Gordon A. Wilson's Blog, page 4
May 2, 2016
What's on my mind? Let's Talk the Creative Process
Whirlwind of a weekend.
I think I have enough going on, I just wanted to do an old time what's on my mind post. If you were hoping I would reveal some of the secrets of life, this isn't the post. (Sorry) Typically a blog post for me is a Thursday thing so I am either a few days behind or a few days early. Only you know the truth.
Last week I ran out of propane and decided to get two of my tanks filled at the same time since I was going to the hardware anyhow. I left them in the back of the truck we only use on very rare occasions. We drove separately Thursday so I could pick up our daughter from Detroit Metro Airport. I parked illegally due to a bladder which was not going to wait two more minutes. I hung around for a couple more minutes waiting for her bag before I rushed out to receive my parking ticket. I was so glad we pulled those damn propane tanks out of the truck in the rain so they wouldn't be rolling around prior to heading toward the Motor City and trust me it was a total spur of the moment thing. I envisioned my old truck being on all the news programs that night with footage of me being taken down by the TSA, FBI, Homeland Security and that big guy with the hat that helps people with their baggage outside the airport. I will figure out today how much that urination was worth.
Enough about Me, Let's talk about the Creative Process
I am in the process of changing around how things are done on the blog itself. Somewhere in the last year I went through a major hassle to get appropriate sharing capability on my Blogger powered site. It's been clunky but it works. In about 5 seconds I replaced them with a factory made set which did not keep me up nights for more than a week. I have not had time to test them all but Twitter and Facebook work fine. Grrrr. I have also changed the way I am asking people to subscribe to the blog. The previous one was also part of the blogger framework and left very little room for customization, I hope this is a move in the right direction. The feedburner RSS I set up ages ago, appears to have seamlessly integrated into the new approach. So good so far. I am not sure yet if the email itself will change appearance so I will wait for feedback on that.
I don't expect this post to have much to do with social media or writing other than the fact I am really trying to get Firetok II written. As I suspected, since I have not maintained this blog and written my fiction at the same time- it is proving a juggling act. Most of the author friends I have are in the same spot, deadlines- commitments- what to leave in- what to leave out- oops that's a Bob Seger song. OK so whether it's editing or full on getting drafts done lots and lots of writing getting done. I definitely see Twitter time giving way to productive writing time. Sorry Twitter but most all of the experts I have read agree WRITING itself is the biggest factor in success, it has to take priority. The time I have set aside for "writing" easily overflows and intertwines with social media and other related things.
As I have said here before, an unwritten book requires no editing, promotion...etc. The good news for me is that for at least a couple of weeks now the story is really presenting itself in an unraveling fashion which I feel is the only way I can truly be creative. I don't feel I am writing it, rather I am letting it out. Many times I have ideas of how I want things to happen but the reality is how they really need to develope exists far beyond my reach and reason. If I can expand on this more, I have discussed the whole outline thing and having a vision for my story. I have a general vision but I swear, that spirit inside me truly responsible for what I write only lets me see it all after being released to my keyboard. Even my vague ideas have begun to make sense without me ever planning it and others make no sense whatsoever. The latter are the ones discarded for certain.
As far as I know, this is an Ernest Hemingway quote, "I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well" The exciting part for me is that as long as I waited to get this second book going, the well has been there waiting for me. Lessons learned, lessons being learned and even now, writing to the best of my ability, I hope is a long way from where I will be able to write on some day in my evolving future. What about you? What is the what and where of your creative process? It doesn't have to be writing what does it take to send you to that place where your imagination runs free or at least is allowed to come out of its cage? I tend to find getting it out of the cage is the first step which is merely a function of time not so much mood. I will admit there are times when I can tell I am not in the mood and I find something else to do- this may be a mistake but it doesn't happen often so I will deal with it.
I would love to get some feedback on this and even some potential guest posts on what the creative process is to you.
Enough talk about writing. Let's get to it and please contact me if you would like to go in depth about your creative process. Send an email or a tweet but please not a tweet DM...
I think I have enough going on, I just wanted to do an old time what's on my mind post. If you were hoping I would reveal some of the secrets of life, this isn't the post. (Sorry) Typically a blog post for me is a Thursday thing so I am either a few days behind or a few days early. Only you know the truth.
Last week I ran out of propane and decided to get two of my tanks filled at the same time since I was going to the hardware anyhow. I left them in the back of the truck we only use on very rare occasions. We drove separately Thursday so I could pick up our daughter from Detroit Metro Airport. I parked illegally due to a bladder which was not going to wait two more minutes. I hung around for a couple more minutes waiting for her bag before I rushed out to receive my parking ticket. I was so glad we pulled those damn propane tanks out of the truck in the rain so they wouldn't be rolling around prior to heading toward the Motor City and trust me it was a total spur of the moment thing. I envisioned my old truck being on all the news programs that night with footage of me being taken down by the TSA, FBI, Homeland Security and that big guy with the hat that helps people with their baggage outside the airport. I will figure out today how much that urination was worth.
Enough about Me, Let's talk about the Creative Process
I am in the process of changing around how things are done on the blog itself. Somewhere in the last year I went through a major hassle to get appropriate sharing capability on my Blogger powered site. It's been clunky but it works. In about 5 seconds I replaced them with a factory made set which did not keep me up nights for more than a week. I have not had time to test them all but Twitter and Facebook work fine. Grrrr. I have also changed the way I am asking people to subscribe to the blog. The previous one was also part of the blogger framework and left very little room for customization, I hope this is a move in the right direction. The feedburner RSS I set up ages ago, appears to have seamlessly integrated into the new approach. So good so far. I am not sure yet if the email itself will change appearance so I will wait for feedback on that.
I don't expect this post to have much to do with social media or writing other than the fact I am really trying to get Firetok II written. As I suspected, since I have not maintained this blog and written my fiction at the same time- it is proving a juggling act. Most of the author friends I have are in the same spot, deadlines- commitments- what to leave in- what to leave out- oops that's a Bob Seger song. OK so whether it's editing or full on getting drafts done lots and lots of writing getting done. I definitely see Twitter time giving way to productive writing time. Sorry Twitter but most all of the experts I have read agree WRITING itself is the biggest factor in success, it has to take priority. The time I have set aside for "writing" easily overflows and intertwines with social media and other related things.
As I have said here before, an unwritten book requires no editing, promotion...etc. The good news for me is that for at least a couple of weeks now the story is really presenting itself in an unraveling fashion which I feel is the only way I can truly be creative. I don't feel I am writing it, rather I am letting it out. Many times I have ideas of how I want things to happen but the reality is how they really need to develope exists far beyond my reach and reason. If I can expand on this more, I have discussed the whole outline thing and having a vision for my story. I have a general vision but I swear, that spirit inside me truly responsible for what I write only lets me see it all after being released to my keyboard. Even my vague ideas have begun to make sense without me ever planning it and others make no sense whatsoever. The latter are the ones discarded for certain.
As far as I know, this is an Ernest Hemingway quote, "I learned never to empty the well of my writing, but always to stop when there was still something there in the deep part of the well" The exciting part for me is that as long as I waited to get this second book going, the well has been there waiting for me. Lessons learned, lessons being learned and even now, writing to the best of my ability, I hope is a long way from where I will be able to write on some day in my evolving future. What about you? What is the what and where of your creative process? It doesn't have to be writing what does it take to send you to that place where your imagination runs free or at least is allowed to come out of its cage? I tend to find getting it out of the cage is the first step which is merely a function of time not so much mood. I will admit there are times when I can tell I am not in the mood and I find something else to do- this may be a mistake but it doesn't happen often so I will deal with it.
I would love to get some feedback on this and even some potential guest posts on what the creative process is to you.
Enough talk about writing. Let's get to it and please contact me if you would like to go in depth about your creative process. Send an email or a tweet but please not a tweet DM...
April 22, 2016
Naming Books, Babies and an Anniversary Retrospective
One day I suspect I will look back on this blog in wonder and amazement at what I have done considering the time constraints I usually find myself under. But then as Wayne used to say "and monkeys might fly out of my butt." My actual wonder and amazement is how quickly a week evaporates without my say so.
What is going on here? I have been in a very good spot amidst the writing of Firetok 2 which is what I am calling the sequel for now. I am trying not to get attached to the title keeping in mind we didn't name two of our kids for several months out of indecisiveness, instead calling them baby goo goo, poopoo-doodoo-baby or some such nonsense until necessity forced a formal naming. I need things to evolve and literally discover where a story takes me, not the other way around. I don't entirely understand doing it in the reverse yet but diversity is one of the many spices of life. My creative process, I have proven, is hindered by outlines and I suspect a book title as well. The draft I am currently working on has scraps of outline scattered about. I kick them as I pass, not so much to remove them from my path but to bruise them and make 'em feel bad. To me too much pre-structuring is an external constraint essentially second guessing the true well from which my creative juice is drawn.
We did the same thing with our big male Pyrenees. We had him for quite awhile before he earned a name. The idea was to let him grow on us and the title would become more apparent. This strategy worked so well for the kids, it is a good thing we didn't wait till they were teenagers for naming purposes. One would surely have forced every teacher to curse everytime they called his name. I still honestly don't understand a whole lot of the current generations fixation on naming a kid shortly after conception but I also believe this is but one of the reasons beyond the obvious age thing, that I am old. I could laugh for hours thinking of post conception baby names and develop a true remorse for the children forced to go through life with them. How many children would be going through life named after tequila brands, one night stands, oh can't even go there, its too painful for my imagination.
What has been on my mind lately? Lots of things but one in particular I will talk about this time. Right about the time Firetok was relaunching and shooting its pinprick of a hole in the Amazon list, this little blog was celebrating an anniversary of sorts. One year previously I decided... no it wasn't necessarily a formal decision it was more of a hey I have this blog I haven't used any time lately, how about write there and keep it all together.
The date was 2/15/2015 and the blog entry looked just like this-
How much can your life change in a day? I think pretty much all of it. It is just so ridiculously easy to get caught up in a bunch of nonsense which will never amount to anything. Bury yourself in a crushing pile of worthless nothing, for what? Money? I suppose, maybe. Survival? I'm not so sure about that. The problem I see now as a retrospect is the further I got from anything I cared about, the more numb I became and the more normal I felt about it all. There were days when the contradiction really bothered me, some more than others for certain. And none of it matters. Not really trying to get all Dust in the Wind here, but I typically invest my time in relationships and people. That seems to be a better place to put my time and spread my love than some of the places which ultimately end up stealing my minutes.
How then has the last year been? I can say everything about it has exceeded my wildest anything. The blog, the book, my career. It has all gone off the rails in a positive way. Huge improvements in nearly every area of my life experience. None of this could I have anticipated and none could have happened without some jarring events to knock everything loose. Yet when I look at the post from a year ago, my core has not changed that much. I still think being true to yourself is paramount even though at times it may be difficult, unimaginable or maybe even impossible. Some people look like they have it made, others truly do. Or do they? I doubt it. I've seen too many miserable wealthy people to buy into that myth. I have seen enough non materialists who were happy to find a believable irony as well.
What could I have seen or predicted when I wrote that dreary honest little post about the upcoming year? Not a single thing. I have been incredibly surprised and honored to find people interested in reading what I write. What a huge thrill. I have been fortunate enough to have met some people along this path who have enriched my life experience. That is pretty cool. I could have never imagined finding myself among a group of like minded generous people willing to help me as much as I have been willing to help them. That is pretty incredible. Life is an evolution and a journey. The right people at the right time in the path can really enhance the experience. I wont mention the turds we stumble on along the way, they generate their own attention.
As the post from a year ago describes, I still value people more than money. I have also come across at least 2.5 idiots as well. I much prefer the previous to the latter but the idiots can be entertaining. Come to think of it, I suppose I am an idiot to at least 2.5 people... that might just make me entertaining. Things are looking up.
The first many months I made a point of writing meandering blog posts which I felt under the right circumstance and condition would be considered inspirational. Instead I have cultivated a somewhat rich tradition of asking questions on a variety of subjects I am interested in for the moment, providing commentary and encouraging discussion. The inspiration? Get back with me on that. For today I will theme this post as inspiration from growth and progress. Inspiration from attaining the un-imagined. Inspiration from friends enriching my life. Inspiration from the mystery and beauty of the life's unknowns.
What is going on here? I have been in a very good spot amidst the writing of Firetok 2 which is what I am calling the sequel for now. I am trying not to get attached to the title keeping in mind we didn't name two of our kids for several months out of indecisiveness, instead calling them baby goo goo, poopoo-doodoo-baby or some such nonsense until necessity forced a formal naming. I need things to evolve and literally discover where a story takes me, not the other way around. I don't entirely understand doing it in the reverse yet but diversity is one of the many spices of life. My creative process, I have proven, is hindered by outlines and I suspect a book title as well. The draft I am currently working on has scraps of outline scattered about. I kick them as I pass, not so much to remove them from my path but to bruise them and make 'em feel bad. To me too much pre-structuring is an external constraint essentially second guessing the true well from which my creative juice is drawn.
We did the same thing with our big male Pyrenees. We had him for quite awhile before he earned a name. The idea was to let him grow on us and the title would become more apparent. This strategy worked so well for the kids, it is a good thing we didn't wait till they were teenagers for naming purposes. One would surely have forced every teacher to curse everytime they called his name. I still honestly don't understand a whole lot of the current generations fixation on naming a kid shortly after conception but I also believe this is but one of the reasons beyond the obvious age thing, that I am old. I could laugh for hours thinking of post conception baby names and develop a true remorse for the children forced to go through life with them. How many children would be going through life named after tequila brands, one night stands, oh can't even go there, its too painful for my imagination.
What has been on my mind lately? Lots of things but one in particular I will talk about this time. Right about the time Firetok was relaunching and shooting its pinprick of a hole in the Amazon list, this little blog was celebrating an anniversary of sorts. One year previously I decided... no it wasn't necessarily a formal decision it was more of a hey I have this blog I haven't used any time lately, how about write there and keep it all together.
The date was 2/15/2015 and the blog entry looked just like this-
How much can your life change in a day? I think pretty much all of it. It is just so ridiculously easy to get caught up in a bunch of nonsense which will never amount to anything. Bury yourself in a crushing pile of worthless nothing, for what? Money? I suppose, maybe. Survival? I'm not so sure about that. The problem I see now as a retrospect is the further I got from anything I cared about, the more numb I became and the more normal I felt about it all. There were days when the contradiction really bothered me, some more than others for certain. And none of it matters. Not really trying to get all Dust in the Wind here, but I typically invest my time in relationships and people. That seems to be a better place to put my time and spread my love than some of the places which ultimately end up stealing my minutes.
How then has the last year been? I can say everything about it has exceeded my wildest anything. The blog, the book, my career. It has all gone off the rails in a positive way. Huge improvements in nearly every area of my life experience. None of this could I have anticipated and none could have happened without some jarring events to knock everything loose. Yet when I look at the post from a year ago, my core has not changed that much. I still think being true to yourself is paramount even though at times it may be difficult, unimaginable or maybe even impossible. Some people look like they have it made, others truly do. Or do they? I doubt it. I've seen too many miserable wealthy people to buy into that myth. I have seen enough non materialists who were happy to find a believable irony as well.
What could I have seen or predicted when I wrote that dreary honest little post about the upcoming year? Not a single thing. I have been incredibly surprised and honored to find people interested in reading what I write. What a huge thrill. I have been fortunate enough to have met some people along this path who have enriched my life experience. That is pretty cool. I could have never imagined finding myself among a group of like minded generous people willing to help me as much as I have been willing to help them. That is pretty incredible. Life is an evolution and a journey. The right people at the right time in the path can really enhance the experience. I wont mention the turds we stumble on along the way, they generate their own attention.
As the post from a year ago describes, I still value people more than money. I have also come across at least 2.5 idiots as well. I much prefer the previous to the latter but the idiots can be entertaining. Come to think of it, I suppose I am an idiot to at least 2.5 people... that might just make me entertaining. Things are looking up.
The first many months I made a point of writing meandering blog posts which I felt under the right circumstance and condition would be considered inspirational. Instead I have cultivated a somewhat rich tradition of asking questions on a variety of subjects I am interested in for the moment, providing commentary and encouraging discussion. The inspiration? Get back with me on that. For today I will theme this post as inspiration from growth and progress. Inspiration from attaining the un-imagined. Inspiration from friends enriching my life. Inspiration from the mystery and beauty of the life's unknowns.
March 25, 2016
Social Media For Authors Part 4
How often I start a post with, it has been too long since I wrote. Here we go again. We actually left town for a bit of leisure for the first time in hate to say it, two years. The trip itself was just a short jaunt down to West Virginia to visit my sister in law and her husband. Just nice to go see something unfamiliar, the mountains of southern Ohio and West Virginia definitely deliver on beauty.
What kind of questions have people been asking? Social media- People keep asking about frequency. Had a little bit of a public exchange on this subject via twitter. I think he somewhat complimentary fashion called me relentless and asked if it works. At the risk of being redundant, because I feel I have written about it so many times... It depends on what you want.
What are you doing on Twitter and what are you looking for?
I was listening to a self proclaimed social media expert just this week whom I respect. He explained how when he was getting started with tweeting he would go once per hour. Someone suggested he double that and he did. He doubled his interactions. He doubled his tweets again and guess what? Doubled his interactions. He claims he dropped off at 4 per hour but looking at his feed its more than that.
The point remains the same, more kind of = more. I have found some exceptions, trust me here. Let's go back to the question- what is he trying to accomplish? He is trying to get people to read his blog posts. Sound familiar? Me too. The discussion went on about time zones and when people get on Twitter. I have looked into this in more depth and know, people don't stay on Twitter very long at a time. If I am going to capture someone's attention, I have a brief window to do it. The funny thing about the discussion I mentioned is when they got to this part they even said how people think they may be presenting tweets to their content too often, yet the converse is that if they have something of value and don't present it often enough for someone to view it, they may actually be depriving their audience. How is that for the other side of the coin?
This particular discussion went further into strategies and all this which I am not real keen on yet. I don't have a strategy, but I do want people to read and enjoy my posts. I also want to have discussions with people about them. It's a fun little journey. Another question which comes up frequently and seems pretty polarizing,
"Does social media really sell books?" I have read plenty on this and am confident everyone is wrong.
Tweet
No, I am kidding. I don't know if it does or not. I have information going both ways. And these are people who have experience and hopefully no reason to lie. Let me put it this way. I do just about everything on Twitter, not necessarily because it is the "one". I don't understand that damn Pinterest thing. I made a board but can't figure out what else to do. I put a picture of a tiny house on a board (?) and now I get an email anytime someone does something with a tiny house. What the hell? Instagram? I have to use on my phone which I can barely see, recipe for disaster? You bet. Facebook is a bit of a confusing crap shoot and half my friends don't reply to email. I kind of get Twitter.
That being said, when I did the Firetok relaunch any and all promotion outside of my review team was done on Twitter not all necessarily by me but the fact remains the same. I will say now there was a cover redesign reveal, even a couple of video trailers which turned out to be a surprise hit, leading up to the launch. None of this was buy my book twee-trash. As a side note, some of the tweet conversations about the video were extremely entertaining. Makes me want to do more. There were many things which led up to it. I don't think much of it was very pure marketing or promotion if it was at all.
Going back to selling books, many, many ebooks were downloaded from Amazon and some more were purchased after the promotion ended, nowhere near as many as the free ones, but it did happen. When someone asks "Can you sell books on Twitter?" I still can't answer that question.
I firmly believe the people who downloaded the book even during the free period did so because they like me so much as a person. That's total bullshit, and I just made it up.
Truth is, I have no idea of the how and why someone may have been motivated to buy or "free" my book. What I can say is I do most all of what I do on Twitter. Are people interested in a book because of tweets, blogs, conversations, ads, twee-trash? Likely some nearly toxic, mysterious combination of them all. But I don't have an answer. Some dude in a dark room at Google or the NSA could probably back trace every little mouse click which prompted each download, but that is certainly not me, remember that thing earlier about pinterest? As far as I know Amazon isn't going to release that type of info either. In the meantime, I will keep doing what I do, hope for the best, enjoy the ride and the conversations along the way. I am also considering starting a gofundme campaign for a crystal ball and operator for future book releases. If you have expertise in this area or are interested in discussing this or any other nonsense I have covered, please do. ( @gordona_wilson ) I am fairly confident I have not answered the question, "Can you sell books on Twitter?". But this doesn't surprise me with all the conflicting information from so called experts with their antagonistic theories. I will dub mine an anti-theory and encourage anyone seeking the answer to this question to get out there and try some things to see what works for you. I am happy to share my experience but will stop short of proclaiming myself an expert. The next article you read may contradict my experience, and likely will.
What kind of questions have people been asking? Social media- People keep asking about frequency. Had a little bit of a public exchange on this subject via twitter. I think he somewhat complimentary fashion called me relentless and asked if it works. At the risk of being redundant, because I feel I have written about it so many times... It depends on what you want.
What are you doing on Twitter and what are you looking for?
I was listening to a self proclaimed social media expert just this week whom I respect. He explained how when he was getting started with tweeting he would go once per hour. Someone suggested he double that and he did. He doubled his interactions. He doubled his tweets again and guess what? Doubled his interactions. He claims he dropped off at 4 per hour but looking at his feed its more than that.
The point remains the same, more kind of = more. I have found some exceptions, trust me here. Let's go back to the question- what is he trying to accomplish? He is trying to get people to read his blog posts. Sound familiar? Me too. The discussion went on about time zones and when people get on Twitter. I have looked into this in more depth and know, people don't stay on Twitter very long at a time. If I am going to capture someone's attention, I have a brief window to do it. The funny thing about the discussion I mentioned is when they got to this part they even said how people think they may be presenting tweets to their content too often, yet the converse is that if they have something of value and don't present it often enough for someone to view it, they may actually be depriving their audience. How is that for the other side of the coin?
This particular discussion went further into strategies and all this which I am not real keen on yet. I don't have a strategy, but I do want people to read and enjoy my posts. I also want to have discussions with people about them. It's a fun little journey. Another question which comes up frequently and seems pretty polarizing,
"Does social media really sell books?" I have read plenty on this and am confident everyone is wrong.
Tweet
No, I am kidding. I don't know if it does or not. I have information going both ways. And these are people who have experience and hopefully no reason to lie. Let me put it this way. I do just about everything on Twitter, not necessarily because it is the "one". I don't understand that damn Pinterest thing. I made a board but can't figure out what else to do. I put a picture of a tiny house on a board (?) and now I get an email anytime someone does something with a tiny house. What the hell? Instagram? I have to use on my phone which I can barely see, recipe for disaster? You bet. Facebook is a bit of a confusing crap shoot and half my friends don't reply to email. I kind of get Twitter.
That being said, when I did the Firetok relaunch any and all promotion outside of my review team was done on Twitter not all necessarily by me but the fact remains the same. I will say now there was a cover redesign reveal, even a couple of video trailers which turned out to be a surprise hit, leading up to the launch. None of this was buy my book twee-trash. As a side note, some of the tweet conversations about the video were extremely entertaining. Makes me want to do more. There were many things which led up to it. I don't think much of it was very pure marketing or promotion if it was at all.
Going back to selling books, many, many ebooks were downloaded from Amazon and some more were purchased after the promotion ended, nowhere near as many as the free ones, but it did happen. When someone asks "Can you sell books on Twitter?" I still can't answer that question.
I firmly believe the people who downloaded the book even during the free period did so because they like me so much as a person. That's total bullshit, and I just made it up.
Truth is, I have no idea of the how and why someone may have been motivated to buy or "free" my book. What I can say is I do most all of what I do on Twitter. Are people interested in a book because of tweets, blogs, conversations, ads, twee-trash? Likely some nearly toxic, mysterious combination of them all. But I don't have an answer. Some dude in a dark room at Google or the NSA could probably back trace every little mouse click which prompted each download, but that is certainly not me, remember that thing earlier about pinterest? As far as I know Amazon isn't going to release that type of info either. In the meantime, I will keep doing what I do, hope for the best, enjoy the ride and the conversations along the way. I am also considering starting a gofundme campaign for a crystal ball and operator for future book releases. If you have expertise in this area or are interested in discussing this or any other nonsense I have covered, please do. ( @gordona_wilson ) I am fairly confident I have not answered the question, "Can you sell books on Twitter?". But this doesn't surprise me with all the conflicting information from so called experts with their antagonistic theories. I will dub mine an anti-theory and encourage anyone seeking the answer to this question to get out there and try some things to see what works for you. I am happy to share my experience but will stop short of proclaiming myself an expert. The next article you read may contradict my experience, and likely will.
March 11, 2016
Inspiration from Horror? Absolutely.
I got a hilarious tweet earlier this week something about "its doubtful horror has any redeeming social value." It came as kind of a potshot response to one of my twit-graphics. Highly doubt the person read the post, I asked and got no reply. I'll file it in the drive by folder and delete. The reason I mention it here is because of another fairly significant development which occurred quite possibly on the same day. I received a message about a review of Firetok with a link to the actual post. I wouldn't share a private correspondence which followed but I will gladly share the public part. It was posted on Amazon Canada which believe it or not it, is not seamlessly integrated with the U.S. version. Not sure the significance here but it looks like Canadians can post in both, not sure about the other way around. But if you review a US book on Canada, it does not appear in the US reviews. Does it impact your ranking? I have no idea. Enough on that, the review went exactly like this-
I've just finished reading "Firetok"; the most powerful book I've read since Katherine Neville's "The Eight", years ago. Dog, hero and old man shine like beacons in a grim, bloody landscape. The hero suffers from PTSD and so do I, but I was finally able to read a book about bad things happening to good people because I instinctively trusted Firetok, Douglass and old man--rightly so, it turns out. It's not an easy read. It's not a cozy read. It's possibly the most horrific story I've ever read, but it's ultimately about good overcoming evil, light overcoming unspeakable darkness. And learning how to be true to yourself by being aware of life around you.
The suspense is at times unbearable; the mystery, irresistible; the horror, overwhelming. The supernatural and spiritual elements feel real. The characters are all beautifully and honestly drawn. Firetok himself is a force to be reckoned with; a dog that will haunt you. I loved him. I felt real sadness when the book ended: I wanted to keep traveling with Douglass, Firetok and the old man. (Think Tony Hillerman meets "Fargo"--and move over Stephen King!)
This review does not do it justice: This is one of those very rare books I wish I could give ten stars to.
I do hope Gordon A. Wilson writes more novels about them. And hot dawg, this book would make an incredible movie!
Here is where I start talking again. I am not big on blowing my own horn, don't see that changing anytime soon. This is someone who found a real connection and purpose for a "horror" book. Anyone who has read some of my older posts know I was initially pretty surprised to learn my book was considered horror. Kind of speaks for other parts of my life, I thought it was all pretty real life-ish. I still don't consider myself good enough to write horror so I just call it writing. So many conversations I have had about horror as a genre. Many have been documented here. So misunderstood and misaligned but rightfully so. There are plenty of people putting out horror which fits the drive by tweetists remark. But not all of it. It's a huge umbrella.
Another similar recent experience involved conversations with a beta reader/reviewer. She openly admitted to not accepting horror anymore due to too many authors just overdoing it. It was no longer interesting for her. I knew Firetok was more than that. I asked her to consider it and she did. I figured if someone who admittedly really wasn't into the horror genre could stomach the book, I could at least get some good feedback. Here is where it gets interesting. She loved it. Her review was incredibly supportive. She got it. Even the undercurrents flowing through the book.
The part of the first review which mentions bad things happening to good people. This is reality as I have experienced it and witnessed it. For every person plodding through life trying to do the right thing I swear there is a least another person willing to steal his last dollar or stab him in the back. That is life as I see it. Good triumphing over bad? That's how I want to see it even if in real life I don't possess the power to do so. Am I on a crusade to get people to realize horror is more than what they think it is? You bet. It sure can be, but don't take my word for it. Horror can be horrific and inspirational.
My thanks to MF Miller for taking the time to post such an incredibly inspiring review. http://goo.gl/v4p5Cu
I've just finished reading "Firetok"; the most powerful book I've read since Katherine Neville's "The Eight", years ago. Dog, hero and old man shine like beacons in a grim, bloody landscape. The hero suffers from PTSD and so do I, but I was finally able to read a book about bad things happening to good people because I instinctively trusted Firetok, Douglass and old man--rightly so, it turns out. It's not an easy read. It's not a cozy read. It's possibly the most horrific story I've ever read, but it's ultimately about good overcoming evil, light overcoming unspeakable darkness. And learning how to be true to yourself by being aware of life around you.
The suspense is at times unbearable; the mystery, irresistible; the horror, overwhelming. The supernatural and spiritual elements feel real. The characters are all beautifully and honestly drawn. Firetok himself is a force to be reckoned with; a dog that will haunt you. I loved him. I felt real sadness when the book ended: I wanted to keep traveling with Douglass, Firetok and the old man. (Think Tony Hillerman meets "Fargo"--and move over Stephen King!)
This review does not do it justice: This is one of those very rare books I wish I could give ten stars to.
I do hope Gordon A. Wilson writes more novels about them. And hot dawg, this book would make an incredible movie!
Here is where I start talking again. I am not big on blowing my own horn, don't see that changing anytime soon. This is someone who found a real connection and purpose for a "horror" book. Anyone who has read some of my older posts know I was initially pretty surprised to learn my book was considered horror. Kind of speaks for other parts of my life, I thought it was all pretty real life-ish. I still don't consider myself good enough to write horror so I just call it writing. So many conversations I have had about horror as a genre. Many have been documented here. So misunderstood and misaligned but rightfully so. There are plenty of people putting out horror which fits the drive by tweetists remark. But not all of it. It's a huge umbrella.
Another similar recent experience involved conversations with a beta reader/reviewer. She openly admitted to not accepting horror anymore due to too many authors just overdoing it. It was no longer interesting for her. I knew Firetok was more than that. I asked her to consider it and she did. I figured if someone who admittedly really wasn't into the horror genre could stomach the book, I could at least get some good feedback. Here is where it gets interesting. She loved it. Her review was incredibly supportive. She got it. Even the undercurrents flowing through the book.
The part of the first review which mentions bad things happening to good people. This is reality as I have experienced it and witnessed it. For every person plodding through life trying to do the right thing I swear there is a least another person willing to steal his last dollar or stab him in the back. That is life as I see it. Good triumphing over bad? That's how I want to see it even if in real life I don't possess the power to do so. Am I on a crusade to get people to realize horror is more than what they think it is? You bet. It sure can be, but don't take my word for it. Horror can be horrific and inspirational.
My thanks to MF Miller for taking the time to post such an incredibly inspiring review. http://goo.gl/v4p5Cu
March 3, 2016
Becoming an Amazon Best Seller
I know I need put this all down while its fresh. Many months ago I decided to reedit, refresh and relaunch Firetok. I've written about it several times so I wont go into detail on the why. Please keep in mind, I approach this blog as a student, an explorer digging through life, sharing my experience. I keep studying, keep reading and continue my education on how to crack the codes. In this case you can spend thousands of dollars with the "experts". Some will guarantee Best Seller status for a fee. Sometimes I believe I am fortunate not to have a ton of money to throw at things like this or I likely would. I can't say for sure. It took months to get the book ready. I got commitments from a decent size group of people to read and review as part of the launch. I sent out advance copies to them all and sat back and waited. No I didn't. The waiting part is a lie. I tried to push the video out, made a couple short versions of it and pushed as hard as my internet connection could take.
Launch day was Thursday and met a debut at maybe 181. I was pretty thrilled, that was in the horror category which is flooded with books. Thursday evening progressed to where it moved into the top 100. They update the numbers every hour and I was checking it once in awhile or as fast as my computer would refresh whichever comes first. It hit 55 which was still in the 100, you can trust me I got help with the math. It held on up and down till I checked in Saturday morning and it was no longer on the list. I went to work, came home feeling sick and took a nap. I woke up and checked again just because. It had moved up to 25. I was so excited. I still am. I was not really present in the moment.
I had to be asked, "Doesn't that make it a bestseller?" I was like, um... I think you are right.
I was not prepared for this to happen. Fortunately I have friends who jumped on it and started tweeting while it slowly penetrated my dense hide. So yes the Amazon Best Selling list is the top 100 selling books by category. I was coming up in different categories but horror believe it or not is where Firetok did the best and went the highest.
I am not sure what all to say. I ran my free promotion for four days. Amazon would have allowed 5 for every 90 days the book is enrolled in some other Kindle program, not sure exactly what. Firetok stayed in the top 100 nearly the entire time. I truly don't understand much of any of the algorithm thing. Reviews affect your book as do downloads. How? I have no idea. I was able to observe one review moving the rating up lets say 8 places on the list while another one only moved it two. I had one mysteriously removed and that alone seemed to drop the number by over 20. Make any sense to you? Congrats if it does. It's easy enough to find how many paper books I have sold in the CreateSpace dashboard. Digital sales especially in the midst of a free ebook promotion? I have no idea how to figure that out, I think I had and still do have too much going on to spend much time looking.
How did it all play out? In this case, the advance readers hit the ratings hard on launch day and kicked this book in the ass. They were favorable ratings, thank goodness, which may be important to add. It is all kind of a blur right now. Fortunately they trickled in over the course of the whole day so I could check on the rating repeatedly. Kind of reminded me of the night we stayed up till the early hours waiting for the Bush Gore results which never came, only infinitely more interesting.
I did a post nearly a year ago about becoming a bestseller from selling free books. I speculated on the possibility. I can say now with confidence, it is possible if that makes any sense. Of course its not quite that easy. Nothing is.
This is such a thrill I cannot really explain it. It was at least 5 months ago when I decided to go back and right some wrongs with this book. Never in my wildest imagination did I consider something like this would happen. There is a little bit of validation for all the studying, digging and scratching actually paying off. I will say as well and actually most importantly I could not have done it without the support of my friends who did the advance reading and showed up for the reviews.
Bibiana Krall, Sheri McInnis, MJ Labeff, Michele Belisle, Jason Hatch, Brianna West, Sally Lloyd, Doug Hudson, Lance Zechinato, Ed Selender, Julia Satu, Amelia C, Juliette Power and Jennifer Lopez, my sincerest of gratitude.
Thanks to Dianna of course, my partner in this and every endeavor.
February 24, 2016
Why did I relaunch my book?
What a journey indeed. I have written about it in depth and detail more than once. The question was asked of me what are you trying to do here with your blog? My answer still is, trying to figure out all those things I don't know I don't know. I have stabbed at learning the parts I know I don't know. No fatal stabbings yet, I think closer to a short finger nail clip of a stabbing. But it is headed in the right direction, forward.
I remember going through all the edits the first time around in Firetok. I begged all the help I could get and did the rest myself. Published and went through a couple of edits and proofs to find the final proof had mistakes which were already corrected previously. Yes this really happens. I was so disappointed but it was too late. People were ordering it, it was being shipped. It was too late. So I will say, as thrilled as I was to get the bugger finished, it was still not perfect. Letting myself off the hook for perfection, it wasn't even as good as I felt it could have been. I am no stranger to do it yourself. It would have been an un-publishable mess without the help I did get. Sometimes do it yourself has its limitations. Sometimes? Let's say all-times for me.
The single biggest improvement? A professional edit, rinse and repeat. Edit sounds like a singular action, it wasn't a single pass. Multiple passes, each one getting more critical and precise. Absolutely well beyond a do it yourself edit. I could not have looked at anything I wrote at this level. I know the editors especially want to blow the horn against not hiring an editor but when their next sentence is "hire me" it deserves skepticism. I will swear under oath, having someone passionate about the book using her bionic reading eyes to sharpen my "prose" to a point, made all the difference. Passionate enough to care but caring enough to be honest. There is a requirement to add to your list of desires when seeking help on a book.
Specific examples, I write looooooong hand in huge masses of words without periods roughly resembling pages. I also tend to use the same word multiple times in subsequent sentences. I am in redundancy rehab and am inching ever so slowly toward recovery but elimination of "just used" words is an ongoing struggle. Every time I touch my keyboard I tell myself "one word at a time". This is a blatant lie I always have to go back afterward and figure out how to make what I am trying to say publicly acceptable or maybe I will call it "readable".
One of the bigger things I feel was cleaned up I will call tense, not necessarily because of my vast writing jargon knowledge but because I need to call it something. The words had and that. I won't say they were banned from my book but specifically when I scan through my own writing and find either of them it has become a red flag. For the most part when I used the word had, there was a better way say whatever it was I said. Removal of the word and restructuring the sentence dependably led to a more clear and current way of conveying my intent without making it seem like something that had happened in the past. ... ( for example -my intent without making it seem like something happening in the past). Have I made a complete recovery? No but I am on the path to redemption.
Enough on that. I did the format for the original eBook and paper back. I could not figure out how to get the page numbers right. You don't traditionally keep a 1 on page one, blah blah blah. I screwed with it long enough to get frustrated. The obvious fix? I just didn't use any. It didn't bother me or many other people, but the reason I did it was less than acceptable. I am always making compromises with myself, yet most aspects of this book were very deliberate. Deleting the page numbers was more of an act of frustration at the time it was done.
Another minor thing which was more of an irritation were quotation marks. Somewhere in the 1.5 million edits I ended up with quotation marks at the beginning of sentences larger than their counter parts. It was only in sections but it was inconsistent and supremely irritating. The irritation stemmed largely from all the kings horses and all the kings men not being able to figure out how to correct it. Sounds easy? It wasn't. I still couldn't fix it this time around and had to use a life line. Yes that is my final answer.
These are some of the big things I believe will lead to the story being more readable and hopefully reaching a bigger audience. I believe now as always the story is not what people expect going in. One of the biggest compliments I have found even with the feedback from the advance team is how my vision for what I was trying to convey seems to have worked. To borrow a quote from Bibiana Krall,
" I got a bit lost in the beginning, then boom. I was there in the story."
Score.
One final big change I will mention here is the generosity of my friends (including Bibiana) who answered the call for help on this relaunch endeavor. I will take more time to thank them and recognize them in a much more formal manner at a later time. As always, thanks for reading and supporting the blog. I encourage you to join the discussion and enhance our journey. And of course now is the time to say, go read Firetok. Please.
I remember going through all the edits the first time around in Firetok. I begged all the help I could get and did the rest myself. Published and went through a couple of edits and proofs to find the final proof had mistakes which were already corrected previously. Yes this really happens. I was so disappointed but it was too late. People were ordering it, it was being shipped. It was too late. So I will say, as thrilled as I was to get the bugger finished, it was still not perfect. Letting myself off the hook for perfection, it wasn't even as good as I felt it could have been. I am no stranger to do it yourself. It would have been an un-publishable mess without the help I did get. Sometimes do it yourself has its limitations. Sometimes? Let's say all-times for me.
The single biggest improvement? A professional edit, rinse and repeat. Edit sounds like a singular action, it wasn't a single pass. Multiple passes, each one getting more critical and precise. Absolutely well beyond a do it yourself edit. I could not have looked at anything I wrote at this level. I know the editors especially want to blow the horn against not hiring an editor but when their next sentence is "hire me" it deserves skepticism. I will swear under oath, having someone passionate about the book using her bionic reading eyes to sharpen my "prose" to a point, made all the difference. Passionate enough to care but caring enough to be honest. There is a requirement to add to your list of desires when seeking help on a book.
Specific examples, I write looooooong hand in huge masses of words without periods roughly resembling pages. I also tend to use the same word multiple times in subsequent sentences. I am in redundancy rehab and am inching ever so slowly toward recovery but elimination of "just used" words is an ongoing struggle. Every time I touch my keyboard I tell myself "one word at a time". This is a blatant lie I always have to go back afterward and figure out how to make what I am trying to say publicly acceptable or maybe I will call it "readable".
One of the bigger things I feel was cleaned up I will call tense, not necessarily because of my vast writing jargon knowledge but because I need to call it something. The words had and that. I won't say they were banned from my book but specifically when I scan through my own writing and find either of them it has become a red flag. For the most part when I used the word had, there was a better way say whatever it was I said. Removal of the word and restructuring the sentence dependably led to a more clear and current way of conveying my intent without making it seem like something that had happened in the past. ... ( for example -my intent without making it seem like something happening in the past). Have I made a complete recovery? No but I am on the path to redemption.
Enough on that. I did the format for the original eBook and paper back. I could not figure out how to get the page numbers right. You don't traditionally keep a 1 on page one, blah blah blah. I screwed with it long enough to get frustrated. The obvious fix? I just didn't use any. It didn't bother me or many other people, but the reason I did it was less than acceptable. I am always making compromises with myself, yet most aspects of this book were very deliberate. Deleting the page numbers was more of an act of frustration at the time it was done.
Another minor thing which was more of an irritation were quotation marks. Somewhere in the 1.5 million edits I ended up with quotation marks at the beginning of sentences larger than their counter parts. It was only in sections but it was inconsistent and supremely irritating. The irritation stemmed largely from all the kings horses and all the kings men not being able to figure out how to correct it. Sounds easy? It wasn't. I still couldn't fix it this time around and had to use a life line. Yes that is my final answer.
These are some of the big things I believe will lead to the story being more readable and hopefully reaching a bigger audience. I believe now as always the story is not what people expect going in. One of the biggest compliments I have found even with the feedback from the advance team is how my vision for what I was trying to convey seems to have worked. To borrow a quote from Bibiana Krall,
" I got a bit lost in the beginning, then boom. I was there in the story."
Score.
One final big change I will mention here is the generosity of my friends (including Bibiana) who answered the call for help on this relaunch endeavor. I will take more time to thank them and recognize them in a much more formal manner at a later time. As always, thanks for reading and supporting the blog. I encourage you to join the discussion and enhance our journey. And of course now is the time to say, go read Firetok. Please.
February 18, 2016
Video Trailer Unveiling
This is going to be somewhat like a confession. It has been nearly a month since I blogged. I did receive a bit of feedback on the cover and it is nearly complete. Please forgive me. It's not that it hasn't been on my mind, trust me here. I set out some time ago to get this video trailer put together for the relaunch of Firetok. First- Great news, I had an overwhelming blast of support from a terrific group of friends who have volunteered to be on the launch team. They are reading advance copies now in anticipation of February 25 which is launch day.
Back to the video. I have found editing to be a necessary evil akin to paying taxes and going to the doctor. I am talking about editing my books here but video editing isn't much different. When we set out to record what we needed for the trailer I may have found an equally challenging task. I have flushed days worth of work down the delete button toilet numerous times. But there is always that nagging little fear, did I delete flush too much? I have also learned it can take several hours to upload a 12 minute high def video. If I missed a comma in a subtitle and feel strong enough about it to correct it? Hours of upload again. I love learning things. The upload process for Amazon is very similar. Catch a mistake, reupload and jump through all the hoops again. It is a complete and thorough process but I get aggravated when I find some small mistake and have to restart the whole damn thing over... again. That is my problem, back to the video.
We set out to do a several minute trailer kind of like the long version of the movie commercials. Fortunately the batteries went dead in the below freezing weather before our several minutes turned into an epic mini series. There were some obvious spots to chop, but the smaller it got the less I felt I should take out. In the end I said forget about it in my more vulgar verbiage. It's the internet, if someone is interested they will watch it. I still don't see a way to get this down to a couple minutes, so it's about 12. I am very much looking forward to feedback on the trailer. I will also say it has been a very time consuming, fun project which has added to my never ending list of non writing writing essentials. I am glad I did it, and am confident this will lead to more video work.
In another fairly exciting update. All of the front end work is nearing completion for Firetok to become an audio book. I won't reveal details yet as the ink is not dry on any of it. Between being sick and pressing to get the video complete, I had to put it on a back burner. On a pretty neat note altogether different I was surprised to receive a letter from Google granting me my own vanity URL for Youtube, for reasons I cannot explain they waived the standard requirements. I say sweet! I may only have a video or two to post anyhow but its at least my own URL, Yay.
Here it is. Firetok Trailer.
https://youtu.be/qSGkCoErxbA
January 29, 2016
The Evolution of the Firetok Book Cover
My relative silence on the blog is a sure symptom of a lot going on. I am concentrating on getting a video trailer edited as well as working on Firetok 2 in every moment I can. The Firetok relaunch is close enough I can feel it. Looking toward the middle of February. If you would like to be on the review team, please send me a tweet or a message and let me know.
I will talk more about the edit later but today I am going to talk a little about the cover. I did all the artwork. Let me start with the broad concept. I knew what I wanted it to look like. I knew what I wanted to express. I tried every font I could find and none of them were "right". I took a brush and some water color paper and painted the title until it matched my vision. I remember talking to a person at the time about a proof of the artwork and she had a big comment about how people might think all the red on the cover was blood. I should add, she was not someone who read the book. The actual title is purple and I digitized it and added color to it later. I had a specific mood I wanted to convey and people who have read the story get the cover once they understand who Firetok is. Working top to bottom the evolution is apparent, for the 2016 launch I wanted to clean it up a little.
As you get closer to the bottom of the page you will see how things have come along. It has been fairly unanimous so far as to the final choice. I would love to hear some more feedback.
1
2
3
Tell me what you think.
I will talk more about the edit later but today I am going to talk a little about the cover. I did all the artwork. Let me start with the broad concept. I knew what I wanted it to look like. I knew what I wanted to express. I tried every font I could find and none of them were "right". I took a brush and some water color paper and painted the title until it matched my vision. I remember talking to a person at the time about a proof of the artwork and she had a big comment about how people might think all the red on the cover was blood. I should add, she was not someone who read the book. The actual title is purple and I digitized it and added color to it later. I had a specific mood I wanted to convey and people who have read the story get the cover once they understand who Firetok is. Working top to bottom the evolution is apparent, for the 2016 launch I wanted to clean it up a little.
As you get closer to the bottom of the page you will see how things have come along. It has been fairly unanimous so far as to the final choice. I would love to hear some more feedback.
1
2
3
Tell me what you think.
January 14, 2016
Social Media for Authors and Newbs Part 3 - Sharing
A couple things going on here lately. I am back in the tunnel writing my next book. I am trying to keep all the balls in the air as the jugglers say. I have allowed myself to stray from the outline and the story is back flowing in a way I find acceptable. I have received an incredible outpouring on book marketing and will certainly compile it into a post shortly. Working on a trailer for Firetok's relaunch as well as show prep for an event next week all vying for my time. Many things to do, only so many minutes. There is my update. I have been receiving many questions especially on Twitter and thought it was time once again to update the Twitter file. I will put the caveat up front. I do not put myself out there as an expert. I read what the experts wrote, trial and errored most of it and went from there. And things are constantly changing. With the disclaimer being said, I am willing to share my experience for what it's worth.
Getting on with it...
So many times I am asked a question and I have to answer with a question. Not in the evasive, try to divert the subject manner so masterfully perfected by my wife, but more in a let's back up a second manner. Let me understand what you are really asking. My question- what are you doing on Twitter? It is important. Why? I mean more specifically what are you trying to do on Twitter? Let me try to break it down a little. I read this rant about how no one could possibly have a meaningful relationship with 50,000 followers and she wouldn't follow anyone back with this many followers. If this fits what you are trying to do, I will call you a lover, and I hate labels so don't take it disparagingly. You are looking for just enough people you can really love and track their every tweet. I would suggest keeping those you follow at a very small manageable number and deeply enrich each others lives at about 2 sentences per transaction. I get it. I know people who use Twitter more as an instant messaging platform among friends. Nothing wrong with that but someone trying to maintain a small base is far different from another looking to expand. I have met people on Twitter and have very meaningful enriching conversations with them, typically not with public tweets and usually the conversations are more than 140 characters at a whack. If you are serious about limiting your interactions, do some pre tweet screening or sign up for TrueTwit validation. This should keep your numbers down. I want to concentrate on Twitter itself, not all that.
Many twitterites are out looking to meet people or maybe even see what other people in their field are doing. I think initially when I subscribed to Twitter it was because all the authors I studied at the time suggested it to get your book out. That was a lot of years ago and I am fairly certain things have changed. They have for me. Let's assume for now I have a blog I write and I really and I mean really would like more people to read it. Here is my answer to the "what are you trying to do on Twitter?" I promise this is not where I started but now the blog has taken off, it is where I am. I never imagined any of this. I still want as many people as possible to read my articles and I want to have conversations with those people about what they find. That's it. There is a wealth of other really wonderful unintended happenings around it as a result but I will try to keep this on course. The key words for me are as many as possible. I must admit, I would like this number to be bigger.
I want more people to read my blog, so I want to expand the audience which I reach pretty exclusively on Twitter. Are we together so far?
Following. Should be pretty straightforward. If someone interacts with my Tweets pretty close to 100% of the time I follow them. A like, a retweet, a comment. I follow. Why not? This is a person interested in something of mine. I follow. I don't care if their avatar is an egg or their bio is empty or whatever. I accept it on face value. Thank you for interacting with me, I have followed you. Unfollowing is a subject all its own but at least once a week I get on unfollowers.com and unfollow everyone who has not followed back. This may be part of the reason I don't sweat following everyone.
Follow back. Let me define this- someone has followed me. Following back is just that, a response to their follow. Sounds basic but I am finding folks with confusion on fundamentals, making everything else confusing. I don't follow back the follower sellers, the ones whose subject line reads buy 5,000 followers for $5. I just don't. I don't think they are harmful I just avoid them on a follow back. I remember someone with some blatantly racist comment on their profile. Didn't follow that one, but that's about it. I follow nearly everyone back. Its not a commitment, not even dating yet, it's just a follow back. I don't understand being all picky. My opinion is that it is rude not to follow back. When I had more time available I would explore the new followers profile maybe send a tweet or something. I can't really do that at the moment because it seems I am picking up about 100 followers every other day, I can't keep up with that, but it is still a sound practice.
Sharing. You go to my blog, read an article and press the share button. A link to my post has just been generously sent to your followers with a tag via @gordona_wilson. First off hugs and kisses, I really appreciate what you did. What did you do? You shared. This is not retweeting, liking, loving, hugging, French kissing or any other twitter jargon. This is sharing. Now here is where I want to be careful. You just handed me the holy grail of compliments. You think my article is good enough to share with your friends. This is an ultimate compliment. How can I reciprocate on an appropriate level. This is a time to say thank you, yes. This is a time to lazily hit the retweet button, ok, yes. But what if I stagger over to your profile and hit retweet on your pinned tweet. The tweet which obviously means something to you since you pinned it. What if I got really ambitious and followed your url which you also have on your profile and found something really great you wrote and shared it myself. This is a thank you worth doing, and I may find you are an interesting person or something like that. Let me back up again and get redundant in a different scenario. You just shared my article, I roll over and hit snooze button, I mean retweet and go back to sleep. What I have done is REtweeted your tweet to my followers and that is about it. I didn't comment or anything personal. This is not bad, nothing bad about it at all, it just could be better.
Imagine for a moment my house is packed full of people partying their asses off doing whatever people do at a party. You come to the door, I open it and you hand me this awesome cake you spent all afternoon making. I turn to my friends and yell "look what I got!" I mean really, I am thrilled but as I turned to my "friends" to celebrate, my heel flicked the door closed in your face and I never even invited you to come in and have some cake with us. How many times do you bake that cake before you try another house? I realize I am hyper sensitive but once someone hits me in the head with a shovel I can be convinced about the error of my ways. By the way, the cake was delicious and you put just enough of that special ingredient to make the Judge Judy reruns come to life like never before, that party raged on till almost 7 pm. It was outrageous.
Let me use another example from real life. We recently celebrated a holiday where pagans traditionally share gifts in the name of a religion they don't believe in. One of the attendees who I know does not have a ton of money to toss around bought a very nice piece of jewelry as a gift. In this scenario the jewelry was a stretch to afford. It was done lets say out of love and generosity. The recipient opened it, glanced, closed the box, dropped it in a bag and tossed it on the floor. This is the sum total of the reaction. I have to assume the gift wasn't expensive enough. I feel if I do nothing more than retweet your share, I am tossing your gift on the floor and turning up my nose. It's not that the retweet is wrong, it's just that I could have come up with a much better thank you. I will personalize this one more step, I try to get some feedback when you have shared. I really want to know what about the article compelled the share. This is no strategy or technique, it is just what I do because I want to know. Many, many conversations have resulted from this very thing I describe and I love it. It helps me understand what resonates and sometimes even why. More than once something like this has led to in depth conversations, guest posts... etc.
I feel it is a good time to mention another author's advice I read awhile back. He explained how Twitter especially, is scalable and you have to do what you have time for. I personally try to set a specific amount of time to catch up and then check in when I can while I am working. When I had much less going on it was considerably easier to go deep and really look at a lot of blogs and check out other people's books etc... I have had to scale things based on what is happening at the moment. It is going to happen. It will happen again. Don't get all worried. Adjusting continuously, it's part of the deal.
Getting on with it...
So many times I am asked a question and I have to answer with a question. Not in the evasive, try to divert the subject manner so masterfully perfected by my wife, but more in a let's back up a second manner. Let me understand what you are really asking. My question- what are you doing on Twitter? It is important. Why? I mean more specifically what are you trying to do on Twitter? Let me try to break it down a little. I read this rant about how no one could possibly have a meaningful relationship with 50,000 followers and she wouldn't follow anyone back with this many followers. If this fits what you are trying to do, I will call you a lover, and I hate labels so don't take it disparagingly. You are looking for just enough people you can really love and track their every tweet. I would suggest keeping those you follow at a very small manageable number and deeply enrich each others lives at about 2 sentences per transaction. I get it. I know people who use Twitter more as an instant messaging platform among friends. Nothing wrong with that but someone trying to maintain a small base is far different from another looking to expand. I have met people on Twitter and have very meaningful enriching conversations with them, typically not with public tweets and usually the conversations are more than 140 characters at a whack. If you are serious about limiting your interactions, do some pre tweet screening or sign up for TrueTwit validation. This should keep your numbers down. I want to concentrate on Twitter itself, not all that.
Many twitterites are out looking to meet people or maybe even see what other people in their field are doing. I think initially when I subscribed to Twitter it was because all the authors I studied at the time suggested it to get your book out. That was a lot of years ago and I am fairly certain things have changed. They have for me. Let's assume for now I have a blog I write and I really and I mean really would like more people to read it. Here is my answer to the "what are you trying to do on Twitter?" I promise this is not where I started but now the blog has taken off, it is where I am. I never imagined any of this. I still want as many people as possible to read my articles and I want to have conversations with those people about what they find. That's it. There is a wealth of other really wonderful unintended happenings around it as a result but I will try to keep this on course. The key words for me are as many as possible. I must admit, I would like this number to be bigger.
I want more people to read my blog, so I want to expand the audience which I reach pretty exclusively on Twitter. Are we together so far?
Following. Should be pretty straightforward. If someone interacts with my Tweets pretty close to 100% of the time I follow them. A like, a retweet, a comment. I follow. Why not? This is a person interested in something of mine. I follow. I don't care if their avatar is an egg or their bio is empty or whatever. I accept it on face value. Thank you for interacting with me, I have followed you. Unfollowing is a subject all its own but at least once a week I get on unfollowers.com and unfollow everyone who has not followed back. This may be part of the reason I don't sweat following everyone.
Follow back. Let me define this- someone has followed me. Following back is just that, a response to their follow. Sounds basic but I am finding folks with confusion on fundamentals, making everything else confusing. I don't follow back the follower sellers, the ones whose subject line reads buy 5,000 followers for $5. I just don't. I don't think they are harmful I just avoid them on a follow back. I remember someone with some blatantly racist comment on their profile. Didn't follow that one, but that's about it. I follow nearly everyone back. Its not a commitment, not even dating yet, it's just a follow back. I don't understand being all picky. My opinion is that it is rude not to follow back. When I had more time available I would explore the new followers profile maybe send a tweet or something. I can't really do that at the moment because it seems I am picking up about 100 followers every other day, I can't keep up with that, but it is still a sound practice.
Sharing. You go to my blog, read an article and press the share button. A link to my post has just been generously sent to your followers with a tag via @gordona_wilson. First off hugs and kisses, I really appreciate what you did. What did you do? You shared. This is not retweeting, liking, loving, hugging, French kissing or any other twitter jargon. This is sharing. Now here is where I want to be careful. You just handed me the holy grail of compliments. You think my article is good enough to share with your friends. This is an ultimate compliment. How can I reciprocate on an appropriate level. This is a time to say thank you, yes. This is a time to lazily hit the retweet button, ok, yes. But what if I stagger over to your profile and hit retweet on your pinned tweet. The tweet which obviously means something to you since you pinned it. What if I got really ambitious and followed your url which you also have on your profile and found something really great you wrote and shared it myself. This is a thank you worth doing, and I may find you are an interesting person or something like that. Let me back up again and get redundant in a different scenario. You just shared my article, I roll over and hit snooze button, I mean retweet and go back to sleep. What I have done is REtweeted your tweet to my followers and that is about it. I didn't comment or anything personal. This is not bad, nothing bad about it at all, it just could be better.
Imagine for a moment my house is packed full of people partying their asses off doing whatever people do at a party. You come to the door, I open it and you hand me this awesome cake you spent all afternoon making. I turn to my friends and yell "look what I got!" I mean really, I am thrilled but as I turned to my "friends" to celebrate, my heel flicked the door closed in your face and I never even invited you to come in and have some cake with us. How many times do you bake that cake before you try another house? I realize I am hyper sensitive but once someone hits me in the head with a shovel I can be convinced about the error of my ways. By the way, the cake was delicious and you put just enough of that special ingredient to make the Judge Judy reruns come to life like never before, that party raged on till almost 7 pm. It was outrageous.
Let me use another example from real life. We recently celebrated a holiday where pagans traditionally share gifts in the name of a religion they don't believe in. One of the attendees who I know does not have a ton of money to toss around bought a very nice piece of jewelry as a gift. In this scenario the jewelry was a stretch to afford. It was done lets say out of love and generosity. The recipient opened it, glanced, closed the box, dropped it in a bag and tossed it on the floor. This is the sum total of the reaction. I have to assume the gift wasn't expensive enough. I feel if I do nothing more than retweet your share, I am tossing your gift on the floor and turning up my nose. It's not that the retweet is wrong, it's just that I could have come up with a much better thank you. I will personalize this one more step, I try to get some feedback when you have shared. I really want to know what about the article compelled the share. This is no strategy or technique, it is just what I do because I want to know. Many, many conversations have resulted from this very thing I describe and I love it. It helps me understand what resonates and sometimes even why. More than once something like this has led to in depth conversations, guest posts... etc.
I feel it is a good time to mention another author's advice I read awhile back. He explained how Twitter especially, is scalable and you have to do what you have time for. I personally try to set a specific amount of time to catch up and then check in when I can while I am working. When I had much less going on it was considerably easier to go deep and really look at a lot of blogs and check out other people's books etc... I have had to scale things based on what is happening at the moment. It is going to happen. It will happen again. Don't get all worried. Adjusting continuously, it's part of the deal.
December 31, 2015
How Should I Market My Book?
It appears it another week has pretty well blown by. The aftermath of one holiday behind us and another upon us. I have been entertained by comments here lately left on blog posts. Some of them are more entertaining than my posts, some a little cryptic and others worth deleting. I do think of the blog as a conversation so I encourage discussion.
With the relaunch of Firetok imminent, I have been asking for help from my friends with the "what next?" steps. I have seen so many different outfits promising book promotion, I don't even know where to start. One of these suggestions is a blog tour. Which led me to my second question.
What is a blog tour? I think as an author I take my book to company X and sign up for their "tour". In one of many variations lets say they have a list of 100 hot book blogs signed up in their network. They put my book out to all of them and a certain amount of them are interested in the book. For this hypothetical I paid for a package which included 10 stops over 5 days. My book gets featured on 10 blogs over the course of 5 days and I just paid some amount of money for the opportunity. It is all more than a little fuzzy so don't read this as me putting myself out as an expert, it is actually quite the opposite. I may be totally wrong but the dozens I have already looked at have about these many similarities. First hand knowledge tells me the traffic each site has is way more important than anything else. This could be a gold mine of publicity... or then it could not... I have a test blog which has zero traffic, I use it for "testing" stuff. I can list your book there for 10 bucks. So what am I really getting here for my money? I am not being cynical, seriously. Some of the outfits promise a specific number of blogs for your money. One I looked at was going to charge 99 dollars with only the vague suggestion of "we have no idea how many blogs might be interested in your book, but you sure as hell aren't getting your money back one way or another". Instead of this particular service I took a handful of dollar bills and made it rain out the car window on the way to work. It generated 0 blog spots and I am guaranteed I will never see one of the bills again. For the most part it seemed like marketing money well spent.
As I watched the bills flutter around in the rearview mirror I thought about putting the word out and asking for suggestions. Plenty of people read this blog, and I thank you wholeheartedly for that. I am putting out a call for suggestions. Not just on blog tours but what worked for you. What got the word out about your book to the right audience especially. Here is where I think I need to add my typical caveat. We need to be under the horror umbrella. One thing I think I have learned is the importance of putting your book in front of people who are at least inclined to your type of story. In this case it is Fiction + Supernatural = Horror.
Let's get back to how to market your book. I briefly discussed my ignorance of a blog tour, social media marketing is definitely a deep pit, I have even been suggested a PR firm. One of my favorite suggestions was to "blog like a tugboat on fire and hope for the lovely virus" I just haven't quite figured out how to implement it. Another critical aspect is reviews, in my case Amazon reviews. If you have found a method which works to get people to write those all important nuggets of Amazonian gold, please do tell.
Please let me know what has worked and not worked for you? It doesn't need to be a blog tour or anything I have already mentioned just what worked for you. I don't mind if it is a really convincing article you read or a dream you had, let's talk about it. I realize I am opening the door to advertising here but if it is legit I want to hear about it.
Please leave a comment with your email address, or send me a tweet, lets talk. GAWilson@firetok.com or @gordona_wilson.
With the relaunch of Firetok imminent, I have been asking for help from my friends with the "what next?" steps. I have seen so many different outfits promising book promotion, I don't even know where to start. One of these suggestions is a blog tour. Which led me to my second question.
What is a blog tour? I think as an author I take my book to company X and sign up for their "tour". In one of many variations lets say they have a list of 100 hot book blogs signed up in their network. They put my book out to all of them and a certain amount of them are interested in the book. For this hypothetical I paid for a package which included 10 stops over 5 days. My book gets featured on 10 blogs over the course of 5 days and I just paid some amount of money for the opportunity. It is all more than a little fuzzy so don't read this as me putting myself out as an expert, it is actually quite the opposite. I may be totally wrong but the dozens I have already looked at have about these many similarities. First hand knowledge tells me the traffic each site has is way more important than anything else. This could be a gold mine of publicity... or then it could not... I have a test blog which has zero traffic, I use it for "testing" stuff. I can list your book there for 10 bucks. So what am I really getting here for my money? I am not being cynical, seriously. Some of the outfits promise a specific number of blogs for your money. One I looked at was going to charge 99 dollars with only the vague suggestion of "we have no idea how many blogs might be interested in your book, but you sure as hell aren't getting your money back one way or another". Instead of this particular service I took a handful of dollar bills and made it rain out the car window on the way to work. It generated 0 blog spots and I am guaranteed I will never see one of the bills again. For the most part it seemed like marketing money well spent.
As I watched the bills flutter around in the rearview mirror I thought about putting the word out and asking for suggestions. Plenty of people read this blog, and I thank you wholeheartedly for that. I am putting out a call for suggestions. Not just on blog tours but what worked for you. What got the word out about your book to the right audience especially. Here is where I think I need to add my typical caveat. We need to be under the horror umbrella. One thing I think I have learned is the importance of putting your book in front of people who are at least inclined to your type of story. In this case it is Fiction + Supernatural = Horror.
Let's get back to how to market your book. I briefly discussed my ignorance of a blog tour, social media marketing is definitely a deep pit, I have even been suggested a PR firm. One of my favorite suggestions was to "blog like a tugboat on fire and hope for the lovely virus" I just haven't quite figured out how to implement it. Another critical aspect is reviews, in my case Amazon reviews. If you have found a method which works to get people to write those all important nuggets of Amazonian gold, please do tell.
Please let me know what has worked and not worked for you? It doesn't need to be a blog tour or anything I have already mentioned just what worked for you. I don't mind if it is a really convincing article you read or a dream you had, let's talk about it. I realize I am opening the door to advertising here but if it is legit I want to hear about it.
Please leave a comment with your email address, or send me a tweet, lets talk. GAWilson@firetok.com or @gordona_wilson.
