Christopher D. Schmitz's Blog, page 30
January 15, 2018
State of Writing
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I’m at almost 30,000 words on my story which I began writing on Christmas break. I’m hoping to round it out at about 40-50k making it a small novel. It’s been pretty fun since the story takes a bit of a hard turn into the comic side when my two protagonists end up stuck at a comic-con for a few days.
Right now I’m just counting down to February when I take my daughter to her first writer’s conference. I did have some ups and downs. Just found out my team and I didn’t get picked for a table at CONvergence, which means we’re all not going to attend. That is what it is… we’ll maybe spend our vendor dollars on a different large-scale con (maybe another Wizard World). I did, however, get invited to participate in a sci-fi con in March which I see as a huge opportunity.
I’ve also got a few irons in the fire for my platform… perhaps a nerdy youtube channel coming soon?
January 9, 2018
Best practice for Giving Away Free Books
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I’m revisiting an old topic this week as I look at some promotional avenues. Below are my all new thoughts on book freebies!
One of the most widely used tools for indie authors is the book giveaway. It can inspire a quick following and even generate real sales if it’s used correctly. It is not, however, as easy as setting your price to free, sitting back, and watching your download count tick higher like a fuel pump.
A book giveaway is not by any means a magic bullet to turn on a massive new readership. However, if you follow a few simple steps you to maximize your results it might spark up interest in your book—particularly if you have a back list (other books that curious will find by clicking through.)
First, understand that a giveaway is a means to promote and advertise. There are companies that specialize in doing this for profit. What I mean by this is: it’s something that many people will heavily invest time and money into… you won’t succeed if you only give it a paltry effort. Planning is important.
Getting people to buy a book typically moves people through a process called “The Funnel.” The funnel is a road that moves people from discovery to fandom; it’s also been called AIDA. The four basic steps are
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
A reader learns about you though some means of awareness (a promo, advert, recommendation, or seeing the book on a shelf.) Something must kindle their interest and draw him or her to the title. Provided their expectations are met after reviewing the contents or blurb, they move to Action which is hopefully a purchase. It might also present itself as signing up for a mailing list, shelving a book on Goodreads, or bagging in a wishlist.
Understanding that structure begs the question of strategy. How will you get attention? Will your copy, cover, and content generate interest and desire? What is the Action you want? (If you don’t know that, you ought to figure it out first. Don’t just give away a book because some blog said it was a good idea—that’s how you lose money and gain frustration.) Typical Action items Indies want are Likes/Follows on social media, signing up for mailing lists, increased shares/attention and continued promo/visibility (added to lists in Goodreads, etc.), book purchases from backlists or associated titles, and reviews. Your intended Action step/outcome helps to determine the other components.
Also, remember that you can giveaway other items than your book—that’s important to keep in mind when crafting the Action step. Many people giveaway gift cards, items such as a free Kindle or ereader, etc. Just keep in mind that Amazon’s search and destroy algorithms sometimes take issue with reviews by people who got a gift card from the author they later reviewed (resulting in the review being taken down).
Ask yourself how you will bring attention to the giveaway. Many readers go in search of them through Amazon’s kindle freebie lists and many do the same for Goodreads’ paperback giveaways. Larger networks such as these (and others like LibraryThing) have a built-in network that someone else has worked hard to craft, like Bookbub. Those places may or may not charge a fee for you to access their platform. You will need to decide if that will be a worthwhile endeavor for your publicity. There are many free and paid options available. In my experience the expensive ones are often worth it and see a return (the same for most free places since there’s no cost except for time), while the cheapest paid services have consistently been a waste of money. Don’t buy generic advertising unless you’ve got a solid referral.
When setting up a giveaway don’t forget the timeliness of it. Use a calendar with alerts. You will want to increase your social media presence and use every promotional tool in your arsenal. Run the contest for long enough that readers can find you and sign up, however, don’t run the promo for too long or readers’ interest will peter out. Give away more than a single copy to increase readership. You should be prompt with your fulfillment, too, but exercise wisdom and check out the winners. One Goodreads giveaway resulted in a winner on an overtly religious book I had written. Her profile revealed that her favorite fiction genre was F/F Slash (lesbian fanfiction erotica.) I felt pretty certain that she would not like my book and explained it to her while offering a new book I had published that she might find better suited. She took me up on the offer. While I did not get a review out of it, I avoided an almost certain negative review.
There are many services that will help you run your giveaway and collect/generate data on your behalf. Check out Rafflecopter, KingSumo, and ShortStack.
I’ll leave you with a practical example for a promo on my book Wolf of the Tesseract. My goal is multifaceted, I want to generate interest/further awareness and also generate reviews if possible. I will use ShortStack to collect data on a giveaway of collected books within my genre—including my book, but also several more famous titles to generate brand association. All entrants will have the option of receiving the promotional, prequel comic book I produced as an advertising medium delivered electronically. They will also get a promo code giving them 20% off Wolf of the Tesseract if they order from the publisher.
This marketing push will coincide with a Goodreads giveaway (Goodreads does not allow authors to collect data on their entries but has a large following). An ebook promo will run on LibraryThing at the same time as the Goodreads paperback event.
Because the ShortStack service collects more data and will be advertised across more platforms I will concentrate effort there and use my “free” promo solutions to point to that event (by free, I mean the avenues that require an investment of time rather than money…Facebook groups, twitter blasts, etc.) I will also invest in an ad campaign on Facebook.
I hope this helps you as a guide to crafting your own publicity event. My example might be admittedly broad and experts recommend focusing attention on one or two things at a time to maximize success… then again, I’d hate to start being called “successful” by people.
Review: Bimbos of the Death Sun
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I picked up Bimbos of the Death Sun at the advice of an online group that knew I was getting ready to write a crime-comedy about two cops undercover at a comic-con who have to stop a hitman from killing Wil Wheaton. The book was a geed read to see what had gone before. Of course, this book came out in the 1980s; in fact, my inside cover flap showed it was the old TSR copy, even. That hearkened me back to my own wonder years.
Sharyn McCrumb’s book doesn’t stand up to the test of time all that well. I don’t mean to say that the book wasn’t good. Given that it revolves so heavily around geek culture in the 1980s, you can imagine the regular references to technology of the era. Typically, a story pulls you in and makes you a part of it so that you forget reality for a while… but you can’t help but be stuck in the 80s, and not in a good, Stranger Things way.
Bimbos of the Death Sun does shed some light, even way back then, on current social issues like misogyny in genre fiction and pop culture, and the story’s real heel, fantasy author Appin Dungannon, is a realistic feeling caricature that is especially more relatable with the wild success of fantasy in the post GoT era.
In a nutshell, the book is about a sci-fi and fantasy comicon (well before it was cool.) They bring in the George R R Martin equivalent in McCrumb’s fictional universe, who is a colossal jerk to everyone (it’s kind of his thing). Someone does the congoers a favor and murders Dungannon just as he finishes his next book and everyone at the con becomes a suspect.
The book is fun, especially if you are looking to hop in the way-back machine for something relatively light hearted and filled with big characters. It might be a paperback equivalent to watching the old Police Academy or Revenge of the Nerds films; it had that kind of feel.
It’s not particularly easy to find, though someone pointed me to an out-of network library (cuz I live in the sticks) that had it. I did happen to find a copy at the huge Recycled Books bookstore on a road trip (look in mystery/crime instead of SF/F). Of course, the easiest route is to just get it on kindle.
January 8, 2018
State of Writing
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Good week for me. Work is back in full swing and I feel accomplished.
In my writing world, I did more business stuff than I wanted to (wished I could’ve spent more time writing, but that’s how it goes.) I did finish the “second act” for my current short novel and I’m about halfway through it. I believe I can finish it by the end of January… it should be done by the MN Writer’s Workshop at the latest (which is my planned start time for the Hidden Rings series.)
After a lull in creativity, I wrote some future blogs. It continually amazes me how much there is that I don’t know or what new writing resources I find… there’s some good author tips coming regularly through the next couple months.
I got a chance to update some of my dates on my convention calendar and put them on my Amazon Author profile. Methinks I’m starting out 2018 with good plans and good intentions… we’ll see what tomorrow brings.
January 5, 2018
Calling All Indie Authors. Submit to an Indie only bookstore
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Random Friday message here!
I am one of three people involved with an Indie-only bookstore here in Minnesota called 3 Maesters & A Crooked Quill. We are planning to launch our bookstore late summer (I can’t say much more than that at this time) but we are looking for MN authors (or those in bordering states) who would be interested in having books on our shelves. (We are primarily fiction, especially Fantasy, SF, horror/paranormal, and similar genre fiction)
If you’d like to get on our list of authors to be considered, please sign-up at this link:
http://eepurl.com/c_H5hf
If you’d like to be on the 3 Maester’s email list as a reader or supporter we’d love to have you sign up here:
http://eepurl.com/c_HxQ9
We’re hoping to launch out big and strong and do this thing right! It may involve some crowdfunding elements… and honestly, if we don’t get some paperwork approval in Feb then we might not be able to move forward, but everything is looking great so far and we’d love to be proactive about establishing a base so we can launch strong. Thanks!
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January 2, 2018
Review: The Judas Codex
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I’m understandably jumping in mid-trilogy with the Judas Codex which just dropped from Camel Press. It is a kind of gritty urban fantasy that makes me think of a few different authors’ stories.
Most notably, the background mythology reminds me of Dan Brown’s Priory of Sion in his Robert Langdon books. Perhaps more than The Davinci Code, the Judas Codex reminds me of Eric Wilson’s Field of Blood (the Jerusalem Undead Trilogy.)
The Sicarii are the fearsome descendants of Judas and they seek the Codex Infernales, the unholy book formerly owned by the Sicarii. Catholic priest Father Mike Engle has the book and the Sicarii want it above all else—but the priest has a protector, the biblical Cain. There is certainly a strong story in the book, some of the writing could use to be tighter in certain areas, but it is solid overall and the slowly unfolding backstory draws the reader deeper with every page.
The book has an interesting blend of adventure and biblical backstory drawn from the author’s faith. If you like action/adventure with mystery akin to Brown or Tim LaHaye’s Babylon Rising series then the Judas Line Chronicles could be a good series to pick up over at Amazon. I got the book from the publisher for free in exchange for an honest review over at Inside the Inkwell.
January 1, 2018
State of Writing
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Got some good writing done last week. I’ve been plowing through a currently untitled comedy story that I’m going to write before launching into the Hidden Rings series (since I decided to wait on writing it until I’d taken a few refresher courses on YA fiction at the upcoming MN Writer’s Workshop.)
I’m almost a quarter done with the story already. It will be a short novel, told with tongue in cheek humor (and might even cross over into the crime and cozy mystery markets.) It starts out following the hard-boiled homicide detective Rick Diego whose partner is murdered at a crime scene–it turns out the killer copied a death trap from a comic book… now Rick Diego is paired up with a new partner to solve this crime: a bumbling beat cop and huge comic nerd named Moses Farnsworth. The more they learn about the murder, the more the clues lead to a huge comic convention and a plot to kill Wil Wheaton before he can play the role of his life time. It’s basically a buddy-cop movie sending a misfit duo under cover at comicon.
With a little help from my vacation days I’m able to put up some nanowrimo-like numbers so I should be done with the story by mid-Feb.
Any thoughts on a clever title?
December 30, 2017
Last Day for Kindle Free Day!
Wanted to say a huge thank-you to those who already downloaded a free copy of Wolf of the Tesseract from Amazon. I’m currently running a free promotion that ends today. If you want to download a free copy of it to read on your Kindle, tablet/ereader, or smartphone (kindle app) just click here to get a copy! https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01JGOEKK6
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You might be wondering why authors give away books? Amazon, Facebook, and other online companies use fancy algorithms (basically, a math based AI) to determine who gets showed the most often and gets best placement in sales rankings, etc.) The more activity (even free downloads) that a book gets, the more interest Amazon has in presenting the book to others.
King among these metrics is good reviews. (BTW, a 3 star review is a “bad” review for amazon, most people think that’s the baseline, but only 4 or 5 is positive.) What writers really need are reviews, and the best way is to get people to read the book and then hope someone leaves positive comments (a little less than 1% or people leave reviews).
If you’d leave me a high review after downloading for free, I’d be as happy as Mabel with some Smile Dip!
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December 26, 2017
Thinking About Genre distinctions EARLY
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Not everyone realizes that there is more to writing in a genre than just the content of the book. Fantasy stories have elves and dwarves and vampire fiction obviously has vampires in it. Romance should, likewise focus primarily on the relationships within the story.
Some of those nuances include voicing in your characters—the way they speak, the way they see the world, and what motivates them. This goes far beyond “typin die-log like dis if you was writtin a no good southern hornswaggler as your heel.” In fact, don’t do that outside of a few rare exceptions. It makes reading terribly difficult for a reader if an entire character reads like that and interrupts the flow. Here’s what I mean, when you are writing fantasy you may make up words or write mythopoeicly (world-building) which means you might pepper descriptions in or drop nuances through the story so that certain terms can be intuitively gleaned by context. For my Spec Fic YA novel, Wolf of the Tesseract I studied a few lists of things to keep in mind for my writers.
The primary YA audience is more narcissistic by nature (it’s not an insult, growing teens always go through a psychological stage where their thought process asks “what does this mean to me?”) For the novel, I intentionally funneled as much through the character’s POV as possible and lingered more on emotion than normal. I used more personal pronouns than I often might and was intentional about using accessible language and limiting “silver dollar” words without obvious context.
Genre is about much more than just the thematic tropes. It is something that should be given a little forethought as you begin and edit the story. Always ask yourself how a reader will see your treatment of the text—for example, you may have written a romance novel meant for the Christian female market… if you are overly explicit or use profanity you can expect to turn off a huge segment of the readers (and expect bad reviews). Likewise, if you write a middle grade adventure but dwell too heavily on high prose as the child protagonist ponders psychological themes and motivations of the antagonists and world which intersects his own you will lose the reader.
Literary fiction usually references “high concept” writing. It may have elements of genre stories. Think of the movie Gravity, for example (which was a script stolen by legal loopholes from novelist Tess Gerritsen). It involved astronauts and action in space, but the main point of the story was not the space-walk or an adventure—it was the theme of an invisible force calling us to overcome adversity and cling to life. That’s a high-concept example making it literary.
Outside of “literary fiction” many individual thematic genres exist. Each one will have its own set of rules (expected word count, appropriate styles and language, etc.) and should be researched. These include labels such as paranormal, horror, science fiction, fantasy, romance, western, nonfiction, commercial, crime, and so many more.)
Age genres will sometimes stack with thematic tags but help specify the type of target audience. YA novels are typically for teenagers while MG (middle grade) feature stories written from 8-12 year olds. NA (new adult) is target readers around college age and is a fairly new bullseye recognized by the market; NA is primarily meant for 18-24 year olds.
Like all things, do your research so you can write the best book possible, and write to the rules rather than the exception for true success!
Review: The Two Swords
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I finally finished the Two Swords, the third book in the Hunter’s Blades trilogy, one of the Drizzt books by RA Salvatore. It took me about 2 years to read the trilogy, for a variety of reasons. In truth, I spread it out for enjoyment, reading seasons, vacation time, and to keep on pace with my own novel writing. One of the primary I began reading Salvatore was because of the similarities between his writing style and mine—and then I received some of his D&D books as gifts and so I just kept reading.
The Hunter’s Blades trilogy gave me mixed feelings. The Two Swords (book 3) is assuredly my favorite and the one I am reviewing. I especially enjoyed the final pages, and really the last half of the book feels like the denouement of one larger story—as if it the trilogy were just one big book. That could be great, except it made the pacing difficult for me. The Two Swords finally winds down and begins to give us some closure (and the relationships are finally in focus, whereas everything felt clouded in a haze of war, previously to it.) in contrast, The Lone Drow—despite giving us Innovindil, who I really liked—felt like one really long dark moment. It was lonely. Everything circled around itself and kept the geography limited. Nothing about it made me like the characters any more—maybe the opposite, in fact. It was, however, necessary—but that’s what it made all seem like one larger book. The Thousand Orcs had a great setup, making the first book-end on the trilogy.
In the final twenty pages or so Salvatore does a phenomenal job of seamlessly setting the hook for the expansive world at large, obviously setting up any number of directions the reader (and author(s)) might go with Forgotten Realms stories. And that’s part of the whole appeal of D&D and the fantasy genre as a whole. Masterful writing, perhaps a little long winded at times, but great story that blows open new avenues and interest in the D&D landscape.
D&D is a dangerous world and this trilogy proves deadly for many characters—even some you might initially think have character shields. Check out more of my reviews over at Inside the Inkwell!
