Monica Shaughnessy's Blog, page 5

Keeping NaNoWriMo Alive (even if you quit)

I’m a loser.

Yep! There is officially no way for me to make my 50,000 words for National Novel Writing Month unless I start pulling double shifts between now and the end of the month – and by double, I mean writing for eight hours during the day, stopping for a microwave dinner, and continuing on until midnight. As much as I want the title of “winner”, I also want a life. :-) I had too many mom/author/friend commitments that I had to fulfill, and with NaNo, if you miss too many days, you ain’t makin’ it up. Sure, I could start cranking out thousands of words of marginal prose to make the deadline. But I would rather not do that much editing on the backend. Whatever I finish needs to be close to ‘publication ready.’

That doesn’t mean I’ve given up on NaNo. Au contraire! I’ve just given up on the word count requirement of NaNo. I “won” NaNo in 2009 and basically, you end up with a piece of paper. No prizes, no fanfare. The REAL prize is your finished product: a completed manuscript, if you can call a haphazardly plotted story with windy passages of exposition and meaningless dialogue (“good morning, how are you today, it sure is nice weather”) completed. :-)

I came to this conclusion yesterday after a particularly “NaNo” kind of day. I work from home, so I basically sat for hours on end with my fingers on my laptop (okay, I took a few breaks – I don’t want leg problems). My poor dogs sat at the window and looked out into the backyard, wanting to play. But I didn’t have time to go out with them, so they stayed inside (I have a digger – she has to be supervised!). I phoned in homework help to my child, paying only half attention to her questions. At dinner, I rushed around the kitchen, shouting at my husband while I was throwing things in the microwave (because I was late to critique). Then I sat down to eat before leaving – I had about 10 minutes to do so – and spilled an entire glass of iced tea on my food because I was rushing yet again. Lots of running around and yelling. I don’t admit these things lightly. I feel like I dropped the ball yesterday, family-wise, and I apologized over and over at the end of the evening. But you can’t unring a bell.

And then I stepped back and realized that something that was supposed to be personally fulfilling (i.e., the act of writing and creating), had taken a VERY stressful turn. It’s not hard to get there in this business of publishing, especially when you hear other indie authors bragging about selling a 100 books a day and buying cars with their take-home cash (and then griping because they can’t quit their day jobs or they haven’t hit some list or whatever). It also doesn’t help that I’m perpetually stuck in 5th gear, even at 5 miles an hour. Type A personality is a blessing; Type A personality is a curse. Oy.

Anyway, bottom line is this: as long as I end November with a finished book – my WIP, The Black Cats – I will have won. Even if that means I “only” typed 25,000 words. Because at the end of the month, I will have both my sanity and a completed project. This reminds me of the Prince song where he sings: “Party like it’s 1999.” Well, I’m going to “write like it’s NaNo.” During the day, I will keep typing with ridiculous NaNo warp speed. At night, I will downshift to plain old mom. And really, what’s wrong with that?

If you’re struggling to make word count and are thinking of ditching the whole program, go ahead. GO RIGHT AHEAD. But don’t leave the work or the passion behind. Get thy butt to the computer chair and write with the wind at your back and the fire of completion in your heart.

Now what are you waiting for? Finish your book! (but with your nerves intact)

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How about you, dear readers? Quitting NaNoWriMo? Making good on your word count and want to brag about it here? I’m listening!

Finding an Audience for Your Book Signing

I’ve got a book signing this weekend, and I’m a nervous wreck. This will be my first EVER. But thankfully, I’m not alone in this endeavor and I’ll be joined by several ladies who’ve done tons of them. So I’ve got them to guide me. But here are my observations on finding a large enough audience for your signing:

1. Group signings will always be more “busy” than single author signings. And busy is good. Unless you’re Rick Riordan or a local celeb, you may have a hard time attracting much more than your immediate friends and family to the event. But if everyone chips in with audience development, you’re guaranteed to fill seats. Don’t forget, there’s safety in numbers! You don’t have to be in an author collective like me. You can just gather a group for genre signings.

2.  Join an event “already in progress” for a guaranteed audience. Want the biggest crowd at your book signing? Then host it during a book festival or at a farmer’s market. Or get creative, but targeted. Is your book about dogs? Then host an event at local agility trials. Do you have a book about the civil war? Set up a table during an historical reenactment event. (with permission, of course!!!) Our venue is a local indie bookstore, but like I said above, I’ve got help with audience development. I’ve got a cat series, though, that I want to push. So I may be thinking outside the (litter) box soon with this one.

3.  Now is not the time to be shy. Send an evite to everyone you know. I can’t tell you how many Pampered Chef and jewelry parties I’ve been invited to (I’ve even gone to a few). If they can send out those invites, so can you. You might be surprised at who turns up. Another reason for a large emailing: only 5 to 10% of your list will even RESPOND (and many of those will be ‘no’). Think volume. No, don’t invite your plumber (unless he’s a bookworm). But do invite all those women you know from the gym or all those guys you play softball with on the weekends.

4. Personal invitations work better than emailed invitations. It’s good to email people and blast your social media, but don’t forget face to face, too. There’s nothing like talking to a select group and really giving them some good, personal information about you and your book to convince them to come. Personal touch wins every time. Not everyone will accept your invitation, but your conversion rate will be higher. So if you’re going to a writer’s org meeting, stand up and announce your event!

5. Make sure to submit to your local paper, neighborhood mag, and event website. Don’t forget about the general public. I was pleasantly surprised last month during a different event when we had some of the general public show up – and they came from a website listing. You just don’t know. So do it.

6. Still not getting the audience you need? Or have ebook only? Try a virtual signing. I’ve heard about authors doing these through Facebook with some success. But in my opinion, these work better as a group event with multiple authors. Set up a FB event, pick a time for all authors to be present and in front of their computer, and then have a virtual chat session through FB posts where readers ask questions. This works especially well if you’ve got non-fiction and have a book that goes with your topic. You’ll have a chance to sell your book to lots of interested readers. The only drawback to this is that FB is becoming more and more restrictive. So don’t leave it up to “accidental discovery.” Send out your invites to specific people to make sure they know about it.

Of course, I would be remiss if I did not close with my own book launch info. If you happen to live in the Greater Houston Area, I would love to see you in person!

You Are Cordially Invited to the Space City Scribes Book Launch & Signing

Space City 6: Houston Stories from the Weird to the Wonderful

Katy Budget Books

Saturday, November 8th, 2 to 4 p.m.

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Hope you enjoyed the post! If you have any tips you’d like to share re: book signings, please comment below! I’d love to hear about them!

Rocking NaNoWriMo

This post is going to be short, since I’m saving my “words” for NaNoWriMo. I debated whether or not to join this year since I’m in the middle of a novel right now and not at the beginning. But a friend convinced me it wasn’t cheating as long as the word count was legitimate. So I signed up this morning, a day late, but hopefully not a dollar short.

I did NaNo in 2009 and completed a book. But it needed a LOT of editing when I was done! Hopefully, I can finish this year with something a little smoother since I’ll be working with a strict outline. The prose may need some help when I’m through, but that’s what December is for. :-)

So this November, I’ll be completing the remainder of my novella, The Black Cats, and starting the first half of another novella, The Raven of Callowhill (working title). In honor of this, I give you the top ten benefits of doing NaNo:

1. After a month of serving your family ramen noodles for dinner, they’ll be begging for your burnt pot roast.

2. You’ll finally have an excuse for not cleaning the house.

3. You’ll get your daily quota of caffeine. It’s a vitamin, right?

4.”Thanksgiving? You mean, I was supposed to cook?”

5. You can’t possibly go to the gym this month…you’ll miss your word count.

6. All those “fun” outfits you’ve been saving (avoiding)? The zany skirt with kittens on it? The top that makes you look like Marilyn Monroe’s trailer trash cousin? You’ll get to wear them now that you’re not doing laundry.

7. You’ll find out if the hermit lifestyle is really your thing.

8. Other writers will think you’re crazy, I mean, awesome.

9. You’ll build a nifty collection of pizza delivery boxes.

10. You’ll HAVE A BOOK, people. A book.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to writing. I just gave away 350 words of my 1,600 per day, and I’m behind. Plus, the pizza delivery guy is at the door.

Countdown to Halloween – Get Your Fright On

Me, Last Halloween

Yes, I’m one of those people, the kind who think anything creepy is fabulous. Have you read my books? If so, you know I have a penchant for the bizarre and macabre. I am, after all, channeling Edgar Allan Poe’s cat for my latest series. Naturally, Halloween is my favorite holiday. It’s the one day a year I can be myself. So in honor of this, I’m posting my Halloween countdown list. Not all of the things on the list are scary. Some are just fun.

1. Visit a cemetery. Preferably at dusk. – I’ve already visited Glenwood Cemetery more times than I can count. If you live in Houston, you really should, too. It’s the final resting place of many elite, including Howard Hughes and Gene Tierney. This year, I will probably visit an overgrown country cemetery, long forgotten by the townsfolk. These are my favorite.

2. Bake a batch of bloody eyeball cupcakes. – Done. It’s the only dessert that looks back at you when you eat it.

3. Read something scary. – Just bought the hardcover of Edgar Allan Poe’s complete works. Will be dipping in and out of them the rest of the month. The short stories are perfect for passing an hour.

4. Watch a scary movie. – I usually watch something campy, like the original black and white Dracula or The Invisible Man. But this year, I’m thinking of doing an Alfred Hitchcock festival. “Lifeboat,” anyone?

5. Hit different Halloween events around town. – Last weekend, I saw the Alley Theater’s production of Edward Gorey’s Dracula. It was visually stunning and inspired this year’s Halloween costume. I’ve always been a fan of Gorey’s work, but the play reminded me just how much I love it. And this coming weekend, it’s FREE COMIC BOOK DAY. Have you seen some of the offerings? Find a store and go. Just go. Thank me later.

6. Decorate my house, inside and out. – Check. My house could be on the cover of Better Tombs and Gardens.

7. Resist the Halloween candy stash before Oct. 31st. And fail. – Just one, I tell myself. Just one. How the heck did half the bucket get eaten? Will anything be left for the trick-or-treaters?

8. Come up with an awesome costume. – Last year, I dressed up as a ventriloquist dummy and scared the Snickers out of neighborhood kids. Good times. My costume this year? An Edward Gorey-esque lady in black, ripped from the title sequence of Masterpiece Mystery! (see #5)

What won’t you find me doing? Going to a haunted house. They’re okay. I’ve done them before. Except I don’t really like the late-night “party people” who flock to them, and I’ve never been one for crowds. Now, if you had a real haunted house, I’d be there in a minute. But wandering around a shut-down Kroger’s and getting chased by a guy with a chainsaw into the parking lot? Not so much.

If you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to get back to planning the rest of the month. Halloween will be here soon, and I want to make the most of it. But I’ll leave you with this poll, just for fun.

Take Our Poll

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Your turn. Share your best Halloween haunts here. What do you like to do during the scariest season?

The Trash Collector – New Short Story!

Just yesterday, I released a short story I workshopped about seven years go in a Gotham Writer’s Group class. “The Trash Collector” has always been one of my favorites. It got rave reviews from class participants, was published in an e-zine, and is my only true “literary fiction” piece. But I never knew what to do with it until KDP came along. After an extensive rewrite–boy, was my writing green!!!–it’s now available for 99 cents on Amazon, (soon to be) Kobo, and (soon to be) Barnes & Noble.

Synopsis for “The Trash Collector”:  When objects begin to disappear from porches, Lydia Strichter suspects the neighborhood hoarder, Dale Kreplick. He’s a strange man with an even stranger habit of digging through people’s garbage. But when she sets out to prove the “the Trash Collector” is behind these thefts, she discovers more than the culprit. She discovers some things can’t easily be discarded. A heart-warming story of tolerance, grief, and the persistence of memory.

Being a Writer is Easy; Being an Author is EXHAUSTING

Folks, I’m spread thinner than government-issue peanut butter these days with all the FREE Houston Writing Events that I’ve been working on, and I haven’t had much time to actually be a writer. Which is a shame, because my next book, The Black Cats, is actually beckoning me. I hear it calling whenever I open my web development program or Powerpoint or Photoshop to complete a different project. As for my career as “author,” it’s really taking a new and wonderful direction.

Event #1: This coming week, I’ll be hosting (alongside my board members) the inaugural American Root Reading Series at Houston Community College West Loop Campus. It’s on Thursday, October 9th, 9 a.m. It’s FREE and open to the public. If you’re a fan of poetry, consider going. We’re featuring Amaud Jamaul Johnson as our headliner, and he’s fabulous!

Event #2: On the following Saturday, October 11th, 10 a.m., I’ll be presenting (along with my fellow authors) the second in a series of writing workshops at the Maud Marks Library in Katy, TX. We’ll be discussing the ins and outs of traditional publishing, including how to polish your manuscript and how to write a query letter. These have been great for beginning writers and for writers who’ve been at it a little while, but who want to learn a thing or two.

Event #3: We’ve got another workshop coming on November 8th (on indie publishing) and an author celebration on December 6th at the same library. While these dates haven’t arrived yet, I’m still planning and working and doing all the behind the scenes stuff.

Event #4: The Space City Scribes will be celebrating the launch of their new anthology, Space City 6: Houston Stories from the Weird to the Wonderful, at Katy Budget Books on November 8th, 2 p.m.

Events #5 to 105: book signings, festivals, etc., etc.

When you release your work to the public and begin to market it, writing a book seems easy by comparison. I’ve told my husband before that I could work 24/7/365 and STILL not get everything done. If I had a team of assistants (and money to pay them), I would have an empire by now – I have that many ideas. But alas, it’s all on my shoulders and I can’t work fast enough, not when I’m balancing a home life with all of this.

I’ve been trying to reserve my days for writing and my nights and weekends for marketing activities. But in reality, emails arrive, meetings are scheduled, things catch on fire and demand attention RIGHT THIS MINUTE. So for now, The Black Cats is only partially complete. For those of you who’ve been waiting for its release, my plan is to put it up for pre-sale on Amazon in November. Doesn’t give me a lot of time, but I thrive on deadlines. And competition. Friend and fellow author, Mandy Broughton, and I have a bet going to see who can finish their work on time.

All of this has been great for my career. But sometimes, I need to remind myself that I wouldn’t have a career if I didn’t have books to sell. And I only have books to sell because I wrote them. It’s easy to lose sight of this sometimes.

The maxim is 80% of your time on writing, 20% on marketing.

For indie authors, it’s more like 80% of your time on writing, 80% on marketing, 80% on behind the scenes stuff, 1% on your personal life. Okay, the math is pretty wonky. But some days, my crazy life is, too.

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How about you, dear authors? How do you balance writing with marketing? Being an author with being a writer? Being an indie author with ANYTHING ELSE in your life? I’d love to hear from you.

The Tenacity of Edgar Allan Poe

Edgar Allan Poe was a stubborn man. And thank heavens he was, or we might not have “The Raven.” Every time I dig deeper into his background, I discover another fork in the road where he might’ve given up, but didn’t. He had more misery than most – some self-created – but he never let it stand in the way of his dreams.

Below you’ll find a prospectus for The Penn (later, The Stylus), a magazine that Poe wanted to publish himself. Funding fell through time and time again from a variety of different backers. Some of this failure was of his own making, but some was due to bad luck and bad timing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(courtesy of the Harry Ransom Center)

Did he give up? Not even close. While everyone else was passing on his magazine idea, he put his head down and penned a little poem about a raven. Not long after publication of “The Raven,” Poe became the toast of New York. Soon, the whole country began to recognize his genius. He’d had success before, but not quite like this. Thing is, he didn’t let failure in one area limit his success in another.

It’s a reminder for me that opportunity might be hiding behind the most unsuspecting of doors, and it’s to my benefit to open as many as I can. I’m going through a hectic time in my life right now – lots of writing, speaking, and editing projects – but I made a commitment to myself at the beginning of September to say yes to everything because one never knows what’s going to take off. The more things I try, the better my odds of “winning” (at least my definition of it.)  So I’m hurtling head-long into every project, embracing it as an untapped opportunity.

Would I like to edit this manuscript? Yes!

Would I like to speak? Yes!

Would I like to try this new writing project? Yes!

Would I like to try bungee jumping? Er, no. Sorry, I have my limits.

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Your turn. I’d love to hear about others (writers, inventors, singers, doesn’t matter) who pushed failure aside in their pursuit of success. History is full of them! Or tell me about your own success!

Creating an Author Collective – Sell More Books, Have More Fun

Join The Herd

At the beginning of the year, I emailed a group of writing friends who’d all – at one time or another – turned to either micro press or indie publishing and asked them if they wanted to join me in a collective. I told them that I didn’t need another critique group (I’m already in two), but that what I really needed was marketing support and camaraderie. Soon after, Space City Scribes was born.

Since then, our little group has gained momentum, adding to my career in so many ways. Beyond the great marketing advice I receive every month from these ladies, I also get the support I need to continue my climb up Mount Independent. Tough reviews? Unsuccessful promo? Apathetic book bloggers? I have a group of sympathetic listeners at my disposal who’ll lend me an ear or give me advice. They’re also here to cheer me on when I’m triumphant (which, despite my constant self-deprication, does happen occasionally). So! If you’ve been thinking about starting a collective, here are a few things to consider:

1. On-line vs. Off-line: I started my group with people I knew in my hometown. We get together once a month in a coffee shop to trade tips on marketing, book bloggers, pricing, etc. I really love these meetings because they’re not just about business. They’re about lifting each other up and congratulating each other – something everyone needs. We also participate in many “off-line” marketing activities around town that help us hand-sell books. On-line groups may not have the same face-to-face benefits, but they can also be productive. If you live in a small town with very few fellow writers, you may want to try connecting with some through a regional writing organization or an online forum for writers – after you get to know them first!

2. Genre-specific vs. “Mixed Bag”: My group is more of the “mixed bag” variety. Some write for the adult market, some for the kid lit market, some for both. This does make things difficult at times. Ideally, you should build your group based on genre so that there’s as much cross-promotional leverage as possible. However, we make things work just fine in our group. We couldn’t really call ourselves “mystery writers” or “children’s writers,” so we settled on “Houston writers.” It perfectly describes our mission: to engage in marketing activities around the Houston area and the larger book community. “Mixed bag” groups also have a broader range of skills than genre-specific ones. For instance, one of our new kid lit writers turned to a veteran for advice about school visits (which she’s done ad infinitum). So if you can’t find enough people who write in your genre, think about reclassifying your group to match a broader definition.

3. Your Goals: If you aren’t already in a critique group, you may want to add this as a condition of membership. But if you’re up to your eyeballs in critique partners, then stick to marketing. Believe me, there will still be plenty of work for your group to do! While we don’t do traditional critiquing in Space City Scribes, we DO critique things like website redesigns, cover art, book blurbs, etc. Because we’re all actively engaged in selling books (and not submitting to editors), we have the experience to know what works and what doesn’t.

If you’re still wondering what a collective can do for you, take a look at some of the things ours does:

split costs for book fest tables, making them cheaper
act as a “street team” for book launches, tweeting, FB posting, and blogging for each other
share marketing successes and failures – sometimes knowing what NOT to do is just as helpful as knowing what TO do!
instruct each other on different technologies (web platforms, graphic design software, movie making software, plug-ins, etc.)
instruct each other on off-line techniques (school visits, book signings, book club visits, etc.)
create anthologies (ours will be available for pre-order in a matter of days) to share our different reader bases
band together for book signings
present content to the public to raise our visibility (we each talk about our various specialties)
act as “first audience” for book covers, websites, book blurbs, book trailers, videos, etc.
pool money for promos
spread blog posts among the whole group, lessening the “content load” on each individual (vs. having to keep your blog fresh all by yourself)
the list goes on…

Space City Scribes is still in its infancy, but I’m really happy with the momentum we’ve gained so far. It’s a lot easier (and more fun!) to climb Mount Independent with a team of specialists than to go it alone. Why don’t you give it a try?

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Your turn. Have any questions about starting your own author’s collective? Are you in one currently and want to share your results here? I’d love to hear from you!

Book Marketing 2.0

I nearly titled this post “Eggs in One Basket? Not So Much,” but I thought it sounded a liiittttle cryptic. Yet this describes exactly how I’m feeling at the moment. I wish this post was about what I did to sell a million copies of my books. Instead, it’s about how I’m muddling my way through the morass of indie marketing opportunities and sales channels (and not selling a million books).

What follows are not commandments. What follows are observations.

1. Amazon ebook Sales Have Tanked for August – My sales dash is the Sahara Desert, folks, and the sand is stinging my eyes. Meanwhile, I’ve sold quite a few books (well, quite a few for me) on Barnes & Noble and through Create Space (on Amazon). Some people have suggested that Amazon is “flipping levers” and changing algorithms again. Others, who’ve seen NO dip in sales, say the rest of us are paranoid. It may have something to do with the tinfoil hat on my head… In all seriousness, it is a little suspicious that sales on other sites have remained constant (or gotten better) and sales on Amazon have tanked – not randomly in the middle of the month, but at the beginning. Along with many, many other authors’ sales.

I am very, very glad to have my ebook eggs spread out over a number of baskets. If not for other channels, my sales would have been dismal. At some point, I’d like to enable sales of my books through my website. This is on my long checklist of things to do, but I think it’s important. Even if sales pick up on Amazon again (they’ve got to, right? RIGHT?) it’s a wake-up call.

2. Cheaper Promotions Abound – As competition for indie dollars increases, the price for some promotions have gone down. For my first book launch in 2012, I paid handsomely for several different services, spending many hundreds of dollars. Now, you can upload your books to services like Story Cartel and for a mere $30, they get your book in front of more eyeballs – hopefully the right eyeballs – so that you can get more reviews. This is less than HALF of what I paid a less reputable company two years ago. No, no, no – I’m not paying for “good reviews.” I’m paying to get my book in front of people who want to review. Hopefully they like my book. If they don’t, that’s my problem.

My book, The Tell-Tail Heart, just went live on Story Cartel this morning. If you’re a member or want to become one, I’d love for you to download it or at least tweet it to help a sister out. As the promotion progresses, I’ll let you know the results. If the response rate is equal to or higher than 10%, Story Cartel is a winner. I’ve already downloaded a few books from them and the interface was very professional. They don’t have that “bootstrapped” look some sites have.

Also, too, we have ebook Soda and Fussy Librarian. I haven’t done a promo with them in a few months, so I don’t know if their lists are still effective. But they are VERY reasonably priced. Less than $10 a promo when I last checked. It’s been so long since I’ve even looked at Pixel of Ink or Bookbub that they’re not even on my radar any more.

3. New Tools Are Popping Up – Pre-orders on Amazon. Enough said. Then there’s a company called Hightail that author James Rollins uses to distribute his short “free” works to customers. I’ve already signed up for an account. When I get some “free” content created, I’ll be putting it out there. I think everyone knows about MailChimp, right? Even real chimps.

4. Channel-Specific Content May Be the Answer – People have been trying to get customers to “subscribe” to premium content since the dot com bubble burst. Then came Scribd and Oyster. But no one has done it like Amazon. And with so many customers. I haven’t jumped on the Kindle Unlimited bandwagon yet (see #1), but I probably will for some of my low sellers. And – THIS IS KEY – I will probably develop some KU-specific content that I can fork over to subscribers: short stories, little books, small projects – things that aren’t likely to make me tons of money stagnating on Smashwords. My big sellers (i.e., books with broad appeal) will remain across all channels.

5. Long is the New Long – As soon as short stories became the darling of the indie world, more and more people started cranking them out until even your four-year-old cousin informed you he’d posted something “up there.” Now there’s a glut of them and customers are once again demanding works of longer length. This doesn’t mean short is dead (FREE is dead, but that’s a different post). This worries me a little since I just stated in #4 that I would be creating MORE short content. But here’s the difference – short content isn’t the MEAT of my strategy, it’s the GRAVY. (cream gravy with lots of black pepper, if you must know)

6. “Also Boughts” are Great, But Personal Contact is Even Better – That’s my theory, anyway. I’ve spent so much time trying to get people in Canada to buy my books (love ya, Canada!) that I’ve neglected to nurture readers in my home town. Well, no more! Book signings, writing workshops, conferences… Only time will tell if these personal events will increase awareness enough to sell more of my books and built my platform. You can think of this as the artisanal, not mass market, approach to book selling. Will I abandon mass market? Heck no! I’m doubling down! (see #5) Think of it as expanding to yet another sales channel.

I know, I know. Many high-profile authors have shunned personal appearances and blogged about the futility of book signings (you probably know who I’m talking about). But the Amazon machine is on full-tilt for them. For me, that machine is on the fritz. So “low-tech” has become interesting.

As usual, success in indie marketing is all about doing “everything” at once. And all about staying focused on my writing. And all about cloning myself. I’m running out of hours in the day, people.

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I would love to hear your thoughts on book marketing! What’s been effective for you, what’s not been effective.

Also, if you have a chance, I’d love for you to visit Story Cartel and download my book, The Tell-Tail Heart. Thank you!!!!

Crash Course Videos – An Indispensable Tool for Writers

I just discovered the Crash Course videos on YouTube. Yes, perhaps I’ve been living under a rock–they’ve been available for a year or longer–but I crawled out just long enough to stumble onto them. I like to read about all types of things. This month it’s quantum physics. Last month it was Buddhism. But when I get busy, I don’t have time to pour my limited attention span into a particular subject.

Enter Crash Course. If you’ve got twelve minutes, you’ve got time.

Beyond their appeal to the time-crunched and the curious, these videos are GREAT for writers. If you’re penning a tome about the rise and fall of the Roman Empire, then you’ll actually need to, you know, do REAL research. But if you’ve got a character who’s a history teacher and a Roman Empire buff who’s going to deliver a speech at the museum, these videos will help you nail the dialogue.

These videos are also great when you need a brief understanding of a subject–for instance: “memory loss”–because you’re writing a mystery novel that involves an eyewitness bungling. Do you really want to spend several days reading scholarly journals and combing through psychology websites? No, not when you could watch a 12 minute video on the subject. Genius!

Here are some of the topics you’ll find through Crash Course:

Psychology
World History
US History
Chemistry
Biology
Ecology
Literature

Give the channel a visit. I think you’ll like it.

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If you think others might benefit from my post, tweet it. Besides, it’s good karma. :-)