went to bars, people who played pool, people who worked in hospitals. The emotional connection was there for them. After reading one of my novels, a man in his 50's confessed to me he had been molested as a boy by his uncle. Two women told me they actually cried at the denouement of another work. High praise. None could compare my work to anything else they had ever read.

I have a 10,000 word short story that probably never will find a home simply because of its length, and yet those who read it find it remarkable. I am at work on a highly unusual piece that fits no genre and thus, is unmarketable. My novels sound silly when forced into a synopsis. My beginnings are not jarring enough to make them stand out from other beginnings. And yet I believe a good sentence contains a rhythm that connects to the heart more than to the brain. There is harshness in my work, but tenderness; brutality, but compassion. I have no idea how to market those qualities. I have come to loath the very word "market," and how can I do something I loath?

I write because only when I'm involved in a "project" am I fully myself, only then do the many aspects of myself come together in my word-created world.

I fear I may never be published because I simply will give up trying. It leads to despair. That, too, I turn into the soil of myself from which will come the next "project." I re-read Frost's "Build Soil" and await the budding of my next work.

My name is Candy Crum and I am the Author of The Eternal Gift: The Eternal Series. I've been posting this on SEVERAL writing pages because I really want to get the word out. Because I think this is a GREAT opportunity for those of you who are either unpublished but want to be, are in between projects and are looking for something fun to do, or are in need of getting your name out there!

So here goes!
I am currently trying to get a Paranormal Horror Anthology together for NaNoWriMo. Yes - I realize the idea behind NaNoWriMo is to do 50k words YOURSELF. However - I know how important it is to get your name out there! I'm still trying to do this myself! So if you are interested in writing a 5k-8k short Paranormal Horror story for an Anthology, I would be honored to read your work!
Depending on the length of the stories I choose, I will pick (roughly) 10 stories - unless there are just a couple more I just cant stand not having!
As I said before, Indie writing is so much fun but it's also VERY difficult when trying to get your name out and this is one way to do so! Plus - Its just a lot of fun!

If you are interested - visit my blog on here or go to The Eternal Gift facebook fanpage at
www.facebook.com/theeternalseries and visit the notes section and it will contain the rules/submission guidelines on submitting your story!

Those of you interested in doing this - please leave me a message so I can get an idea of how many submissions I am expecting! Thanks so much and I look forward to working with some of you!

-Candy

Catherine wrote: "OK, I'm celebrating to day because my new paranormal/horror novella, 'Cold Revenge' has just been published by Etopia Press as an ebook and is up on Amazon. Barnes and Noble et al will follow in du..."

Hi Catherine - I'm a little late to the party, but wanted to say congrats :-)

I am a high school student going through my senior year. I baby sit for two hours every weekday afternoon. I work from 8-12 every Friday. I also work 6-9 every other Thursday. On top of that, I am also a book blogger.

I deal with anxiety so my therapist doesn't want me stuck at home writing all the time. To please her and myself, I go out on the weekends and have some "me" time. I know you are probably just as busy. I was just curious as to how you deal with time management while getting everything done and getting enough sleep.

Should I just drink lots of coffee and work at night? That's when I'm most productive anyway. Just wondering what your time management skills/tips are. Thanks!

Trust Carroll when he says that, Lindsay, he should know.

I'm also going through my senior year. Although it doesn't sound like I am as busy as you are, I often don't have much time. I work every Tuesday and on the weekends and am involved Wednesday evenings in religious activities, babysit Thursdays, and once you pile on school and homework and guitar and piano I consider myself to be quite busy as well, although probably not as busy as you seem to be. I have no idea what it takes to be a book blogger or how time consuming that is.

I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year which helps surprisingly a lot to get me to write. The word quota bumps up writing on the list of priorities so I don't fall behind. Even so, I'm a professional procrastinator. My brother also is having me write his Facebook Application, which certainly doesn't help with time to write for myself.

What I like to do is write during school. If you're a senior, you're probably doing one of two things. Taking the three classes you need to graduate and then a bunch of fluff classes(or none at all), or taking all the AP courses you can so you have to pay less in college. During my fluff classes or free periods I write a lot, or even the normal classes with the easy makeup days. I just write it in my binder. It helps with boredom, certainly.

I also do everything else that needs to get done, even take a nap, maybe, then write around midnight, because like you that's when I'm most productive. It doesn't seem to matter what time I go to bed, I always fall asleep around one, maybe midnight or even eleven thirty if I'm really tired, so I decided to utilise the free time I had.

Also, if you're on A/B schedule(Having four classes every other day) then pick one day to do your homework and devote the next just to writing. It works surprisingly easily.

Hope that helps!

Thanks!

Hey Lindsay,

I think the important thing about time management is to not get bogged down in the details. We all want to be able to do everything, but there are just some projects we have to be able to set aside for the "to-do-later" pile without feeling guilty.

As for me, I am a complete and total night owl, always have been. I seem to get my best ideas at night and can end up writing through the night 'til the wee hours of the morning.

It helps that I've always had a flexible job that allowed me to do that. When I was in school, I did a lot of my writing on the weekends to write late into the night. I also learned to keep a notebook beside my bed because I'd get ideas as I was drifting off to sleep. Now I can jot them down so I don't forget them in the morning.

Thanks Bridget! Sometimes, it just consumes me and I forget what I really need to do...like relax.

Into my first blog hop. Pretty interesting. Not a great response yet in terms of numbers, but every potential reader is precious

http://randyattwood.blogspot.com/2011...

Lindsay wrote: "Thanks Bridget! Sometimes, it just consumes me and I forget what I really need to do...like relax."

I think we all tend to get bogged down from time to time and have to remember why it is we are feeling so overwhelmed...we love to write!

Thanks Virginia! I try to stay away from too much caffeine because it makes my anxiety worse, but sometimes I can't help myself!

Hi Lindsy, try Camomile tea, it's a natural anti-anxiety. Just don't drink twenty cups of it in a day.

I found the hardest thing about being an Indie author is becoming known. Any suggestions?
I'm on Facebook if anyone's interested.
And I liked your FB page Candy. Here's mine:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jeanett...

Liked your FB page Jeanette, good luck in your writing!

@Lindsay: As others said, health is the most important thing. The Greeks had it right when they said, "Everything in moderation." I'd love to be earning a living writing, but that's not in the cards at the moment, so I continue doing graphic design and other odds and ends to pay the bills. One thing that helps me is to make a To Do list each week (or each day if that works better for you). It helps to prioritize things as well as gives you a sense of accomplishment when you can cross items off.

Randy wrote: "We are herd animals. And we like to categorize things because we think it means understanding. So if we read one book we like, then we like to have it categorized so we can then go seek out that ca..."

I'm with you, Randy, but the book-selling world runs on genres. I think the best thing to do is to cross-list on places like Amazon. Regarding descriptions, I make two for every book - a long one that gets posted with the book and tries to tell the potential reader as much as possible in about 180 words - and a short one that I post elsewhere to catch attention and draw readers to the book and the longer description. 180 words because that's what fits on the back of a standard 5.25 by 8 inch paperback. I find limiting the words. even for the ebook descriptions, is a good discipline to make me hone the words.

Lee,

I think that's a really good idea on limiting the words. I know that I found writing short descriptions much more challenging than writing the whole book. Getting that balance between teaser and revealing too much is tricky.

Randy wrote: "Came across a diary entry from 2005 at a particularly down time in my life. Epublishing has come along to save my dreary little soul:


Is getting published a war? If so, I certainly haven't waged ..."

Randy - I can feel the power of your words coming off the screen. I spent 10 years writing without knowing I'd be published. I read somewhere the 11 is about average, but some can do it in 5 and others in 15. If this is what you want, then how can you stop?

Catherine wrote: "OK, I'm celebrating to day because my new paranormal/horror novella, 'Cold Revenge' has just been published by Etopia Press as an ebook and is up on Amazon. Barnes and Noble et al will follow in du..."

Congrats!!! I will make sure to read.

Congrats! Way Hay! As we say! Punch the air in triumph!

Carroll wrote: "I know what you mean, Randy. I don't write to catagory. I write what inspires me then let the world decide where it fits. Good point."

Inspiration, I believe, is what makes an Author great. I fail to understand how it could possibly "work" to write according to "catagory". Isn't that a bit like putting the cart before the horse?

Randy wrote: "Came across a diary entry from 2005 at a particularly down time in my life. Epublishing has come along to save my dreary little soul:


Is getting published a war? If so, I certainly haven't waged ..."

This reflects the point where I currently am with my writing. Is nice to hear we share the same frustrations and doubts. Thank you for sharing.

Some good ideas and suggestions in this thread. Thanks for being a supportive group, everybody! :)

I'm really looking forward to having some serious writing time to myself today. With all the craziness leading up to Thanksgiving I haven't had any time to write, and today my boyfriend is spending the day with his brother, so I've got peace and quiet around the house! Hoping I can make a big push and finish or almost-finish my current WIP. We'll see!!

Okay, does anyone else feel like their head is going to explode while trying to run the gambit of social media marketing every day. I could spend hours doing it, but have less than an hour to dedicate. Does anyone have any strategies or suggestions to get the most out of my time?

I did manage to squeeze in about 3000 words on the 25th. Ahhhh...feels so good! I'm about 10,000 words away from finishing the first draft of this novel, so anything I can put in at this point feels like a major push toward finalizing a goal! My first novel only took me three months to write after I'd concluded my research. The second took about the same time. The one I'm working on how has been in progress since April 2010! Aaarrgh! I can't wait to get this one all wrapped up. Hopefully today I can put another big dent in it.

@J. -- actually, yes. If you check out my blog, http://lavenderironside.blogspot.com, I'm sharing my marketing strategies there with other authors. I spend around an hour a day on Goodreads, and that's about all I spend. In the four weeks since I started this strategy, my daily sales have increased steadily -- first about two a day at the beginning of my Goodreads phase, now I'm up to five or six a day. It seems to be steadily increasing, and that's with an hour a day.

I think it's not so much how much time you spend promoting, but the way you promote that makes the difference when it comes to social media. I think approach is extremely important...I talk about it in my two Goodreads posts on my blog. I need to put up more blog posts soon, now that the holiday is over and I have no excuse for slacking off on the blog! ;)

Catherine wrote: "OK, I'm celebrating to day because my new paranormal/horror novella, 'Cold Revenge' has just been published by Etopia Press as an ebook and is up on Amazon. Barnes and Noble et al will follow in du..."

Congratulations Catherine!! I hope your book is a success.

Ahhh...I'm so excited for 2012 to be here and yet I'm so nervous I could puke. My first book The Unfaithful Widow is being released in April and I have another one being published sometime next year as well. Things are going to be crazy...I just know it. I tell myself repeatedly to sit back and enjoy this roller coaster of a ride. I know that I am my worst critic but waiting and wondering how the public is going to react to your book...well...is gut wrenching. I dont know which is worse...the waiting to see if a publisher will take you on or waiting to see if your book will be successfull. Geesh..writing my book was easy as pie, everything else that comes after......ugh! lol I wonder how Stephenie Myers or Stephen King or Danielle Steele felt when they became first time writers?

awesome! Thanks Lavender!

Hang in there, J.S.! It will be fun, if you look at it in the right way. :)

J. wrote: "Okay, does anyone else feel like their head is going to explode while trying to run the gambit of social media marketing every day. I could spend hours doing it, but have less than an hour to dedic..."

Yes, to your first question. No, to the second. I just keep plugging away.

Lavender wrote: "I did manage to squeeze in about 3000 words on the 25th. Ahhhh...feels so good! I'm about 10,000 words away from finishing the first draft of this novel, so anything I can put in at this point fe..."

I got a "server not found" error message when I tried to access your blog, Lavender. How have you attracted enough people to your blog to make it the engine for increased sales? Did you build a huge friends base? If so, how did you convert them to blog followers?

Thanks, Lee -- I may have mistyped the url -- try this: http://lavenderironside.blogspot.com/

My blog is actually not where I'm seeing increased sales. It's all from Goodreads, and I detailed how I use Goodreads to my advantage (and how I think it should definitely not be used) in the two Goodreads posts on the blog. :) I keep the blog because fellow writers seem to find it helpful, but it has definitely not been the primary source of increased sales.

The primary source has been personal, gracious, friendly interaction with a wide variety of people here on this particular social network, and interaction that usually does NOT involve mentioning my book, unless it is entirely apropos to an already-established conversation. In briefer terms, I get friendly and I don't harp on my book; I behave as if I am a guest at a nice party, and I drift pleasantly from one cluster of guests to another, making polite, interesting conversation. The sales seem to follow on their own, as genuine friendly interaction inspires readers to check out my profile, where they discover I have a book out, and where they can see that it has good reviews. :)

Simple and very fun, I am pleased to say!

Oh -- and as for building a huge fan base, I'm not there quite yet! I've sold about 100 copies of my book and that's not enough to constitute any kind of fan base, let alone a huge one. I hope that happens in the future, though! :) It would be nice.

I have only been focusing on this kind of promotion (which I call "smart social networking" on my blog) for about four weeks, so 100 sales in a month is pretty decent for a fledgling self-published novel.

My prediction is that as I continue to build connections with popular reviewers and continue to make friends with active Goodreads members, a critical mass of gentle, unobtrusive exposure will be reached and people will start taking note in much larger numbers...and without my having caused any annoyance or ill will by pushing my book too hard on anybody.

We'll see whether that prediction plays out over the next couple of weeks! I self-published this book in large part to experiment with effective promotion and marketing in a social-media-heavy world, so if my predictions are wrong and the book flops, I won't be too dismayed.

Lavender wrote: "Oh -- and as for building a huge fan base, I'm not there quite yet! I've sold about 100 copies of my book and that's not enough to constitute any kind of fan base, let alone a huge one. I hope th..."

100 copies in a month is terrific in my opinion. I'd be thrilled if any of my books did that well. I've been following what I believe is a similar strategy to yours, plus trading reviews with other GR authors where the books are the kind I like and they like. Maybe I don't have as winning a personality as you. I spend about an hour a day on GR and FB. How about you?

I just noticed something rather interesting. Amazon UK has my book reviews from Amazon USA listed on my book page there. I found reviews when I noticed that I had made a sale on amazon.co.uk (Yes, my first international sale, I am well pleased). I suspect that the USA reviews helped convince the UK reader to make the purchase.

I would be curious to hear if anyone else has noticed their reviews appearing on Amazon UK and or if they were starting to see any UK sales.

Ward wrote: "I just noticed something rather interesting. Amazon UK has my book reviews from Amazon USA listed on my book page there. I found reviews when I noticed that I had made a sale on amazon.co.uk (Yes..."

I haven't seen any reviews cross over to amazon.co.uk, I have sold 4 books in the UK and trying not to let it go to my head.

Lavender wrote: "Oh -- and as for building a huge fan base, I'm not there quite yet! I've sold about 100 copies of my book and that's not enough to constitute any kind of fan base, let alone a huge one. I hope th..."

I'm definitely taking a similar approach, Lavender. I've heard so many readers complain that authors tend to just spam their books to the point that it turns potential readers away from everyone posting about there work.

I try to just be friendly, engage in conversations from many different genres and just be polite. I've definitely seen a consistent increase in sales whether its from GR or luck, I can't say. I do know that I'm just continuing to poke along and trying to find my way through all this social media craziness.

Lee wrote: "Lavender wrote: "Oh -- and as for building a huge fan base, I'm not there quite yet! I've sold about 100 copies of my book and that's not enough to constitute any kind of fan base, let alone a hug..."

An hour a day? That’s a lot! If I had 72 of those, I could relive my first marriage. As it is, I'm on my fourth marriage now, and she hasn't got any easier to deal with since I married her the first time. I'm just not sure I'll have time for all this marketing.

So much to say, so little time. Ok, first let me say "Hi" to everyone. HI! Now that's out of the way... promotion... It is a hard job. I have a day job, responsibilities at night like you wouldn't believe. I find myself writing on post it notes here and there, taking those post it notes and putting them in a notebook for later. I'm a self medicated pantser. Meaning I've tried to plot, but I don't have the skill or the time for it. :) What I've found to be true is that if you pen a good story, it doesn't matter what genre you throw it in. The promotion part - Twitter... I get a lot of hits from facebook, but when I look at my stats on Wordpress, I see that I get a lot of hits from Twitter. Why, because I will re-tweet authors that are new, old and inbetween. You would be surprised at how many authors will give you a 'shout-out' because you gave them one. That in turns leads to sales, or at least a curiosity about you. Example, one follower says buy my book, now he'd been going on and on about how good his book was for a while, so I said, what the hell, and bought it. It was .99 cents. How can you not do something like that for so cheap? I was so pleasantly surprised at the depth of the book, I wrote a review, gave him a shout on Twitter, and guess what, I got more hits to my site because of it. Granted, we don't write in the same genre at all, but with his 4800 followers, a simple re-tweet that I reviewed his book and loved it, got myself and my books more attention. Twitter is the new word-of-mouth. The lovely thing about technology, you can link them all. My wordpress site is linked to twitter and facebook. If I post one thing in one place it goes to all three. Not to mention that my blog is also linked to Goodreads. So while promotion can be hard, if you take the time to do a simple thing like linking your accounts together, you can promote your tail off with one post.

Find me on twitter @Nevealane I love new followers!

Carroll wrote: "OMG! I just started my Twitter account.

I'm now a Twitter Critter. LOL"

I just started mine yesterday. Wow...you wouldn't believe how the traffic on my blog increased..immediatly! I am trying not to get hooked...I feel like a worm the beak of the twitter bird. lol

Oh! I am finally getting my blog together. I need followers and subscribers, any volunteers? I created an easier domain to remember (I hope) www.naesnest.com Nae's Nest....eventually I will prolly have some sort of "bird" theme and my followers are "chicks"...be a chick in maes nest? too corny?? yeah...I am corny. teehee

Is it possible to use one's GR blog as a general blog by linking it elsewhere. Mine is now linked to FB and my amazon author profile, but not anywhere else. I haven't linked it to my website because my website is huge. I could create another website but that could cause confusion. Ideas?

Lee wrote: "Is it possible to use one's GR blog as a general blog by linking it elsewhere. Mine is now linked to FB and my amazon author profile, but not anywhere else. I haven't linked it to my website becaus..."

If you (or your web design developer Webmaster) can link the APi tool to your website, you should be able to get your blog to show up. Look here -
http://www.goodreads.com/api

Linking GoodReads to a website is difficult but linking your website to GR is easy...

Virginia wrote: "Some days even figuring out the linking is too much for me."

I will be more than happy to create a step by step for you... it is a snap once you start

Nevea wrote: "Virginia wrote: "Some days even figuring out the linking is too much for me."

I will be more than happy to create a step by step for you... it is a snap once you start"

I think we aren't communicating. I know I could use an RSS feed to send my blog to my website, but I'd have to change the title page of the website to accommodate it and I don't want to change it. Besides my website doesn't get that much traffic. It's mostly for people who want to read my poetry for free. I just list and describe my novels there for the sake of letting such people know they exist. The website is over two hundred pages.


Other ideas?