Gary M. Martin's Blog, page 4

Writing should be easier.

I imagine a life where I get up out of bed between the hours of seven and eight a.m., eat a light breakfast, and retreat to my in-home office, fresh coffee in hand. I quickly peck out a good, (perhaps brilliant) story on my computer while resting comfortably in my heavily cushioned chair. I stop for lunch, then continue with my future best seller. Early evening I knock off with a warm feeling of great accomplishment.

After the writing ends there would be no extra work promoting myself and my books, while hoping desperately that someone is taking notice. All that would be left up to my publisher.

This, however, is not my reality.
I’m not going to complain. Okay I am. A little bit, anyway. I’ll try not to bore you.

Like most self-published writers who don’t make enough money off their books to support themselves I have to keep a regular, full time job. That means my actual writing time is limited. I had hoped to finish my second book of THE DOORWAY trilogy this weekend. I am so close. But that is not going to happen. Maybe next week.

A portion of the free time I’ve had has been used try to make my website more appealing and informative. Another part has been used to promote my book on the internet. Since I’m not computer savvy it makes the effort challenging sometimes. Along with this promotion effort I’m also offering my e-book, THE COMING OF DARK, for free on Amazon from February 24 through February 26.

Okay, enough ranting. In truth I still like to write despite the other things that go with it. I can’t imagine not writing for any great length of time. Besides, It’s not that bad, just frustrating at times. I’m sure that there are other writers out there struggling far more than myself. To them I offer my respect and my sympathy.

Another Goodreads giveaway.

I am glad that I have an outlet to showcase my books. It’s difficult to convince people to take a chance on an unknown, self-published author. Not only because there are so many established traditionally published authors out there, but because there also seems to be a glut of self-published authors. It is very difficult to get noticed.

Because I am not a seasoned professional I need people reading my books and giving me feedback on them. It has really helped me in the past. Though my books are far from perfect they are better than they once were. Criticisms made about any of my books have been taken seriously and I have made corrections as I’ve seen fit.

I have many projects slated for the future, and also more giveaways. I am happy that I could self-publish my books and plan on having at least one more self-published novel. But I think the big joy will be seeing a novel of mine published traditionally. I am presently working on a novel that is deemed to be my biggest project. I have finished a rough draft, but there is a lot of work ahead.

ghosts

For a long time I’ve had quite a fascination with ghosts, mostly because of the mystery that is associated with them. Are they the once living who have passed on, or are they something else? Are they demons impersonating the dead with evil intent? Are they us from a parallel universe who’s voice and/or essence have transcended the line that divides the universes? Could we actually be ghosts in someone else’s parallel universe?

Okay. So there are more questions than answers. For me that’s fodder for several more novels.

I think one of the best ghost stories that I have read is Ghost Story by Peter Straub. But to be honest I have not read many ghost stories. At least, not a story where the main plot is based on a ghost, or ghosts.

I would love to write a good ghost story. But it has to be unique. It can’t be the same old stuff.

When speaking of ghosts one experience stands out for me. It happened a few years ago when my children were little. At the time we were living in an old house downtown. It was a three bedroom. The bedrooms were situated off the hallway. Our boys stayed in one room and our girls in the other. From the living room one could see the boy’s bedroom door on the other side of the hallway. That was a good thing because the boys would sometimes sneak out of bed and try to scare the girls in their bedroom. At this particular time it was late. My wife and I were watching a movie. The kids had settled down. I hadn’t heard anything from them for a good while. From the corner of my eye I saw one of the boys leave the bedroom and head down the hallway. I jumped out of my seat. “You’d better get your butt back in that bed,” I called as I stepped in the hallway. But the hallway was empty. I went into the girl’s bedroom expecting to find one of the boys hiding there. All I found were the girls sound asleep. I went to the boy’s room thinking that maybe the guilty party had somehow slipped back into the bedroom. The boy’s looked to be asleep, but to be sure they weren’t pulling one over on me I went back out of the room and hid in the hallway listening for whispers or any kind of movement. I heard nothing. After a couple minutes I snuck back into the bedroom. I tried several strategies to get either of the boys to reveal themselves, but it didn’t happen. I finally came to the conclusion that they were indeed asleep.

I can’t say what really happened that evening. Over the time that we lived there, however, my wife and I have heard the faint, brief voice of a child a time or two when our children were not around.

I have to admit that all of this could have been our imagination. Maybe it was. I never got around to calling one of the ghost busting teams to confirm it one way or the other.

Things I've learned.

I have two books enrolled in the Amazon Kendle select program. I am still weighing the value of this program.

In the select program I am allowed 5 e-book giveaway days for every 90 days. I initially thought that this was a great idea. It would be like introducing myself and my work to others. If it didn't stimulate sales directly I figured I would get a review or two that might help sales later on. After giving
away hundreds of downloads I still, have yet, to get a review. As far as sales go I can't contribute any of my sales to the giveaways.

I have had better luck on the Goodreads giveaway. I have had several reviews due to it. My one wish, however, is that the review could have been on one of the book seller sites. Unless the customers are members of Goodreads they have no idea what others think of my book.

I guess what I learned is... I guess it would be to use Goodreads to boost my ego. That is assuming I get halfway good reviews. As far as the select program I guess I'll give it another shot or two. What have I got to lose.

Book promotion.

I enjoy writing even when it sometimes doesn't come easy. What I really don't like is promoting my work.

I don't feel right telling someone how great my work is. Surely they realize that I am somewhat biased. Even if I were being as fair minded as possible I may be seeing more into my work than the reader.

There are other problems. For the most part I am talking to strangers online. Why should they believe me? They don't know me.

I sometimes wish that I had a talent for the arts such as oil painting. That way I could show my paintings and get an instant reaction. Instead, I have to ask people to give up hours of their time in hopes that they will be entertained by my work.

The bad thing is that if no one reads my books and gives me some feedback I won't know how I'm doing.

I have gotten some reviews on Goodreads, because of giveaways. A couple of them were not pleasant, but I did learn something from them.

I guess that's enough venting for awhile.

Stephen King Video

My day job has kept me quite busy lately.
I've been putting off things that I wanted to do. Thankfully, July 4th came along and I have a couple days off.

Yesterday I worked on my website trying to make it look more professional and entertaining. I'm happy to say that I'm getting there. Besides adding a little slideshow of my books and installing a free download option of one of my short stories, I put on a funny Stephen King interview. I really enjoyed the video. I hope everyone else does.

I also made good progress on a book I am writing. I already have a rough draft but find myself drifting away from it. I think I'm making it better. I hope so. Anyway this book should be the biggest that I have written. So far I'm guessing it will end up being at 100,000 words or better. I would also like to go the traditional route this time. Unless, of course, my other books suddenly sky rocket in sales, which I do not foresee.

I worked on my facebook a little, too, but wasn't sure how I could improve on it, though I know it needs some work.

I am in the process of having my book THE COMING OF DARK reviewed by people who would put the review on Amazon and other booksellers as well as Goodreads. I have three good reviews on Goodreads for this book, but that's as far as it goes. Without any reviews people searching online for something to read will most like just skip over anything I have written.

I guess I've rambled enough. If anyone is reading this I think you will like the Stephen King video on my website www.gmmartinbooks.com

New Book.

I have just published a YA fantasy novella titled The doorway: other world. It is the first book in The doorway trilogy. The other two books are slated to be full novel lengths.

I had actually started this book years ago, and like other stories I set it aside when I got too busy, or too lazy, to finish it. Recently, while trying to decide what to write next, I dusted off some of my unfinished manuscripts to see if any were worth continuing. I chose The doorway. Was it a good choice? I don't know. I hope to find out soon.

Right now I have no plans to write strictly YA novels. In fact I don't expect to stay in one genre. I hope to have books in many genres before I'm finished.

Oh yeah, by the way, the e-book is available of Amazon for $1.49.

giveaway & new Nexus.

Today is the first day of the giveaway of my book THE COMING OF DARK. I feel good about it. I spent a lot of time making sure it was just right.

Today I am preparing to publish NEXUS: expanded edition. It is the same story as my first book NEXUS, but without the spelling mistakes and other such things, as well as adding a little more substance to the characters. Another good thing is that this book will be about half the price as the first one.

The coming of dark.

This is my second book. I think this one is better than my first. It's not because of the plot, though I think the plot is good on this one. I think it is because I deepened the characters a bit and got rid of some mistakes I made in the first one.

The first book was a more narrower genre. I think this one will appeal to a wider audiance.

Because I went through Createspace this time I was also able to offer the book at a lower price. That ought to be a plus.

As a writer I don't place myself in a specific genre. In fact, the book I'm working on now is a YA novel.

I guess that's enough rambling for today.
Check out my book if you're reading this. If you're not reading this then disregard what I said.

One more thing before the men in white coats take me back to my room. The book is available on Amazon for sure, but may not be available on Barnes & Noble and other outlets until the end of the week.

NEXT BOOK.

I'm almost ready for publication of my next book. I've gone through countless drafts: correcting, adding, deleting. To be honest I'm getting tired of reading the same book over and over again. Hey, I know the ending already.
I think it's pretty decent right now, but I will be reading through it at least one more time this weekend.

I've decided to go through Createspace to publish my book. I also hope to get some feedback on my book through some of the members there. This is for the printed form. I will be going to Amazon to publish an ebook.

I think this book will have a more general appeal than NEXUS. It could be labled horror, but it could also be labled psychological suspense, paranormal, and perhaps a convoluted love story as well. Oh yeah, a little mystery thrown in there as well.

I guess that's all for now. Got to get back to work.