A few changes, maybe

I've had a busy week - I think this is the longest I've managed to sit down since last Sunday, so I'm making the most of it by catching up on blog reading.

A work colleague broke his nose last weekend, so I covered a few extra hours which threw out my gym training completely; and I met up with a couple of different friends for a hot chocolate, so I've severely overdosed on sugar and feeling a bit jittery.

However, I kept to schedule on my NaNoWriMo writing, although I might be a little behind now because of some other tasks I've set myself. Yesterday I felt I was just putting random words down, feeling completely bored with the story, and not knowing where it was going. All the ideas I had where either too similar to something I've written before, or too similar to something I've read recently.

But then last night, as I was falling asleep (oh, my writing muse really picks her time!), I had a bit of an epiphany, which I'll attempt to map out this afternoon.

On top of all that, on Friday I had a chat with a consultant-type person about online marketing and promotion. The good news is that what I do is pretty good. The bad news is... all the stuff I don't yet do. So, that's my latest job,

It may mean some changes to my blog, but I don't know yet.

It may mean some changes to how I present myself, but I don't fully know that either yet.

Blog Tour: Day 12, marketing with Sandra

Good effort, Iceland...


And moving on, today I'm with Sandra Cox, talking marketing, or lack thereof. This is a topic that always makes me shudder, because I never know the best way to do it... Like revising for exams - I used to spend more time on the revision timetable than the actual revising!

Today's photo is of me, dazed and confused, after the Costa Award ceremony. Coincidentally, dazed and confused is how I approach marketing...

How I Found the Write Path bloghop

Today I'm taking part in Carrie Butler's blogfest, to celebrate her bloggy anniversary. You can find out all about it, and sign up if you want, right here. Basically, I have to write a note to my pre-published self with advice. She's going compile all the letters into a free ebook for writers. Carrie, of course you can use mine!

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

Dear 20 year old me,

You've just had two short stories published, and you're feeling pretty cool about everything right now. This writing lark is easy, right? Wrong!

I'm supposed to give you advice now, but I really don't want to. By submitting the way you are (a constant rolling process of one rejection landing on your doormat and being instantly repackaged and sent off again) you're learning patience, stubbornness, how to handle rejection... And, believe me, when most submissions are email based and can be returned in an hour, you definitely need to know how to handle rejection.

And, you know what, every time you reach despair, you'll write some cracking stories - honest - and they are the ones that'll get published.

However, there are some things I want to share with you:

• Don't compare yourself to other writers - especially not the ones writing popular genres - that will just depress you greatly.
• Use beta readers as soon as you starting writing novellas. You can get away with when you're writing 2000 words, but not so much 20,000 words.
• Don't ignore self-publishing - it's not the same in 2012/13 as it is in 1994 - in fact it's pretty cool now, and means you get to be in charge and make all the decisions. There are so many options, which means you no longer have to buy 1000 copies and store them in your house.
• Take marketing seriously. In fact, take a marketing course right now! (Pauses to see whether a marketing certificate appears on wall... Nope, it doesn't... Are you even listening to me, Child?

Also, make friends with writers - use social media (it's okay, you'll understand what I'm talking about soon). Instead of being the only writer you know and having to work everything out for yourself, you'll appreciate how supportive, understanding and helpful other writers are. And you'll make some brilliant friends.

Enjoy being 20

xxx

How not to promote and market

After finishing my latest novella, and submitting it, a couple of weeks ago, I thought I'd easily get on with the next project. But after an injury at the gym and getting a monster of a cold, that just ain't happened.

Instead, I thought I'd get my head around the weird and wonderful world of marketing my books.

It has not gone well. Here are some things I've learnt in the past few days:

• I should have been more prepared to promote my two year old book two years ago
• I should have had more reviews ready to go on the day of publication than I currently have right now
• Even when you're prepared to spend money, most promotion sites only cater to free and $0.99 ebooks
• I shouldn't rely on my 148 Facebook fans to actually see the Facebook updates I put out, because Facebook now only thinks about itself
• Other people do this much better than me, almost instinctively
• I need several more books published than I currently have (which doesn't play havoc with my writers block in the slightest)
• So many links to the biggest, bestest promotion site ever are broken
• Blog posts published on a Saturday evening probably won't get read

My only consolation is that I've finally figured out all the things I've been doing wrong, but I've figured it out too late to help my current books. Hopefully, I'll have it sussed by the time my next one comes along.

What have you learnt, that you wish you'd known at the beginning?

Is bad really better than good?

Warning: this might end up being a little bit of a rant.

I'm squeezing this post in between lots of guests - and on a Saturday afternoon when no one reads blogs anyway, no less - because it's topical.

Last Friday, I read an article in the Daily Mail about Quin Woodward Pu who sent a bizarre text to a man who 'dumped' her after two dates. (Note: after two dates, surely there is nothing to actually dump, it's more of an it was nice to know you, have a good life kind of deal?) A lot of the comments called her a narcissist and a bit delusional.

Reading the article further, I discovered this story had already been covered on Buzzfeed, which is more and more a trait of certain UK papers. Then, reading even further, I discovered this twenty-six year old woman was also a blogger and had two self-published autobiographies available on Amazon. (You'll recall the words narcissist and delusional from the previous paragraph, yes?)

But hang on a minute... what great publicity!! (Cue my cynical head, because - boy! - as a writer I would love this kind of free advertising for my books... albeit with a little less laughter at my expense.)

I attempted to follow the link to her blog, but my anti-virus programme blocked it (LOL!), so I did the next best thing and looked up her books. I found one here and the other here.

Do you see what I see (apart from the fact that this unknown woman has put herself on both book covers)?

The first book has 146 reviews, at the time I'm writing this. Mostly they are one star, and quite a number of them are from people who'd spent $10 on the paperback version... and what's more, when you read the reviews, they are from people who had bought the book after they'd seen this text melt-down by the author - and who assumed the book would be bad.

I'm going to reiterate that, because this is the source of my rant: people spent $10 on a book they knew was going to be bad. 

I know many writers, self and indie published, who would love to sell over 100 books in two days (myself included) - but they don't, we don't. It would be lovely to think that when we write, edit, proof-read and generally make our books the best they can be, readers would be on the other side of the process waiting to read them. But no! Apparently notoriety is a much bigger draw.

If anyone knows how we can change this, please let me know!

Say 'Cheese!'

Today's insecurity is a long-held one. I hate having my photo taken. Something happens between my face and the camera which means I end up looking nothing like myself. I pull daft expressions. I have my eyes permanently shut. And I look very grumpy, even though my brain thinks I'm smiling.

Yesterday, I had some promo photos taken. Despite my fear and hatred - and because portrait painters are so 18th century - I thought it was about time.

So, we went up to Plymouth Hoe, one of my favourite places, and I listened to the sea lapping against the small bit of beach Plymouth still has (there's a lot of concrete along the shoreline), and I almost forgot to be nervous. The photographer said 'Good' quite a lot, but I'm not sure whether it was because the photos looked good or he was just glad I hadn't broken his camera.

Now all I have to do is wait for the photos to appear in my inbox...

I'll be using them on this blog, on my Goodreads profile and on my Facebook page, so you'll all be able to see them... Excuse me, I'm off to have a panic attack!

UPDATED: I've seen the photos. That's all I'm prepared to say at the moment. Although you can help cheer me up by checking out my Goodreads and Facebook links ;-)

Marketing yourself

There's a self-publisher living close to me. I know this, because yesterday I came home to find a bookmark-sized card on my doormat announcing his new novel. I thought this was a pretty nifty piece of advertising, because it made me check out the web site as soon as I was online.

However, I think in this case, the author is missing a trick. The web site is a single page on the printer's site. And it's pretty basic. It gives the briefest of blurbs and ways to buy. It does link to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

Again, unfortunately, another trick missed. The Twitter account is the printer's account, not the author's; and the same with LinkedIn. The Facebook account is the author's private account, so there's no information unless you befriend him. If you list Facebook, then you should at least make it public, or set up a completely new page for your novel.

I was particularly interested in this because soon I'm going to have to think of my own marketing ploys, and I realised how easy it is to not go the full hog. It sounds easy, I suppose, when you're thinking about all the things you could do, but actually getting around to doing them takes time. It's also easy to fall into the trap of thinking your work will speak for itself which hopefully for this author it will - but before that, readers have to know that this work is out there. The bookmark drop was good for my area, but how far out did he go?

I'm lucky that I have this blog, with a good selection of followers. I'm thinking about the design of a dedicated page here, and also a new page on Facebook. I'm not on Twitter, and I think signing up just to say 'buy my book' wouldn't go down well, so I'm probably not going to follow that route. After that, though, I'm stumped. What else can I do?

Like I said, the bookmark drop is a fantastic idea, but sadly someone beat me to it.