John R. Phythyon Jr.'s Blog, page 39

A Successful NaNoWriMo

Well, NaNoWriMo defeated me. I didn't even come close to writing 50,000 words, let alone a whole novel. So my first attempt at National Novel Writing Month was a failure.

But I'm okay with that. I knew going in I wasn't going to be able to pull it off. I had way too many things to accomplish to get State of Grace published. I was really using NaNoWriMo as motivation to work on the next Wolf Dasher novel in the spare time I had between getting State of Grace up and on sale.

But I like to assess what I accomplished, and I'm pretty pleased with my authorial efforts in November. I got all of the following done:

Published State of Grace: This was no mean feat. Over November, the book went through three edits, was formatted for every major eBook reader, got a cover designed, and was uploaded to Smashwords, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. That's a lot of work that more than accounted for the time I needed to complete a NaNoWriMo project.
Wrote 22 Blogs: To keep this site fresh it needs regular content. My goal is to publish new material daily, but if I can get six up a week, I feel I'm going well. I aim for entries that are 500 words, but I do run long, and I probably average 600-650 words. If I wrote the average of 625 22 times, that's 13,750 words, or about a third of NaNoWriMo's 50,000-word goal.
Wrote Eight Chapters of the New Book: And despite all that, I still managed to pen eight chapters, averaging about 2000 words a chapter, or 16,000 words of the new novel.

So, from my point of view, I succeeded during NaNoWriMo. I got my first novel published on time (I set a goal of Tuesday, November 22, and that's when it went live), I wrote just about five blogs a week, and I still found time to work on the next book and make some progress.

November was a very productive month for me as an author. I'm going to have to work my tail off in December to match it.

Now what?

State of Grace is finally published. It went live last Tuesday, and I was walking on air. You can get it from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Smashwords. (And you should do so right now. Click on the link from your favorite site and download it. I'll wait.)

But apparently, the release of a debut novel from a largely unknown author isn't quite enough to crash Amazon's servers. So, if I'm going to make The Dream come true, it seems I'm going to have to do a little more work on this book. (The work never really ends, does it?)

So what should I do? Here's a few things I've got planned.

Loss Leader: Like any business, the challenge for me is getting people to try that first product. Right now, I've only got the one book out, so I need to do whatever I can to get folks to give it a shot. To do that, I'll be releasing a free Wolf Dasher short story. It will be set a few years before State of Grace and will convey the flavor of the novel as well as introduce readers to Wolf. It will also have links to the online stores where readers can buy State of Grace. Hopefully, a free sample will entice buyers.
Recruit Followers: I've been working on this since I decided to publish, but it's critical now that the book is out. I need more Twitter followers and Facebook and Goodreads friends. Thus, each day I carve out a little time to find people on Twitter who follow people and topics I'm interested in. Then I follow them. Many of them follow back. Now they're privy to my tweets and may retweet them to their followers. Social media marketing is viral, and I need more "carriers."
Reviews: In the new world of e-publishing, reviews are what sell books. I've got to turn some of those sales I've made into four- and five-star reviews on Amazon and Barnes & Noble. (If you were kind enough to click a link above to download State of Grace, be sure to leave a review on its page when you've finished reading.) I'm currently soliciting reviewers on Goodreads, but I need to do more in this area, which leads me to the next point.
Book Blogs: There are tons of blogs out there dedicated to reading and reviewing books. Many of them interview authors. I have got to connect with some of these — something I really need to learn more about. There's a lot of research that needs to be done here.
Mainstream Platforms: I have connections with two local media outlets, and two different schools can claim me as an alumnus. I need to trade on that capital for interviews or any other kind of exposure I can get.

And that's just a start. Getting State of Grace published took a lot of work. Getting it to sell is going to take even more. Time for me to get at it.

Wrestling Pigs: How not to Handle your Online Presence

There's an old saying that goes, "Never wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and the pig enjoys it." The general truth of this philosophy is proven on the internet every day, sometimes in spectacular fashion.

Take, for instance, the recent flap over a teenager tweeting disparaging comments about Kansas Governor Sam Brownback. Eighteen-year-old Emma Sullivan was on a school trip to the Kansas Capitol, and her group was addressed by the governor. While he was speaking, she tweeted, "Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot."

Not only did Sullivan not actually say anything at all to the governor, her tweet was childish and petulant. It is exactly the sort of silly comment one expects a teenager to make about an adult authority figure she doesn't like. He blows a lot? Really?

Had the Brownback administration done nothing, it would have received the treatment it deserved: obscurity. Sullivan and her friends would have giggled about it, and that would have been the end of things.

But things were just getting started, because Brownback spokeswoman Sherienne Jones-Sontag called Sullivan's school and complained. Sullivan was scolded for an hour. Then she was told she would write a letter of apology, and the principal would give her talking points.

Then Sullivan's sister called the media.

Before Governor Brownback could say, "What's a hashtag?" #heblowsalot was trending on Twitter. Sullivan's 65 followers, exploded to 10,000 in a matter of days. Brownback was ridiculed and pilloried nationwide. On Monday, he was the one who had to issue the apology. Sullivan refused to write hers, and the school, probably fearing a First Amendment lawsuit, backed down.

And all this because Brownback's communication team decided to wrestle with a pig (metaphorically speaking).

The irony of this outcome is both terrible and lost on Jones-Sontag and the Brownback team. They wanted to get the student in trouble, but it was ultimately they who landed in hot water.  In her statement on the subject, Jones-Sontag indicated that Sullivan needed to understand the "power of social media." She was wrong. It was Jones-Sontag herself who needed the lesson. Sullivan became a star. Brownback (not really his employees) looked foolish and petulant.

In other words, Governor Brownback got dirty, and Sullivan enjoyed it.

And all this came about, because Brownback's communications team took an insult personally. They got wound up over the silly comments of a teenager.

There's a lesson here. Fighting on the internet makes you look stupid. If a reader gives you a bad review, thank him or her for the review and say you're sorry he or she didn't enjoy the book.

And leave it at that.

Don't debate him or her. Don't respond again if the reviewer leaves a follow-up comment further disparaging you or your book. Let the person who wrote unkind things look like the troll instead of you.

Had the Brownback team done nothing, they'd have been the winners. Anyone who came across the tweet would have recognized it as the work of a snarky teen. Instead, they tried to counter what she said and made her a First Amendment Hero.

Resist the urge to do battle with trolls who want to trash your work. Let them identify themselves as trolls with their own words. Resist the urge to wrestle the pig. The only one who wins in that scenario is the pig.

You've worked too hard to get your work published. Don't let someone else wreck it.

–

Author's note: Just in case it's necessary to explain this, I do not think Emma Sullivan is a pig or a troll. So far as I can tell from what I've read, she's a civic-minded high school senior. But whatever you think of her politics or Governor Brownback's, the situation they both endured is instructive of how NOT to handle a public relations problem, and, thus, the metaphor is appropriate for the purposes of discussing the lesson.

Beating your Brother

Today's game between the Bengals and Browns is important for a lot of reasons. Cincinnati is only a game out of first place in the AFC North. A win today sets up a critical showdown with Pittsburgh next week and ensures they don't lose pace with Baltimore.

The Bengals can also create their largest lead in the annual Battle of Ohio. A win would give Cincinnati a five-game lead, which would not only tie their largest margin in the series but also give them five wins in row over the Browns, the longest winning in the streak in the series.

And, as long as they keep winning, they are in the driver's seat for a playoffs berth. They currently enjoy a one-game lead over all teams chasing them, and own the tiebreak over all but Denver.

None of that really matters.

What's really important is that my brother roots for the Cleveland Browns. An unfortunate and unreasonable misinterpretation of family sports loyalties has him rooting for the wrong NFL team from Ohio.

And since the Browns are his team, it is very, very important that the Bengals win. You see, there is nothing more important than beating your brother — especially your little brother — at anything and everything.  One must prove one's sibling superiority at all times.

I beat him repeatedly at football in the backyard when we were growing up. I chose the Saturday morning cartoons we watched. As the older brother, it was my job to be better than he.

Life, being unjust, allows him to win here and there. He threw me out in a Little League game once. He makes more money than I do.

Amazingly, we will be watching the game together for only the fourth time in our adult lives. Living eight hours apart inhibits our ability to laugh at the other guy's misfortune to his face. Little Bro currently enjoys a 2-1 lead in this series. But the visitor has won every single time. And I'm at his house.

So it's on today. This is about so much more than the Battle of Ohio and the Bengals' postseason chances. This is about me beating my little brother.

There is nothing more important.

My First Black Friday

Today is my first Black Friday.

That is, this is my first Black Friday with a book published to sell for myself. I've been in publishing before, but never really on the retail end of it. Black Friday didn't mean much to me as a publisher, because the books had already been purchased by the distributors and then by the retailers. I didn't have a whole lot of involvement in moving them on the day after Thanksgiving from retail outfits.

But now, everything is different. Now, I can publish directly to the retailer and have it downloaded. Plus I've got price control. It's almost like being a retailer myself.

So that makes this Black Friday, my first as an author, pretty exciting.

Of course, my product is only available electronically. From a store that's open 24/7. So I can't really put together any door-buster specials.

But it's still pretty exciting having something for sale on Black Friday.

I suppose I could put the book on sale, but I've only had it available for sale at all for three days. And, while I did create a bit of build-up to its release on this blog, Twitter, and Facebook, I didn't really put together a huge publicity push for the release "event." I spent most of my time just learning to do it. So it's not like there is yet a huge demand for State of Grace.

But you know what? I've got a product for sale on Black Friday!

So, if you're reading this while you're sitting in line waiting for the doors of your favorite retailer to open, I've got a way for you to while away the time. Head over to Amazon.com or Smashwords.com and download State of Grace. It's only $2.99, and it'll give you something exciting to read while you're waiting to do battle in the aisles for the best merchandise.

Because I've got a product for sale on Black Friday, and I'm pretty excited about that.

Giving Thanks

Thanksgiving is extra special to me this year. It's been a very long time since the true meaning of the holiday really hit me.

And the irony couldn't be greater. You wouldn't think a guy who got laid off in the middle of a nasty economy and whose lease is about to run out would have much to be thankful for. But the lines of Irving Berlin's "Count Your Blessing Instead of Sheep" have been rocketing around my brain for the past two months.

When I'm worried, and I can't sleep

I count my blessings instead of sheep

And I fall asleep counting my blessings

It's overly sentimental and ridiculously simplistic. But it works.

So this year, I'm thankful for the amazing things I have. To whit:

Family and Friends: A lot of people have been looking out for me. They ask after me. They occasionally take me out to eat. Most importantly, they provide companionship. They make sure I am okay. No amount of money on Earth can buy people's care, and I've had it for a very long time.

 Children: Over the past year, I have really found joy in being a positive role model for young people. I've been afforded the opportunity to teach in Theatre Lawrence's "School's Out, Theatre's In" and Junior Acting Company programs. I get to help elementary school kids learn the joy of performing arts and "come out of their shells." I like helping them reach their potential.

Likewise, I get to play Mary Poppins for my girlfriend's kids and their friends. When there's a football or basketball game they want to go to, or a concert at KU's Lied Center, they call on me to chaperone them. I get to take them cool places while serving as an example for how one behaves at such events. I fill in information gaps about the things they're seeing, so they can put it in context. Most importantly, I give them someone to look up to.

Even my daughter, with whom I remain estranged, has shown kindness and a willingness to intereact. Not every visit is a good one, but I do enjoy spending time with her.

The eBook Revolution: I am a published author, something I've been trying to become my entire life. That's possible, because e-readers and eBooks changed not only how books are published but how they're read. I might not be in the position I'm in now even a year ago. And even if I was, I've benefited from the advice of the people who got there first. Everything has come together to give me a market and an opportunity to make my dreams come true.

Getting Laid Off: This is easily the strangest thing I'm thanking for, but I really do have to give thanks to my former employer. I'd been so obsessed with getting the right job and doing well at the job I had and making the right amount of money and getting out of debt, I had lost all sight of what I really wanted — to write for me.

Sometimes, you need a total disaster to break you out of a bad situation and give you a new opportunity. There are only so many jobs you can apply for in a day, and there are only so many opportunities in a weak economy. All the extra time put me in a position to launch my career as an author. It may not ever pay well enough to be my sole or primary source of income. But I get to try. And I keep loooking for other jobs too, but without getting laid off, I might not have come to all the conclusions and put in all the work I did. I likely wouldn't be here now if I hadn't gotten laid off.

So this Thanksgiving I am happier than I've been in a long time. I have a clearer understanding of my blessings than I have had in many years. I have a lot to be thankful for.

I hope you have as many good things in your life this holiday season too. I hope Thanksgiving finds you with more things to celebrate than you can name. And remember Berlin's words:

When my bankroll is getting small

I think of when I had none at all

And I fall asleep counting my blessings

Happy Thanksgiving.

Wanna Be Successful at Indie Publishing? Be Prepared to Work

I'm getting better at this whole social media thing. When I decided to e-publish my novel and take my destiny into my own hands, I had 17 followers on Twitter, and I was blogging about twice a week, which was getting me, as you might imagine, a minimal number of reads.

In a little over a month, I've added over a hundred followers on Twitter, I'm blogging almost daily, and I'm seeing much better traffic. That's partly because people are retweeting my tweets, I've learned to use Tweetdeck to schedule them so that I announce new blog posts five times a day instead of just once, and I was very fortunate to get my blog listed in several other people's blogs and newsletters.

There's a lot more to do. If I'm going to sell State of Grace the way I want, I'm going to need more followers and more traffic.

But I've discovered something in the past few weeks as my social media "empire" has started to expand. Managing and growing it is a lot of work.

For instance, Saturday night, I went to family get-together and then played a game of Magic with my GF's kids. In the few hours that took, I added three new followers, someone retweeted me, and there were two new comments on a Goodreads thread I'm participating in. So, before I could get back to work finishing the edit on State of Grace, I needed to check the comments, follow-back my new followers, and send a thank you for the retweet.

Sunday, I spent three-and-half hours watching the Bengals lose to the Ravens. When I got home, there were three new followers and traffic at my blog that needed attention.

This happens every day.

And I'm very excited about it. I can feel my platform getting larger, which is what I need. But it certainly doesn't grow without nurturing, and that takes time.

All of which is a stark reminder that, if you want to make it big as an independent author, you're in for a lot of work. You have to write the book, and you have to get it edited. But you also have to make sure people know about it, and you have to thank them when they help you out.

Joe Konrath says you have to get lucky to hit it big. If luck is the residue of design, there's a lot work that has to be done to get lucky.

So remember: it isn't just about writing a great book and making sure it is in as perfect a shape as possible. Those things are important. But it's also about hustle. Be prepared to work hard at things that have nothing to do with writing if you want to be successful at the indepdendent publishing game.

It's already been a lot of work for me, and I'm not even successful yet. But I can tell there's a lot more work ahead if I want to make my dreams come true.

From Writer to Author

For much of my adult life, I've described myself as a writer. Afterall, that is what I did in one capacity or another for my various employers since founding a business in 1996.

To be sure, I sometimes got to do "creative writing" on the job. I wrote a number of game books between 1996 and 2003. I wrote essays that turned into commentary on public radio. I even reviewed performing arts events for the newspaper.

But the vast majority of my writing for the past 15 years has been business writing of one sort or another. I've written press releases, brochure copy, web copy, social media copy, back cover copy, newsletter articles, promotional pieces, and a host of other documents designed to advance my employers' brand. I've written grants and been hired to pen magazine articles, technical manuals, and historical documents. Someone asks me to create something for their business, and I do it.

This is writing for a living, and I was good at it, and I enjoyed it.

But even as I reveled in how good I was at my job and took satisfaction in doing it well, somewhere in the dark corners of my mind, I knew it was not what I wanted. Since college, I had been dreaming of writing the Great American Novel. When a prospective employer interviewed and asked the dreaded question: "Where do you see yourself in five years?" my answer was always the same: The New York Times Bestseller List.

So as I spent most of my creative energy writing solid business copy for my employer du jour, I secreted away a small portion of that magic for myself. I wrote novels and occasionally short stories. I completed three novels before State of Grace. I queried agents and publishers with each of them.

But none of them were accepted. In the face of each rejection, I wrote a new novel or another short story. I studied books and articles on writing and I honed my craft. By day, I was a writer. At night, I dreamed of being an author.

And now, the world has changed. E-readers exploded last Christmas, and the e-book market exploded as a result. Suddenly, all the barriers to making my dream come true fell away. It was all there if I was just willing to do the work necessary to make it happen.

I decided I was.

So today, I am no longer a writer. As of today, I am an author. This is what I've been trying to accomplish my entire adult life. The satisfaction of this moment is beyond imagining.

I don't care that no agent ever thought my books were worth the risk. I don't care that no publisher ever thought I was the next George R. R. Martin. I believe. I am willing to gamble I can find enough readers for my fiction to be a viable product in the market.

So today, I am grabbing destiny by the throat and establishing my dreams. Today, I am publishing my first novel, State of Grace. Today, I become an author.

And I intend to make sure that's what I stay.

State of Grace is now available for sale at Smashwords.com.

E-Publishing Final Exam

I feel like I'm back in college.

All semester, I've been taking this important course — E-Publishing. I've studied it at the 101, 102, 201, and 301 levels all semester. I've absorbed information on formats, aggregators/distributors, e-reader platforms, marketing, and about a million other things.

Now, it's Final Exam time. The Term Paper is due.

Today, I start the manuscript formatting to get State of Grace published. I'll be starting at Smashwords, then moving on to Amazon and B&N, then looking around to see where else I might need to be listed. I have a few thoughts on that.

But for the moment, I have to get started on Smashwords. Last night, I buzzed over to Michael Jasper's excellent series on publishing digital books for the entry on Smashwords. The first thing he suggested doing was downloading The Smashwords Style Guide.

So, I did, and OMG! There were over 25 steps to getting the manuscript properly formatted, nearly all of which had mutiple sub-steps.

Because I'm the kind of guy who wants to really understand  how to do something, not just know how to do it, I read the thing cover to cover (figuratively speaking, of course — it is an e-book afterall). I read until past midnight. I took 12 pages of notes. (Yes, I know I had the book right there, but if I don't write something down the information doesn't stay in my brain.)

It felt like I was back in college, cramming for a big final. It reminded me of my first big paper in graduate school, which took me all night to write.

I was 23 then. My body is less willing to submit to that sort of abuse these days.

But I'm armed with knowledge and my notes. I am ready to do battle with Smashwords' legendary Meatgrinder (the actual name for their conversion software if you're not familiar with it). I am off to prove I have learned what I needed.

I hope I get an A+.

Snakebitten Again?

If there is a more snakebitten franchise in the NFL than the Cincinnati Bengals, I'd like to know what it is. To quote the old Hee-Haw song, "If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all." The Bengals' string of unbelievable bad luck  goes all the way back to the founding of the franchise. Consider:

Greg Cook

In 1969, the Bengals drafted Greg Cook, who could have been the greatest quarterback in the history of the franchise. But in his rookie season, he is thrown against a wall by the Raiders and messes up his shoulder. He plays the rest of the season, wins the AFL passing title, and then is never able to play again. The shoulder is too damaged, especially since he played the rest of the year with it hurt.

In 1976, Paul Brown retires as head coach of the franchise. He has to choose a successor from among his talented assistants: offensive coordinator Bill Walsh and defensive coordinator Bill "Tiger" Johnson. Brown chooses Johnson. Walsh leaves a few years later, taking the offense he invented with PB along with him to San Francisco. There, he goes on to become of the greatest head coaches in the history of the game and beats the Bengals in BOTH of their Super Bowl appearances.

In 1981, the greatest Bengals team ever assembled goes 12-4 and cruises through the AFC playoffs. But two weeks after winning "The Freezer Bowl"

over San Diego, poor weather makes it hard for the Bengals to get to Detroit's Silverdome for the Super Bowl. They arrive frustrated and tired, play horribly in the first half, and end up losing a game they were favored to win.

In 1988, Cincinnati again goes 12-4 and wins the AFC Championship after pioneering the no-huddle offense and using it against the Bills despite Buffalo complaining and the NFL asking them not to do it. On the eve of the Super Bowl, though, RB Stanley Wilson, who has revived his career in Cincinnati, is found in a cocaine-induced haze and suspended for the game. Then, in the first quarter, Cincinnati's Pro Bowl NT Tim Krumrie breaks his leg. And it still takes a magical Joe Montana drive for the 49ers to win what many consider the greatest Super Bowl ever played.

In 1991, founder Paul Brown dies. Cincinnati sinks into a 15-year playoffs drought.

In 2005, the Bengals at last make the playoffs again and look like a real Super Bowl threat. On the second play of their opening playoffs game against the Steelers, QB Carson Palmer connects with WR Chris Henry on a 66-yard strike down the right sideline. But on the play, Steelers defender Kimo von Oelhoffen collides with Palmer's knee, shredding the ACL and MCL. Henry is injured on the tackle and does not return either. Despite taking a 17-7 lead into the locker room, the Bengals melt down at halftime and lose the game. The Steelers go on to win the Super Bowl and act as though Cincinnati had played the whole game with Palmer and Henry and not just two plays.

Leon Hall

And now, with Cincinnati appearing to have recovered from Palmer refusing to play for them and building themselves into a playoffs contender, Leon Hall — the defense's best player, a man who has not missed a game since high school — tears his Achilles tendon and is lost for the season. And their rookie-of-the-year candidate wide receiver AJ Green has a knee injury that could sideline him.

Just as the Bengals are hitting the toughest part of their schedule. Just in time for a promising 6-3 start to turn into a dismal 6-10 finish if things go the way they usually do.

There was no guarantee the Bengals could do better than 6-10 anyway. They really haven't beaten anyone to date. But their chances of getting past the Ravens twice and the Steelers once are hurt considerably by the losses of Hall and Green. The defense is designed around Hall's ability to shut down a team's best WR. And QB Andy Dalton is playing well, but it helps when you have a player like Green who can just go pluck a ball out of the air, no matter where it is or how covered he is.

And who knows? Maybe Cincinnati will rise above it, make some plays, and find themselves in playoffs contention come January.

But history suggests otherwise. History suggests the snake is biting again.