I had the privilege of being interviewed on the subject of writing in general and Second Death in specific by Gudrun Frerichs. Here’s the audio:
Adventures with TweetAdder
Posted on January 27, 2012 · Leave a Comment
I love Twitter. I'm just gonna come right out and say that up front. Criticizing Twitter has become a cliché: “Who wants to read what people had for lunch?” Anyone making that criticism is outing themselves that they don't really use Twitter. Every day I read an amazing array of cool tidbits, vignettes of life and links I'd never have found on my own from people all over the planet.
I primarily tweet from the viewpoint of an author. Every author who's the least bit interested in promotion of her or his book needs a Twitter presence. But I'll confess, acquiring followers isn't the easiest thing in the world. Following is a voluntary process, and you can't go around forcing people to join, even though you suspect they'd be very interested in what you have to say or write. That's where TweetAdder comes in.
TweetAdder is a program that automates the process of acquiring Twitter followers. I read about it in Jon F. Merz‘s book How to Really Sell Ebooks, in which he devotes at least a chapter to implementing the program. (I really appreciate that about Jon's book, the step by step detailed instructions rather than vague platitudes about how great the product is.)
I was a little skeptical at first. What TweetAdder does for you is grab lists of people who follow people you specify and automate the process of following them. For example, since I've written a steampunk book, I wanted to engage the followers of Gail Carriger and Cherie Priest. The theory, obviously, is that if you follow someone, they will very often follow you back. TweetAdder manages the grunt work, unfollowing people who don't follow you back within three days (or whatever time period you specify), and maintaining that vital ratio of followers to people you're following.
At first the idea struck me as somewhat sleazy. But when I thought about it, I realized that I'm just tapping into people who share common interests. I'm selecting people to market to based on their reading preferences (presumably that's why they follow the people they do). I've gone from a couple of hundred followers to 1,085 in about six weeks' time.
Here's the challenge, though. Nobody wants to read a constant barrage of spam, requesting they buy my book. As Jon F. Merz stresses, Twitter is about relationships. You have to interact with your followers as if they're people (since, y'know, they are). Engaging in 140 characters on a regular basis is difficult for me, particularly when I'm at work. I've tried posting interesting historical trivia related to the research I did for The Source of Lightning, and links to fascinating items found on the American Memory site. I'm still experimenting. Occasionally I get retweets. Sometimes I even get into conversations. Which is really what Twitter is all about.
Do you have experience with TweetAdder? Thoughts about Twitter marketing? Share in the comments below.
An Aural Experiment
Posted on September 24, 2011 · Leave a Comment
In the course of my indie publishing journey, I've met authors from all over the world. That got me thinking about how I'd love to hear their voices. Thus, Indie Book Bytes was born.
Indie Book Bytes is a website dedicated to the voices of independent authors. Not just their written voices, but their speaking voices. I researched the easiest way for people unfamiliar with recording technology to record and post themselves reading an excerpt from their book. It's set up in a podcast format, so readers (listeners!) may subscribe to the RSS feed and be notified when a new podcast is available. The links on the site provide a quick way to download the rest of the story.
I'll admit there are challenges in this experiment. So many people say they don't like the sound of their own voice. But in the aural format, busy readers who don't have time to look for new works can have a listen.
We'll see how it goes!
Check out Indie Book Bytes and contribute your own excerpt!
How to Survive the Slough of Despond
Posted on August 24, 2011 · 2 Comments
I’m not sure how many people these days understand the allusion in the title. It refers to a location in John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress. I’ve never read it, honestly, although I’ve heard the phrase for years. Here’s a quotation from it, via from the Wikipedia entry for “Slough of Despond,” which literally means swamp of despair: “This miry Slough is such a place as cannot be mended…There ariseth in [the sinner’s] soul many fears, and doubts, and discouraging apprehensions, which all of them get together, and settle in this place, and this is the reason for the badness of this ground.” I left out the parts about sin; that belongs in a religious commentary, which this isn’t. Substitute “writer’s” for “sinner’s,” and doesn’t this sound like the state of mind in which we often find ourselves? Fears? Check. Doubts? Check. Discouraging apprehensions? Oh yeah, in spades.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say I’m in a personal Slough of Despond at the moment. John Bunyan wouldn’t understand the actual phrase “burned out,” but he’d probably include the essence of that phrase in his nasty swamp. I’m not burned out on writing, surprisingly, but on marketing. No, the writing of the WIP (which stands for “work in progress,” for those of you who were afraid to ask) is going along swimmingly, thanks. Y’know, when I actually find time to write. At the moment, writing is easy. Marketing is hard.
Marketing is hard anyway to most writers. If you’re fearful of ridicule in reviews that say your heartfelt work is crap, how are you able to tell everybody in the world they should read it because it’s great? If you doubt your ability to write because no one has bought it or even downloaded it for free, how can you summon the catchy and intriguing prose that will compel readers to catapult you to the Amazon top 100? As has been pointed out elsewhere (I’m not finding the actual quote, but trust me on this), writers of fiction are not generally used to writing marketing copy, especially for themselves.
It’s especially discouraging when you aren’t seeing great sales. That’s where I am these days. My sales are pretty pitiful (like a couple of sales a week or less), despite a regimen of marketing and participating and trying to get my name out there. I’ve put out a collection of stories, but I’ve been too burned out to really promote it much. The next book, The Source of Lightning, is in editing, and I’m hoping it will find more readers. But in the indie marketing game, “hoping” just doesn’t cut it.
So what do you do? You’re not going to like the answer. Everybody tells you there’s no magic bullet. Everybody’s right. If you read the authors of “how to” e-books I reviewed in my last post, they’ll tell you it’s hard work. And luck, as J.A. Konrath always reminds us. You keep at it, that’s what you do. Hire it done, if you have the money to spare. Check out people like Duolit. Read blogs like Indie Author Community for inspiration. Join groups like Indie Author Group to learn and rejuvenate. Above all, keep at it.
Really, that slough can’t stretch on forever. You’ll get to the end of it eventually. Or you’ll decide it’s too hard and give up. Take courage in the fact that you’re an indie author, and YOU are in charge of your destiny. Reach out for help. Keep on keepin’ on. If you don’t illuminate the path, luck won’t find you.
Comment and let me know how you survive the Slough of Despond.
Total Control
Posted on May 15, 2011 · Leave a Comment
[Note: This blog entry was originally posted on the I love Smashwords website on May 15, 2011. It has since been taken down. I recovered it from the Wayback Machine, because it has particular significance to me. I don’t use Smashwords anymore, but the sentiments are still valid.]
I suspect nobody but me knows this one, but have you ever heard the old Michael Nesmith song, “Total Control,” off one of his solo albums? It’s a lighthearted song about how the singer wants “total control of the airports. Total control of the sea. And total control of the freeway. Total control of police” (Source ). Smashwords gives me just that feeling–that I have total control.
I hit a bad patch of crazy at work a few months back where I was demoted from a job I created about 12 years ago, completely out of the blue or left field or from whichever cliche abrupt changes come. It arrived on top of negative self esteem issues related to my weight. And turning 51. My inner voice felt like the complete opposite of total control. (Good thing I was already seeing a therapist!)
And along came Smashwords.
I’m not even sure now where I found out about this marvel of the e-publishing world, but discover it I did. And ideas starting churning in my head. I had two novels whose pixels were covered in dust. The first novel, Second Death, had been turned down by multiple publishers, with numerous “almost, but not quite” rejections to its credit, despite paying a professional editor a lot of money to edit it (and she loved it too). Why not publish them? What could it hurt?
First, I threw myself into Research Mode. When I get enthusiastic about something, I get enthusiastic in a big way. (Obsession is an ugly word. I prefer euphemisms.) I researched the marketing of e-books, particularly J. A. Konrath and his irascible style. I read every detail about how to upload to CreateSpace and Kindle and Smashwords, their requirements and caveats. I was excited.
When at last I held my breath and pressed the upload button, I felt such a feeling of control. “Total control of all variables,” as Mr. Nesmith would say. I realized I’m not bound by what a publisher thinks of me, what an editor might say, what the fashions and trends in publishing might be. Granted, I’m a firm believer in editors, and cringe at the low quality of many Smashwords descriptions (dang, if the description is that poorly written and edited, I sure won’t read the book). But that’s all up to me. I choose what I want to write, what my cover looks like, all within the boundaries of what Meatgrinder the Mighty will accept. I’m fine with that stricture. (Again, it’s a quality thing. E-published authors won’t get rid of the reputation of “vanity publishing” if we don’t produce quality work.)
Smashwords has given me freedom, and challenged me to write more. I want the instant gratification (well, nearly so) that comes with uploading my own manuscript. I want to see lots of books written by me in my list. So I’d better get busy and write them. I don’t even stress over work anymore. I’m a writer first. My job’s way down the list of importance.
And I have Smashwords to thank. Now I have control of some aspect of my life. And I’m grateful for it.
