Meredith Allard's Blog, page 32

Thank you, Robin Williams: A Lesson in Gratitude

I’m writing and posting this quickly before I change my mind, so, as Anne Lamott said in her own post on the same subject, this isn’t going to be proofread to perfection. I don’t usually comment on the passing of famous people since I’m not sure what I can add that someone more articulate than I am hasn’t already said, yet I find I can’t let the passing of Robin Williams go without saying at least a few words.

I’m going to date myself here—in fact, I’ll give you a precise date: I’ll be 45 in 17 days on August 30. I was a kid in the 1970s when Robin Williams first appeared on TV screens as Mork, first on Happy Days and then on Mork and Mindy. I was infatuated with Robin from the very beginning. I had my Mork and Mindy lunchbox, and I even had my own Mork from Ork rainbow colored suspenders. (Yes, I still have a photo where I’m wearing them. No, I won’t show it to you.) I listened to his comedy album Reality, What a Concept too many times to count. I could probably still do some of his skits from that show if I set my mind to it. As I grew, Robin Williams did too.

I was two years into my university studies in 1989 when Dead Poet’s Society was released. Two years into college I still didn’t have a major. I was one of those people who wanted to study everything, and in that time I had been a psychology major, a liberal studies major, and a history major. I’ve always loved books, and by college I knew I had some skill as a writer, but Dead Poet’s Society gave me a direction. A matter of days after I saw the movie I changed my major to English and never looked back. I became an English teacher, and though the John Keating moments become fewer as the years pass and society changes, I never stop trying to achieve them. I have my “Seize the Day” rock and a picture of “Uncle” Walt on my classroom wall. The title for my latest novel, That You Are Here, comes from a segment of Whitman’s Leaves of Grass that Williams quotes in Dead Poet’s Society: “That you are here, that life exists, and identity; that the powerful play goes on, and you will contribute a verse.” Over the years, I loved watching Williams continue to grow as an actor and a comedian.

As a writer with dreams for my career, I find I keep learning the same lesson over again—to be grateful for what I have right now, in this moment. We always think that when we get to some certain place or when we have some particular success we’ll be happy. I’m as guilty of this as anyone. When I sell x many books, or when I make y amount of money, or when I have this amount of recognition, or when I win that award, or when my books become films then I’ll be happy. But how many examples have we seen over the years of those who had all the success in the world and still struggled? Because you know what? It doesn’t matter. If you’re not content within yourself no amount of success matters. Success in itself can’t make you happy.

Normally, when I’m writing I have some point I’m trying to make, and to be honest I’m not exactly sure what I’m saying here except that I know I should be thankful for what I have. I know I have a lot to be grateful for. Waiting for a certain event to be happy, thinking that everything will fall into place when I have this one thing—whatever that thing is—isn’t good enough because nothing in itself can bring happiness. In an odd way, I think that’s what I’ve been trying to say in my posts all summer about being an indie author on my own terms. Success isn’t about numbers or rankings or awards. It’s about being true to yourself and doing your thing and living your life in a way so you feel good about yourself along the journey.  

So, yes, I have a lot to be thankful for. Mainly, right now I’m thankful because I was around at the same time as Robin Williams and I had so many belly laughs because of him.

Thank you for everything, Robin Williams. I know you’re making God laugh right now.

Filed under: Spirituality, Tidbits, Writing Tagged: Dead Poet's Society, gratitude, Leaves of Grass, Robin Williams, Success, Walt Whitman, writing

Q & A: That You Are Here Tour

I’ve been doing quite a few interviews while That You Are Here is on tour. I’ve been having a lot of fun answering the questions, so I thought I’d post some of my responses here.

* * * * *

Quick round:

Coffee, tea or…what’s your vice?

I love both, but I’ll normally go for coffee.

Favorite Movie?

Dead Poet’s Society

Favorite Color?

Purple

Favorite book/author?

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

How do you feel about bacon?

I’m a vegetarian, so bacon is a no-go for me.

 

The REAL questions:

Tell us a little about yourself.

In addition to writing novels, I’m also the executive editor of The Copperfield Review, a journal for readers and writers of historical fiction. I’ve been teaching writing for more than ten years now, as well. When I’m not writing or teaching, I like to find great vegetarian and vegan recipes since I love to cook. I also love movies, Broadway musicals, and I’m a big fan of Downton Abbey. Pinterest is my new love since it’s the one place where I can indulge in all my interests at the same time.

What’s under your bed?

My cat. (That’s not a joke, by the way. I can hear him snoring from here.)

What comes first, plot or characters?

For me, it’s usually characters. Then my job is to figure out what happens to them and what they learn along the way.

Pantser, plotter, or hybrid? Tell us about your writing process.

I begin by plotting out the story from beginning to end so at least I have a blueprint to work with when I start. But I know that as I continue writing often the characters will take over the story and bring it in directions I hadn’t originally thought of. That’s all part of the fun of writing fiction for me—I can start with the greatest plan, but I know it’s probably going to change along the way and I like that.

Oddest thing on your desk?

My cat (I have three). She’s looking out the window at the moment.

What’s your most interesting writing quirk?

Probably that I have the ability to procrastinate like nobody’s business when it’s time to write. Procrastination is my super power. I’ll cook, clean, do the dishes, feed the cats, check my e-mail—it takes me a while to settle down, but once I’m writing I could keep at it for hours.

What’s your favorite thing about the genre you write in?

I write in several genres, and I like that. That You Are Here is the first time I’ve written an m/m love story. My Loving Husband Trilogy is in the vampire/paranormal genre, though it could also be classified as historical fiction. Victory Garden is set during World War I and the Woman’s Suffrage Movement. Woman of Stones and My Brother’s Battle are also historical fiction, set in Biblical Jerusalem and the American Civil War, respectively. I like jumping around from topic to topic. It keeps things interesting for me and hopefully for my readers. I’d be bored writing the same type of story over and over again.

What is the hardest thing about being an author?

Finding time to write when I have a day job. Luckily, I have summers off so I can feel like a full time writer then. I also have a thing against writing first drafts, but since there’s no final draft without a first draft, I have to get that first draft done.

What’s the easiest thing about being an author?

Coming up with story ideas. I have an active imagination, as most authors do, and I have a lot of ideas floating through my head at any and all times of the day and night. I love kicking around an idea until I can start to see the story come into shape. I love that I can take these crazy scenes that I see so clearly in my head and share them with others. Writing fiction is an outlet for my imagination. I started as a screenwriter, but screenwriting was too much like a blueprint for me and I didn’t like the terseness of it. I love describing the room where the action takes place. I love describing the characters’ clothing, and what they’re thinking and feeling. I love the entire world building process and making that world come alive for the reader.

What’s your favorite published work of yours and why?

That’s a great question, and my answer varies from day to day. I’m very proud of That You Are Here because it’s such a different type of story for me. I’m most known for historical fiction, but That You Are Here is completely contemporary. I love writing about love—how two people fall in love. That You Are Here is about falling in love and staying in love in a complicated world.

Where do you draw your inspiration from?

Sometimes I’m inspired by books I read or television shows or movies I see. Sometimes I’m inspired by events in the news. Sometimes I’m inspired by events in history. Sometimes it’s a crazy story from my imagination. I’ve learned that inspiration can come from anywhere so I try to keep my eyes open for ideas.

Who is your favorite character from one of your stories and why?

This answer also can change day to day, but I do have a particular fondness for Mark from That You Are Here. Mark is an inherently kind person with a big heart and in a lot of ways he represents the person I’d like to be.

If you get writer’s block, how do you get around it?

In Natalie Goldberg’s Writing Down the Bones, she says to allow yourself the freedom to write the worst junk in the world. That’s a great way around writer’s block because I know it’s okay for me to write something that isn’t all that great at first. I keep writing and I know I’ll figure it out eventually.

What are you working on at the moment?

My current project is back to historical fiction in a love story inspired by Downton Abbey. My recent trip to London was great research.

What’s the biggest writing challenge you’ve ever taken on? Did you succeed?

Writing That You Are Here was a big challenge for me because it’s so different from anything else I’ve ever written. I wasn’t sure I should write it at first, but that’s the story that was in my heart so that’s the story I wrote. The book has received great reviews, so yes, I think I succeeded. Readers love the love story between Mark and Andrew, and that’s so important to me.

Filed under: That You Are Here, Writing Tagged: That You Are Here, writing, writing process, writing tips

When a Book Changes Your Life

Meredith Allard:

I got back yesterday from my second trip to London. I had a great time and had the chance to see a few sights I missed on my first trip. I admit I felt a lot like Cora from Downton Abbey–“I’m an American. I don’t share your English taste for discomfort.” I mean, seriously, air conditioning isn’t a new invention, and ice isn’t even an invention. It exists in nature (though some polar bears might argue that fact). Still, I love London and I’m glad I had the chance to look around again as I begin writing my new novel, which just happens to be set there. While I’m recovering from jet lag, I thought I’d repost this blog from last year about my first trip to the UK. Enjoy.

Originally posted on From Meredith Allard:

“I don’t want to change anything, because I don’t know how to deal with change. I’m used to the way I am.”

From Paulo Coelho’s The Alchemist

How often does a book change  your life? I’m not talking about books you love so much you read them again and again. I’m not even talking about books that prompt you to think differently. I’m talking about books that cause you to do something, to take action. Just because I’ve loved a book doesn’t mean I make any changes in my day-to-day life after reading it. When I’m reading the book I’m engrossed in it, but then I close the covers and go back to my life, doing the same thing at the same time most days of the week, most weeks of the year.

About a year ago I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho when it was one of the…

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Filed under: News Tagged: London, Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist

In Praise of Day Jobs

A cute picture of a cat proofreading a manuscript.

I know, I know… this is the opposite of what everyone else talks about. I’ve talked before about how most posts about publishing are directed toward one goal: leaving behind that dreadful day job (Bad day job! Bad job!) and making a living as a writer. It doesn’t surprise me that quitting the day job is the focus for so many authors. We like to judge things by their dollar value (or pound value, or yen value, or whatever you use where you live). The general belief is that when you quit your day job because you make enough money selling books, then and only then have you conquered that elusive mountain called Success, leaving the rest of us to dream of the Success that eludes us.

There are a lot of authors out there—both traditional and indie—who are doing brilliantly with their books. They’re making a lot of money, and some of them do leave their day jobs. And it’s true that most authors want to sell as many books as they can. I know I do. However, like with everything else in life, it’s important for each of us to decide for ourselves what we really want, not what we’re told to want by others. For a long time I felt like a failure for holding onto my day job. I need to be braver and quit. Just do it! But when I’m being honest I’ll admit that what I really want is financial security. I don’t mean financial security as in having millions in the bank; I mean I want to know I have enough to pay my rent and my bills, put gas in my car, go grocery shopping, you know, usual life stuff. I love the idea of making a living from my books, but I also love my steady paycheck.

Blame it on my childhood (I do). I love Dickens for his novels, but my attachment to him also stems from the similarities in our early lives. Dickens’ father John spent money faster than he made it, finally ending up in a debtors’ prison when Dickens was 12. While I was never sent to work at a blacking factory like Dickens (that I can recall), I, too, was raised by parents who never grew up when it came to money.

My parents were 16 and 20 when they met, and two kids later they remained teenagers in the lack of maturity they displayed when it came to financial matters. If there were such things as debtors’ prisons in the 1970s and 80s, the Allards would have been permanent residents. There was never enough money. Ever. My father was fired from every job he ever had for reasons ranging from being late to stealing money to stealing goods from the automobile parts departments where he worked. My mother worked occasionally, part time jobs here and there, but mainly she yelled and screamed about my father not being able to hold a job, and I became anxiety-ridden with her worries. We were evicted from every place we ever lived. Ever. The electricity was turned off too many times to count. I don’t know how many cars were repossessed, leading to the mornings when we’d go outside for my mom to drive my brother and me to school and the car wasn’t there, vanished to Repo Man Heaven. I remember a family friend sending my mother home with bags of groceries because there wasn’t enough money for food. I don’t remember being hungry, but I do remember the sickening feeling that comes with moneylessness. As a child, I couldn’t do anything about it, but as an adult I can and I do. Like I said, in praise of day jobs.

A few years ago I allowed myself to be convinced that I wasn’t a real writer unless I made my living writing so I tried my hand at freelancing. I hated it. I mean I really, really hated it. I hated that every job paid differently, and I hated that though I always had my work in before the deadline, the magazines or newspapers paid me whenever they got around to it. Sometimes the check they sent me wasn’t the right amount (Did we agree to $400? I have here $250…), and sometimes my payment was “lost in the mail” (Are you sure you didn’t get it? It says here it was sent last Tuesday…). Sometimes there wasn’t as much work in July as there was in June and I felt like a child again, worrying about whether or not the bills would be paid. At the end of the summer I raced back to my usual day job without looking back, and I’ve held on ever since.

Then again last year I flirted with the idea of leaving my day job after the release of Her Loving Husband’s Return, the third book in the Loving Husband Trilogy. Her Loving Husband’s Return landed on the Amazon best seller list the day it was released and it stayed there for months. Because Her Loving Husband’s Return is the highest priced of my books ($4.99) it meant thousands of dollars for me in a relatively short time. Awesome, right?

Here’s the thing about book sales: they fluctuate. Daily. Hourly if you’re keeping track on KDP. After a while, sales of even the best best-selling books slow down. If you make enough money while the sales are hot to feel confident depending on that as your income, then by all means do so. My point is never to say that my way is the right way. If you have a more adventurous spirit than I do, then do what feels right for you (remember Leo Babauta’s #11). I’m simply showing why leaving the day job isn’t the ultimate goal for every single writer in the world. Book sales are part of the ebb and flow of life—sometimes books sell well, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes you feel like a nut, sometimes you don’t.

If I had depended on the sales of the Loving Husband Trilogy as my sole income, I would have done well for a few months, maybe about six months, but then what would I have done when the sales slowed down? Common wisdom says to write more books so readers have more to buy from you. Okay, I’m doing that, but I can’t churn out several books a year (also common wisdom), especially since my next novel is historical fiction and there’s a fair amount of research involved. Common wisdom also says to try different marketing strategies to get more sales. I agree with that, too, but no matter how much marketing I do I can’t predict sales or make anyone buy my books. If I knew the formula for forcing readers to buy my books I’d bottle it and sell it.

If you’re a genre novelist and you write quickly and develop a loyal audience, you may very well be able to make a living selling books. Erotic novels sell very well. Look at the Fifty Shades Trilogy. That author won’t have to work another day in her life. Bella Andre has become a publishing rock star with the success she’s had with her erotic romance novels, and she has a legion of loyal fans who snatch up her new books as they come out. For me, book sales provide a second income. It’s not enough to live on, some months it’s not even close, but it’s still extra money every month, enough to make me feel like my books are being bought, hopefully read, and, even more hopefully, enjoyed. I don’t have the stress of worrying about sales since I have my steady paycheck to depend on. After I do what I can, the books sell what they sell. I’ve learned to become very zen about the whole book sales thing. My life is a lot less stressful that way.

One of the things I love about Joanna Penn from The Creative Penn is her honesty about her journey as an author entrepreneur. She admits that since she quit working in IT she now makes about 55% of what she made when she had her day job. Kudos to Joanna for saying so since most authors won’t admit this. As a source of pride they’ll say they quit their day jobs, trying to prove they’ve made it as an author, but they won’t say what they’re making in comparison to what they made at their previous jobs. True, there are a lot of authors doing extremely well financially, but I bet there are a lot of authors like Joanna who are living on less since they quit their day jobs. Married authors may have an easier time with this since they might have another income to depend on whereas us singletons have only our solitary selves to pay the bills. Joanna also wins points because she admits that not all of her income comes from selling books. She sells courses in indie publishing and she does speaking engagements. Crafting a career for herself as an author entrepreneur helped her out of a job she hated and into something she loves. She makes less money doing it, but she’s happy, and heavens knows she’s good at it. She’s helped many authors with indie publishing, myself included.

Unlike Joanna, I don’t hate my day job. Sure, some days are better than others. Hell, some years are better than others, but that would be true of any job, yes, even writing. Writing isn’t rainbows and roses every day, and then there’s the stress of worrying from one day to the next how many books you’ve sold and struggling to find the magic formula to drive more sales. For someone from my background where there was never enough money, constantly worrying about paying the rent doesn’t work for me. I did enough of that when I was a kid.

True, I have less time to write than I would if I quit my day job, but you know what? The writing gets done. Writing is a priority in my life—it’s the only time I understand my place in the world—and I make time for it. Many writers, sometimes even the most respected and beloved authors, don’t make as much money writing as we think they do. I just reread Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott, and she spent part of her career struggling financially, and she’s Anne Freakin’ Lamott—the goddess of all things writing as far as I’m concerned. My man Dickens also struggled financially for the first part of his career, and he’s Charles Freakin’ Dickens! He complained he was being robbed by his publishers—sound familiar?—while he tried to raise his large family in London (even then London was too damn expensive). He didn’t do well financially until he started his reading engagements where he acted out passages from his novels to enraptured audiences all across Britain and once or twice in America. Some scholars say the exhaustion from the readings destroyed Dickens’ health and ultimately killed him, so maybe that’s not the best example. My point, and I do have one, is that even great writers don’t always make a living from their books.

I found this article from Fast Company about famous writers—and Dustin Hoffman—and their day jobs. Here’s another one from the Huffington Post. After reading them, I don’t feel so bad. Maybe I am cautious in the way I approach money, but my life has taught me that caution, especially when it comes to financial matters, is a good thing. I can write my books, market them to the best of my ability, and then I can relax knowing that, at the beginning of the month, the rent will be paid and whatever I sell becomes extra income. Don’t use a day job as an excuse not to write. If you’re an artist, the art will happen, even if you work a nine-to-five. It has to. That’s what makes you an artist.

Filed under: Charles Dickens, Publishing, Writing Tagged: Indie Authors, keeping the day job, publishing, writers and day jobs, writing

The Business of Being an Author: What is Success?

Most articles about publishing focus on selling a ton of books with the ultimate goal of leaving behind the lousy day job to make a living as an author. That’s a great job if you can get it, and I’m thrilled whenever I hear of authors–indie or traditional–who find fantastic success. I would never argue with success for any author because it means more success for others. Fifty Shades of Grey sold 30 million copies? Awesome. Now there are a lot of readers out there looking for more books to read.

The more I read about e-book sales, the more I realized that the books that sell the most are genre fiction such as erotic romance, mystery, thrillers, and science fiction. That’s not what I write. The most accurate genre for what I write is literary fiction, and based on this graph I saw on The Creative Penn, fiction and literature make up 5% of e-book sales where genre fiction is 69%. For Amazon’s sake, I classify my books in more popular genres like paranormal romance (for the Loving Husband Trilogy) or gay romance (for That You Are Here), but they’re not romances in the traditional sense, and they’re definitely not erotic, so they don’t sell as well as, for example, Bella Andre’s books. I read an article that defined literary fiction by saying genre fiction is an escape from reality where literary fiction makes the reader deal with reality. That’s why genre fiction sells more. People want an escape from a long day dealing with work and family. I get that. That’s why I write fiction—to escape reality, my own reality at least.

So…if I don’t write the kind of books that sell a ton, then what? I’ve thought a lot about that over the last three years. When I began writing Her Dear & Loving Husband, my initial idea was to write a traditional romance about a vampire who rediscovers his one true love. As I wrote it, it evolved into what it is…a look into the good and the bad of human nature. When I had Her Dear & Loving Husband critiqued, the reader suggested I turn it into a more traditional romance by adding some steamy sex scenes and deleting the flights of literary fancy. She wanted me to turn James into an alpha male. I could have done it. I was tempted to do it. But when push came to shove, I realized that’s not the book that was in my heart to write. I made the decision to write the novel the way I was drawn to write it, not the novel that would fit more easily into an Amazon category, thereby finding a larger audience and selling more copies. I knew my choices could cost me readers, but I decided I was all right with that. Success for me no longer came in the form of huge numbers (though I certainly won’t argue with huge numbers if they happen). I believed that if I wrote the book that was in my heart, readers could relate to it on that level. I believed there was an audience out there for my Loving Husband stories, maybe not as large as the Fifty Shades trilogy, but my gut told me there were readers out there.

I was right. I’ve had the most beautiful messages from readers all over the world who love the Loving Husband Trilogy and waited patiently for each book, and it was a year between books. Book Three in the series, Her Loving Husband’s Return, landed on the Amazon best seller list the day it was released when I had done exactly zero things to promote it, and it stayed there for months. Is that success? It is to me.

On The Creative Penn, Joanna wrote a wonderful post where she talks about authors defining success for themselves based on what they want from their writing careers. For some, they want to sell a lot of books and make a lot of money. For some, writing is more of a creative pursuit than a financial one. She talks about writers who want to create body of work over their lifetime that they’re proud of. That’s me. I even left a comment on her post to that effect.

I’ve noticed how whenever the topic turns to writers who write as a creative and artistic pursuit, some poor soul takes offence by saying, “Why can’t I write for money? Why do I have to defend myself because I want to make money writing?” The answer is, you don’t have to defend yourself. If you want to write to make money, then write to make money. No one is poo-pooing that idea, especially not me. But if I write because I want to share the stories that are in my heart without making changes to increase sales and profits, then I can make that choice too. In fact, I think it’s the other way around. The vast majority of posts I’ve read focus on selling as many books as possible and quitting the day job, as if that’s the holy grail for indies—when you make a living selling books, then you have arrived. Arrived where, I still don’t know. If anything, those of us who write for artistic expression are the ones who have to defend ourselves because we’re not focused on the same things everyone else is focused on. That, as Leo points out in his post, is scary. It’s always scary when you make your own way instead of following the pack.

Filed under: Her Dear & Loving Husband, Publishing, Writing Tagged: Her Dear and Loving Husband, Indie Authors, indie publishing, publishing, writing

The Business of Being an Author: Taking the Advice That Feels Right to Me

In Leo Babauta’s post about how he conducts his business, he talks about the mistakes he’s made as he’s built his business. I’ve made more than my fair share of mistakes as well. I learned that I need to stop worrying so much about what others say or do, and I learned that I had to take the advice that feels right and forget the rest.

There are a lot of proclamations out there about the right way to be an indie author. Do this! Don’t do that! Your book will die a slow and violent death if you even consider the other thing over there! Like other authors, I’ve read voraciously about publishing and marketing, and when I began my journey as an indie author in 2011, I tried to do everything I read about, which only made me hyperventilate with the sheer abundance of all the information.

There are so many rules to follow when you’re an author. I had to have an author platform. I had to be discoverable. I had to find where my readers hang out online and comment on blogs where I wanted to be noticed, though I had to be careful how I commented so I wouldn’t offend anybody. I had to blog 3-4 times a week, or two times a week, or once a week, depending on whose advice I was reading. I had to have a static landing page on my website and not the most recent blog post (oops!). I had to understand Amazon’s algorithms. I had to understand Google search engines and keyword searches and SEO (which, to be honest, I still don’t understand). I had to follow the ten steps to a perfect book launch. I had to succeed (whatever that means) at social media, and I had to conduct my social media accounts just so. I had to become an expert in something. I had to market to readers, not writers. I read that one way to gain readers is to create classes and booklets and freebies to give away, so I wracked my brain trying to think of something I could create or sell that hasn’t been done to death and came up empty-handed and frustrated. I read about ads and affiliate marketing. Don’t get me started on book pricing. First I read an article that said 99 cents is the right price for indie books so I changed the prices to 99 cents. Then a few days later I read something that said $2.99 was the correct price point so I changed the price to $2.99. Then I read an article that said something else all together and I changed the prices again. And again.

After making myself crazy for months, maybe even a year, I realized I couldn’t do everything I read about because, first, a lot of the so-called rules are contradictory, and, second, some of it simply didn’t feel right to me (Leo’s rule #12: Do what feels right). I stopped reading everything about being an indie publisher in favor of sticking with the blogs I trust (see my #1). I gave up on the platform idea a long time ago. I don’t imagine I’ll be seen as an expert in anything any time soon. From time to time I pretend to know a thing or two about writing, though I’m merely sharing what’s worked for me in hopes that it will be helpful to others. I post, pin, and tweet what I want. I now set my e-book prices based on my own trial and error, not because someone else proclaimed the correct price. I’ve learned to do what feels right for my books, and for me, and I no longer allow proclamations to rule my decisions. I’m no longer looking to others for the answer to how to be an indie author. I’m making those decisions for myself, which, after all, is one of the joys of being indie.

Filed under: Publishing, Writing Tagged: Indie Authors, indie publishing, publishing, writing

How I Conduct My Business as an Author Part 3

That You Are Here is going on tour in July and August.

5. I write what I want to write because I want to write it

One of the many Commandments I’ve seen about how Thou Shalt Be an Indie Author is the one about how, in order to build an audience, you need to pick a genre and stick to it. If you write romance, then you must write romances. If you write mysteries, thrillers, science fiction, whatever it is, it becomes part of your author platform, part of your public persona, and if you write something else you’re flirting with disaster while you watch your readers evaporate into cyberspace.

Now here I am, having some success with the Loving Husband Trilogy, a paranormal/historical love story. All three books have been best sellers with great reviews and devoted readers from all over the world. To follow the accepted wisdom of indie publishing, I knew I should stick with paranormal/historical stories because that’s what my readers expect of me now. So what did I write next? A contemporary gay love story. Why? Because that’s the way I roll.

I could hear the indie author gods fall in a thud to the ground when I published That You Are Here as my next book after the Loving Husband Trilogy. I’m not being difficult on purpose. Truly. It just so happens I was visiting my cousin in Portland, Oregon when the Supreme Court decision overturning DOMA was announced. The idea for That You Are Here came to me shortly afterwards in some random daydream, and I saw the two romantic leads, Andrew Whittaker and Mark Bryce, so clearly. I saw their deep love for each other, and I saw the obstacles they had to overcome. I decided to write the book because that was the story that was in my heart to write. I knew it wasn’t the “right” thing to do, and I knew that fans of my Loving Husband Trilogy wouldn’t necessarily be interested in reading That You Are Here. But you know what? It’s all good. It’s true, I have to find a new audience for That You Are Here—not an entirely new audience because some of my Loving Husband fans have open minds and they’ve read and liked That You Are Here. The truth is, I don’t mind the extra work. I’d rather write what I want to write and work to find new readers than write something I’m not excited about because that’s what’s expected of me.

I wasn’t always willing to listen to my heart about what to write. This was yet another lesson I had to learn the hard way. For a while, I was so obsessed with sales ranking and copies sold that I seriously considered writing books in a genre–romance–that might sell more than the books I had already written, which, let’s face it, are primarily literary fiction within their appropriate subgenres. I decided to write romances when I remembered a classmate of mine when I was in grad school, a romance novelist who had been published by Harlequin many times. She was a very nice lady and I enjoyed talking to her, but looking at her she was the last person in the world you’d expect to write sexy-time romances. She was in her early 50s, wore her gray-streaked blond hair in a short ponytail, and she wore lumberjack shirts, mom jeans, and black Doc Martin boots. Her face was well-lined, and she had the husky voice  of a chain smoker. If you couldn’t tell she was a smoker by her deep voice, then you could tell by the sour stench of nicotine that followed her everywhere, like the dust cloud around Pig-Pen from the Peanuts cartoons. She told me then that I should write romances. They’re easy to write, she said, and they sell well. All these years later, and after seeing the success of so many indie romance authors, I decided that maybe I should write romances after all.

To get ready,  I read books about writing romances, I read a few romances, and I had a basic plot outline for the first book. I even had a pen name picked out.  But when it came down to writing it, I realized that I just didn’t want to do it. It felt fake to me, and writing fiction is the only time I feel real. There are many writers, like my friend from college, for whom writing is a business and they write books geared toward a specific market so it will sell a lot of copies. I envy them. I wish I could approach writing fiction in such a business-like manner. I tried, I swear I did, but I couldn’t do it. Writing is my creative expression. It’s how I make sense of this crazy world of ours. For me, the right decision was to write what I want to write because I want to write it, because that’s the story that keeps tugging at my heart strings until I write it down and set it free.

So then, following my logic, what’s my next book? You guessed it…an historical love story set in Victorian England inspired by Downton Abbey and the early life of Charles Dickens. After that…who knows? Maybe a space western featuring Billy the Kid and Darth Vader.

Filed under: Publishing, Writing Tagged: Indie Authors, indie publishing, writing

How I Conduct My Business as an Author Part 2

4. I Use Social Media My Own Way

I’m on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Linkedin, Goodreads, and Pinterest. I have this handy-dandy blog. I know there are other social media sites out there, but there are only so many hours in the day, you know?

If you’re an author, I do believe it’s important to get yourself out there however you can, and these days the name of the game is social media. Engagement on the different social media channels is important because you want people to know there’s a human being at the other end of the profile. I try to respond to every private message I receive, I’m generous in pinning and tweeting posts and articles from others that I’ve found interesting, and I’m always looking to like someone else’s posts.

I do far more promotion of others than I do of my own work. Joanna Penn and others refer to it as the 80/20 rule—post 80% about others and 20% about yourself—and I’ve done this for years. I feel good that I’m helping to spread content I’ve found useful, and I don’t feel like I’m shouting too loudly about myself. I want to get word out about my own stuff, of course, but I don’t want to be so obnoxious about it that it becomes noise.

Here’s another lesson I learned the hard way:  I had to do social media my own way, not the way experts proclaim from the mountaintop. Whenever I read about social media for authors, staying on message is always the key phrase. If you’re a nonfiction author then tweet your topic. If you’re a fiction author, find the niche audience for your book and mold your posts for them. Don’t go off message because you’ll scare readers away! I tried to stay on message for months, honest I did, but over time I discovered I wasn’t that interested in checking my Facebook page or my Twitter feed. I ran out of ideas for posts for this blog. I couldn’t care less about any of it, and I realized I was bored. By limiting myself to what I could post about, my interest waned.

Suddenly, in a burst of inspiration, I began acting on the radical idea of posting whatever I wanted to post, pinning whatever I wanted to pin, and tweeting whatever I wanted to tweet. I tweet about publishing, writing, books, and authors. I tweet about spirituality, creativity, and inspiration. I tweet about social media. I tweet about blogging. I tweet about history. I tweet about London because it’s my spiritual home and I’ll be there in July so I’m getting ready. I tweet about Downton Abbey because I love Downton Abbey. Do I need another reason?

Here’s the funny thing…what the social media experts would have predicted is exactly what happened–I have followers who are fans of my books, and I have followers who are interested in publishing, books, writing, creativity, inspiration, social media, blogging, history, London, and Downton Abbey. Accepted wisdom says to have different social media accounts, one for yourself as an author and one for other interests. If there were 40 hours in a day I might be tempted, but as it is, on a 24 hour schedule, there isn’t unlimited time for social media. I need time to do this other thing called writing. The result is I have varied followers, but I don’t mind; in fact, I think it’s kind of cool. As for the prevailing wisdom about focusing on readers not writers, I don’t agree. First of all, readers can come from anywhere–even London. Second of all, most people have varied interests. Just because they follow me for the inspirational tweets doesn’t mean they’re not also interested in Downton Abbey and/or blogging and/or publishing and/or whatever else I tweet about. Finally, there are no more voracious readers in the world than writers and writers need recommendations for new books as much as anyone else. Besides, I think social media is for making connections, not necessarily for making sales.

I’m not sure how many sales I’ve made because of social media. I can’t trace a single book sale to Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Goodreads, or Google+. That doesn’t mean such sales haven’t happened, but I have no way of knowing. My best guess is that it isn’t any one thing I’m doing that sells books—it’s a little bit of everything. As a result, I no longer worry if I’m doing social media “wrong.” I can do it my own way, and whatever new readers I find along the way are welcome.

Here’s another thought (proof that I can have more than one at a time): I find that readers choose to follow an author on social media after they become fans. In other words, first they read your book, then they decide they’d like to hear more from you, then they follow you. I’ve never received a message from a reader saying, “I saw you on Facebook so I decided to read your book.” I have, however, received many messages from readers who read my books and (thankfully) liked them enough to decide to follow me on social media (hello, out there!). I write novels, true, but I’m also a human being with varied interests, and my experience has shown me that fans like getting to know the lady behind the curtain, so to speak. I post and pin about topics that are interesting to a wide range of people, and I post and pin about my own work as well, so I’m covering all the angles while keeping my readers and myself from keeling over in boredom. I mean, how many times can you tweet about the Salem Witch Trials even if it is a fascinating topic?

Have I cost myself followers because of my decisions? I haven’t a clue. Maybe. Like with book sales, I’ve learned that numbers aren’t the end-all-be-all of my work. I have to enjoy what I’m doing or else there’s no point to it. Following the accepted wisdom with social media wasn’t working for me. Now I have fun with my social media accounts where before they were an unwelcome chore. And I’ve met so many wonderful people along the way (yes, I’m talking about you).

Filed under: Publishing, Writing Tagged: Indie Authors, indie publishing, social media for authors, writing

How I Conduct My Business as an Author Part 1

Here’s a cute cat picture because apparently blog posts should always have pictures. This is Charles Dickens Allard, but you can call him Chuck. I’m still waiting for him to grow a beard.

About two weeks ago I posted Leo Babauta’s inspiring article about how he conducts his business, and you can see what Leo has to say here. In honor of Leo, I decided to write something similar. Here’s part 1 of How I Conduct My Business as an Author.

1. I learned from those who came before me

When I joined the indie author revolution in 2011, I knew absolutely nothing about independent publishing. Nothing as in zip, zero, nada. I began searching the web for information, and I was lucky enough to stumble on a few websites that have been valuable beyond mention. The websites I turn to again and again for information, ideas, and plain old inspiration are (in no particular order) are David Gaughran’s Let’s Get Digital and Joanna Penn’s The Creative Penn. The truth is, pretty much everything I know about indie publishing and book marketing I learned from these nice people. What I like about them is that David and Joanna don’t make pronouncements about what’s right and what’s wrong for indie authors. Their attitude seems to be (to me) “Indie publishing is a grand experiment and we’re all in this together. I’m sharing what I’ve learned so far in hopes that this will be helpful to you.” And their posts have been helpful to me. I’ve had the success I’ve had because of what I’ve learned from them.

2. Forget about stats

Leo talks about this in his post (#10), and I agree. This is a lesson I learned the hard way. I’m not saying I never check stats. I checked my stats frequently last week because I was curious to see how the free promotion for That You Are Here was going. I’m trying to determine if the 90 day exclusivity of KDP Select is worth it, so I wanted to see how many copies were downloaded, if there were any new reviews, and if sales went up after the free days ended. If you have a promotion, then checking stats can be fine, especially if it’s a promotion you paid for since you’ll want to see if the promotion is worth it.

Otherwise, I’ve learned to leave the stats to themselves. Like Leo, I was obsessed with stats. I checked Amazon, BN, and Smashwords several times a day, as though things would be that different between 3 and 5 p.m. I made myself crazy wondering why I sold 20 copies of one book on Monday and 3 copies on Tuesday and 9 copies on Wednesday. Why aren’t the books selling as well on Tuesday and Wednesday as they did on Monday? Is there something I can do to change that? Then I realized I had lost focus on what was important. Instead of wasting time checking stats, I should have been writing.

The truth is, I can’t control book sales. I can do everything I can to make my books discoverable. I can write the best books I possibly can. I can hire a great cover artist who designs eye-catching, professional looking covers. I can tweet about my books, Facebook and Google+ them, post about them on this blog. I can do giveaways and blog tours. I can pay for ads on Facebook and Goodreads. But someone either chooses to buy my book or not. I love Joe Konrath’s no-nonsense approach to publishing, and I read his blog A Newbie’s Guide to Publishing at least once a week. In this article Joe talks about the role luck plays in generating publishing success. One author can do A, B, and C and have a mega hit, and the next author can do the same A, B, and C and not have the same success. Why? Because the first author had luck on her side when the second author didn’t.

I don’t find this disheartening. In fact, I find it liberating. That doesn’t mean I don’t do all of the above to get my books discovered because I do. It means there’s an element to book sales I can’t control, and that’s okay. I’ll keep writing more books, keep trying new ways to get my books noticed, and then I can let it go. Letting go of stats feels much better than being obsessed with them, trust me.

3. The power of free

Between Amazon, BN, Smashwords, and other online book retailers I’ve given away over 150,000 books for free—more than twice as many as I’ve sold (around 70,000 now). A lot of people will cringe at those numbers, but I’m thrilled to bits. I had great fun last week when That You Are Here was free on Amazon. I loved watching the novel hit #208 free overall and it stayed #1 in its two genre charts for four days, slipping to #2 on both charts on the last day. Thousands of copies were downloaded for free, and I loved every minute of it.

You see, as an independent author, I don’t have unlimited funds to spend on marketing and advertising. Right now, for me, the name of the game is to get my books downloaded onto as many e-readers as possible, and I find free to be a great way to do that. Free costs the readers and me nothing, but as an author the return is priceless.

I know that not everyone who downloads a free copy of my book is going to read it. I’ve downloaded books for free I haven’t gotten to yet because, like other readers, I tend to read the books I’ve paid for first. But if my books are free at least I have a chance to get my books downloaded onto e-readers with a chance of being read whereas readers might not have known about the books if they had stayed in limbo on the paid charts. I believe the power of free is why the Loving Husband Trilogy has sold so well. The first book in the series, Her Dear & Loving Husband, has been semi perma-free since it was released in 2011. I say semi perma-free because I’ve played around with the price, but for the most part it has been free for three years. Her Dear & Loving Husband has had a lot of word of mouth going for it, largely because the book was free and people read it and told others about it. Never underestimate the power of word of mouth advertising. That, too, is free, and perhaps the most valuable kind of advertising because word of mouth comes from friends and family whose recommendations people trust. I’ve had so many e-mails from people who said, “I told my whole family about it!” or “I told my best friend about it. She loves paranormal romance,” or “My sister told me about it. She loved it and raved about it!” All the money in the world can’t pay for advertising like that. Seriously.

Shortly after Her Dear & Loving Husband was released in 2011, I was interviewed for a local Las Vegas magazine about the novel and about my work on The Copperfield Review. I mentioned to the reporter that Her Dear & Loving Husband was free on Amazon, and he said a former editor told him never to give his work away for free because you teach people what you’re worth. I thought about that a lot, but I came to the conclusion that I don’t agree. Free has become my favorite way to get my books onto e-readers, and hopefully from there, read, reviewed, and talked about. I do believe my book is valuable. In fact, I believe so much in the value of Her Dear & Loving Husband that I set the price as free with the belief that those who like it will buy the next two in the series.

Are there negatives to free? Sure, but not enough to make me stop giving books away. People who download free books may download books that aren’t the genre they enjoy reading, and readers aren’t afraid to say so in their reviews. So, yes, you do open yourself up to more negative reviews, but so what? I’ve learned not to fear negative reviews. Whether your book is paid or free, it’s not realistic to expect everyone who reads your book will like it. As long as you have more good reviews than bad reviews, it’s all good.

The biggest downside to free for a lot of authors is, well, the book is free, and if the book is free that means the author isn’t making any money. Even I with my limited math skills (that’s maths skills for my British friends) can figure that out. But I maintain that more people have read my books than there would have been without the free downloads. Not all the people who downloaded my books for free have gone on to pay for my other books, maybe not even half of them, but it’s still thousands of people who pay for my books after they’ve read one for free. For my vision for myself as an author, it’s a more than fair trade. I’m in this for the long haul, and I’m willing to sacrifice the money I might have made up front in hopes that I’ll find new readers for my other books.

Next time, part 2.

Filed under: Publishing, Writing Tagged: author entrepreneur, Let's Get Digital, publishing, The Creative Penn, writing

That You Are Here is Free 6/2-6/6

Just a quick note to let everyone know that my latest novel, That You Are Here, is free on Amazon and Amazon UK now through Friday, 6/6.

The novel has been free since this morning. Already it’s on the best seller list at #686 overall and #2 in Fiction>Romance>Gay. I’ve also noticed a lot of new visitors to this site today. Thank you!

For any new friends who might be visiting for the first time, here’s a previous post about That You Are Here.

 

Filed under: News, That You Are Here Tagged: Amazon, Free, kindle, That You Are Here