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.

Archetype or Cliche or ??

The Reading Lesson:

All too often Archetypes turn into Cliches.  This is a major problem for fantasy writers and readers.  Like, who wants to read another vampire novel ... or zombie ... or fairy ... or ???  You name it, and you can probably come up with examples where hundreds of writers followed the cliche and still got published.  You also know why I laughed out loud when I encountered Alison Pang's leg-humping unicorn in A Brush of Darkness.  [Shades of Chihuahuas!]

I've often thunk that Disney & Company should be prosecuted for stifling people's imaginations.  Fortunately, writers' imaginations can still counter the commercial norms.  While we want to make some money from our books, many of us streeetch people's imaginations in the process.

Off the rant.  Pang creates a very credible fey-touched urban fantasy world with a no-nonsense hero --  acting as a gatekeeper between worlds for her boss who has gone mysteriously missing.  The plot centers on finding the boss and other missing people.  The love interest is dangerous [read succubus] and is looking for his sister who has gone missing too.  The peril is developed from the concept soul capturing.  The cast of characters come from faery, heaven, hell, and human, all mixed together in unexpected ways.

Back to the unicorn who remains silent after the hero rescues him from a demon and takes him home.  She even tolerates him sleeping in her underwear drawer.  While she protests, she doesn't kick his ass out the door but fixes him breakfast instead.  About midway, though the book, she learns he's more than a pet ... with knowledge of Faery that helps save her behind.  The beast gives a great example on how to handle a secondary character who makes a major contribution to solving the plot's major puzzle.

A romance?.  Not really.  Urban fantasy is how it's labeled, but it's a dark one.  The love interest disappears in a fit of rejection. Fortunately, I think the book's a trilogy.  At least, there's a second book.  Guess I should read Pang's blog more carefully ... besides checking out the pictures of hunky men. 

Web Promotion and Other Stuff:

Stumbling over query writing?  Jessica Faust at Bookends is running a query critique on Wednesdays.  Granted it only  one agent's opinion, but you might also take a look at Query Shark.  Between the two, you might find a way to improve your query efforts.  I've been printing them off to study, but it's too soon to know the results.  I haven't sent out a new query -- to agent or publisher -- in ages.

[These sharing agents should be at the top of your blog reading list.  I only wish they represented the stuff I write.]

Maybe this should be under "progress" but I finally got around to cleaning up the 1st Turning Point marketing blogs hanging in my email.  Here are a few ideas I thought especially useful.

1)  Hank Quense ran a series at the beginning of the year on making your book stand out in the marketplace.  Can anyone say Amazon or Barnes and Noble here?  This is the third article, but there are links to the first two.

2)  Misty Evans gives some great tips on marketing your series ... and maybe gives you reasons why you should write a series.  There have been a lot of comments in the stuff I read that you'll sell more if you offer more than one book.  Guess once you've made one sale and they like it, the buyer will come back for more without another hard sell.

3)  John Klawitter writes about your book blurbs:  "Blurb Right or Die".  Hey, you wrote the book -- you have to market it even if you have a traditional publisher -- so write a good blurb.  Again more and more traditional publishers are making the writer to more and more of the marketing.

Progress:

Got a short, short story off to my critique group.  It borders on science fiction ... or at least uses SF parlance to explain the linch-pin situation.  Need to make sure I sure the vocabulary right.  Fortunately, one of critiquers is a scientist.

"Devil in the Details" started out as a flash fiction piece.  It made the first cut in a couple publications but didn't sell.  Thanks to an idea in a blog I read, I came up with an added danger and 500 words.  --  Next week I'll learn if I improved the story.

Bascially, I'm in revision mode.  Back to Emma ... plus I have Kaffy Anne waiting in the wings.  Then, I need to decide what to do with Britt.  I still have some agents I could send queries to.  Unfortunately the book straddles the line between YA and Tween.  Maybe I'll just try submitting it to publishers.  I'm very good at indecisive procrastination.

Trivia:

It weird watching a family squabble over an estate when they were left out of the will...

What's Your Flavor of Fae?

Fiction Lessons:

Finally read Patricia Briggs' Silver Borne.  The book concentrates on the fae this time around, though one of her werewolf friends has problems with depression caused by a fae.  Must say I enjoy her complex rendering of the subject.  Not only does she give her fae unusual attributes but she also gives them different nationalities.  If you're stuck in the Celtic rut, you might look at how she puts her fae characters together.

After paying her dues in other worlds, Briggs is proving herself a master writer with the Mercy Thompson series.  I still enjoy the fact that a weak little coyote shifter bests all the big bad guys ... in a realistic fashion.  [Meaning: the solution flows from the action.]    

Web Promotion and Mostly Conference Stuff:

The Northern Colorado Writers gave their usual excellent conference last weekend.  I listened to author's/agents/publishers give seminars ... and chatted with writer friends.  Met new people.  We may have even recruited a new member for our fantasy critique group.  All together, a great conference, but I had expected that.

I spent a good share of my time at the promotion and market sessions rather than craft sessions.  The big result from all the information I received was I combined my two blogs again.  To me it makes sense in retrospect since it was mostly about promotion anyway.  It's not like I have this huge fan base, panting for my deathless prose.

Did get a decent grade on my writing progress.  I pitched and submitted the first page of Emma to an "Agent Reads the Slush Pile" session. 

A small e-publisher attended, and I pitched because they did coloring books.  Or, had done a coloring book.  Just so happened I had a "Color-a-Comic Pre-primer", called "Pat the Pet", in my files.   My pitch resulted in a request for a full manuscript.

Kay's formula for a successful writer's pitch:  Present the basic info in a sentence or two, including the problem needing to be solved.  Sit back and let the agent ask questions.  --  Anyone care to share their experiences pitching?

My conference glow came when the slush pile readers said they'd continue reading more pages of Emma.  Even got some good suggestions for revision.

&&&&

Print books are dying.  Print books are dying.  Maybe not.

The kind people at Writer Beware linked to an article by Felicity Wood at the Future Book Seller.  Her conclusion after looking at the figures?  E-books are selling more and more with more people willing to pay for a reading device.  The kicker, though, is that the whole market for books, both e-pubs and print, is growing.  Can anyone think opportunity here?

Writer Beware also recently linked to Carolyn McCray at Digital Book World.  Her blog on "The Best Practices for E-Book Sales" gives you more bases to check on promoting your book.  A continuation of N. R. Williams discussion of increasing your traffic.

Granted, e-publishing is giving writers more opportunities.  At the same time, writers must step in and take on the duties of the marketing department if they want to sell more than ten books.  Thus, my obsession with promotion.

Progress:

Still revising my Emma chapters. 
Go, snail.  Go.

Got my Pat the Pet manuscript out to the the publisher.
Now, I wait.

Trivia:

It's been a busy celebration week.  Monday was Pie Day (3.14). Tuesday was Buzzard Day, when the buzzards returned to Hinkely, Ohio.  [We ate over-aged leftovers from our refridgerator.]  Wednesday was St. Urho's Day, when the saint chased the grasshoppers out of Finland to save their vineyards.  Today is St. Patrick's Day, when the saint chased the snakes out of Ireland.  Friday?  It's Recuperation Day.