My Dearest Writer,
I can not say this kindly, so I will get to the point. You are a writer, NOT a formatter. Please don't f*** with word. I have PhD and am a ninja scholar in word. Please just let me do it. Don't push the tab button... no..,no..,no.,no, no,no,no,no! .epub laughs at you and .mobi just gets confused to the point that it won't publish your book. "But it looks great in PDF!" Okay, but PDF is only good for fix page size. Do you have a kindle? Have you put a PDF on your kindle? Looks like *shit* doesn't it? I love you, dear writer, so... if you absolutely MUST, give me your word file that you think looks like crappy text and ALSO give me a PDF of how you'd like for it to look. Just let me do the formatting please. No double spaces because this one line needs to be with the other block of text. No hitting tab, no using bullets! And the bullets/tab combo is really a pain in the ass. Your adorable images at the top of every chapter...THEY AREN'T PART OF THE HEADING! Please just use normal style and click the center button on word after you insert the picture. No, you may not use drop caps. No you may not section break at odd places. NO YOU MAY NOT FORMAT YOUR BOOK!! So, I did another Free Days on Amazon with 3 different books. Hers To Choose got on BookBub and the downloads were amazing!! Of course sales for HTChoose have withered but what made this promotion work is the other two books PAK has out {Hers To Command & Hers To Cherish} that's the real reason I did BookBub. Had I submitted Luke's Tale...I think it would have just been a free book and withered sales with no sequel to propel. Thus, we did the Author Marketing Club Free days submissions as we did before and got a great beginning, a steady middle and a fantastic push from our most awesome PR guru ~ Travis. We scheduled the books to go free at the end of the month and I think that made a huge difference in sales and free download numbers. The third book was not a novel but a short story. It's KDP did as well as a short story would do as if treated like a red-headed step-child. I still believe in short stories, and I'll continue to write them and publish them, but I've noticed a trend in my writing to where I want to write longer and longer stories. So perhaps my short stories will become novellas and then to actual novels. I have two full length novels that are being prepared to come out in 2014 and hopefully I won't pull them back this time. But, what I've learned from this Free days are a few things: 1. Use the big guns when you have at least 2 other books available to buy ~ preferably in the series. 2. Use all the free promotions and a little bit of paid promo to have decent download counts and sales after the free days for 1 or 2 books by an author. 3. Kindle free days works if you use it like a genius {like me~not} and prepare for it ahead of time. 4. Keep the momentum going. <-- more on that later!! ACTION ITEM: Only use KDP Select wisely. You might snort at me and say "what's wise?" Spend money when you have 3 or more books, don't go overboard when you have only 1 - 2 books. Okay, I'd like to take today to acknowledge that some of my authors don't really know much about social media and I'm here to tell you that...it's OKAY.
My motto is EVERY THING, ALL THE TIME. But really, it should be one thing at a time. Social Media is frightening to some. What if I make a mistake? Yes, you can make a fauxs pas but handle it well and you can make a friend. Social media is a scary as meeting new people. It's a party and your always invited. But just like society their are rules, like, don't piss in the punch bowl. Also, only do what you can. If you can't do twitter then do Facebook. That's fine. But try both. One at a time. And do the one that makes you feel comfortable. In the beginning it will be awkward. It will be like that for all of them. But just like people, sometimes it takes really getting to know the person to see if you'll like them. Social Media is the same. ACTION ITEM: Try it! You might like it! Sometimes I have crit partners that want to swap pages and see if we "mesh" together. This is what I tell them: Crit partners are invaluable. I don't care if you have different styles of writing, different opinions of writing, different methods, and opposite plot methods. Each one of my crit partners I cherish. Even the ones that don't "get" me. Even the ones that want to reword everything, change all the structure, and correct the intentional misspellings. Why? Because they are giving me a completely different point of view. I've known others that just want someone who "gets" their writing. But I have a different take. I am secure in my writing, I know what works for me. I like to see what doesn't work for other people, understand where they are coming from with their comments and decide whether I want to change it or not. The reason for that is because I can expand into other points of view, and it gives my characters a depth that maybe I don't have or see. None of it is a waste of time because I got the benefit of looking at the same piece through different eyes and the crit partner got to learn how they would or would not "do" a scene, construct a sentence or term a phrase. When I take on a crit partner, I'm their student. When I crit, I'm their teacher. Taking critique is an art form of leaving emotional attachment behind. I do not get offended if people strip out passages of text. I can leave it or not. Only I can really see the reason for each sentence, each word. Sometimes I might not "get" it until several passages later and that may be what my crit partner wants. Even that is helpful to point to and say, "Aha! I’m making her feel this way…awesome let me twist the knife now." If I know what the goal is for the chapter, story or character I can help you in that I can say you’ve achieved the goal by me. I love getting feedback just on general all-around "feel" of the story. And almost anything that comes to mind. But you, my crit partners, promise to take my suggestions with a grain of salt. Look at all my comments as a plea to understand you and the story. Realize that I’m trying to both read as a fan and edit with a shrewd mind trying to make a scene the way you want the reader to feel. For me, my crit partners help me create my worlds, help me focus on discrepancies I’ve overlooked, and shape the story just as much as I have. And that is what a crit partner should always be. It's a relationship where both parties set aside worry for how the author will feel about this or that comment. If a crit partner can't speak freely, then you can't improve, you can't trust what their saying isn't watered down and you don't get needed feedback. People will withhold information that could be useful. We forget that different minds will read your creation and interpret it differently. A crit partner is your gauge. Don't abuse them by disqualifying their feelings, thoughts and suggestions. It's the author that must discern whether to keep or toss the advice depending on how you want the story to make the reader feel. Crit partners are the guage to help you achieve that. ACTION ITEM: When critiquing, only say what you're feeling for one trade-off. See if it works for your crit partner.
Photo Credit: Rune T via Compfight cc
Scrivener promises that nothing you write down in it will ever be lost. I was guaranteed that there is no possible way that anything written in Scrivener could ever possibly be deleted, trashed, or gone forever. It's like the internet. Only Scrivener takes downloads directly from your head and into Scrivener. (Yes, dramatization, but don't laugh--I think he's working on it.) So, I felt safe in knowing that my stories could ever be lost in any capacity. That only works if you don't purposely delete the story. You see, I thought that my recent shorts-off story was safe from ever being erased when I saw a "copy" of it in scrivener. To make long story short, if scrivener couldn't ever possibly let you lose anything, I found a way. I looked in the backup. I looked in scriveners back-up to the back-up. And that back-ups back-up. I looked in my dropbox. I searched my whole computer. Please make note: This was not a failing of scrivener. It was my author fail for not being paranoid. In essence, I felt safe in knowing that scrivener had my back and it does--except against me. I have learned from an experience that could have been worse. Instead of 1/3 of a story lost it could have been all of it, or my whole database. It's not wrong to feel safe, it's not wrong to feel paranoid. I chalk this up to learning about the tools you use before losing something vital. ACTION ITEM: Get Dropbox or another backup system. If you already have one, make sure it saves everything.
Photo Credit: J.P.Robertson via Compfight cc
Word of warning: this post is all over the place! I've been watching some of my authors and I've noticed a bit of the frazzles coming out their ears lately. So today's post is dedicated to them. Okay, so all my posts are dedicated to them. I write these things specifically for them. Ever hear of the advice write to one person? Well, I am directly writing to my authors, but everyone else gets to see the benifits--or stumbles. We have a lot going on this month! Patricia's first book comes out in June and we're doing everything to get it finalized. I've been tempted to tell you that no one will buy it so you don't get frazzled over sales. That might sound harsh to the rest of ya'll but my authors get my sense of humor.
What I'm really saying is we're in it together. You've spent time and money, I've spent time and money, we believe in your story and truthfully it had to be available to the public! There was no way I was going to let that one go into obscurity. I feel the same way about Carol's book. It was not allowed to go into obsurity. And Luke's Tale will finally be available free the first week of June. Luke's Tale also goes on virtual blog tour the last week of the month. KDP is a hit or miss for people and we're going to see what happens. It doesn't matter though. Keep writing. But the reason I titled this blog the time is now is because it is. One, if you're an aspiring author, do it! Plan it, set a date and go for it! I have to tell you, I joined a program that teaches you how to become an authority in your field. I've done very little with the program because I haven't made time. Just as one of my authors put a project on hold to deal with the virtual blog tour, I've decided that this other project is something I want to do, but later. You see...it's not time. This is my backwards way of telling you that planning your goals and acting on them is what's going to make them successful. Planning is the key. Everyday I go to my phone in the morning and plan my day. I have an app for that. It's called Any.Do - yeah funny name but great app. I love it's email feature, alarm features and reminders. So do you plan your day? You might have a list of things to do, but do you actually figure out how much time the tasks take? Do you try to improve on your efficiency? Have you found any short-cuts to save time? Everyone talks about planning your day but they forget one of the reason WHY planning is so important. Plan your day, so you can review and see where you can save time. Take the extra five minutes to go back to your list and think about how you can get more done. Not in a frantic way, but in a way that give you five minutes to do some yoga, focus your brain from frazzled to focused. Deepak Chopra is running a Conscious Lifestyle blog on LinkedIn and I'm finding that he's right--focus on the here and now prevents burn out. I'm not writing when I'm walking Emma. I'm not running Amazon numbers in my head when I'm at the job that pays the base bills. When I say the time is now, I'm not only saying that right now is the time to "do", but also a reminder of being in the moment. Be here, right now. How does this post make you feel? Is your brain buzzing? can you focus on each word as an individual or are you scanning? When you're with your horse are you riding or thinking about what you have to do in the office? The mind affects the body and vice versa. Stay focused. Plan your day. Be in the moment. Bring yourself to center by connecting your palms together and breathing. Now is it time, or not? ACTION ITEM: Look at your to do list. Are there things you can do more efficiently? Are you here and now? Can you focus on this sentence? If not, maybe collect yourself and bring in the thoughts going out. (That is if you haven't scanned the sentence). :) |
Dear Reader,
My efforts are to make this a learning blog where writers can see the flip side of publishing. If you have comments that will improve your experience or have a certain topic you'd like discussed, please contact me through email - HERE. ~ Sincerley, Your Editor Stephanie McKibben Head Troll Troll River Publications Books on Kindle
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