Sian B. Claven's Blog, page 4

Writing Horror - Part 1: Things No One Tells You

Hey there,

Resident horror author Sian B. Claven here. I've been thinking about what to do with my blog for ages because I want to do a blog but I can never come up with anything. Recently I've been facing a lot of challenges as a horror author, let alone one from Africa, and I decided that maybe I should blog about what I experience. I'm going to break them down into parts but there won't be a specific order.

First and foremost, this is only my opinion of what I've experienced. Everyone has different walks in life, some more successful than others and everyone does things differently. This blog is just about my journey as a horror author, the things I think I did wrong, the things I think I did right, and things I think you should try if you're interested in joining the dark side.

Horror. There are many sub-genres in horror. I tend to dabble in a few of them, but I'm mostly old school, spooky ghosts, demon-possessed, can they get out horror. Did I intend to be a horror writer? No! In fact, my original book, Ensnared, was meant to be a fantasy adventure book. The problem with being a writer though, and you'll learn it soon enough, is that your characters sometimes take on their own missions and change everything. So I dived headfirst into horror.

In this blog post, there are some things I want to touch on that I wish people had told me about writing horror when I started, especially since I want to be a full-time author as a career.

INCOME

The income margin is tiny compared to other genres. According to this article, https://bookstr.com/article/book-genres-that-make-the-most-money/ horror makes a sad little $79.6 million dollars compared to its next contender science fiction/ fantasy which earns a whopping $590.2 million and let's not even discussed Romance that hits the all-time high of $1.44 BILLION. It's a small niche market and it's a struggle to get on the radar. I wish someone had let me know that even publishing 23 books, advertising consistently, and promoting myself everywhere - I'm still a little blip of an author in the grand horror scale of things.

I am better than when I started, I used to get so excited about my $3 a month payment cause I sold some books. Yeah, four years of that and you get tired of it pretty quickly. But that was during a time where I didn't know what I was doing. I always earned between $3 - $12 a month because I wasn't doing the right thing. And no one tells you this unless you actually ask for help, and even then you have to get a few opinions because what works for one doesn't work for the other.

I'm still not earning thousands yet, and I'm still not able to quit my day job but it's really improved this year

ADVERTISING IS A MUST

A lot of people have the misconception that once they put their book out there and people read it, it will spread like wildfire. Do you know how rarely that happens? Also in the horror genre, there are books being released every single day, tons of them across the globe. You are competing with big numbers.

I wish someone had told me that although free advertising will get you some fans and subscribers, the real money is in paid advertising. I've seen the results myself and it's amazing. It makes such a difference.

But what no one tells you is it is HARD! You have to literally study courses to understand the best way to run ads and even then you're going to blow through a couple of $100's before you get the perfect ad that starts generating some income. It is frustrating, if you really can't do it, pay someone to do it for you - but that for me is a waste of money. I'd prefer to do the courses and figure it out myself.

All those authors posting they're making thousands. They do paid advertising. Guaranteed. Start small. I'm at the point where, because of my limited income, I'm not running ads but I'm booking promos with promotional sites like fussylibrarian. It's increased my profit so much that it's unbelievable.

TRY NOT TO COMPETE

It's really hard to see another author doing really well. Heck, there are authors that have just started releasing books that look like they're doing way better than me and I've been doing this for five years. It's not that I write an inferior product, it just depends on what's popular at the moment (I'm looking at you splatterpunk). Remember they haven't read your book so they can't judge if it's good or bad. The only person you should compete with is YOURSELF and that's to always improve your craft.

Read articles on writing, take courses, check your editor's comments and ask for feedback on how you can improve. You can learn so much.

YOU DO JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER AND EDITING

Don't believe them when they say you don't judge a book by its cover. The first thing a reader see's is your cover. Research your cover carefully, look at what's trending on the top 100 in your category, don't deviate too much if you're not established yet. You need to first attract a fanbase because you can start going all crazy with your covers. Also make sure you click with your designer, having covers that match and are on brand is so important because readers love that.

Editing as well. First, they look at your cover, then they look at your blurb. Is your blurb poorly edited? Too long? Too short? Gives away too much. There are a plethora of Facebook groups where you can post your blurb and ask for advice. The blurb must hook the reader. Because next they take a look inside and if your work has a lot of typos and bad grammar they're not going to give you a chance. And it's worse if they buy the book and discover that because then we're looking at negative reviews. It's hard to recover from that, trust me I know.

Put out a good quality product. Treat this as a business. Be proud of what you're putting out and you will get good results.

ONE BOOK HUH?

Here's a little secret no one told my disappointed heart when I released my first book. The first few days your family and friends buy it and it looks like you sell so many. Then you wait for your adoring fans to rush to get your book and there are crickets. Don't just sit there, write the next one! If your audience sees consistent good quality books being put out, they will definitely cotton on and start following you. A one-book author is no fun guys, what if I really like the book and that's it there's nothing else to read. Build a back catalog that when readers finish on a book they can go back and buy more.

The more GOOD QUALITY books you put out there, there more you're likely to have sales pick up. It's taken me five years to build my back catalog and showeee am I glad that I did it. Often fans finish a book and want to delve into the next one. Especially in series. The Series sell well.

DON'T BE AN A$$

The horror community of authors is really friendly and welcoming for the most part (Aren't there always bad eggs?) and a lot of other authors will be happy to promote you, let you post in their groups, and help you with advice. Don't be a jerk or think you're better than anyone else in the community and you'll find you always have a helping hand when you need a pick-me-up or a boost.

WELL THAT'S IT FOR NOW

Although I can probably think of a lot more things that I wish I was told (don't print so many damn books it's hard to sell paperbacks internationally from Africa) *cough cough* - I'm going to leave this here for now. If you disagree with something I said I'm all ears, I'd love to hear from you in the comments, or perhaps you'd just like to let me know about something you wished someone had told you?

Until the next Blog

Always Lock Your Doors

February - Love & Winners

This month's newsletter a lot of information about love, loss, and books on special. We talked about resolutions and I even included a poem that I wrote years ago that talks about true love not fading away with death.

We congratulated Yami Arocho on winning January's competition, if you haven't signed up for the Newsletter then you miss out on being able to enter the competitions! Yami has won signed paperbacks and author swag from myself which I will ship to her! Congrats again Yami!

We also announced the competition for February and I'm looking forward to seeing the entries!

If you're interested in signing up for my newsletter you can head over to www.sianbclaven.com/subscribe and fill out the form and subscribe. Don't miss out on future competitions, specials and fun content from myself!

Always lock your doors.

Sian B. Claven

Link to February's Newsletter:https://view.flodesk.com/emails/60145...

Happy New Year Nightmares & Spacehikers

It's a brand New Year and I can feel the excitement palpating. You can't help but feel hopeful when a new year rolls around. It's a blank slate, a new start and a chance to start a new chapter of life. I discuss this and more in my January newsletter. If you haven't signed up already, you can do so under the subscribe tab. If you'd like to check it out first, follow this link.

https://view.flodesk.com/emails/5fef2...

Book Read: The Shining by Stephen King

Definitely one of my top 5 favourite books from King.

Revisiting the Overlook as I prepare to read Dr Sleep was like revisiting an old Uncle I don't like. I know him, I know he's family, but goddammit he is creepy as hell and I really wish he wouldn't hug me because he smells funny.

That's the thing I could only hope to achieve in my own writing, King brings about such amazing description that you can taste everything, hear every sound and smell the air around the characters. When the oranges hit dick I could literally taste the citrus fruit on my tongue and when blood spilled it left that metallic taste in the back of my throat.

As an author myself, I could only hope to invoke such feeling in my own work.

So I got Excited

So I need to apologise because I promised to blog after every Chapter of Neutral Ground that I finished, but I got so absorbed by the story that I just went ahead and finished the next nine chapters and wrapped up the book, did a self-edit and sent it to my editor to look over.

Sorry about that - as Hagrid would say.

And what an exciting nine chapters it was. There was action, there was pain, there was healing, there was romance, there was sexy time, there was more pain, there was heartbreak. I went through a whirlwind of emotions myself as I carefully chose each word that made up the story. The sad part is I think my readers are going to come after me with pitchforks once they read the end because now they have to wait for book two...

Oh dear me.

For those of you who missed the big announcement, I'm writing under a pen name as well. The website for that pen name is up and running under www.jessicablackauthor.com if you want to keep up to date with more romantic stories. I'm also going to be writing a blog about writing romance there like I tried to do with Neutral Ground.

Until the next chapter of a Sian B. Claven book is complete...

TTFN! (Ta Ta For Now!)

Neutral Ground Chapters 8 & 9

On writing both the chapters, with chapter 8 very late last night and chapter 9 having just been completed I'm feeling great. It looks like I'm going to meet my deadline with enough time to do revised edits.

I'm very grateful to be a part of this boxed set and happy that I'm learning so much about authoring while I've been a part of it. There is never a time that I don't want to learn, although I must admit that having two jobs, plus a third part-time job, plus writing plus marketing is really tiring. I've unfortunately had to put my actual studies on a back burner for now but hope to get back to them soon.

On the plus side chapter, eight has ignited the love interest in my story and chapter nine has intensified it so I'm excited to see how it goes further on. I'm hoping to complete chapter ten tomorrow and have another update for you.

Onwards!

Merry Meow Chapter One

On writing the first chapter of Merry Meow I was pleasantly surprised to find that it flowed so freely from my fingertips. I didn't expect it to be such an easy story to write as I'm not accustomed to writing short stories as I once was. A lot of my earlier work is a lot shorter than my modern work and I struggle to keep my work short now. Gone are the days where I accepted 15 000 words made a story. Nope, not anymore.

And Merry Meow is going to be a short 10 000 words upon completion. It is part of my tongue in cheek Christmas tales about cats and how evil they are. Which of course, now that I own my own little prince of Darkness, I know is utterly true. They are devilish little s***s that we love endlessly and who love us in their own arrogant little way. Mine is laying next to me now just snoozing away unaware that yet again I am talking about him.

The first chapter is excellent, I cannot wait to for the second.

Neutral Ground -The First Seven Chapters

On writing the first seven chapters of Neutral Ground.

Before I decided to write a blog post per chapter of my writing, I had already written six chapters of Neutral Ground for the Possessed by Passion boxset. Today I wrote the seventh chapter. Neutral Ground is an interesting project for me because it's completely out of my genre. I am a horror and science fiction author, not a paranormal romance author but here I sit with seven chapters of what I hope is a good paranormal romance story developing on my computer. The point of these blog posts is to share with you my feelings on the chapters as they are written to give you some insight into life as a writer. Sometimes they will be short and sometimes they will be longer.

Today's blog post will be broken down into seven brief paragraphs about how I felt writing the first seven chapters of this story. Please do comment and let me know your thoughts.

Chapter One

I burned this chapter so many times before I was happy. By burn I mean I sent it to the trash in the program. I just couldn't find a good opening for the story, everything seemed cheesy and cliched. Nothing I wrote felt good enough. the characters felt one dimensional and I was bored with them while writing them, I couldn't imagine how bored my readers would be. Eventually, I consulted Sam and Toni, two of my writing community best friends and bounced ideas off of them. No more burning, I promised them, and off I went to write the first chapter anew. Finally, I've found the flow I was looking for and I am satisfied with the way the chapter introduces my readers to the world I am creating.

Chapter Two

I'm trying not to make things confusing and sometimes I feel like I'm trying too hard. It's a constant juggle as a writer. You want to immerse your reader in your story so you want to show not tell, but at the same time some things require explanation, ah but now to work that explanation into a 'showing' format. This isn't easy. This chapter wasn't easy, but it was easier than the first. I enjoyed this chapter because it brought forth some of the magic I'm working with. It's also allowed me to introduce my second main character who I love.

Chapter Three

Conflict is important for every story, and now I get to mould the story using the conflict I want. People underestimate the power of good conflict in a story. This chapter was fun to write because I got to annoy my main character, I like annoying my characters even though I know they will make me pay for it later. You might laugh at that but when you're a writer you'll understand what it's like to have characters go off and do their own thing without your consent. They're like little children who don't want to listen.

Chapter Four

The plot thickened here but I'm struggling with the word allocation per chapter I've set up. I feel like my chapters are too short and a bit of self-doubt is creeping in that I'm rushing the story and sacrificing plot as a result. I want to make it longer but I also have a word limit for submission. I'll have to have a proofreader and editors opinion on this. The nagging feeling that I should assemble a beta team especially for this story is starting to settle in. ARGH, what if they hate it and I have to rewrite. I'm panicking cause the deadline is looming ahead.

Chapter Five

Today is a good writing day and this chapter has a lot of interaction so I'm loving it. All thoughts of a beta team have left my brain for this chapter and I had not realised it though I do now in hindsight. I was just happy to have the words flowing from my finger tips. The story is developing nicely at this point and I'm giddy with excitement.

Chapter Six

There I go again, writing myself into a corner. I hate doing that. Oh, wait, it wasn't me! It was those pesky characters I was telling you about. Yup, revenge is sweet Miles and Lizzie, but I'll get you back later. A cliffhanger perhaps or maybe I'll write one of you off. Just kidding, this is a spoiler-free blog :) Still, they just ran off and did a thing that I now have to figure out how to undo. Frustrating!!!

Chapter Seven

Deadline has been moved up and today I write chapter seven. Now I have to assemble a beta team because I have fourteen days to write thirteen excellent chapters. I've done it before so I know I can but I need to make sure they're excellent and having beta readers check my work while I write is particularly important. I can think of three people to ask so far. After I'm doing with this blog I'm off to ask them, and hopefully, they enjoy what I've written so far. Fingers crossed because I have limited time but I will rewrite if necessary.

Tune in tomorrow (hopefully) for chapter 8's progress. To preorder the set click on the above picture.

Bringing the Blog Back to Life

I thought long and hard about what I wanted to do with my blog, what I wanted to bring to my readers other than news from my latest newsletter, which most of you are already subscribed to. So what can I give you here that you don't already have access to?

It then dawned on me that I could give you an on the go sneak peek into my thoughts on writing as I wrote. While I work my magic with words, chapter by chapter I could provide you with my thoughts upon completion of a chapter how I felt about what I had just written. This could serve as encouragement for would-be writers, insight for fans and just fun for those who are interested.

What do you think? Comment on the blog your thoughts.

While that is said, for those of you who have not yet subscribed to my newsletter you are missing out on exclusive sneak peeks, little caveats and awesome little giveaways. You can subscribe by clicking on the subscribe tab on the menu of the website and filling in your details. I send regular emails out twice a month and sometimes will send out short notices when I run specials on books.

My first two blog posts about writing will go up tomorrow followed closely by new ones as I write new chapters. There will be no set times or dates for new blogs as it will be as and when I finish a chapter.

Until I write again.

Always lock your doors.

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