Heidi Angell's Blog, page 49

On Staying Human with Author Steven M. Vincent

The writing world has changed so much in the last ten years, that a writer is no longer a writer. We wear many hats, which we have discussed several times on this blog. But one of the hats we forget about is that of being human! I have the privilege to interview Steven Vincent, author of Dawn of the Knight I - Xeltian Invitation on a very important topic: staying human through the publishing/ promotion process.


Heidi: Hello Steven, and thanks for joining us! I know when I am in the throes of a book launch, I become like a woman possessed, forgetting to eat, sleep, and spend time with the family. There is so much for an author to do, and so little time to do it in! What is the one thing that you find takes the most time during book launch?

Steven: Over the last few years, social media has really taken off in directions nobody saw coming. Twitter, Facebook, and all the others are great tools for making sure a book is seen, especially when self-publishing, but at the same time they don't run themselves; they require a lot of your time to use to their fullest.

Heidi: How many hours do you typically work during book launch?
Steven: I try to spend a little time in the morning  to get the word out (about half an hour), and two to three hours in the afternoon. I've only released one book so far, but I've done a number of free events where the same rules apply.

Heidi: What is one tip that you have found helps a book launch go smoother?
Steven: Make a schedule of the websites and social media outlets you will be using, and make a habit out of visiting/updating them in the same order every day. Organization can go a long way, but so can planning; start to build connections before you publish your book."

Heidi: What is one piece of advice you would give to new authors planning a book launch?
Steven: Take your time. No matter how great your book is and may become, it will take time, so you should too. I rushed my first book launch and suffered for it; it took me months to get on the right track. Get to know other readers, writers, and bloggers. Ask for advice on the market, and take everything to heart. DON'T forget the people who helped you, either; they'll most likely be happy to help you again, once your book is released.

Heidi: That is all so true! And one last question: what is one piece of advice in general that you would give to anyone thinking of becoming an author?
Steven: No matter what stage you are on of your writing journey, have fun with it. Before you're an author, don't forget you're a person. If your story is the one you want to tell, your story will touch a lot of people.

Heidi: Thank you so much for your time, and for sharing your experiences with us today! For those who want to learn more about Steven you can check out his blog True Knights.



In the spring of 220 Minores, the world of Xeltia brought its black army to bear down upon the kingdoms of mankind. Led by the Corrupter and her Knight, they sought the Collapse - a fate worse than death, encompassing all and never to be undone.
Yet as the three kings united and the true knights arose, the onslaught was met on the eastern plains of Rolace. Many lives were ended, kingdoms shattered, but in the end the terrible evil was driven away. An era of flourishing peace would follow, which men called the Dawn.
But decades would pass, and this would become legend. True knights would fade, and the Corrupter would return, once again seeking the Collapse. Her Xeltian Knight would pit the hearts of man against his brothers using their anger, greed, and lust. There would be no united resistance this time... Only a boy seeking to fulfill a promise.
Dawn of the Knight I - Xeltian Invitation is a 560 page tale that will have you hooked from the start. Join Egon Skysong as he ventures across the lands of Rolace and Crylite in search of answers to defeat the wicked Xeltian Knight. Along the way he will learn much about himself and others, but if he cannot discover the true meaning of the Invitation, Xeltia, and the Collapse, the world shall know despair forever...

Sound like something you are interested in reading? Buy from the link on the right of my page.
Here are some other places to keep up with Steven and his projects!

Follow Steven Vincent on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Aka_Hinotae 

Like Steven Vincent's Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/steven.akahinotae 

Fan and Friend Steven Vincent on Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6581197.Steven_M_Vincent 

Like Dawn of the Knight on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DawnOfTheKnightIXeltianInvitation?ref=ts&fref=ts 

Well, hope you found something you liked today! Thanks so much for reading! 

Until next time,

Keep Writing!

Update to Angell's Life

So, over the next couple of weeks, you will be seeing some changes to the blog, not the least of which is that I will now be doing my book reviews that I was originally doing on Books for Linda here instead. I have had several reasons for deciding to do this change. The biggest is that a lot of indie authors have gotten upset with me because I give them three and four star reviews. Obviously, they didn't spend a lot of time reading my review, or my previous reviews, because I don't even give great authors like Rick Riordan or Orson Scott Card five star reviews! There is no such thing as a perfect book. Five stars implies perfect, right?

Rick Riordan totally deserves 5 Stars!
(Funny side note, everyone on Goodreads is annoyed with me because I rated The Hunters four out of five stars. They all insist that I change my rating of my own book to five stars. Yeah, not gonna happen. That just seems the ultimate hubris. My book isn't that good. I actually considered giving it three stars, but that is considered a bad rating on Goodreads, and I obviously loved it enough to publish it, so I don't think it is average!)
What happened to modesty? 
Anywho, point of that little rant is that I will now be doing all Indie reviews here, and I will NOT use a rating system! I will point out the good, the bad and the ugly, then let you decide on your own whether or not to read the work. I'll also be participating in the Amazon Associates and have a link to where you can buy the book, should you so choose!

I'm going to boost up my author interviews. I've been far too slack about that!

Is there anything else that you would like to see me do with the blog? Let me know in the comments below.

Until next time,

Keep Writing!

New in 2013

Well, now, 2013 has been interesting so far, and the darn year just started!!!

In January, I published my debut novel, The Hunters.

Here are the links where you can buy it!

http://www.amazon.com/The-Hunters-ebook/dp/B00AUYI0HG (Kindle)

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/270492 (All other e-readers)

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-hunters-heidi-angell/1114159042 (Paperback)

Unfortunately, my launch was interrupted by a move all the way across country! My husband got a job out West and when we arrived the house we are renting had a major flood. The owners have been great on getting the repairs done as quickly as possible, but we have been camping out for a large part of  it and my work room was one of the rooms that suffered the most damage. Fortunately, I am quite ingenius and have found creative ways to get back to work whenever possible!

Which is very important because in March Soul Star is launching another novel, a very exciting sci-fi mid-grade novel by world-renowned Windsor chair expert and word smith Mike Dunbar! I am working hard on that project as well as trying to launch (or re-launch, if you will) The Hunters.

As a matter of fact, in February, in honor of Valentine's Day, the day of love, I am running a special promotion and half of the proceeds from all of my books: The Hunters, Royal Prince Vince, and Creative Exercises to Inspire  will be donated to Locks of Love (along with 15 inches of my hair, which I cut off this weekend. I'll have a video of the chop project up soon!)

So if you love the idea of killing vampires, pick up The Hunters.
If you have a little loved one that you want a great children's book for, pick up Royal Prince Vince.
If you or someone you love wants to get in touch with your inner Creative, pick up Creative Exercises to Inspire. 

By doing so, you will help other people's loved ones through Locks of Love!

Until Next Time,

Keep Writing!

Hello my lovely fans! Just got a message from Deanna Slet...

Hello my lovely fans! Just got a message from Deanna Sletten and thought I would share!
Here it is:
I want to thank all of you for participating in my Book Release Blog Tour for Sara’s Promise. You were all so generous with your time and support of my latest novel, and I just can’t thank you enough for all your help. The blog tour went really well and we had dozens of comments and several people who actually followed along to each site. It was a complete success – thanks to all of you.
Now for the fun news. I promised a drawing for a $50 Amazon Gift Card to the participants in my blog tour. Using Random.org, the winner selected is: Janna Shay I will contact Janna personally so I can send out her prize.
Blog Tour Giveaway Winners
Now for the blog tour winners. I collected the names and emails from all of the people who commented on all of the blogs. After using Random.org to choose the winners, here are the names of the lucky winners. I will also be contacting them to let them know they have won and to get the information I need to send out their prize.
$25 Amazon Gift Card – Tima Murrell$25 Amazon Gift Card – Paul HewlettSara’s Promise Paperback – Shannon RoSara’s Promise Paperback – Cynthia Gail
Once again, thank you all for helping me promote my latest novel.


I had fun doing the interview with her, and I hope you guys had fun reading it!

Until Next Time,

Keep Writing!

Author Interview: Deanna Sletten on Dialogue

Guess who’s got two thumbs and loves doing author interviews? This girl! Author Deanna Sletten graces us with her presence, despite being very busy getting promotions together for her book, Sara’s Promise, to be released today! Here is the back cover info for the book, if you are interested!
Do you believe in soul mates?
William Grafton had the perfect life with his lovely wife, Sara, and two teenaged children. But one day his perfect forever was shattered when Sara died suddenly, leaving him alone to raise his children and wonder how he would ever get through life without his soul mate. Five years later, he finds himself looking into a familiar pair of blue-green eyes that remind him of Sara. The woman is the exact opposite of his late wife, yet he finds he is drawn to her. But after a few strange occurrences, he begins to wonder–are these just coincidences or has his Sara come back to him as she once promised in the form of this new woman? 
Annie Paxton doesn't believe in soul mates or fate. She had watched her father die of a broken heart after her mother passed away and has since cast away any fairy tale ideas of love. Then she meets the man who has been haunting her dreams and she begins to see love in a whole new light. But her dream man is still tied to his deceased wife, and Annie doesn't know if he will ever be able to break away from his past. As strange occurrences unfold, Annie wonders if William could ever truly love her for herself and not for the traits that remind him of Sara.
Were William and Annie brought together by fate, coincidence or by Sara keeping her promise?
***

  Deanna Lynn Sletten writes women's fiction novels. Her stories dig deeply into the lives of the characters, giving the reader an in-depth look into their hearts and souls. She has also written one middle-grade novel that takes you on the adventure of a lifetime.
Deanna started her writing career in the early 1990s writing articles for parenting publications and local newspapers. Over time she transitioned to writing for blogs and websites and was a contributing writer for the women's website, She Knows. In November 2011, she changed course and put all her energy into novel writing and hasn't looked back since.

Deanna writes amazing dialogue, so I thought it would be cool to find out how she does this. Dialogue is something I have noticed a lot of new authors falling short on. Deanna has received a lot of praise for her prose, so let’s see if we can’t learn something from her.
Deanna, thanks so much for joining us! As we have all learned, planning a book is very important.  How do you plan your dialogue?
I don't really plan my dialogue – it just happens as the story unfolds. Before I write a novel, I sit down and write a detailed profile for each character so I know everything there is to know about that person. From this profile, I can determine how each character speaks. While I'm writing, I see and hear each character as if they were in a movie, so I write each character's dialogue just as I imagine they would say it if they were acting on screen.

 What do you think is the most important aspect to consider when writing dialogue?
Keep it real. Not every person is going to speak proper English and have perfect diction. Real people speak in broken sentences, make gestures, nod their heads and interrupt each other. If you want the reader to believe your characters are real people, you need to let the characters speak the same way that everyday people speak. Of course, this changes depending upon the type of story you are writing (historical, fantasy, science fiction, etc.) because a person in 1890 isn't going to speak the same as a person in 2012. An educated character's dialogue will sound different from a high school kid's dialogue and a person from the south will speak with different words and phrases than a person who lives in Canada. But no matter if your character is a little green alien or a teenaged girl, the dialogue has to sound real to the reader.

 How do you keep the voices of your characters separate in your own mind?
The mind can be a scary place. As I mentioned before, as I'm writing a novel, it plays out in my head like a movie so it's very easy for me to separate each character's dialogue as I write it. Many times I even speak it out loud as I write it to hear how it sounds. When I wrote my latest novel, Sara's Promise, I loved writing the dialogue for Sandy who is a very vocal young woman. She is often rude, combative and sarcastic, so she was fun to write dialogue for. On the other hand, her brother Sam is low-key, polite and shy, so his dialogue is very different from hers. I think knowing each character's traits backwards and forwards is the most important key to knowing how to write dialogue for each one.

How important do you think dialogue is in a story?
I think dialogue is extremely important. It helps move the story forward, it reflects the emotions and traits of each character and it keeps the reader awake! I like stories that are loaded with dialogue and have less narration. Haven't you ever found yourself skipping over the paragraph that describes the night sky or what the characters are wearing and moved on to the next bit of dialogue? Like in a movie, the dialogue is what propels the story forward and should be considered important to every fiction writer.  

What would you say is the most important thing for an author to consider when planning dialogue?
Make sure that each character can be identified by his/her dialogue. Even subtle differences can be detected by the reader. Have you ever read a page of dialogue and become confused as to which character said what? If I have to keep re-reading a page to figure out who is speaking, then I will probably not want to finish reading that book. Each character has his own look, his own past and his own story, so he should also have his own way of speaking. Make sure you know your characters completely before writing even one bit of dialogue.

And if you are wondering whether Deanne knows what she is talking about, why not try one of her books?
Memories    Women's Fiction/Romance  
Widow, Virgin, Whore     Women's Fiction  
Outlaw Heroes   Children's/Middle-Grade Fiction - 
Sara's Promise    Women's Fiction/Romance  Available 12/10/12 
Deanna, what do you do for fun?
When not writing, I enjoy walking the wooded trails around my northern Minnesota home with my beautiful Australian Shepherd or relaxing in the boat on the lake in the summer. 
Want to connect with Deanna and learn more about her? She has a blog, you can friend her on Facebook , or follow her on Twitter  @DeannaLSletten
I hope you try one of her books. I personally am looking forward to Sara’s Promise! After you read one of her books, be sure to give her a review on the site you bought it from. If you are on  Goodreads you can add her to your friends list .
And be sure to leave her a review there as well. (If you aren’t on Goodreads, you should be!)


Want to follow Deanna's virtual book tour, and see what reviewers are saying about Sara's Promise? 
 Follow the Tour Schedule here:



In celebration of Deanna's new book release she is having a giveaway! Leave a commenton this site to have your name entered in the drawing for one of four prizes: Two $25 Amazon Gift Cards and 2 paperback copies of Sara's Promise. Be sure to include your email address so we can contact you. You can enter at each site of the blog tour for more chances to win! Giveaway starts December 10th and ends December 17th at midnight. Winners will be contacted December 18th after noon. 

Until Next Time, 

Keep Writing

Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year!

I know it has been awhile, but I have had a lot in the works of late. As you know The Hunters has been my latest pet project. Although we did not win America's Next Author I did get some great exposure and encouragement! Thanks to everyone who voted.

I also "won" NaNoWriMo.Though I didn't finish the novel, I did get the 50,000 word minimum. I am eagerly working on that story while The Hunters is in final, final, final edits. (I know, I thought it was in final edits a couple rounds ago, but due to people not really liking working for free.... but that leads me to my next exciting project!)

My latest project has been to join forces with my good friend, and fellow author, Dawn Tevy (the creator of Angels & Warriors.) We are putting together an indie publishing house run by authors, for authors.

It is such a great concept and I am pleased that The Hunters will be published under this company, Soul Star Multimedia. We have been hard at work putting together teams of contractors who are willing to work with authors who want the freedom of self-publishing, but who may not have the income to pay professionals upfront and/or do not have the experience to go it alone. We are even open to those authors who have the experience, but don't have the time. That is ok too.

The key to this venture working is for us to produce quality products that we feel passionate about. I am pleased to say that we have quite a few passionate folks signing up to work with us! We have publishing agents, content editors, line editors, marketing specialists, formatting specialists, audio book specialists, tons of great resources for new authors working on a limited budget, and we are working on a bunch of other great services!

Now to start hunting down some great stories.

Have you written a book? Are you interested in publishing? Send me a query to Hangell531@gmail.com. Put in the subject line "Query  for (title of your book and name of author here)"

In the query,  give me your back cover blurb, tell me a bit about you as an author, your experience in writing/ publishing and what you are hoping to get from Soul Star. Attach the first ten pages of your story to the e-mail. I will forward these to our publishing agents.  

The Hunters will be published on January 10th, 2013 and I am eager to get the ball rolling on our next project. We want to bring in some fresh blood and help authors achieve their dreams. If you have a book written and polished, and are ready to be published, give it a shot!

Until Next Time,

Keep Writing

America's Next Author

Hello my lovelies! Been super busy and the blog has gotten neglected. Sorry for that!

So, what have I been up to? Well, working hard on getting Hunters to publication, of course! I have also been helping a couple other authors with marketing, expanding my social media kingdom, and trying to generate buzz for The Hunters!

One of the ways I am generating buzz is that I entered an excerpt of The Hunters in a writing contest, America's Next Author.  This writing contest is a pretty cool new concept, in that it is driven by reader's votes.

Yes, you guys get to decide who is the best author, not some unknown (probably stodgy) panel of people who the industry thinks are experts on the written word. (Not that we don't love experts!)

The competition does have a panel of reviewers (they call them a jury) who will add in a handful of stories that they deem deserving, but that did not get enough votes to survive the cut. (I am certain that they do not look like stodgy folks at all!) You can see more about them at http://www.ebookmall.com/americasnextauthor/jury 

And although, I hope that they will pick The Hunters, I would feel better and safer, if all of you were so kind as to go out and vote! I would prefer that you vote for The Hunters (You can do so here!)

But this is such a neat concept, and really deserves to gain some ground, so even if you don't vote for The Hunters, come out and vote for some author you deem worthy! The other contestants are here . Crazy thought, please don't start with the first story. Of course, most of you won't read 242 stories, but bounce around in the rankings and give a variety of authors a shot!

 It is time for the publishing industry to take more consideration of the thoughts and opinions of their clients, YOU, the readers! This contest will demonstrate that readers do care!

Thanks so much!

and until next time,

Keep Writing!

Something New! Author Interivew with Gus Gallows

Hello ladies and gents! I have been interested in doing author interviews for a while now and thought that the best approach, to fit with the theme of the blog, would be to ask the authors questions regarding a specific aspect of writing that they consider themselves to be experts on. Today we get to have our first author interview with Gus Gallows, a fantasy/ sci-fi author. Gus wrote The Price of Honor, Book 1 of the Lore of Algoron and The Price of Dignity, Book 2 of the Lore of Algoron series. 

Gus has an interesting approach to creating his stories. (Remember when we talked about planning out your book, and finding what works best for you? Here is a cool thing to try if story boards, lists, or outlines aren’t your thing!)
 He is a very organic writer and develops his stories in a role-playing environment. So here is the interview!


Heidi: Gus, you say that you develop your stories using a “play to write” technique. Can you explain that a bit to everyone?
Gus: Certainly. Most of my stories have come from a game my brother runs. It is a MUD (Multi-User Domain) that was developed starting over 20 years ago. In this text based role playing game, I got to develop cities, and kingdoms, and most importantly, characters and role play. I would develop the beginning of a storyline to get the role play flowing and then simply let it flow organically. Each player played their part to grow the story. I became so engrossed in these story lines that I and all who participated had an amazing time while at the same time, inadvertently, I had captured enough material for a complete series of novels.      All that was left was to organize the material, make a few creative changes and embellishments, fill in some gaps, and BLAM, a novel emerged. Early Dungeons and Dragon novels were written using the same concept. They would run a campaign and at the end, loved the storyline so much that they were able to embellish it where needed and come out with some fantastic novels.

Heidi: What games do you typically like to play to get you in the right mood?
Gus: Pretty much any role playing game. Anything from my brother’s mud, The Dark And Shattered Lands, to World of Warcraft. Sometimes you can find inspiration in unlikely places, like a board game. So many games are out now that are story based that it is not that big of a stretch to lay the foundations for a novel.
Heidi: Do you think this technique only works for authors of fantasy or sci-fi as those are typically the genres where you find role playing games?
Gus: Actually no. It is a pretty common misconception that RPGs are limited to Fantasy/Sci-Fi. There are excellent mystery RPGs like the Call of Cthulu, or even something as open ended as the Sims. You are only limited by your imagination.
Heidi: So, how do you manage the time? Is it kind of like you play for an hour, then write about everything you just played?
Gus: My first book was written on a storyline I had developed in game over 4 year prior. The story had been nagging at me and I had written a few short stories on it to try to let the story out, but what really put it to print was when I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). NaNoWriMo is an annual challenge during the month of November where you have 30 days to write 50,000 or more words. I decided to write mine on the story line I developed while playing a disgraced Minotaur who was trying to reclaim his honor.      It had been 4 year since I had played the character, so I had to add a lot to it and omit a lot, but at some point, the story took over and pretty much wrote itself as the memory of the experience came pouring back to me. You don’t have to play then write, play then write, play then write. For me, it works best if you play to completion, or at least to a reasonable part 1 conclusion and then take time to absorb everything that you experienced, maybe take time to interview the participants and then put it to paper. Most prefer to write while it is fresh in their memory’s, I prefer to wait, let the story mellow and blend a little bit. If I try to go right from the experience to the writing, I lose some of the cool things that happen when you let your memory fill in the blanks with things that weren’t necessarily there. :)

 Heidi: How do you think this style has helped to improve your writing?
Gus: I think that it has freed my mind from what would normally develop into a writer’s block. It’s like a collaborative effort. When many are involved, the human dynamic can take the story into direction you would never have considered. On a side note, you can’t always follow the developed storyline 100%. There are time when your author side has to change things to keep it flowing in the right directions. This is also largely due to the human dynamic. You just have to know when to step in and change direction of the stream or when to just let it flow freely on to the river.
Heidi: Do you think there are any drawbacks to this style of writing?
Gus: I don’t think it is for everyone. I think you have to be of a certain mindset to write this way. There are many OCD types that would have a stroke if they came in while I was writing. There is no rhyme or reason behind it, very little organization, and a sense of chaos that could overwhelm most traditional writers. You do have to be organized to the point where you keep track of your characters and descriptions and city names, etc, so that they do not inadvertently change throughout the story without a reason. But most of it is organic. You just let it happen.
Heidi: What advice would you give to a budding author who would like to try this technique?
Gus: Pay attention. Pick good role play partners to participate in the game so your story does not wind up on the side of ridiculous. Most important though is to have fun. If you’re not having fun and if the game becomes too much like work, it will not be as memorable as it needs to be for you to create from it days, months, or years later.

Heidi: Do you have any projects in the works that you’d like to tell us about?
Gus:  I am starting my third book, The Price of Love, book 3 of the Lore of Algoron. I can’t wait to write this one. It was my favorite storyline in the game and it is even told to this day in character by the many bards still roaming the text based world of Algoron. It is the tale of a Dragon who inadvertently inherits the foster care of a toddler elven girl. It is a tragic story that I can’t wait to put to print. Right now, it’s just a matter of finding time to do it. My work and my life has me way busy, but I will do it soon enough.
Also you can find my current books in print on Amazon worldwide or on my CreateSpace stores and they can be bought for the Kindle. The links are as follows:
Paperback on CreateSpacePrice of Honor:Book 1 of the Lore of AlgoronThe Price of Dignity: Book 2 of the Lore of Algoron
KindleThe Price of Honor: Book 1 of the Lore of AlgoronThe Price of Dignity: Book 2 of the Lore of Algoron
Paperback on Amazon.comThe Price Of Honor: Book 1 of the Lore of AlgoronThe Price of Dignity: Book 2 of the Lore of Algoron
The books also have their own FaceBook pages at:The Price of Honor Book 1 of the Lore of AlgoronThe Price Of Dignity: Book 2 in the Lore of Algoron
I also try to keep everyone up to date on my latest developments which can be found on one of my blogs at http://www.gusgallows.com

Heidi: Well, thank you so much for your time today! This is such an interesting and exciting method to creating books and I am thrilled to find someone who has experience and can give us some of the ins and outs!
Gus: Thank you, Heidi, it was a sincere pleasure.


Readers, I hope you found it as exciting as I did! Look forward to a guest book review on Booksfor Linda in the near future! Better yet, go try them out yourself!! Any questions or comments for me or for Gus? Ask away in the comments below.
Until next time,
Keep writing!

Vote for The Hunters Book Cover Art!

Hello all my lovelies! Final edits are well underway for The Hunters and I have three cover options. As a reminder, here is the back cover description:



The Hunters   What would you do if you found your town had been infested with vampires? For Chris and his brother Lucas, the answer was simple enough: you fight back. Gathering a small band of other people in their town who have been affected by the vampires, they begin a resistance. But after a year of fighting, they have only managed to kill a handful, while the vampire leader has turned five times that many.
Then two enigmatic strangers appear, changing the groups lives even further.
Fury and Havoc. They call themselves hunters, and want no part in this little band of heroes. Ordering them to lay low, the duo vow to rid their town of vampires. When Fury is injured, Chris aides these strangers, entwining his future with theirs.
Now that the vampires know the hunters are here, and that Chris and his friends have helped them, the group is in more danger than ever before. Lucas is torn between protecting his new family from the vampires, and protecting them from these seemingly inhuman beings who say they are there to help.
After all, what beings could be so powerful as to scare a vampire?

And here are the three covers.

Cover 1 
Cover 2 


Cover 3

So which one do you like best? Why? Let us know in the comments below







Until next time,


Keep Writing
 

Persistence

or "How Being an Author is Like Being Unemployed, and What You Can do to Deal with the Stress"

That was the original title for this blog post, but that is a bit wordy, isn't it? This blog post is inspired by the fact that my business account is dwindling, delays on Hunters publishing are stressing me out, my husband is under-employed and for all intents and purposes, I am technically unemployed. Given today's market climate, even the non-writers out there can understand that stress. 

What matters is what can I (or if this relates to you, what YOU) can do about it?

Most writers have a full-time job while they struggle at the beginning to "make it". The reality is that money is a necessity in this world we live in. We need food, clothes, a roof over our head. Many writers work a full-time job and then put in 20 hours a week to their craft. Just like any good entrepreneur we are putting in long hours with no immediate benefit.

Yet, with the economy as it is, many who always wanted to be writers have turned full-time to this pursuit because we thought it would be less depressing than the constant rejection of all those applications. In some ways it is. We are actively pursuing something we love. We are constantly learning. We are developing skills. We aren't just pushing applications around the internet hoping something will give.

BUT (I hate that word!) in a lot of ways being a writer is like being unemployed. There is no one there to make you put in job applications, and there is no one there to make you sit down and write. You can send out application after application and never hear back why you were not accepted for the jobs. Writers live on rejection letters that are as pro-forma as the rejection notices the unemployed receive. Those who have been unemployed for months get desperate and apply for any job, not just ones they are qualified for. Authors who keep getting rejected may settle for lower quality agents/ publishers, or worse pay what little money they have to a vanity press in hopes of providing the basic needs for their loved ones and themselves.

Some who have been unemployed may track back to that good old American trait of ingenuity and create a start-up business. Everything from handyman services, to tutoring. It is no different with writers, we turn to self-publishing. In modern America it has never been easier to self-publish. And as any other entrepreneur, when writers turn to self-publishing they find themselves doing more than they ever expected. It is overwhelming.

As bills come due, and money isn't coming in, the entrepreneur may find themselves tempted to cut corners. Writers have to publish to make money. It is tempting to put out as much work as you can, without taking the time to make sure it is quality work, in hopes of making money now. I know. I am feeling that pressure intensely.

But like any good business person, you must remember that quality is more important than quantity. Take on those extra hats. Sure, if you can send your book out to a professional editor, you should. But when you only have $60 in your business account, find a creative way to get it edited. Writer's groups help a lot. Friends and family will often be happy to do so. English teachers are great. Just know that it will take time. Send it to more than one person. I have yet to have a single person who offered to edit get all the way through the book. Learn from what they send you and fix the rest yourself.

Book covers are hugely important. Many people stop to look at your book solely on the look of your cover (especially if you are new in the business and don't have a name out there). Putting the bare minimum cover together is not an option. Talk to friends and family who are artistically inclined. Check out DeviantArt, and ask people whose artwork you like if they would be willing to do it for a % of sales. If all else fails, do it yourself. It takes time. It is hard, but make sure you make the best cover you can. Don't slap something together and say "Meh, good enough."

Marketing, especially on little or no budget, is tough. It takes a lot of time and energy. But without marketing, you are just another author out there with no audience. Marketing is much like pushing a really big boulder up a hill. You will backslide, it will get heavier and harder the closer to the top that you get. Then suddenly, out of nowhere, you will be running to keep up!

Most importantly, keep at it. Step-by-step, you will be closer today than you were yesterday. Eventually you will get there. Take your time and produce quality work. You will build a following. You will make something that you can be proud of. You will get the work out there. Then one day, if you work really hard and make sure that the product is the best that you can make it; perhaps you too can become the next John Locke, Amanda Hocking, and J.A. Konrath!

As always until next time,

Keep Writing!