Rod Raglin's Blog, page 41

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Published on October 02, 2014 23:20

A non-clich��d author interview

An original author interview? It’s almost impossible to answer interview questions without sounding pompous and clich��d, but I tried.

What are your five favorite books, and why?

My favourite book is usually the one I��m reading. My memory is getting so bad I have to look at the books I reviewed on Goodreads, Amazon, and Booklikes to remember what I��ve read. Right now I��m reading Vincent Lam��s The Headmaster��s Wager.

What do you read for pleasure?

��They�� say you should read what you want to write. I��d want to write literary fiction. Unlike genre fiction, I like that they��re not predictable. My novels aren��t predictable either. I always think they��ll be more popular.

What is your e-reading device of choice?

I read on my computer. I��ve been planning to purchase an e-reader for two years but can��t decide what make of model to get. I��m usually more decisive �� I think.

What book marketing techniques have been most effective for you?

I��ve tried Bublishing, giveaways, blogging, tweeting, posting entire works of Wattpad, and listing my four novels on most the English language sites known to man including Goodreads, LibraryThing, BookLikes and Amazon Author Central. For me, nothing works. I have no idea how I garnered the few reviews (all positive, mind you) that are attributed to my books. The only thing I can assure you is they were written by (wonderful) people, not related nor associated with me in any way, and, even if I could afford it, I��ve never had nor would I ever pay for a review. So there.

Describe your desk.

A desk? What a novel (ouch!) idea. I don��t have a desk. I write on the dining room table which, depending on the time of day has dirty dishes, junk mail, unsharpened pencils, several pairs of Dollar Store reading glasses all the wrong strength, unpaid bills, bank statements indicating unpaid bills, newspapers, library books (better to check if they��re overdue) and a variety of notebooks none properly indexed so I never can find that fascinating bit of dialogue absolutely essential for the scene I am currently writing.

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?

Depending on who you ask, I have yet to grow up. How did being chronically immature influence my writing? I��m still na��ve enough to think I have talent and that there��s time to prove it.

When did you first start writing?

My first year in high school, I was twelve, I wrote a short essay on how much I hated being there. My English teacher read out loud to the class. He either thought I showed promise or was trying to humiliate me, probably the latter.

What’s the story behind your latest book?

I had a client that owned peeler bar. Actually, he didn��t own the bar, the organization he was a member of, The Hell��s Angels, owned the bar. He used to pay the advertising bill in cash. Should I have cared the payment I receive was likely laundered drug money? Would you have? I started to wonder how much narco-dollars influenced our everyday lives so I did some investigating (I��m a journalist by profession). What I found out shocked me. Overtly and covertly, the billions of dollars derived from the illegal drug trade influences every level of our lives from the wars we fight, the governments we elect, the cost of healthcare, and most importantly and tragically, our personal relationships. Don��t think so? Ask yourself, how many people you know that have been negatively affected, directly or indirectly, by drugs? See what I mean.

The BIG PICTURE �� A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic, tells the story of a young photographer and how she struggles to live a life that is uncompromised by the influence and corruption of drug money.

What motivated you to become an indie author?

Actually, it��s very complicated. To begin with, nobody else would publish my book. To summarize, nobody else would publish my book.

How has Smashwords contributed to your success?

They haven��t �� yet. But all the same, they seem like nice virtual people.

What is the greatest joy of writing for you?

My greatest joy came when I was walking by the huge Chapters Book Store on Granville and Broadway and in the front window prominently display was a towering pyramid of my novel, The BIG PICTURE - A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic. I was savoring the moment when an attractive woman came up and asked me, ��Are you Rod Raglin?�� Before I could reply, she called out, ��It��s him, it��s the author, Rod Raglin��. People began flocking around, some came out of Chapters insisting I sign my book they had just bought, the sidewalk became plugged, the crowd spilled out onto the street and stopped traffic. I finally was able to hail a cab that took me to the CBC where I was to be interviewed on national television as that year��s recipient of the Scotiabank Giller Prize and pick up the cheque for $25,000.

Then I woke up.

What are you working on next?

My next novel, Forest, is about a burned out foreign correspondent who returns home to try to solve the disappearance of his father and reconnect with his first love. As the story unfolds he runs afoul of the local drug dealer and his lover��s ex-husband, tries to locate a legendary lost gold mine, and has an encounter with mythical Sasquatch. It��s about love, loss and things that go bump in the forest in the night.

Who are your favorite authors?

I��m a big fan of Anna Quindlen and more recently Jean Thompson. They write my life.

What inspires you to get out of bed each day?

I usually have to go to the bathroom. It��s not really inspiring as it also happens several times throughout the night.

When you’re not writing, how do you spend your time?

I��m on a pretty tight budget until The BIG PICTURE �� A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic becomes a best seller. I really can��t afford to spend anything, even time, but whenever I can afford it, I spend it out of doors doing out of doors stuff.

How do you discover the ebooks you read?

I go to the library, locate the general fiction shelves, close my eyes, walk down the aisle trying not to bump into anyone, stop, keep those eyes closed, reach out and choose a book. I take it home, read it, and, if I like it, research to see if the author has any more titles and if any of them are e-books. Try it. I��m sure you��ll have as much success with this random way of selecting books as any other method. Oh, don’t forget to open your eyes once you’ve selected a book.

What is your writing process?

I write one word, followed by another, than another until I have around 80,000 of them. I am seldom inspired, but damned if I ain��t persistent.

Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?

When I was about ten, I started sneaking Harold Robbins novels from my parent��s bedside table. The first one I read was A Stone for Danny Fisher and then The Carpet Baggers. I re-read the smutty parts so often the books fell open to those pages. Hey, I was ten.

How do you approach cover design?

I make sure the title and my name are not misspelled.

30

My new novel, The BIG PICTURE �� A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic is now available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00LTXGD58

��

Visit my publisher��s website for excerpts from, and buy links to, my three novels, Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More �� Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients. Now the three package is only $8.99 http://devinedestinies.com

Read my current work(s) in progress a http://wattpad.com/RodRaglin

More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin

View my flickr photostream at https://www.flickr.com/photos/78791029@N04/

Or, My YouTube channel if you prefer photo videos accompanied by classical music

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQVBxJZ7eXkvZmxCm2wRYA

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Published on September 18, 2014 00:29

A non-clichéd author interview

An original author interview? It’s almost impossible to answer interview questions without sounding pompous and clichéd, but I tried.

What are your five favorite books, and why?

My favourite book is usually the one I’m reading. My memory is getting so bad I have to look at the books I reviewed on Goodreads, Amazon, and Booklikes to remember what I’ve read. Right now I’m reading Vincent Lam’s The Headmaster’s Wager.

What do you read for pleasure?

“They” say you should read what you want to write. I’d want to write literary fiction. Unlike genre fiction, I like that they’re not predictable. My novels aren’t predictable either. I always think they’ll be more popular.

What is your e-reading device of choice?

I read on my computer. I’ve been planning to purchase an e-reader for two years but can’t decide what make of model to get. I’m usually more decisive – I think.

What book marketing techniques have been most effective for you?

I’ve tried Bublishing, giveaways, blogging, tweeting, posting entire works of Wattpad, and listing my four novels on most the English language sites known to man including Goodreads, LibraryThing, BookLikes and Amazon Author Central. For me, nothing works. I have no idea how I garnered the few reviews (all positive, mind you) that are attributed to my books. The only thing I can assure you is they were written by (wonderful) people, not related nor associated with me in any way, and, even if I could afford it, I’ve never had nor would I ever pay for a review. So there.

Describe your desk.

A desk? What a novel (ouch!) idea. I don’t have a desk. I write on the dining room table which, depending on the time of day has dirty dishes, junk mail, unsharpened pencils, several pairs of Dollar Store reading glasses all the wrong strength, unpaid bills, bank statements indicating unpaid bills, newspapers, library books (better to check if they’re overdue) and a variety of notebooks none properly indexed so I never can find that fascinating bit of dialogue absolutely essential for the scene I am currently writing.

Where did you grow up, and how did this influence your writing?

Depending on who you ask, I have yet to grow up. How did being chronically immature influence my writing? I’m still naïve enough to think I have talent and that there’s time to prove it.

When did you first start writing?

My first year in high school, I was twelve, I wrote a short essay on how much I hated being there. My English teacher read out loud to the class. He either thought I showed promise or was trying to humiliate me, probably the latter.

What’s the story behind your latest book?

I had a client that owned peeler bar. Actually, he didn’t own the bar, the organization he was a member of, The Hell’s Angels, owned the bar. He used to pay the advertising bill in cash. Should I have cared the payment I receive was likely laundered drug money? Would you have? I started to wonder how much narco-dollars influenced our everyday lives so I did some investigating (I’m a journalist by profession). What I found out shocked me. Overtly and covertly, the billions of dollars derived from the illegal drug trade influences every level of our lives from the wars we fight, the governments we elect, the cost of healthcare, and most importantly and tragically, our personal relationships. Don’t think so? Ask yourself, how many people you know that have been negatively affected, directly or indirectly, by drugs? See what I mean.

The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic, tells the story of a young photographer and how she struggles to live a life that is uncompromised by the influence and corruption of drug money.

What motivated you to become an indie author?

Actually, it’s very complicated. To begin with, nobody else would publish my book. To summarize, nobody else would publish my book.

How has Smashwords contributed to your success?

They haven’t – yet. But all the same, they seem like nice virtual people.

What is the greatest joy of writing for you?

My greatest joy came when I was walking by the huge Chapters Book Store on Granville and Broadway and in the front window prominently display was a towering pyramid of my novel, The BIG PICTURE - A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic. I was savoring the moment when an attractive woman came up and asked me, “Are you Rod Raglin?” Before I could reply, she called out, “It’s him, it’s the author, Rod Raglin”. People began flocking around, some came out of Chapters insisting I sign my book they had just bought, the sidewalk became plugged, the crowd spilled out onto the street and stopped traffic. I finally was able to hail a cab that took me to the CBC where I was to be interviewed on national television as that year’s recipient of the Scotiabank Giller Prize and pick up the cheque for $25,000.

Then I woke up.

What are you working on next?

My next novel, Forest, is about a burned out foreign correspondent who returns home to try to solve the disappearance of his father and reconnect with his first love. As the story unfolds he runs afoul of the local drug dealer and his lover’s ex-husband, tries to locate a legendary lost gold mine, and has an encounter with mythical Sasquatch. It’s about love, loss and things that go bump in the forest in the night.

Who are your favorite authors?

I’m a big fan of Anna Quindlen and more recently Jean Thompson. They write my life.

What inspires you to get out of bed each day?

I usually have to go to the bathroom. It’s not really inspiring as it also happens several times throughout the night.

When you’re not writing, how do you spend your time?

I’m on a pretty tight budget until The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic becomes a best seller. I really can’t afford to spend anything, even time, but whenever I can afford it, I spend it out of doors doing out of doors stuff.

How do you discover the ebooks you read?

I go to the library, locate the general fiction shelves, close my eyes, walk down the aisle trying not to bump into anyone, stop, keep those eyes closed, reach out and choose a book. I take it home, read it, and, if I like it, research to see if the author has any more titles and if any of them are e-books. Try it. I’m sure you’ll have as much success with this random way of selecting books as any other method. Oh, don’t forget to open your eyes once you’ve selected a book.

What is your writing process?

I write one word, followed by another, than another until I have around 80,000 of them. I am seldom inspired, but damned if I ain’t persistent.

Do you remember the first story you ever read, and the impact it had on you?

When I was about ten, I started sneaking Harold Robbins novels from my parent’s bedside table. The first one I read was A Stone for Danny Fisher and then The Carpet Baggers. I re-read the smutty parts so often the books fell open to those pages. Hey, I was ten.

How do you approach cover design?

I make sure the title and my name are not misspelled.

30

My new novel, The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic is now available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00LTXGD58

Visit my publisher’s website for excerpts from, and buy links to, my three novels, Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients. Now the three package is only $8.99 http://devinedestinies.com

Read my current work(s) in progress a http://wattpad.com/RodRaglin

More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin

View my flickr photostream at https://www.flickr.com/photos/78791029@N04/

Or, My YouTube channel if you prefer photo videos accompanied by classical music

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQVBxJZ7eXkvZmxCm2wRYA

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Published on September 18, 2014 00:29

10,000 hours – now what?

There’s a restaurant that’s been a client of my newspaper since they opened. It’s family owned and has been in business for over thirty years. In Vancouver, where there are far too many restaurants, to survive under the same ownership for over three decades is really quite amazing.

How did they do it?

Hard, hard work, we’re talking the entire family making sacrifices. Reasonable prices – not cheap but good value for your dine-out dollar. Good food, not great, but consistently good. Friendly, efficient service, they really made you feel at home.

This trilogy – good product, good price, good work ethic are absolutely essential for a business to succeed. Are they are a guarantee of success? Absolutely not.

Competition, rent increases, economic recession, a change in the neighbourhood’s demographics – any one or a combination of all can broadside a business and, if they’re smart, close their doors in six months.

Somehow this restaurant managed to weather most of these obstacles and slowly, very slowly, business grew. As it did, they grew with it – always learning, always incorporating what worked and discarding what didn’t. After a quarter of a century of being in business in the same neighbourhood they were doing okay – a steady clientele and lineups on special days like Valentine’s and Mother’s Day.

They’d put in their 10,000 hours and then some. They were ready.

The concept of 10,000 was put forward in Outliers, a book by Malcom Gladwell. He postulates that “10,000 hours (ten years) of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert – in anything”, and backs it up with research by Daniel Levitin, a neurologist.

Success, according to Gladwell, follows a predictable pattern. It’s not the brightest that succeed, nor is it the sum of the decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf. It’s less about talent and more about opportunity, plus accidents of time, birth and place which can matter greatly.

So you’ve put in your 10,000 hours. You’re good, in fact, you’re damn good, but still the kind of success you think you deserve, the kind of success less talented writers are achieving, eludes you.

What’s missing?

The opportunity.

For my restaurant friends it came in the way of a national food show called “You Gotta Eat Here”. Twenty minutes on the Food Channel from coast to coast. The customers came in droves, some as far away as a150 miles. They kept coming, they’re still coming and because the owners had put in their 10,000 hours they can handle it.

Today, the restaurant is more or less full every night with lineups on the weekend. I seldom go there anymore, it’s just too busy, the family members aren’t on the floor, and the food and service has slipped significantly.

Yet the positive reviews just keep piling up. It’s as if no one has the courage to go against the crowd. If they have to wait to get in, wait to be seated, and wait for their order, it must be great, right?

Reminds me of some books I’ve read by bestselling authors. Once great, they now have a reputation that seems to intimidate honest criticism of their current work.

So where would this restaurant be without You Gotta Eat Here featuring them on national television? Likely, still grinding it out one day after another.

Forty years as a journalist and columnist, four novels behind me, three dozen blog posts – I must be coming up on my 10,000 hours.

I think I’m ready.

I’m looking for “the” opportunity and it doesn’t appear to be available through social media or laboriously attempting to cultivate individual relationships with reader’s one email at a time.

30

My new novel, The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic is now available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00LTXGD58

Visit my publisher’s website for excerpts from, and buy links to, my three novels, Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients. Now the three package is only $8.99 http://devinedestinies.com

Read my current work(s) in progress a http://wattpad.com/RodRaglin

More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin

View my flickr photostream at https://www.flickr.com/photos/78791029@N04/

Or, My YouTube channel if you prefer photo videos accompanied by classical music

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQVBxJZ7eXkvZmxCm2wRYA

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Published on September 14, 2014 20:41

You can’t kid a kidder

UPDATE

The Big Picture – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic

Sales to date (7 weeks after publishing) = 0

Other numbers show lots of smoke, but no fire.

BookLife has decided not to review my book, “despite the strength of your project”, whatever that means.

I have entered The Big Picture into The Writer’s Digest Self-Published e-Book Awards and already am experiencing buyer’s remorse for spending the $110 entry fee. Winners will be notified on or before Dec. 31

Amazon sale starts September 5th – price drops to 99¢; then rises to $1.99 on Sept. 8; and back up to the full price of $2.99 on Sept. 12

You can’t kid a kidder

I’ve been a salesman most of my life. I sell advertising for my newspapers. I’m good at it.

What’s this got to do with writing? Nothing specifically, it’s about all those sales pitches I receive everyday about how to be a successful writer and sell my books.

Writing is about the only thing that everyone thinks they can do – without practice or training. “One day I’ll sit down and write my life story, it will be best seller.” “I’ve got an idea for a novel and when I find the time I’ll write it. It will be a blockbuster.”

Business is a bit like that. People think they can cook so they open a restaurant. When they discover there’s a little more to it, that’s where advertising (me) steps in.

Advertising is intangible. It’s trying to find an appropriate message and medium to sell your product, yourself, to make more money, to be a success. See where I’m going with this? Not yet? Hang in there.

To be a successful salesman you have to have a bit of larceny in you, a tiny bit of the con. You learn to spin the positive, skim over the negative, emphasis the dream. At some point the buyer makes that leap of faith, they pay hard cash for a concept they “hope” will return more than the outlay.

Many times I’ve known that the campaign would fail. The product was no good, the price point was to high, the creative didn’t work. But this is what the client wanted and, what the hell, I’d take his money. Better him go broke than me.

The only way to assess if advertising has worked is results. Results are sales, always have been, still are, always will be. If the sales didn’t increase that didn’t stop me from going back to client and trying to sell him again. I have a portfolio of reasons for him to continue spending his money. Let me list some:

- you are building good public relations. People will begin to watch for your next ad and that will be the one they respond to.

- the first ad always comes up short. You have to be persistent (keep spending)

- how do you know that sales would not have been even worse without the ad

- it’s very difficult to figure out who shopped because of the ad and who didn’t

- those three people that came in with the coupon – they’ll tell all their friends about the great experience they had and your sales will grow exponentially.

- if it didn’t work how come everyone is doing it?

Do you see the parallel in what all the pitchmen are telling you about spending your money on that how-to-book, marketing seminar, conference or social media platform that well make your book a best-seller? Are they bad people? Am I? Do they believe in what they’re selling? Sure they do in as much as if all the stars are aligned what they’re selling might work.

Should I spend money chasing a dream? Definitely. Should I be totally delusional about it? It might be easier, but no, I frankly can’t afford it. So, I try to choose wisely, if that’s possible, and ask to see results in sales not in website hits, retweets, profile views, etc. The only results that matter are sales – always have been, are now, and always will be.

When they try to tell me otherwise I tell them, “You can’t kid a kidder.”

30

My new novel, The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic is now available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00LTXGD58

Visit my publisher’s website for excerpts from, and buy links to, my three novels, Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients. http://devinedestinies.com

Read my current work(s) in progress a http://wattpad.com/RodRaglin

More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin

View my flickr photostream at https://www.flickr.com/photos/78791029@N04/

Or, My YouTube channel if you prefer photo videos accompanied by classical music

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQVBxJZ7eXkvZmxCm2wRYA

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on August 31, 2014 21:44

Building a personal author brand with Bublish

Recently, I had a nice chat with Kathy Meis, the founder of Bublish. Meis believes every author should build a personal brand. She believes Bublish is the tool that will allow you to do that with minimum time and effort.

Bublish claims to be a lot of things including, “A revolutionary tool that enables authors to actively promote their book while writing it”. Just exactly how that would be done or even if an author should reveal publicly anything other than his best work is a matter of opinion.

As an author on Bublish I can upload my books to their site and then easily extract excerpts from it, and, accompanied by personal insights, launch them via Twitter, Facebook, email and through Bublish into the digital void. The goal is to build a brand that will attract a following that will eventually translate into book sales – I think. Notice that sales is at the end of this list.

Because I didn’t make notes during our conversation and because, in essence, Meis reiterated the points she addressed in her article entitled “Why Every Author Should Build a Personal Brand”, posted on the Bublish site, I’m going to comment on the article.

In the article Meis asks, “So if readers were asked to describe your personal author brand or value proposition in a few words or phrases, what would they say? Do you know?”

Right here, I have a problem with the premise. Why would anyone ask the few readers I have to describe my “personal author brand or value proposition in a few words or phrases”? Would they even know what the question meant? I don’t?

Meis explains, “If not, perhaps it’s worth taking some time to define and create a plan for your personal brand.

Okay, so, let’s say I think the lack of a “personal author brand” might be the missing link to the success that has been eluding me. How would I “define and create a plan” for my personal brand? Meis suggests five steps:

Discover your brand

Explore and define your life-long aspirations, passions and goals as an author. When you start in a place of honesty, you build a brand that is genuine.

I would like to write well and be respected for that ability by those in the profession. Through my books, I want to address issues that concern me and share my vision of the world with readers.

Ask hard questions

What makes your work compelling? What differentiates you and your writing in today’s book marketplace? How do readers perceive you and your work? Is that perception aligned with the perception you desire? Do the books you create and the way you market them help you cultivate your personal author brand and achieve your goals? How do you add value to your community of fans?

Is this a huge jump or have I missed something? It’s almost impossible for me (and I’d bet this goes for most writers) to be objective about my work. It’s like unconditional love – even if you recognize the flaws you overlook them in light of their positive qualities. So wouldn’t these “hard questions” be bettered answered by my readers – hold on, I don’t have any.

Create a plan

Map out a clear long-term roadmap to help you reach your goals. This should include the types of books you will write (not necessarily just genre, specific qualities are important too), when you will release them, the way you will share them with the world, and the types of actions you will take on a regular basis to demonstrate the qualities and values for which you wish to be known.

Though I may have some idea of the types of books I will write, how will I know when they’ll be completed or how they’ll be published? The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic, was completed a year ago. Forty-two rejections and twelve months later, I self-published it. What if the first agent I sent it to wanted to represent it?

Choose your platforms.

Hang on? I thought I was supposed to have a following before I released my books? Wouldn’t this following determine the platform?

Think long term.

Of course, Meis wants you to think long term, and keep renewing that subscription ($199 per year), but at some point you have to take a peak at the bottom line and see if you’re getting any return on your investment.

The rest of the article goes on to give examples of successful authors that have huge social media followings but begs the question which came first – did a social media following result in fame or the opposite? Industry professionals now, almost unanimously agree (unless they’re flogging a book stating otherwise) that social media followings do not convert into sales.

So in the end, I thank Kathy very much for the free Bublish subscription, which I continue to use. She tells me to persevere and things will begin to happen. I appreciate our frank discussion. I feel she’s sincere.

The Bublish Authorpreneur Platform is seductive and each day I check it to see what kind of response my “bubbles” are getting. At the time of posting this blog I’ve had 880 bubble views;105 viewers have gone a step further to view my Bublish profile; and, 8 have taken an additional step to check me out on Amazon.

What does this mean? I’m not sure. I do know it hasn’t resulted in any sales.

Oh, but then I’m forgetting to apply step five.

30

My new novel, The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic is now available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00LTXGD58

Visit my publisher’s website for excerpts from, and buy links to, my three novels, Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients. http://devinedestinies.com

Read my current work(s) in progress a http://wattpad.com/RodRaglin

More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin

View my flickr photostream at https://www.flickr.com/photos/78791029@N04/

Or, My YouTube channel if you prefer photo videos accompanied by classical music

Like • 0 comments • flag

Published on August 29, 2014 01:21

Story Physics – Goal, Motivation, Conflict on steroids

Every writer who has progressed beyond fantasizing about writing a novel and actually got serious immediately learns the building blocks of what makes a good story – Goal, Motivation and Conflict.

In Story Physics, Harnessing the Underlying Forces of Storytelling, Larry Brooks has taken these fundamentals and, using pseudo scientific jargon, would have you believe that if you put various literary elements together in a specific way this formula will bring forth a best selling story, just as the right combination of hydrogen and oxygen will create water.

Story Physics is a masterpiece of overstatement, overwriting and repetition. The simplest concepts are dissected, analyzed – the straight becoming crooked, the simple becoming impossibly complicated, with the result being they end up exactly as they were and always have been.

Here’s Brook’s six forces of story physics:

A compelling narrative premise – sounds like the good old Goal and Motivation to me
Dramatic tension – can you say “Conflict”
Expositional pacing – remember the story arc – lesson two at the night school course, How to Write a Novel.
Hero Empathy – we’re back to Goal and Motivation
Vicarious reading experience – a hyped up way of saying “show don’t tell”.
Narrative Strategy – I mean, really why don’t you just call it what it is, Point of View

Throughout the book, Brooks encourages writers to come up with great plots, great characters and execute (sic) them with powerful writing. If you don’t think this is ridiculous advice then consider the opposite.

Why Brooks takes universal storytelling concepts then tortuously convolutes and misrepresents them until they are beyond baffling is a mystery to me. Perhaps he hopes the confused reader will end up at his website Storyfix.com, where you can get a “Professional Full-Plan Story Coaching Adventure” for just $195.

Story Physics, likely the companion book to his story coaching business, reads like the transcript of a Writer’s Digest webinar. Oh, imagine that, it’s published by Writer’s Digest Books.

My new novel, The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic is now available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00LTXGD58

Visit my publisher’s website for excerpts from, and buy links to, my three novels, Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients.

Read my current work(s) in progress at

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQVBxJZ7eXkvZmxCm2wRYA

More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin

View my flickr photostream at https://www.flickr.com/photos/78791029@N04/

Or, My YouTube channel if you prefer photo videos accompanied by classical music

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Published on August 25, 2014 12:44

#FreyjaheroineTheBIGPICTURE

Meet Freyja, you’re going to hate her.

Young, talented, ambitious, self-confident, a photographer trying to break out.

What makes her different from so many others is her uncompromising ethic.

Sure she wants success and recognition, but only on her own terms.

Freyja wants to know, “Is any one honest, ethical and truthful? Is everyone compromised?”

Forget ten righteous people, she’d settle for one.

The character of Freyja feels the way most of us do, at least sometimes, about family, friends, lovers, society, authority, politicians. The difference is she tells them and always acts accordingly.

Some consider her cynical, callous, and crude.

Others see her as self serving, self absorbed, and downright selfish

Those close to her suggest she’s unfeeling, unforgiving, and unrealistic.

Hate her because you don’t have the courage to live an uncompromised life,

hate her because you can’t forfeit your delusions about our society,

hate her because you don’t have the self-confidence to be like her.

Freyja doesn’t give a damn.

Freyja wants truth – in relationships, in society, in life, but the only satisfaction she finds is the truth in her art.

Now someone wants to make that a lie.

Freyja is the heroine in my new novel The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic available at http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00LTXGD58

My new novel, The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic is now available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00LTXGD58

Visit my publisher’s website for excerpts from, and buy links to, my three novels, Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients.

Read my current work(s) in progress at

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQVBxJZ7eXkvZmxCm2wRYA

More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin

View my flickr photostream at https://www.flickr.com/photos/78791029@N04/

Or, My YouTube channel if you prefer photo videos accompanied by classical music

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Published on August 14, 2014 14:13

Do readers really want to connect with authors? Why?

Day 26 of The Big Picture Publishing Plan and no sales, no reviews – it’s like a boycott (I should be so lucky).

Wattpad shows the first three chapters of The BIG PICTURE have received 43 reads, up three in the last week; Forest Primeval, my current wip is at 430 reads, up 19 in a week. My website has recorded 654 hits up 132 in a week.

All of which means – nothing.

I’ve added a subtitle – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic. This after having difficulty finding my own book on the internet. Amazon lists 86,053 books whose title include the words The BIG PICTURE. The only way to differentiate my book was to add this subtitle. Now if I search under The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic bingo, there it is.

Here’s some free advice – before you publish, check Amazon for similar titles.

I continue to Tweet daily to no avail and I mean no avail. My Twitter analytic tab shows the following:

Impressions – the number of times users saw your tweet in the last 28 days = 0

Engagements – the number of time users have interacted with a tweet including profile, picture, hash tags, links, retweets, followers, replies, favorites = 0

Bublish has generously allowed me upload The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic without upgrading – without going from free to pay, and post excerpts and the insights.

The sight works fine but I’m having some interesting communications with these people about the relevance of the concept – that readers want to connect with authors, and establishing this relationship will result in increased book sales.

I know I don’t want to talk to the author’s whose books I read, and you obviously don’t want to communicate with me (it’s alright, I understand since the feeling is mutual).

I’m also getting the same response from a new feature on Goodreads called “Ask the Author” which the moderators suggested I activate on my Author’s Dashboard to allow readers to ask questions. So far, no readers have asked why I’m so stupid to write fiction or anything else for that matter.

In case you haven’t been checking your spam file, the new path to bestseller success being flogged is the idea of “establishing a relationship with readers”. I’m thinking this theory amounts to about the same as “friending” strangers on Facebook, encouraging a flock of “followers” on Twitter, or increasing your “tribe” on Tribr, and that is, in my experience, and in the findings of more and more industry professionals, little or nothing.

Bublish is out to prove me wrong. I’ve tended to be a bit testy on this subject and I must say they’ve very patient with me – so far.

In the face of all this, this – what is the word I’m looking for – foolishness, folly, how about failure, I’ve decided to run a “Price Promotion” for my book on Amazon. Beginning at 8 am, Sept. 5, the price of The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic drops to 99¢; then rises to $1.99 on Sept. 8; and back up to the full price of $2.99 on Sept. 12

It’s hard to believe that two dollars will make a difference.

30

My new novel, The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic is now available on Amazon at http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00LTXGD58

Visit my publisher’s website for excerpts from, and buy links to, my three novels, Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients. They are currently on sale – all three books for just $8.99

Read my current work(s) in progress at

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsQVBxJZ7eXkvZmxCm2wRYA

More of my original photographs can be viewed, purchased, and shipped to you as GREETING CARDS; matted, laminated, mounted, framed, or canvas PRINTS; and POSTERS. Go to: http://www.redbubble.com/people/rodraglin

View my flickr photostream at https://www.flickr.com/photos/78791029@N04/

Or, My YouTube channel if you prefer photo videos accompanied by classical music

booksandpals.blogspot.com/

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Published on August 10, 2014 21:35

Big Picture Publishing Plan 2 – Things can only get better

Two weeks into my career as an “indie author” and I’ve had zero sales.

On the bright side, things can only get better – you think?

I spent the first few days after publication updating information and posting The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic on Amazon’s Authorcentral, Shelfari, Goodreads, BookLikes, and the LibraryThing. I find navigating through these sites frustrating and time consuming. I’m not even sure what the goal is – having your book listed on all these sites amounts to little more than having your book listed on all these sites.

Perhaps I’d have more success if I got “friendly” – joined groups and discussions though I’m not sure what the conversation would be about other than how your book is not selling and do you know any more stupid sites to post it on?

Something is wrong here, but until I can figure out what exactly it is I’ll continue with the status quo, which ironically, has gotten me no where with my previous books.

As you can tell, it hasn’t been a good couple of weeks

Next, I sought out opportunities to have The BIG PICTURE reviewed. There’s a bunch of sites that claim they specialize in reviewing books by self-published authors. They break down into three categories:

- those who were giving free reviews but were apparently overwhelmed and have either closed for reviews altogether or until sometime in the undisclosed, distant future.

- those who said sure we’ll review your book but if you want it reviewed quickly it will cost you – anywhere from $25 to $100. Otherwise, we’ll see what we can do, but no promises.

- those who said don’t talk to us until we see your money.

I went ahead and submitted review copies to three sites that seemed the most legitimate:

https://readersfavorite.com/

booklife.com

Booklife is Publishers Weekly indie site. They put you through an involved registration that even includes a self-evaluation quiz to see if you’re actually ready to self-publish. Guess what, you’re not, but if you pay to subscribe to any one or all of their programs they can help you get there.

I’m thinking a review from any of these sites is about as likely as my novel becoming a best-seller. Hey, we can only hope.

In groping around the internet I discovered a woman who had started an author’s review group on Goodreads. The moderator froze the group with 56 authors signing on, all willing to submit free books, and 5 people applying to read them. Which is just another indication of how likely one is to get that elusive review.

I then posted the first chapter on Wattpad. I’m not sure if I’m in violation of the exclusivity agreement but so far no Amazon police have come to my door, wiped out my account, or froze my computer. I posted the second chapter on July 24th. So I far I’ve recorded 26 reads.

I also tried to upload excerpts from my new novel on Bublish only to be informed that my current (free) account does not allow me to add another book. I either have to upgrade for $199 or delete an existing book. I chose to delete a book. Bublish is fun, but it doesn’t appear to be driving any sales for me, but then nothing is.

One book wasn’t enough evidently, so I deleted two. I was still getting the same message so I decided to “submit a ticket” and ask what was going on rather than delete my last book.

Bublish emailed me back and said they were looking into it. They added;

“ We are a marketing tool that an author uses to effectively reach, engage, and grow their audience. We believe that the tools we have created make that process easy and fun for authors. As you know, it takes time and consistency to grow an audience and that with a growth in audience size and a valuable product, sales do increase.”

The problem with all these “aids to authors” is they lack verifiable results. Without seeing any sales just how much time and money are you supposed to spend in an attempt to “grow an audience”? I thought book sales came first and an audience came after people read your book and liked it. I still do. First comes the “valuable product”, then the audience grows.

Bublish suggested a conference on Skype. I suggested we forget it, I’ll use Twitter for free, which I have been, everyday, tweeting about my new novel into the digital void.

It’s not that I wouldn’t be prepared to pay money for a program or service that could resuscitate my moribund writing career. I really don’t care to be compensated for the time spent writing my books, but I’ll be damned if I’ll go in the hole to market them.

The only bright spot in the last week week is that my personal website has clocked 138 visits. Since I’m obviously not a successful writer or (take my word for it) a popular guy, I’m attributing this increase as response to photo assignments I’ve posted on Flickr and Red Bubble.

Or, could it be, since I’ve been doing a fair bit of political agitation for my community and environmental causes, that my enemies are checking me out?

Now that would be interesting, and, I might say, a much needed distraction.

My new novel, The BIG PICTURE – A Camera, A Young Woman, An Uncompromising Ethic is now availableon Amazon at http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B00LTXGD58

Visit my publisher’s website for excerpts from, and buy links to, my three novels, Spirit Bear, Eagleridge Bluffs, and Not Wonder More – Mad Maggie and the Mystery of the Ancients. Now all three books in the ECO-WARRIOR series available for $8.99

Read my current work(s) in progress at