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| Negasonic Teenage Warhead, from Deadpool |
I can hardly believe that it's been six years since I
published my first book, The Years Distilled, and began the awesome (rare) up
and (all-too-often) down ride-of-a-lifetime that is being a published hack
writer. Thinking about that only brings to mind the voice of Negasonic Teenage Warhead from the recent Deadpool movie.
As I sit here writing this, I have four books available in
print and Kindle with a fifth coming out very soon, seven other titles
available exclusively as eBooks , and four pieces available in print and
digital anthologies – all collections I’m proud to be a part of. I've gotten to
know a lot of people that work in and adjacent to publishing who I now count as
friends, other writers, editors, proofreaders, designers, managers, reviewers
and book bloggers, and I've learned a lot about “indie publishing”, “hybrid
publishing”, “traditional publishing”, content layout, graphic design,
marketing, communication, and even a little… very little… about generating
sales. Sounds like a lot, no? The truth? It’s really almost nothing.
I don't think I have time now (I’m a single dad with a full
time job outside of my writing career) to type out the particulars of what I've
experienced, or each and every thing I've learned from others (as well as first
hand - the hard way) but I feel that I need to put something out there for
anyone who is where I was six years ago... looking to get their first title
out, and hoping that it doesn’t look like or read like garbage, that it
connects with someone... anyone...
somewhere out in the ever contracting world of readers .
If you've already been around the block... so to speak...
then you likely know everything I'm about to say... or you may have a completely different
experience and totally disagree with me (who knows, right?)... but either way I feel I need to type this
out... and it is *my blog* after all.
What are the most basic things? Well…
- Write. Do it all the time. Do it when you don’t feel like it. Do it when you think it sucks. Make it a routine. Make it a habit. The quality will go up the more you flex those mental muscles. Someone (maybe Ray Bradbury, maybe not) once said that “Everybody has a million bad words in them, and the sooner we get through that first million, the better.” Maybe not 100 percent accurate, but there is some truth there.
- Get an editor. A professional. You will have to pay them. It is more than worth it. Do your homework. Find a quality editor and expect to pay them. Unedited work reads poorly and makes sure that the first impression you make on a reader is as a piss poor armature… even if you have the best plots and characters ever conceived of… or at least since Bill Shakespeare.
- Covers matter. Make sure you have a good one. One designed by someone who knows what they are doing. One that people who aren’t you (and your faithful group of supporters, fans, family, and friends) also think looks great.
- Give away your work to be read and reviewed. Review s are more precious than gold. Yes, that means even the horrible bad ones. The worst build character and grow a thicker skin. The bad ones can serve to keep you humble and/or show you what you’re doing wrong and what you can learn.
But those are just the highlights… If I had to focus more in
depth on just one thing… only one topic to discuss, one direction to point
someone in, who was planning to publish it would be this: Social media and
internet presence. Know it. Use it. Respect what it can do for you. Trust me.
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| Rachel Thompson |
Get a web page, a blog, a Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and G+…
then read everything that Rachel Thompson has to say on webpages, tweets, and
status updates. Seriously. Just do it.
I already had a personal Facebook page... as I own a
computer, am aware that there is an internet, and I don't live under a rock. I have friends all
over the country (because I've lived all over the country) and it seemed like a
passable way of keeping in touch with my scattered social group. My personal Facebook page, though, didn't seem like enough to use for a marketing outlet. I saw that other artists,
authors, and companies had "professional" pages.
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| https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDennisSharpe |
I decided that I
needed one, too. As luck would have it, Facebook has a designation for 'Author'
when you are making a page... so, off I went... I created a Facebook page for
"Dennis Sharpe, the author":
It's really kinda neat to see who (that isn't already on
your friends list on your personal Facebook page) hits the like button, or
comments on your updates. I've gotten messages from fans (or so they claim to
be) asking me questions and seeming generally interested in my work. I've
gotten great feedback as well as gotten to hear from people who genuinely
enjoyed my work. If you don't see the benefit of that as a writer then perhaps
you should really consider if publishing your work is the right route for you to
take (in my humble opinion, anyway).
After all the interaction I was able to generate through my
Facebook "Author page", I noticed that several other writers were
enjoying success at getting their work read, noticed, devoured, etc. by making a
Facebook page for their book, or series of books, and I thought that was
ingenious. When I released my first novel (which also happened to be book one
of a series) I jumped on that bandwagon as well... I made a Facebook page for
my Paranormal/Urban Fantasy series.
I have to be honest here...
While I like that page, it doesn't get quite as much notice, and it
hasn't served me quite as well as I would have liked... but, the interaction that I have gotten out
of it has been awesome, and ego boosting... if not a major marketing tool, or
help generating interest in my fiction.
On that note, however I have to say that if you intend to
publish fiction, and you'd like people to actually read that fiction, you'd be
crazy not to get yourself on Twitter.
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| Awesome things like this happen on Twitter |
My Twitter handle is: @WitlessLackey (an old
online handle from years gone by that also happens to be in the name of my
blog. Honest... just look at the page this is on.)
Kelli McCracken, who is amazing help for
any writer who's planning to publish (you can find her here:
http://www.kellimccracken.com/), told me that Twitter was a must. She couldn't
have been more right. You can help generate interest for your work... as well
as generate interest for the work of other writers you enjoy reading... *and*
you get to enjoy a sense of community with other writers doing what you're
doing... like group therapy, moral
support, cheerleaders, contemporaries, sounding boards, and people who really
"get" where you are and what you are going through. I met some of the best people through Twitter (Mireille Chester, Thomas Amo, Allie Burke, and Rachel Thompson to name a few) as well as occasionally get to digital connect with authors I've been a fan of for years.
Google also has thier hybrid mix of Twitter and Facebook
called "G+". I don't know that it will ever be as big, or as great a
tool... or as fun as Facebook and
Twitter can be but I'm all about trying new things so I made a G+ account:
So far... it's not
done a world of good for me... and most everyone I encounter there I have
already encountered through another avenue of social media... but it doesn't hurt, I guess... it's not time consuming, and it's fairly
idiot proof. (It needs to be for me, afterall)
There's also Myspace and Livejournal... Neither are bad. I have an account on
both... I check them
semiannually.... so, yeah. You can use
them... but I've not seen them to be all that great as a service (but they are
free, as well. )
Pinterest and Instagram are worth your time... but you really should read Rachel's advice, not mine. Seriously. http://badredheadmedia.com/ Go there. Read.
There are a few other tools out there at your disposal that
I can't see how any writer wouldn't want to employ... unless they want their writing (or
themselves) to remain hidden... they are Goodreads, Shelfari, and LibraryThing. Of the three, and I use all three to one degree or another,
I would have to say that my favorite is Goodreads.
All three of these services
offers you the ability to create an "author account" where you can
list all your books, get ratings and reviews, offer giveaways, gain fans, join
groups, post trailers, put up short fiction, and link all your other social
media. My Goodreads account is:
I cannot say enough times how much Goodreads has done for
me. They have lists where readers can vote on your book... they have ways for
readers to recommend your book to others... they have virtual book clubs and
discussion groups that your book can be involved in... Readers can shelve your
book by interest or genre, so others can be exposed to you (and not in the
illegal kind of "exposed" that sends you to jail, but the good way where
people can find and read your book)...
(Continued)
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