Rashad Freeman's Blog, page 4

Why everyone's a writer now

Ereaders are the new craze. Ebooks are flying off the proverbial shelves. And everyday a thousand new authors are born. "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."


Sadly enough many new writers won't be able to tell you where that quote came from and that's not even the problem. What you have to do is ask yourself if anything has really changed. If you've been writing for any decent amount of time then you normally have gotten a limited number of responses when someone finds out. "Oh, that's nice!" "Wow, good luck! I never knew you were a writer." Or, "That's cool, I've always had this book idea, but never had time to write it myself." So in short people are either overjoyed, under impressed or have aspired to be writers themselves.


Why would it shock you that there are so many new writers now? If you take to the forums you'll find thread after thread complaining about all the new writers and the assumed crap they flood the market with. To a degree there's some truth to that, but should people that consider themselves "real writers" be worried?

The other day I read a posting from a new author asking why his book wasn't selling. He'd published it the day before. So people asked for a link. When he did finally post a link, boy did they tear him a new one. The grammar was horrible (I suck at grammar myself), the cover art looked like what my two year old son does at daycare and the writing itself was down right atrocious. The quality of the book was not even the shocking part. When confronted about it he said he knew. He went on to say how people should buy it and that it was his first work and he would obviously get better the more he wrote. What the hell is wrong with this guy?

Then it hit me. This is awesome! I mean aside from the fact that he represents what many people think of authors. Which is "so easy a caveman could do it." What really got me thinking was the fact that the more crap that makes its way out the better my little offerings look. Think about it, do top notch plastic surgeons worry about the shady surgeons and their basement bottom prices? Nope, they just keep doing what they're doing because like my mama always said, you get what you pay for.

Eventually all of those not so much writers that thought this was gonna be some easy fun money making time, they'll realize it's probably easier to learn to daytrade. If you've never written for twelve hours straight, fueled off redbull and pure desire only to throw away everything you've just did, then you don't understand. But for those of you that have you know, "it's hard out here for a pimp."


Writing is no joke. You pour your heart and soul into something, many times working on it for months or longer with no guarantee that even your best friend will purchase it. You sacrifice countless hours of sleep worrying about people that don't even exist to the rest of the world.

For all those that think this is easy I implore you to give it a go. Have at it, write your heart out. I'm convinced that if the market is flooded with enough crap then even my sub par scribblings will seem like the stuff of legend. Worst case it's terribly entertaining to read about all these peoples ridiculous expectations. I mean even if you had written the next "Odyssey" how on earth wold the world learn about it?

Okay, I've taken way too much time away from writing. I must get back to my lonely plot of characters before they kill each other. Besides I'm sure my rambling has done more to confuse people than actually state a real position. ---Tootles

It's a giveaway!!!!

I'm reluctant to even list this since I have so few followers, but what the heck.  I'm giving away three signed copies of Volume I of  Creature Kid - Shadow of Darkness, using rafflecopter. (The link is below)  Never used this before and not sure how it works, but there you are.  You never know it might be worth some money one day :-)


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Seriously MTV...

So I am sitting here writing, heavily distracted since I have my TV on.  And MTV has this show called catfish.  It's utter ridiculousness.  The premise is the people fall in love with someone they've only ever met on the Internet.  They talk about marriage and kids etc.  It's a reality show by the way.  So the hosts takes these people to meet their Internet love and they are all shocked when these people are not who they say they are.  Like one chick fell in love with this guy who was a model, anesthesiologist and a writer for the Chelsea lately show.  When she finally meets her so called dream man it's actually a fat chick that played soccer.  How is any of this shocking????  If I met some chick online that showed me all these model pictures claimed to be a classical pianist, a world renown sculpture, speak 6 languages fluently and run the 100 in 10 seconds flat, I'm not sure I'd be surprised when it all turned out to be false.  No wonder book sales are down, with the quality of all these compelling TV shows who has time to read.  IJS.

Who am I?

The worst part about blogging is blogging when you really have nothing to say.  Am I that uninteresting of a person?  I certainly didn't think so when I took to this whole blogging business.  I also assumed the masses would flock to read my every word, god knows it's entertaining to me.  This was yet another false assumption.  But to the few who do follow my blog, here is what's new.  Last week I finally finished proofing the hard copy of "Shadow of Darkness" and I'm very happy to announce that it's now available in paperback.  Aside from that I was inundated with the normal Thanksgiving hoopla.  Had a small party for the gators vs. fsu game, where my team lost and as punishment I was forced to finish off 8 shots of god knows what.  I grabbed a writing book from Books a Million on character development...can't remember the name or the author at the moment.  I was watching an interview on Youtube with the author of Eragon, where he said it helped him a lot so I thought what the hell.  Come to think of it, I've misplaced that book and really should find it.  I've also failed to record Hawaii Five-0 the last few episodes at least, I need to get on my job.  Anyway that's enough of my boring life, I'm going back to writing.

Quick Update

I made a promise to blog more frequently so here it is.  First off, yes I know I need to update this blog, I have old covers etc.  I'm getting to it, just trying to wrap up "Night Slashers."  I'm getting there.  No I wasn't hit by a bus.  Contrary to popular belief I'm not even human so had I been hit by a bus it would've left little more than a scratch.  A follow up to "Love in a time of outsourcing" is back on the table.  Don't ask me how this will work since...*************************************************spoiler alert*****************************the main character dies in the end***************************************(end spoiler alert)*************************************************************************************************************
but whatever, there was a room full of more than shady characters and an increasing pile of dead bodies...this could really go somewhere.  CK2 - Origins is in production as well as Apocalypse 2 - Dark Sun Rising.  Now that I've pretty much wrapped up Night Slashers and am just doing final edits I can really dig into these two books so I promise to pick up the pace.  Aside from that, be well and stay dry, the mega hurricane, death star, perfect storm, or whatever they are calling it now is slamming into the east coast.  Back to writing I go before the power or something goes out.

So Sorry

Apologies are in order.  I've missed release dates I'd set for myself and it sucks.  Night Slashers still hasn't seen the light of day and thus I'm behind on CK2 and the Apocalypse sequel.  Never fear though I'm working dutifully to get it done.  On another note I revamped CK1, had a new cover created and received my draft copy for the paperback yesterday.  Yay!!!  A pic of the new cover is at the top.  I've been super busy with writing and editing and haven't had much time for anything else, but I'm gonna make it a point to blog at least once a week to keep everyone updated.  Welp, back to writing I go.  Adios 

I swear I'm almost done

Yeah so Night Slashers is taking forever.  I don't know if I've ever had a book kick my ass this much.  I think I've been wrapping it up for the last three months and somehow I'm still wrapping it up.  I promise it's gonna be awesome when I'm done though.  For those of you who've forgotten all about this book here's a quick blurb from it.

Victor dove inside his car and let out a long sigh as the elevator drifted away.  He twiddled his thumbs contemplating what he should do next.  Lawson didn’t see Sherri’s car in the garage, but he knew she had to be somewhere around there.  The last thing Victor needed was for Lawson to catch him with Sherri.Victor cranked up his car and put it in reverse.  He swung his head around as he backed out, but suddenly slammed on the brakes.  He froze and all the color drained from his face.  His narrow eyes tried to focus on the half naked body slumped over in the back seat of his car.
“Sherri.”  Victor mumbled almost incoherently.


And of course the lovely cover I worked so hard on. 

Anyhow, on a side note a few months ago I updated the first volume of creature kid and the name was changed from the teenage chronicles to shadow of darkness.  I think it represents it better.  So if you see that book floating around they are the same.  In other CK news I've enlisted a professional graphic artist to help with the cover design so it will be getting a new face soon and volume 2 will be coming out shortly after that.  Hmmmm that about sums up any updates I had so let me get back to writing so I can get this book out before 2020.

Strikeback gets a thumbs up!

First off I know I've been away for a while and god do I have a lot to update.  Alas I am back now and blogging again and wanted to say Strikeback on Cinemax has been added to shows I like.  Of course Trueblood and The Newsroom lead the pack, but this paramilitary show on Cinemax has the makings of something great.  Guns, explosions, sex, fighting, misery, despair, hope and failure.  It seems to have it all.  If it falters anywhere perhaps the acting could be a tad better, but some of the characters are so believable they carry the less talented ones.  Anyway, enough about that show.  It's Sunday and some hurricane or tropical storm is barrelling it's way towards my current position.  The Republican National Convention has landed on our shores as well which is certain to make my daily commute into work hell.  Whoa is me.  Why can't I be like J.K. Rowling and sell 460 million books?  Such is life I suppose.  Stay tuned.

How to sell an ebook

Yes, you read the title right.  I shall share my infinite wisdom with the masses.  Those unfortunate souls incapable of hitting it rich with their ebooks, shall now know the secrets to success.  Within this blog you will learn the techniques I've employed myself to sell hundreds of thousands of books a month.  This fool proof system is potentially worth millions, but I'm gonna give it away to my loyal followers for...FREE!!!!!!!

Isn't that how posts about this topic normally start.  The idea that there's some secret way of advertising is just ridiculous.  I hate to bash other writers, but John Locke's book seems to propagate this idea.  Ebook marketing is a rapidly changing field and what worked for one author quickly becomes an antiquated idea.

For starters my sales are dismal at best.  Normally when I read posts like this, I wish the writer had shared more details because I think it helps set expectations.  Well I'm aiming for full transparency here.

I've been at this self publishing thing for six months now.  I currently have one YA novel out and two short stories.  For the most part I average about 230 sales a month total.  Although June has proved to be a rough month and I'm at about half of that.  I sell my novel at 4.99 and my shorts at .99 cents and those seem to  do much better.  I rake in about $130 bucks a month, just enough for a tank and a half of gas.

Now you may read that and think "What the hell can I tell anyone about selling an ebook?"  Fair question.  But I guess this post is as much about how not to sell an ebook, as it is about how to.  I'm so sick of forums that read, "my book isn't selling what do I do."  To be honest I've been guilty of this as well, but with the amount of people selling pipe dreams who wouldn't be.  They'd have you believe that there's some type of repeatable marketing plan that will work for anyone, when the truth is do what works for you.

The old way to get rich:  Write a good book/cover/blurb.  (Yes that is always key)  Start a blog.  (A good idea, but not really a marketing tool as much as it's a way to connect with your audience.  More importantly, it takes some serious time for a blog to gain any type of readership.)  Get a facebook/twitter account.  (Again still a good idea, but seriously overrated.)  Spam the hell out of twitter etc. to gain awareness for your book  (There's problem number one.)  For some reason I keep seeing posts about how integral twitter and facebook are, but the technology is quickly becoming outdated.  Way too much is sold on twitter/facebook and you can't keep hopping online peddaling your writing like a damn gypsy.  The old tweet your title to your million followers ship has sailed.

The new way to get rich:  There is no new way to get rich.

Write your book.  Start your blog and social networking and just keep at it.  Don't spam people or waste time yapping on kindle's author central and other related forums.  I hate to have to say it, but the majority of writers are well, HATERS.  If you write well, they will find problems, if you sell well they will despise the fact that it's not them.  Not to say this is the case with all, but I see way too many stupid arguments break out on forums over idiots opinions.  Everybody's got one so why waste writing time yapping with people that aren't buying your book anyway.

WRITE.  Then WRITE some more.  Connect with readers, the key word being readers, anyway that you can, but don't sell them.  Networking is the key.  But what is also important is recognizing that you are in a rapidly changing landscape.  There are no specific ways to do this.  There is no right way.  Do whatever you can to sell your books.  Think outside of the box.  I really wish I could tell you more, but like every changing industry the people that find success are the pioneers that do what no one else thought about.

The cats out of the bag, anyone can publish a book.  The Amanda Hocking's of the world didn't hit it big because they were better than you.  They hit it big because they got there first.  Now you need to be first, figure out a marketing ploy that no one is doing and run with it.  Don't expect overnight success or worry about the crappy writers that are flooding the market.  If you have talent and are diligent eventually you'll find success.  The writers that can't write will eventually find another market to ruin.  So my .02 cents on how to sell an ebook, just keep at it.      

Rate my cover

So I'd love to hear from the four people (I'm exaggerating) that actually read my blog.  Above is the new cover for Creature Kid Volume II which should be out next month.  What are your thoughts on the cover?  A simple thumbs up or thumbs down will do, but if you feel like leaving me more by all means.  I don't actually expect to get any responses being that my blog just hasn't gotten that kind of readership yet, but here's to trying.