Christopher D. Schmitz's Blog, page 55

State of Writing

Wow. I had a heck of a week… and not the “I exceeded all my goals” kind. I did no writing. Zero. Nodda. I hit dead ends all last week. I worked, as normal, but took two days off at the end of the week to go do some house maintenance on a rental property I own–that alone ate up 35 hours of time over 3 days. So no writing last week.

At least I could do promo, right? I barely used social  media–too busy with my hands. I got responses about book signings I have been trying to schedule for a while now… the timing is working for any of them (although I am set up for a sci-fi/fantasy con this fall, but that’s mostly due to fellow author Jeffrey Kohanek.) Oh yeah, I got banned from Facebook by the system for TWO WEEKS! As they perceived some of my self-promo (in groups explicitly meant for author self-promo) as spam/abuse. Yeah. I had a heck of a week.

It’s been crazy this summer with fundraisers and extra projects, but I’m resetting the rhythm today back to where I’ve been and prefer to be. Starting today with a quick update and trip to the gym (also stopped that for 3 weeks after 2nd/3rd degree gasoline burns). Feel like I’m coming back.

Free Fiction Tuesday

It’s been a few weeks since I’ve had anything worth really sharing (that may be because I’ve bee so busy with my real-life job). I talked recently with fellow author Lee Burvine who asked me to look at his book The Kafir Project: “Astronomer and TV science guy Gevin Rees just landed the interview of a lifetime with the world’s most famous physicist. Remarkable, because the eccentric genius is notoriously reclusive… And he’s dead… What happens next forces Rees to run for his life from not one but two deadly assassins and global powers desperate to bury what he’s just uncovered.”

I found The Kafir Project to be engaging and grab me right away. The end of the first chapter even does a great job of setting the hook! His writing style has a visceral sense of realism that you see in authors like Dan Brown or Clive Cussler and the plot and characters were certainly engaging. The Kafir Project is certainly worth checking out.

State of Writing

I hit my bare minimum goals this week. I didn’t get to my editing endeavors yet, however. I need to do a final rewrite of The Kakos Realm: Grinden Proselyte so I can get it to my editor and put it in print before before the end of the year.

I’m thinking I’ll take it easy this week with no real goals–I’ve got some other real-life commitments this week which will take some time away from my writing. I’m going to shoot for two new devo pieces, though: just a thousand words combined… should be a pretty simple task

Frequent Question #1 What if my story’s title is already used?

I thought I’d maybe start an occasional series of questions younger authors often ask me… mainly because a friend/fellow blogger answered one that I hear often (both when I was making music, but also as an author).

“What if my book title/song name is the same as one already in print?”

It really comes down to a trademark issue and if you are obviously trying to infringe on someone else’s intellectual property for your own gain. I don’t know the actual laws, so don’t rely on me for legal advice, but it’s not as big of a deal as many might think… it can’t be–if you’ve ever gone to rent a video it seems there’s always a cheap knock-off straight-to-dvd release of the latest Hollywood blockbuster.

Here’s a good piece of advice lifted from Cayce Berryman’s blog:

“Well, according to Circular 34, works as short as book titles cannot be copyrighted, which technically means you are able to use it. This can be confusing for your audience, however, as well as the audience of another author. This might seem exciting if you have a book with a similar title as a more successful author, but do you really want to subject yourself to hiding under their umbrella? For that matter, do you want to risk the loophole that could get you in a lot of trouble?”

–I agree with that last line. Be original and stand out.

I’d recommend giving it a read if it’s a concern of yours. If you look through my blog you’ll probably see the posts from when someone tried to steal one of my stories and release it as their own. Don’t even mess with infringement, but if you are trying to be careful and have a genuine concern, then you’re probably not infringing on anybody, as demonstrable by the fact that you care.

Here’s that link:

http://cayceberryman.com/what-if-your-book-shares-a-title-with-one-published/

Frequent Question #1

I thought I’d maybe start an occasional series of questions younger authors often ask me… mainly because a friend/fellow blogger answered one that I hear often (both when I was making music, but also as an author).

“What if my book title/song name is the same as one already in print?”

It really comes down to a trademark issue and if you are obviously trying to infringe on someone else’s intellectual property for your own gain. I don’t know the actual laws, so don’t rely on me for legal advice, but it’s not as big of a deal as many might think… it can’t be–if you’ve ever gone to rent a video it seems there’s always a cheap knock-off straight-to-dvd release of the latest Hollywood blockbuster.

Here’s a good piece of advice lifted from Cayce Berryman’s blog:

“Well, according to Circular 34, works as short as book titles cannot be copyrighted, which technically means you are able to use it. This can be confusing for your audience, however, as well as the audience of another author. This might seem exciting if you have a book with a similar title as a more successful author, but do you really want to subject yourself to hiding under their umbrella? For that matter, do you want to risk the loophole that could get you in a lot of trouble?”

–I agree with that last line. Be original and stand out.

I’d recommend giving it a read if it’s a concern of yours. If you look through my blog you’ll probably see the posts from when someone tried to steal one of my stories and release it as their own. Don’t even mess with infringement, but if you are trying to be careful and have a genuine concern, then you’re probably not infringing on anybody, as demonstrable by the fact that you care.

Here’s that link:

http://cayceberryman.com/what-if-your-book-shares-a-title-with-one-published/

State of Writing

So I’ve been a little out of it last week. The annual BBQ contest that I run was last week. While I didn’t keep my blog up to date because of that, I did find some time late last Monday to complete the second part of Fear in a Land Without Shadows and begin some of the final edits/tweaks my publisher wants for Wolf of the Tesseract. I’m about a week behind the schedule I’d like to see, but that’s on point with the extra work of this event and the fact that I spent some time in hospital after having been set on fire in a freak accident.

State of Writing

I’ve been so busy with work the last week that I had difficulty getting to my blog and barely kept up to date on my writing goals. there I was late on Sunday evening, tired and ragged but putting words on paper. I met all my goals, did all my work, etc. I even powered out a new promo campaign, but I was out of gas at the weekend. Sometimes you do what you committed to even if it feels forced or if you didn’t feel like it. I feel like there’s a lesson in there somewhere

Groups, Social Networks, and Sales

I see a lot of indie authors promote stuff on pages for authors. good job. you did it. handclap emoticon. you wrote a book… yay. A lot of those posts just seem downright “salesy.” That’s cool. But I’m probably not going to buy your book. Most author groups I’m a part of are there to give support and feedback (and that’s kinda what this article is meant as) to fellow writers.

Let me do y’all a service and remind you that promoting exclusively in author circles is probably gonna leave you with a pretty low glass ceiling for sales numbers. Lots of support and love… muchas reviews, yes. cash money? probably not so much. Remember, those authors are all doing looking for their own sales and promotions avenues, too.

Personally, I have a promo plan I follow every week in order to grow my platform and network with others–this isn’t sales exclusive. I know I’ve lost that focus in the past and that lack of proper expectation can make me feel like I’m spinning my wheels in the mud when I expect something to happen (usually either sales or people reading or providing feedback) and it never does.

I’ll be blunt. If you only post in social, authors’ groups and expect you’ve met some kind of social media marketing mandate in doing so, you will only sell a limited number of copies and your networking will fall flat. Those sorts of groups want to get to know you first, and then learn about your book. You’ll maybe sell a couple books, sure, but those numbers are a false positive and you’ll eventually hit a wall and not know why because “it worked before… why aren’t I selling any groups in The Stay-at-Home Mom Fellow Authors Group, etc?”

These groups are a bit like real life relationships. If you’ve been invited to a a regular coffee gathering and every time you speak you bring up Amway, ItWorks, or some kind of multi-level-marketing thing you’re involved in, the group might just change their meeting time/location and never tell you. I know they say “always be selling,” but it isn’t always appropriate to sell the product. Sometimes, in some places, you have to sell your self first in order to keep that door open. It’s called human interaction or building relationships.

Groups like this are one leg of a multi legged stool. I’m just cautioning against it being someone’s only avenue (or only posting when trying to sell–that’s a good way to become a tiresome nuisance to those who use the group to interact and network.) There are also some groups exclusively used for selling–it’s a whole different mindset and both have a different purpose. One is for authors, the other is for stories. Remember which is which and use them properly; these ideologies are kinda like an Offspring song: you gotta keep em separated.

State of Writing

Monday’s report: full speed ahead.

I hit all of my writing goals for last week and gave myself some new ones: a chapter a day in audiobook to get my audible version of Wolf of the Tesseract released within 2 weeks of launch date next month. I’m pretty sure I can hit that mark.

I’ve also been working on a new cover design for The Kakos Realm: Grinden Proselyte. I was never happy with the original, but assumed the small publisher I worked with new best… I no longer make those assumptions and would rather force certain creative control decisions when it’s necessary for high quality. It’s only a few more tweaks away from being completed.

 

Writting Advice from the King

I’m sure this has been blogged about a thousand times before, but it really hit me in my brainpan. Steven King is one of the all time greats,even if I don’t typically rush out to read everything he’s written (our styles and content are so similar) I do enjoy many of his stories (especially fond of Dark Tower). Nevertheless, King is recognized as master of his craft.

Here is a link with some of King’s top advice to authors. http://www.openculture.com/2014/03/stephen-kings-top-20-rules-for-writers.html

I remember being asked how long it takes to write a novel. Having written several, its true that each one is different.  King mentions it should never take more than three months. Some people balk at that; I did the math. You can write a 95,000 word manuscript in 3 months of you write about 1,000 words per day, or two pages, single spaced.

He’s got so much great advice, distilled into a simple, succinct list. Remember his advice: the magic is in you. Turn off the tv and write… you can do it.