Writerly Ways

[cornerofmadness]

Many years ago someone sat me down to ask me am I sure I want to be a doctor and listed out a whole lot of cons that I didn't really believe but were true. I feel the same way about being a writer. So you want to be an author?

Are you ready to race around on deadline? (Mine's wednesday OMG) Are you ready for someone to shred your manuscript 3-6 times before it's published and they're not going to be kind about it? I loved this character! This character is boring, remove him or punch him up (Same character). Don't you think XYZ would be a better love interest than who you have? Change it. This would work better as a romantic comedy (it's a mystery). Here's 300 pages of edits you have six days. Oh you have a day job and you might not be able to do this? Too bad, so sad, see you in six days.

Give us your cover specs. Here's your cover that looks nothing like the specs. Well books with XYZ on it sell best in your genre so it's going on the cover? Has nothing to do with your story and the cover is a lie that might upset reader/reviewers? Too bad, so sad. Oh I love your cover. That cover tells me nothing, I can't tell what genre it even is (same cover)

Titles suck? Wanna help? No one does. Title is finalized, a dozen better titles get pitched. I love your title. That title makes no sense (same title)

You need to get in touch with your readers. You have to have a website, facebook, twitter, instagram. Stay on brand. You aren't talking politics, you must not care, I'm not buying from you. I don't agree with your politics, I'm not buying from you.

You pay for an expensive marketing scheme. Novel still sits there like a turd in a clogged toilet. You don't know why. Did I not tweet/facebook it enough? did I over tweet/facebook it? Will my publisher drop me? (and if you're not worry about that, you should, it's a thing)

I have to do public shows? But I'm not good with people! (Not me but several author friends can't bring themselves to do it).

Reviewers will shred your baby and shit on it. Don't look at those reviews, they're not for you. Their review looks like someone didn't read your book because those things aren't in your book? Leave it, never engage the trolls. It won't come out well.

You're proud of your work and then you get looped into someone's tweet rant about your book. You didn't write diversely, you're a racist. You wrote diverse about people you don't share ethnicity with, you appropriated their culture, how could you? You wrote a queer character, how could you when you aren't (wait, how do YOU know what happens in my bedroom?)

You expect other authors to help you, for every one who will, five will kick you in the groin and step on you to get over you. It's not a competition and we should help each other (but not many agree). Ready to feel like you're back in high school in the worst possible way? Ready to pay it for it and not have anyone return it when it's your turn?

You are? Then you're ready to tackle this publishing thing (and I didn't even touch on the insanity that goes into self publishing).

All this brought to you because my novella releases tomorrow and ALL the damn promo stuff I did for the other people releasing this week, not ONE has do the same for me.

You can find Modified and Sacred here at Ninestar and here on AMazon




And have some links

Performance Tips For Authors


Five Reasons To “Take Out The Trash” In Your Writing

Trends In Publishing

The Hidden Layers of Every Novel (and Why They Should Stay Hidden)

And from Betty


here


Hidden Identity Stories – What Do I Need to Know?


Writing to Heal: The Benefits of a Cathartic Novel

6 Destructive Thoughts That Stop You from Writing—and How to Slay Them

Helping Authors Become Artists

Six Pros and Cons of the Magic School Genre

Five Activities I Use to Beat Writer’s Block

PODCAST
219 – Over-Burdened Stories


And now back to grading and test making.

Comments

[duskpeterson]

"I didn't even touch on the insanity that goes into self publishing"

I wish you would, because I spent the first half of your post saying, "Man, I'm glad I publish my own fiction." Stop me from being so smug, please.

(Mind you, I was nodding like crazy when you got to the marketing section.)

[cornerofmadness]

Ha, maybe next week.

God, marketing just sucks. I literally do almost everything I see in the 'how to market' articles and still nothing helps.

[duskpeterson]

I've given up on marketing, other than posting at my blog, which automatically mirrors to my e-mail list via Feedburner. Also, I have a website. Other than that, I've decided that, for me, the best marketing is to bring out stories as often as possible. My domain stats show that, outside the DW/LJ universe, I've never picked up any sizeable number of readers through social media. And I've been self-publishing since 2007.

(Loved your post, by the way. I should have said that before.)

[cornerofmadness]

That's unfortunate and not that I can say I'm doing any better at it. This story and the novel back in Nov had pro marketing done (by the publishers) and honestly sales are flatter than a board.

and thanks

[duskpeterson]

I'm awfully sorry to hear that. Are you working with multiple publishers? I just got a list of the claims submitted by creditors to a romance e-book distributor that went bust (I was one of the creditors, though I didn't submit a claim), and the list was very eye-opening as to which romance presses were doing well and which weren't.

(I like to think of what I do these days as target marketing.)

[cornerofmadness]

There are two I work with mostly though I work with others via open calls for shorts. Only one I've worked with has gone the bust, not paying anyone route but I only had one short story there so it didn't really affect me.

Has the targeted marketing worked for you?

[duskpeterson]

Sorry for the confusion - I just meant that some publishers do a better job at marketing than others. (The company that went bust was an online bookstore, not a publisher.)

"Has the targeted marketing worked for you?"

Too soon to say, I'm afraid!

On a related topic, though, I like how Patreon (where I serialize my new works) gives me a relatively steady monthly income, so that's where my focus lies currently - with growing my Patreon account. Patreons works well with my publishing style, because online serializations are easier for me to bring out than e-books. (I do still bring out e-books, but at a more sane publishing schedule than before.) So that's yet another reason for me to try to attract readers who are already familiar with online serializations.

[cornerofmadness]

Yes that is true but actually A LOT of publishers have gone bust owing people too.

I have deeply mixed feelings about Patreon mostly because I've been hosted (as a contributor) too many times. But I know a couple of people who are doing relatively well with it.

[duskpeterson]

"I have deeply mixed feelings about Patreon mostly because I've been hosted (as a contributor) too many times."

Could you say more about that? I'm not sure I understand what you mean.

(I have ambiguous feelings about Patron too, and Amazon, and just about any corporation. I hate that there aren't better ways for indie writers to make money, at least that I've found.)

[cornerofmadness]

Oh that I've sponsored but never got what was promised or the artist/author/musician changed their offerings mid-stream (granted I realize that some of them promised more than they could reasonably do)

On the other hand, I've once been in an anthology that had to wait until the crowd funding came through and that was anxiety-inducing.

[duskpeterson]

Oh, irony of ironies - just as I was about to post my sympathies to your tale, I discovered that a certain pernicious sales-tax law made it impossible for me to continue offering rewards to my Patreon patrons (at least, not without my spending hundreds of hours researching state tax laws and submitting documentation to states and requiring my patrons to give me their addresses, which is Just Not On.)

However, I sent my patrons the rest of my current novel serialization and promised the e-book version to anyone who wanted it, as well as any other stories they may have signed up in anticipation of receiving. So hopefully I made things all right with them.

(/Goes back to figuring out how to make money from my fiction.)

[cornerofmadness]

Oh wow, you know I never even thought about that. That sucks too.

[duskpeterson]

"Oh wow, you know I never even thought about that."

I certainly didn't when I set up my Patreon account! But I discovered that at least one state (Washington) mentions crowdfunding on its page about sales tax, and a recent Supreme Court decision allows states to collect online sales tax. I'd already had to shut down my Gumroads account because of that. (There's a bill stuck in Congress that would exempt small businesses. Heaven knows whether it will ever pass.)

This doesn't affect authors selling through third parties, such as Amazon. It only affects authors making direct sales to US customers - and Washington State interprets most crowdfunding rewards as "sales."

[cornerofmadness]

Yeah that makes sense to them (because god knows they're not going to let a dime slip past their fingers) but that should affect a crap ton of authors

[duskpeterson]

I'll bet it does. :/

[thenewbuzwuzz]

Yikes, that all sounds seriously stressful! Congratulations on surviving it and getting a new book published.

[cornerofmadness]

It is. Being an author is MUCH more stressful than people think.

And thanks. I'm pretty proud of this one (well I'm proud of pretty much all of them!)

[dhampyresa]

Love your cover! Who did the art?

[cornerofmadness]

Thanks! Natasha Snow who works with Ninestar Press (not sure if she does freelance too but I'm thinking probably)