Michael C. Goodwin's Blog, page 24

Back to the Future

Today is the day made famous in the movie, ‘Back to the Future II.’ where the character, Marty McFly travels to October 21, 2015, to save his children, or something like that. The movie was made in 1989 so I guess that the year 2015 seemed close enough to be able to make some predictions about what life would be like. The movie famously got a few thing correct and many others clearly wrong. So why is it so hard to predict the future? I have been around science fiction writers and artists all my life and I still cannot figure out how to accurately see ahead to what will be happening to us in 10 or five or even one year. The future is a moving target, always changing, what seems possible one day will completely change the next. I will present a case in point. By 1961 the U.S. had been shocked several times by sudden advances in the Soviet Union’s space program. Clearly, these communists could not be allowed to triumph over us in the science and technology of space travel. In May of 1961, then President John F. Kennedy convinced congress to spend up to $9 billion dollars to build a space program that would take us to the moon and back. That revived the lagging U.S. space effort which enabled us to charge forward and reach the moon in just eight years. By 1968 our space efforts had gained such momentum that a movie released then, ‘2001, a Space Odyssey,’ boldly predicted revolving space stations over Earth with scheduled flights, colonies on the moon and a manned voyage to the planet Jupiter. With all the frenzied activity in our space program it was almost a given that we would accomplish these things by 2001. However, the rising costs of the war in Vietnam, social unrest, and the fact that we had beaten the communists fair and square caused a decrease in interest in space and bringing rocks back from the moon seemed to be a rather expensive thing to do. Two missions were cut and the last moon landing was in December, 1972. That trip actually included a geologist, Dr. Harrison H. Schmitt, so at least we got one scientist up there on the moon. In 1973, using leftover bits of equipment from the moon program the U.S. launched a manned space station, Skylab. It was used until 1979 when funding ran out again and it was allowed to crash back into earth. Efforts have been made in other space stations but much of space exploration since has been done by somewhat inexpensive robotic space probes to the inner and outer planets of our solar system. No other landing has been made on the moon for 43 years since the Apollo space program and certainly no moon colony is being planned with any serious intent. So you see that it is very difficult to predict the future. What is encouraging, is a growing interest in traveling to and colonizing Mars. A few scientists predict that we could do that in 20 years or less. That is a great prediction, but a hazardous one given the problems that we are beginning to face with global climate change and the resulting political and social problems that may accompany it. I am ever hopeful of a better future, but I predict that it will always be different then what we expect. (Below, an old painting of mine from 2001, a Space Odyssey.)

Aliens!

There has been a lot of news lately, about a star, named KIC 8462852, located some 1,480 light-years away from Earth. This distant star, (you cannot see it without a telescope), has been under observation by the Kepler Space Telescope. This amazing instrument was launched in March, 2009. Its function is to look around our region of the Milky Way galaxy, continually monitoring the brightness of over 145,000 stars. It is designed to detect periodic dimming of these stars caused by extrasolar planets that cross in front of their stars. As of the beginning of this year, 2015, Kepler has found 1,013 confirmed exoplanets in about 440 stellar systems and another 3,199 unconfirmed planet possibilities. Several of these planets may be orbiting around their suns within a habitable zone thought to be able to support life. This is an exciting enough discovery, but recently released data about KIC 8462852 indicates that something strange may be happening there. Kepler has recorded a series of odd light fluctuations which scientists are having some difficulty explaining. Most planets orbiting a star do so on a regular basis and have a predictable time period when they cross in front of a sun, diming it for Kepler to see. KIC has very irregular periods of dimming that cannot be explained by regular orbiting planets. With irregular dips in dimness of the star, up to 20% at times, something strange may be in orbit around that sun. We do not know, by any means, the large number and type of planetary objects that may exist in the universe, since we really only have our own solar system for close observation. And, as I have said before, (in my last cartoon book), we live in a near-infinite universe with near-infinite possibilities. So what is happening out there? Some scientists have cautiously speculated that it may be a mega-structure known as a Dyson Sphere. A Dyson Sphere is a theoretical construct that could be created by an advanced civilization designed to capture a large amount of a stars energy in order to power said advanced civilization. It could consist of a vast ring or series of rings around the star or even a partial or complete sphere enclosing the sun. Such an object would easily obscure a star from view and as it orbits, turning in an unpredictable fashion. Needless to say, continued observation is key to solving this mystery. In all likelihood it will turn out to be a natural object, but there are still other possibilities. This is why I find science fascinating, we clearly don’t know everything and there is still a whole universe to discover. (Below, an old Star Wars painting of mine. Let’s hope there are no alien death stars!)

Down the Amazon

The 900-pound gorilla in the publishing room is Amazon. Founded in 1994 this purely Internet based retail company now accounts for two-thirds of all the books sold in the U.S., (along with a staggering array of other merchandise). With such dominance Amazon can generally dictate terms on book prices and sales percentages to the book publishers. So far, royalties to writers is still fairly generous as these things go, but with such power, things could easily change in the future. For anyone starting out as a writer and self-publisher, Amazon has made it somewhat easy for a person to get his or her book online. They have downloadable programs that will convert a book to their Kindle platform programing format, (myob). Once converted it is fairly simple to create a book page, sign your contractual agreement and make your book available. Their KDP, (Kindle Direct Publishing), program promises to help make your book available to a wide audience. But that is up to you. Once online you can create a dedicated author page to talk about yourself as a writer and promote current and future books. If you are short of money needed to publish paperback copies of your book, Amazon’s print on demand company, CreateSpace, will publish a print edition of your e-book to sell online and there is no upfront charge. There are also many tools that they offer for you to be able to build that hard copy of your work. Amazon can also turn your book into an audiobook version of your work. There are forums to help connect with your fellow self publishers and other options to help merchandise your book. Since a lot of readers buy their books based on recommendations and reviews, once you have 20 to 25 reviews of your book, Amazon includes it in the “also bought” and “you might like” lists, helping boost the visibility of your book. After 50 to 70 reviews, Amazon will highlight the book for a spotlight position and list it in its newsletter. Of course, any other outside promotion will help in the sales of your book as well.

I am not actively promoting Amazon as the way to go in self publishing, I am merely pointing out that it could be a good place to start for the perpetually clueless like me who, (at my age), does not have the time or energy to laboriously find a real book publisher that will do all of this for me. The publishers tend to stick with their A-list authors that they know will actually make money for them. It is almost impossible for any starting writer to get picked up by a major publishing company right away, even if they were an amazingly gifted writer, (which I am most definitely not). The rest of us have to promote our work any way we can and attend writers and book fairs when there are any in our area, (below, my friend and co-author Ron Thornburg and I try to sell our trails book at a local book and authors fair). It is often a long and difficult process, but one at which you can go at your own pace and on your own time.

Why be a Writer?

There are a lot of romantic ideas and a mystique about being an writer and it is very difficult to ignore the lure and power of that term, ‘writer.’ Most of us have been, at one time or another in our lives, heavily influenced by a book or two. Sometimes a book has even changed our lives completely. I started reading science fiction in junior high; it opened up my mind to amazing possibilities about the universe and our place in it. At the same time the growing U.S. space effort, fresh with the possibilities of exploring the real universe, kept me enthralled. I started doing drawings of space and space ships. I wrote down ideas and outlines of stories about people in space, some that I would draw upon decades later as the inspiration for my first novel. As a growing artist I strove to master the technical aspects of art to be able to create my visions of other cities and planets in the universe. Much later as a writer, I began to try and create the personal experiences and emotions of humans venturing into that great unknown. I discovered that the characters I had made up were a composite of me and my views about the universe. I was basically exploring myself. I think that the writer, C.S. Lewis, stated it best when he said, “We read to know we are not alone. We write to know who we are.” It has been that way for me.

This is why many of us are willing to put up with some absolutely terrible things in order to achieve the term, ‘writer.’ Why would anyone sit at a desk in summer heat and winter chill, day after day writing about a bunch of fictional people doing a bunch of fictional things and for the prospect of having almost no one, except for a sympathetic friend or relative read about it much later. Why send off letter after letter and receive rejection after rejection from publishing houses. Why consider the utterly ridiculous notion and complete folly of trying to publish your own books just to get your work in print any way you can. Why endure the lonely prospect of flogging yourself to near death trying to promote your work to anyone who might be even remotely interested in reading your words. It must be for the singular satisfaction of having done it, there is certainly not the slightest chance that it will make you any real money. The prospect is that you will spend ten times more money creating your book then you will ever get from selling any copies. And yet, a million new self published books were created last year, someone must have some hope of making it to the exalted ranks of being a ‘writer’. I really have a hard time understanding it all even though I am afflicted with the same ailment as the rest of them. The need for self-expression in humans often overrides all other needs or sense. Like the ‘Force’ in Star Wars, it is strong in some of us. The rest are just cannon fodder waiting to be shot down in our heroic efforts. But that won’t stop a single one of us from doing our very best to get there. (Below, an old Star Wars painting of mine.)

Passionate Promotion

For some, there is an overwhelming need to make it to that exalted term, ‘writer.’ They believe in their work and themselves so much that no obstacle is a barrier. Indeed, it is said that if you want to succeed in this utterly impossible thing of being a writer you must live, eat, sleep and breathe your passion for your work. Not all of us are able to do this, most of us must continue to make a living, connect with our spouses and families, take out the garbage, do the laundry and make dinner. But for some privileged few that are free to follow their desire, good luck to them. We have to find other ways to write and promote our work in our spare time or what we have of it. But here are some things to consider:

There is money to be made writing. Revenues from book sales last year totaled more then a billion dollars. Why shouldn’t some of that be yours, even if it is just a little.
Writers are very interesting people, some of the most intelligent you will find on the planet. I have enjoyed some great friendships with writers. Be a writer, be interesting.
Books have made a great difference in my life, your book may influence or help someone else. People still remember my old cartoon books and tell me they enjoy them, even today.
Life is a great game of luck and chance, so is writing, take a chance, get lucky. Yoda said “Do or do not, there is no try.” You can’t hit the ball if you are unwilling to step up to the plate. (Okay, enough platitudes, lets get on to some real things).
Be entrepreneurial, if you can publish a book through online services, you can also create many other things online. Start with flyers and bookmarks, do t-shirts, coffee mugs, even toys and stuffed animals based on your book. All of this is easily available through online production companies and all of it can be great promotional and sale items. Create a logo of your book, you can put it on dozens of inexpensive give-away items.
Whatever profession you are engaged in, a book can enhance your name and reputation. It can make you a more interesting and valuable employee. It might possibly even help drive business to you or your company.
Make your promotional efforts more interesting, if you can’t get into a bookstore go somewhere else. Sell your book at a garage sale. If your book is about food go to a grocery store or café. If it is a do-it-yourself book, sell it at Lowes and Home Depot. Many cities have farmers markets with associated art and craft fair booths, enjoy summer by selling your book outside and meeting interesting people.
There are probably a hundred more ways to promote and sell books. Try one or all of these suggestions, one may work for you. Invent your own path to book selling success, use that wonderful writers brain you have. If you are a writer then you are already thinking outside the box that normal people are enclosed in.

Books are here to stay in one form or another and the playing field has been leveled considerably by the ease of online self publishing and self promotion. You have to decide how much effort you can afford and how much time you can spend at it. Your success or failure as a writer is in your own hands. You can do this. (Below, a dealers table at a science fiction convention many years ago showing an impressive array of my paintings, prints and books.)

More Book Promotion

My last blog dwelt with some of the simple things that you can do as a self published author to promote your books. In this blog I will look at some bigger and better things that can be done, (and that I need to do). Because I am semi-retired and self-employed now, I have had to work at other things, (and on several other peoples books as well), to make money to contribute to the family income. As a consequence, I have not spent much time or effort promoting my 2 e-books. In retrospect I should have waited until I could have devoted more time to promoting them. They have been available on Amazon for almost a year now and their sales have been, ‘disappointing.’ So let us try some different ideas:

Despite the electronic age in which we now live, people still like to hold a real book and not just an electronic version on a tablet. My biggest mistake has been not to produce those real books. The most useful promotional thing you can do is to give someone a copy of your book. Send a copy to local newspaper, they always need news material. Tie that to a book signing at a local bookstore, you need copies for that. You will not get the best percentage from sales there, but it is very good for getting the word out about your publication.
Get reviews, get as many reviews as you can. Get your friends to write a review, give a book to a former teacher, professor, librarian friend and get their reviews posted on Amazon, Goodreads and in that newspaper article. Most Internet sites that talk about books require that you have a number of reviews to prove your legitimacy and interest to be a real author.
Go to book fairs, festivals, conventions, product fairs, etc. If you write science fiction, go to SF conventions, there are a lot of them. Fantasy books can be sold at renaissance and fantasy fairs. And yes, there are romance book conventions; there is a big one in Vegas every year. There is also a big LDS book convention every year. There are also many local book fairs held by area bookstores and even libraries. Yes it will cost money for some of these, but the exposure that you would get will be priceless. You just sit there and hundreds of potential book readers, (and best of all, promoters), walk by your table, you just have to get them to stop.
Follow other blogs to find out where you can promote your book. See what has worked and hasn’t worked for other authors, learn from their experiences. Listen to online podcasts, they are free, dozens and dozens of them talk about writing and promoting, you can learn a lot from them. Try to ignore those sites that guarantee results by paid ads. I have never heard that it helps that much, but check it out anyway. Research, research, research.
Offer your ebook version for free on Amazon Kindle for a limited time. This is a promotional ploy and a suggestion that I have often seen online. Some authors swear that it has greatly improved their eventual real sales. I personally hate the idea, but there are a lot of internet book sites that will list free book giveaways. It is up to you, but it is something that I refuse to try. Giving your book away creates a climate of cheap expectation for all book writers that I do not care to contribute to. Publishing excerpts from your book on your blog would be a much better idea.
Do a reading at a library, especially if your book is for children or young adults. If you belong to a circle of friends that get together to talk about books, read it to them, Read to the elderly at a rest home or at a club meeting.

In my next blog, I will try to get a little more extreme with some promotional ideas. (Below, my first self-published book, (in 1976, almost unheard of at that time), and the professional publication version and sequels which followed).

Self Promotion

In 2010 there were 316,480 traditional book titles published in the U.S. Also in 2010 more then 2.7 million non-traditional and self-published books were produced. That is an awful lot of books and an awful lot of competition for the attention of readers. Over the last few years, book industry sales have been declining and a corresponding drop in books being produced each year has also occurred, though it is still in the millions. It gets harder for anyone, even large publishing houses, to sell books. Most book marketing is done by the authors now, especially so in the self publishing marketplace. A good rule of thumb to follow is, that to be successful in self publishing, it is 5% writing a good book and 95% doing good marketing. First we will look at some of the traditional and simple things that are open to self publishers to promote their books and that I have actually tried:

Use social media. FaceBook is a pretty good place to start, especially if you have a large friends list. (I don’t because I actually prefer to know almost all of my ‘friends’). Don’t be annoying about your new book, an occasional reminder tied to some other comment or interest would do just fine.
Write a blog. If I had a dollar for every article that I have read about how to achieve self publishing success by writing a blog then I would be rich. I have been writing a blog for a year and a half now and I have a total of 4 followers, not much chance of success there. My subjects for my blog are art and writing, SF and personal views, these are just probably not very interesting to a lot of people. But once again, a blog also has the major problem of self promotion, just getting the word out about it to right audience can be very difficult.
Read other books about self publishing. This is, on the face of it, a good suggestion. But in my experience, don’t waste your money. You may learn some general things but consider that your books are unique to you and your situation is also unique. The most useful thing I have found to read is ‘Writers Digest’ magazine. They have a lot of pretty good how-to articles on writing and promotion. The down side is that they will bombard you with their tutorials, books, e-mails, promotional stuff and other ad material to sell you things to help you become a better writer. My best advice to any writer is just to write, a lot, you will become better.
If you already have your book on Amazon, create an authors page that is connected to your book page. It is pretty easy to do and you can now use that intelligent-looking author photo selfie that you took. Write a good synopsis of your book, a short one and a little longer one, see which works best. Have a copy of your book cover. Write a synopsis of your writing experience, who you are, your interests, try and make yourself look like you might actually know what you are doing as an author.
Get on Goodreads, create an authors page there, (use that photo again). Post about the books you have read, review them, learn how that works. You will also be surprised how many of your friends already have reader pages on Goodreads. Connect, be part of that reading and writing community.
Get on Pinterest, particularly if you have a self-help or hobby kind of book. You can make all kinds of connections there with like-minded people who have the same interests.

In my next blog we will get into more a lot more detail about promotion and then take a look at some really out-of-the-box kinds of things. (Below, my bookshelf of stuff that I have written, designed or worked on in some fashion. Yes, there are a lot of duplicates, different printings and such.)

Self Publishing

Look at those two words for a moment, self publishing. The important word is self. By yourself, you, alone. When you get into self publishing you are very much on your own. I am going to try to put together a few of the things I have learned in my own self publishing adventures, but the most important lesson I have learned is, that I am very much and completely on my own. Don’t look for help from anybody and don’t expect any sympathy from your spouse, other family members, relatives, friends or even complete strangers, they have already have written you and your dubious venture off. If you have been married long enough, then they accept that this is another one of your many odd quirks and you will get over it eventually. Even good writer friends that I have known for several decades tend to ignore you; they have their own work and cannot be bothered to help you. (It is very true that they also get so many requests for help that they could easily spend all of their time looking at other people’s books). Even a writer’s agent is not that much help, (at least mine has been totally useless and exceptionally unhelpful). A motto I have learned about publishing goes like this. “If you want to make a small fortune in publishing, start out with a big fortune.” So, are you still willing to go on? Here are a few things I have learned:

Write your book, and more importantly do a good edit on it or pay to have someone else look at it and do the edit.
Design a good eye-catching cover with a snappy title for it or pay to have someone else do it for you.
Get an ISBN number for your book, (more money). Copyright it as well. At least use the language of copyright in the front of the book, (just look at other books).
Get some good photos of yourself looking like a reasonably intelligent author-like person; selfies would probably do just fine. You will need them for promotional things later on.
Convert your book to e-book format, (often difficult), and upload it to Amazon. Books written on PC often covert better then books written on a Mac. I had a heck of a time getting a good, clean conversion on my Mac. I did it three different ways before I was only partially satisfied with the results. You will also need to open an authors account with Amazon and figure out a few things like royalties and other contractual stuff. Oh yes, future taxes come in to this as well. You will need to get an EIN, Employers Identification Number, at least it’s free.
Okay, so why bother to publish to Amazon? It is simply the largest book platform in the world, so just start there, it will be much easier to begin with. You can expand into other places if you survive this first experience.
Decide whether or not you want to do your e-book as a KDP select product on Amazon. KDP is Kindles promotional thing and promises to get your book out there for everyone. They also give your book away to special parts of their audience. I tried it for six months and I didn’t see any difference in sales, (what little there were). You may have a different experience. Be advised that you may not sell your book on different platforms or in other places except KDP while enrolled.
You may also want to offer your book as a printed version, (a lot more money). Though there are many POD, (Print On Demand – as few or as many copies as you want), book companies out there charging you a more or less outrageous sum to do your books. Just remember that the more books you have printed, the less it costs per book. For instance, a thousand books might cost $7.00 each, but you would have to store and sell all thousand of them and pay $7,000 for printing. A hundred books might cost $14.00 each but you will only spend $1,400 and it will be much easier to store and sell those 100.

Actually, this isn’t going as well as I hoped it would. So I am going to stop here and go on to another very vexing problem with self publishing, it is called, promoting your book. (Below, my intelligent author-like person selfie.)

Tickling the T-Rex

At one time or another almost all kids fall in love with dinosaurs. Most outgrow that infatuation and become fairly responsible adults, the rest of us become frustrated amateur paleontologists. As an artist, in my lifetime, I have painted perhaps a dozen illustrations of dinosaurs. This hasn’t been easy. Our knowledge of these ancient animals over the years has increased greatly and our view of what dinosaurs looked like and acted like has undergone a profound change. Take for instance Disney’s ‘Fantasia,’ an animated movie released in 1940. One of the segments, ‘The Rite of Spring,’ Included, no less, then the history of the evolution of life on earth. Of course, dinosaurs feature prominently in it. For accurate scientific information Disney used experts such as Roy Chapman Andrews, the director of the American Museum of Natural History, (The Indiana Jones of his time, who discovered the first dinosaur eggs on an expedition to the Gobi Desert), English biologist Julian Huxley, paleontologist Barnum Brown and astronomer Edwin Hubble. Now contrast that with this year’s modern view of dinosaurs in, ‘Jurassic World,’ and even then, they pulled some punches. They didn’t show any dinosaurs with feathers and there are some dozens of species of dinosaurs that are now known to have them. I guess we just can’t handle feathers on our most beloved monsters.

It was with a great deal of pleasure that I recently accepted the invitation to be a touch-up artist for a traveling exhibit that was coming to Treehouse Children’s Museum where I have done a lot of art work. The exhibit, “Dinosaurs: Land of Fire and Ice,’ has four full-sized dinosaur models on which I was required to touch up the color of the creatures, (along with many other exhibit pieces). There were plenty of areas on the dinos where the paint has rubbed off because of the amount of handling by people visiting the exhibit. (In all likelihood many photos of children riding them have probably been taken, judging by the wear marks). It was wonderful fun and an unforgettable experience for me to be able sit down and gently tickle the neck of a T-Rex with a little paint to help make him come alive for visitors at the museum.

When I’m 64

“When I get older, losing my hair, many years from now. Will you still be sending me a Valentine, birthday greetings, bottle of wine. If I’d been out till quarter to three, would you lock the door? Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m sixty-four.”

I have said it before, the Beatles had a song for everything. When I was just a teenager, I heard this song on the radio, it was a pleasant little thing, full of wistful longings and hope for a gentle future, far away.

“I could be handy, mending a fuse, when your lights have gone. You can knit a sweater by the fireside, Sunday morning go for a ride. Doing the garden, digging the weeds, who could ask for more. Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m sixty-four.”

Back then it never occurred to me that I could possibly be on the other end of such a song. It was going to be a very long time to get to the future, how could I ever grow to be that old? Such things like that don’t really exist.

“Send me a postcard, drop me a line, stating point of view. Indicate precisely what you mean to say, yours sincerely, wasting away. Give me your answer, fill in a form, mine for evermore. Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m sixty-four.”

So in the month of the anniversary of the day of my birth, at age sixty-four, this is Michael C. Goodwin, yours sincerely, slowly wasting away. (Thankfully, I am touching up the paint on a traveling exhibit of dinosaurs for Treehouse Children’s Museum and I am not nearly as old as those extinct creatures! Yet.)