Finding Time to Write and to Promote, That's a Puzzle Plaguing Most Authors.

Here an minute, there an hour. does that describe the you social media time? Seems like I'm always promoting one story or another.

 

I'm not the only writer I know who complains about social media gobbling their writing time. But marketing to build a fan base takes time ... or money. If you're like me, you've got more time than money.

As I write this DuoLit , a source of much good advice, seems to be on vacation ... or something, but they keep popping up on the web. One blog which I keep rereading, "Authors Who Say “I Don’t Have Enough Time for Promotion” Are Doomed to Fail", gives writers some ideas for managing their social media time.

Yeah marketing is the bane of a writer's existence. If you don't promote, you don't exist in the possible reader's mind. Lack of recognition is the bane of the pip-squeak writer's "career".

Came across a marketing article on the importance of not ignoring Amazon. I'm including it because I recently came to the conclusion that I needed to promote my for-pay books, like Troublesome Neighbors, on Amazon more ... on my own. Haven't broken the code to selling more than a few books a month, but if I study enough... ?????????? Who knows what might happen. I do have some decent reviews. 

7 Bestseller Book Marketing Strategies For Fiction Writers by Jonathan Gunson is one of the best promotion round-ups I've seen in a long time. Thought it was well worth studying. In fact, you should check out the side bars too. You'll find lots of interesting information. 

How does my promotion do? Not too well. I'm not a social being [like I'm a grumpy hermit] so the word-of-mouth thing and building a fan base is like reading cuneiform to me. But I keep trying.

Perhaps one of my greatest promotion finds: Buffer, a service for scheduling your tweets. Yeah, there are others. But Buffer has just added a new application. You can now post pictures into the body of your text when you use them. Even the computer klutz here [me] can work it. They offer a limited free service and a paid one. The cheapskate here still does the free bit. Oh, one other thing Buffer offers built in analytics of your tweets. 

You may be dismayed by the number of click throughs ... but every looker counts.

~~#~~

Promotion gobbled my time this week. Today was the perfect example. Came upstairs determined to start writing new stuff on a new story.  

First came reading my three comics. 

Then, had to check my Amazon ranking, which is sinking again ... though I got another four star review. [It was too generalized to crow about.] But when I check my reviews, my description for The Ghost in the Closet picked at me again.

Then, I went in to edit the description and post it on both Amazon and Smashwords. The story is also on Nook but it'll be a while before the changes appear. Below is the new version.

Some say seeing ghosts is a gift,

 but after losing her job, Dumdie Swartz says, "Hogwash".

Since she was a child, Dumdie has seen ghosts. Over the years, she developed several tics and quirks to hide the fact. When her boss witnesses several of these occasions, he fires her, thinking that she suffers from mental issues that could hurt his business. 

Without a job and money, Dumdie becomes just another old woman living out of her car. As winter approaches, her luck changes. Dumdie secures a room in a homeless shelter. But all isn't well. The ghost of the former owner of the converted mansion haunts Dumdie's room because she’s distressed over her lost will.

When the shelter is threatened with closure, Dumdie must make a decision. Does she continue to hide her gift or does she use her talents to save the shelter...and herself. 


Now that most of my morning is gone. I will have accomplished something, I guess. The new sales description which I hope is an improvement and this blog which has been edited four times through. I hope you accomplish more with your writing time this week.

Writing Success: Using Cliches and Tropes

Is there anything more cliched than a fairy tale? The story lines from the Brothers Grimm get recycled over and over -- with varying results, both artistically and financially. One of the most fun reworking of fair y tales, IMHO, is Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Series. While my computer was held hostage by my bedroom furniture [while getting to carpeting] -- I reread The Fire Rose [It was the easiest to grab.] for the ????? time.

Yeah, I admit I've reread her Elemental series over and over and enjoy each volume each time I read it. The question to ask is why on earth Why?

I'm sure you've already guessed the answer. It's the way she twists various cliches to make them her own and support her storyline -- in this case it's Beauty and the Beast. Some examples:

the poor girl all alone in the world:

In The Fire Rose, Lackey sets her story in the good old early 20th century USA. The setting is is academe, both institutional and private. Rose is a brilliant scholar whose fight for an advanced degree ends when her professor father dies. She uses her skills as an ancient linguist to escape her predicament ... only to fall into a deeper pit.

the werewolf:

The hero is the usual alpha male egomaniac. While he doesn't flex his abs, he does something more interesting. He turns himself into a half-man, half-beast by trying to use earth magic when he's a Fire master. The hero also learns from his act of hubris which includes accepting Rose as an equal.

magic base on the four elements:

Lackey's magical system -- based on fire, air, earth, and water -- is fairly simple, but it works within its logic. When the hero tries to break it, he is punished. [See above.]

societal conventions fill the pages:

The villains are even more arrogant the hero, and don't learn any lessons. Loved the way she used A. E. Crowley's arrogance to set up an alternative form of magic to break the rules of mastering the elemental magic.

Perhaps one of the more interesting is how Lackey uses xenophobia as an illustration of tolerance. The setting, San Francisco of 1906, provides Chinese traditions as a counter to the European magic system. It also provides allies to help the protagonists stay alive, against the way Chinese were treated in California at the time.

Out of her magical systems, Lackey gives a neat alternative explanation of the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906.

Yeah, I realize that there are lots of story line cliches mentioned above. Doesn't matter to Lackey though. She makes the whole story fresh. 

May you write as well as she, them.

 

Advice:

Want your writing to be a success? Jonathan Gunson at Bestseller Lab has one word for you: Click here to learn more about what he thinks is the hottest tip for writing success. 

I would argue that there is another piece of one word advice: Write.