Rick Soper's Blog, page 2
December 30, 2013
The Stage is done!!! Well... kind of...
The initial writing of my next novel The Stage is done! But, as any writer will tell you, that's only half the battle, now begins the painstaking process of getting initial opinions on it, making changes, and editing. Hopefully I've gone through all the steps of getting everybody set and ready to read to see if I have to go in and make any major changes, but I'm hoping that I've done enough grinding on my own that it's going to be as satisfying a reading experience as I think it is. But you never know until it gets into the hot little hands of the readers as to how they are going to like it or not, you hope, but you never know. And hopefully I've culled my writing to the point that editing will be less painstaking than it was when I first started, but... I may be more than a little snow-blind to all of my writing pitfalls because they just become white noise at one point, and I know that I'm worse than most because I'm usually five sentences ahead in my mind of where my fat fingers are actually typing, which as we all know leads to more than one error, so we'll have to see if that expands the amount of time that its going to take to edit it. Especially since The Stage is around 500 pages long! But as I go back through it, and my mind is completely empty, because all that I had in there somehow found it's way on to the pages, I have a big smile on my face because I think it came out better than I imagined it would be and I am really excited to get it out there so all of the readers who've enjoyed the first two books in the series, and have been asking me over and over again when this third book would finally get to them, can finally read the massive, exciting, conclusion to my first series.
December 5, 2013
Spread The Word!
I'm an Independent Author and I try and participate in as many avenues of promotion as I possibly can, but no matter what I do the best promotion I can possibly get is reviews and word of mouth. Now you can't force people to do reviews for you, no matter how hard you try, but you can ask. It never hurts to ask. I write reviews for every book I read and I make sure to tell people what I'm reading at Goodreads by using their "Currently Reading" button, and by mentioning it in any group that I'm in that has a "currently reading" discussion thread. I really want to emphasize the importance of making those simple entries in groups and hitting the "currently reading" buttons because a lot of people see those posts and if the author you're mentioning is an independent author like myself you're opening them up to larger audiences who might not find them otherwise. Whenever I do a review at Goodreads I make sure that the buttons are pushed that share that review at Twitter and Facebook, so all those people that follow me see which authors I'm reading, with the hope that they will in turn check those authors out.
Through Goodreads I've found a lot of other Independent Authors that I really enjoy like Sharon Stevenson, Ken Pelham, Garth Perry, Russell Blake, ML Dunn, Robert Pruneda, Patrick Jones, and James Somers just to name a few. I really enjoy the Independent Author's writing style because it hasn't been run through the grinding mill of a publishing house that strips down language, characters, and story lines to try and give the reader the publishing houses's version of what a good book is. Independent Authors step out on a limb and give you the raw, unfiltered, and completely imaginative books that they intended the reader to have, as opposed to giving up their story and their rights to a publisher who will make it their version of what they think it should be, which in many cases is a far cry from what the author intended. I'm of the firm opinion that as more and more readers find Independent Authors they are going to enjoy those unique and unfiltered voices much more than the mashed down, bland, publishing house books that they've been forced to read over the years. But the key to having the opportunity to read these Independent Authors is supporting them. I've reviewed all the Independent Author's books I've read, and many of them have thanked me for my reviews, which is something you never get from mainstream authors, and some have in turn reviewed my books. As independent Authors we appreciate the time and effort it took to write our books and we know the value of acknowledging each other. Now I'm not saying in any way, shape, or form that we should just rubber stamp each other with five star reviews, because it hurts our credibility as reviewers and mistakenly awards authors who need to do some more work to bring it up to that five star standard. But I am saying that we should support each other. When we post tweets we should re-tweet each other, when someone re-tweets you, you should go out of your war to re-tweet them. When someone reviews you, you should return the favor, and even if you have no interaction with an author at all, if you enjoy a book you need to post a review for them because thats the best possible thing you can do for them to show your appreciation for them providing you with a pleasant reading experience.
Simply stated, spread the word. A simple mention at Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, or in your own blog could be the one mention that helped readers find an Independent Author. And finding readers to read our books really, really makes Independent Authors, like myself, very, very happy.
Through Goodreads I've found a lot of other Independent Authors that I really enjoy like Sharon Stevenson, Ken Pelham, Garth Perry, Russell Blake, ML Dunn, Robert Pruneda, Patrick Jones, and James Somers just to name a few. I really enjoy the Independent Author's writing style because it hasn't been run through the grinding mill of a publishing house that strips down language, characters, and story lines to try and give the reader the publishing houses's version of what a good book is. Independent Authors step out on a limb and give you the raw, unfiltered, and completely imaginative books that they intended the reader to have, as opposed to giving up their story and their rights to a publisher who will make it their version of what they think it should be, which in many cases is a far cry from what the author intended. I'm of the firm opinion that as more and more readers find Independent Authors they are going to enjoy those unique and unfiltered voices much more than the mashed down, bland, publishing house books that they've been forced to read over the years. But the key to having the opportunity to read these Independent Authors is supporting them. I've reviewed all the Independent Author's books I've read, and many of them have thanked me for my reviews, which is something you never get from mainstream authors, and some have in turn reviewed my books. As independent Authors we appreciate the time and effort it took to write our books and we know the value of acknowledging each other. Now I'm not saying in any way, shape, or form that we should just rubber stamp each other with five star reviews, because it hurts our credibility as reviewers and mistakenly awards authors who need to do some more work to bring it up to that five star standard. But I am saying that we should support each other. When we post tweets we should re-tweet each other, when someone re-tweets you, you should go out of your war to re-tweet them. When someone reviews you, you should return the favor, and even if you have no interaction with an author at all, if you enjoy a book you need to post a review for them because thats the best possible thing you can do for them to show your appreciation for them providing you with a pleasant reading experience.
Simply stated, spread the word. A simple mention at Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads, or in your own blog could be the one mention that helped readers find an Independent Author. And finding readers to read our books really, really makes Independent Authors, like myself, very, very happy.
November 14, 2013
Confidence!
Recently a member of Goodreads made a comment about me not being very humble in my review of my book The Bainbridge Killings. My response was basically "If you can't be confident in your own books then how can you convince anyone else to read them". Now some people might look at that comment as a being maybe a little over confident, verging on arrogant, or possible egotistical, and they might be a little right about that. I mean you really have to have an ego to believe that your writing is something that people are going to want to read. And if you want to get your book read as an independent author your going to have to promote the hell out of yourself. There might have been a time when writers could take the JD Salinger rout and hide away from the world while their publisher and critics promoted their works for them, but in todays world where anyone can get out there and self publish their books, and there are literally millions of options for readers, you need to do whatever you can to stand up and out from the crowd.
You need to ask people to read your books!
I've read a lot of information from independent authors about being on Twitter, or Goodreads, or Facebook, and having your own website and all that, but too many of them skip around the simple fact that you need to ask people to read your books. You can say all you want about I like this, I think this, or anything else you want to talk about, but don't miss the fact that you need to say, "I wrote this books and I think It's great and you should read it!". There might be some people who'll call you arrogant for asking, but there are going to be a lot more that simply say, "Sure, I'll check it out". Or at least you hope they do.
In my profession as a Financial Consultant I've had to sit through way too many sales seminars, and the common theme to all of them was one simple idea, make sure you ask your potential client to buy your product. There are too many people that get caught up in the details of the product, talking endlessly about the benefits and wonderful components of a product without ever asking anyone to buy it.
If you didn't believe in your book you never would have published it. You can't just throw it out there and expect people to just find it. You need to step out from behind it, say hi to the world, and scream from the mountaintops, my book is great and you should buy it. Goodreads gives authors the ability to review their own books and you should. You should give it five stars and tell everyone why it's a book they should be reading because you need to show that your confidently behind your own book. It's not lack of humility, or complete arrogance, in a publishing world where thousands of titles are coming out constantly, it's just plain common sense.
You need to ask people to read your books!
I've read a lot of information from independent authors about being on Twitter, or Goodreads, or Facebook, and having your own website and all that, but too many of them skip around the simple fact that you need to ask people to read your books. You can say all you want about I like this, I think this, or anything else you want to talk about, but don't miss the fact that you need to say, "I wrote this books and I think It's great and you should read it!". There might be some people who'll call you arrogant for asking, but there are going to be a lot more that simply say, "Sure, I'll check it out". Or at least you hope they do.
In my profession as a Financial Consultant I've had to sit through way too many sales seminars, and the common theme to all of them was one simple idea, make sure you ask your potential client to buy your product. There are too many people that get caught up in the details of the product, talking endlessly about the benefits and wonderful components of a product without ever asking anyone to buy it.
If you didn't believe in your book you never would have published it. You can't just throw it out there and expect people to just find it. You need to step out from behind it, say hi to the world, and scream from the mountaintops, my book is great and you should buy it. Goodreads gives authors the ability to review their own books and you should. You should give it five stars and tell everyone why it's a book they should be reading because you need to show that your confidently behind your own book. It's not lack of humility, or complete arrogance, in a publishing world where thousands of titles are coming out constantly, it's just plain common sense.
November 8, 2013
Kindle Countdown Deal on Amazon for The Rock Star November 9 -15
A week or so I got an e-mail from Amazon that outlined their new Kindle Countdown Deal, which basically goes like this: You take a book like my book The Rock Star which is normally priced at 2.99 and for a period of 144 Hours you discount it. Now what makes the "Countdown Deal" different is the fact that the Rock Star will start at .99 and countdown over a few days to the next step up 1.99 and then continue to countdown until it gets back to it's normal price at 2.99. I thought it sounded like a cool promotion so I signed up for it. I like having my books read, so if this promotion gets books into potential readers hands then I'm all for it.
So please take advantage of the discount pricing over the next few days and enjoy your new copy of The Rock Star.
So please take advantage of the discount pricing over the next few days and enjoy your new copy of The Rock Star.
October 28, 2013
1,000 Goodreads Friends!!!
About five minutes ago I got my 1,000th Friend on Goodreads and I'm ecstatic. I published my first book, The Rock Star, on November 17, 2012 and I joined Goodreads a few days afterwards. I wish I had done it much sooner. Goodreads people are my people. I've been reading novels ever since I made the jump from comic books into the nether world of Stephen King's Horror novels way back in the 1970's when I was still a pre-teen. But as I've grown up, gone to college, and started my multiple careers, my friends and colleagues haven't always been readers, so my joy in finding and reading great novels was just something I enjoyed by myself. But in publishing my first novel I found Goodreads and now I get to share my joy of reading with all the readers like me that are here on a constant basis. I now publish a review for every book that I read, I'm part of groups that are made up of other self-published authors who have similar problems and joys that I have, I'm part of groups that share my similar interests in books, and through those groups I'm able to learn things I wouldn't have learned with out my fellow Goodreads friends, and find books that I wouldn't know about unless I was reading the group discussions and updates from my friends who are introducing me to whole new reading worlds.
And as a self-published author I'm able to introduce myself and my books to whole groups of readers that I would never be able to get in front of without Goodreads. Now the number of friends you have on Goodreads does not necessarily translate directly into sales of your various books, but it does give you another line of promotion that will lead to some sales. If you combine those promotional efforts with similar efforts on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, and your own blog/website than you are going to sell a few books. Of course the best way of selling more books is to write good books that people will want to read, and people will find you. But being on Goodreads and the other site will help those people find you, and after writing a good book, thats the greatest battle.
I want to thank each and every one of my friends on Goodreads. I come here every day, multiple times a day, to read comments, to make comments, and to find new books to read. My only problem in life is having the time in a day to be able to read all the books I find here, be able to review them, make comments about others, and still be able to write my own books. But it's always better to be busy and entertained than bored and filled with the overwhelming need to cause trouble. It's much more productive to write about troubled individuals and get paid for it.
Thanks to all 1,000 of my Friends here at Goodreads I hope you enjoy my comments, reviews, and books as much as I enjoy all of yours, and look forward to a long and happy relationship.
And as a self-published author I'm able to introduce myself and my books to whole groups of readers that I would never be able to get in front of without Goodreads. Now the number of friends you have on Goodreads does not necessarily translate directly into sales of your various books, but it does give you another line of promotion that will lead to some sales. If you combine those promotional efforts with similar efforts on Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, and your own blog/website than you are going to sell a few books. Of course the best way of selling more books is to write good books that people will want to read, and people will find you. But being on Goodreads and the other site will help those people find you, and after writing a good book, thats the greatest battle.
I want to thank each and every one of my friends on Goodreads. I come here every day, multiple times a day, to read comments, to make comments, and to find new books to read. My only problem in life is having the time in a day to be able to read all the books I find here, be able to review them, make comments about others, and still be able to write my own books. But it's always better to be busy and entertained than bored and filled with the overwhelming need to cause trouble. It's much more productive to write about troubled individuals and get paid for it.
Thanks to all 1,000 of my Friends here at Goodreads I hope you enjoy my comments, reviews, and books as much as I enjoy all of yours, and look forward to a long and happy relationship.
October 23, 2013
The Mindset… or lack there of
The Mindset is the state of mind I need to be in to actually accomplish anything. I have to be in the right mood, I have to have it planned out in my head, and I can’t be distracted. Now this perfect Nirvana like state very rarely if ever happens, which makes me wonder how I’ve ever gotten anything written at all…ever. But somehow I do, and I think the only way that happens is to set aside the time to write. I set a time, usually Saturday, and I go into my office, I get highly caffeinated, I turn on loud music, and I stare at the screen until I actually start writing. And when I do it feels really good to empty my mind of the backlog of thoughts, emotions, and words that get clogged up in there when I don’t write. I feel freer, and bouncier, and I get full of the enthusiasm that writing can provide, and I start planning to get that feeling every day, and start planning blocks for each day, and I get a head of steam thinking it’s going to be awesome to get so much done. And the life happens! Clients call, dogs need to be walked, a girlfriend needs to be talked to, paperwork needs to be filled out, food needs to be eaten, and then when all of that has me so fed up I can barely keep from beating brick walls till my fists bleed, I need to relax, which means I watch TV to decompress. But even as I’m watching TV I’m feeling this ever growing, ever grating, ever sinking feeling like I should be writing, so I stop the DVR and I try to write. Which last about five minutes until I figure out that after all the life that has happened to me in a day there is just nothing left in my head that translates to anything on paper, so I give up. Now I give up with the full intention of making it up the next day, instead of a three hour block, I’m going to do a six hour block, and I’m really going to get something done. But then the next day the real work that actually pays the bills rears it’s overwhelming, all consuming head and the next thing I know it’s time to decompress or start breaking things. The TV starts, guilt begins eating the gut, the attempt is made, and then I’m back to the promise of nine hours of writing the next day. This process goes on until the next Saturday when the writing actually gets done, the enthusiasm gets fired up again, the plans get made to write every day, and come monday I’m right back where I was the week before.
The moral of this story? I like to rant. I’m sure I’m not the only one. And I really am trying to finish my next book… hopefully someday, when I have millions of readers, the only thing I’ll have to worry about on a daily basis is writing, and that’ll make me happy….but then again I am more than a little bit distractible… so I think what I’m trying to say is that we all need to be less distractible, set aside blocks, stick to them, and then we’ll all write a lot more books.
The moral of this story? I like to rant. I’m sure I’m not the only one. And I really am trying to finish my next book… hopefully someday, when I have millions of readers, the only thing I’ll have to worry about on a daily basis is writing, and that’ll make me happy….but then again I am more than a little bit distractible… so I think what I’m trying to say is that we all need to be less distractible, set aside blocks, stick to them, and then we’ll all write a lot more books.
October 5, 2013
New Cover for The Rock Star
I just uploaded the new cover for the Rock Star. I've needed to update the description of the book for a very long time, and I decided as I gave that a face lift, I'd also re-vamp the cover of The Rock Star as I did. The Rock Star was my first books and as such I made more than a few mistakes when i published it the first time. The first and foremost of which was not actually being on Goodreads before I launched it, or Twitter, or Youtube, or anywhere else I should have been pre-promoting the books before I released it. But with time comes experience and a little knowledge, so I revamped the cover, I expanded and re-wrote the description, and I hope this will continue to help attract new readers to the book. If you like it let me know, if you hate it, tell me why, and if you have any comments at all feel free to share them.
October 4, 2013
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King Review and Commentary
When I was a hyperactive and slightly crazed child I learned to read by reading comic books. And yes I’ll admit that at first all I did was look at the pictures, but eventually I found myself running in to my parents to try and figure out what exactly Spiderman, The Hulk, The Avengers, and the X-Men were saying. The comic books instilled within me the desire to learn because I found them vastly entertaining and interesting. At the same time as this I was living out in the country and we only had four TV channels, ABC, NBC, CBS, and KTVU Channel 2 out of San Francisco. I know in this age where we have hundreds, upon hundreds of channels to choose from, that its hard to imagine just having four TV channels, but that’s what I grew up with. One of my favorite TV Channels outs, of the big four I had to choose from, was the independent KTVU Ch.2 and the reason I liked it more than the others was that on Friday Nights they would have Creature Feature movies, which were hosted by a dude named Bob Wilkins, who had a great sense of humor and always had great intros to the movies he’d play like, Frankenstein, Dracula, the Werewolf, and a whole bunch of other great black and white horror films. I thought these films were just great because they opened me up to the wild world of horror.
And then somewhere around the seventh grade I discovered Stephen King and everything changed…
Stephen King took the horror that I saw on Creature Features and made it scary. The Stephen King novels were the first full length books that I read for pleasure. At the time I would have told you that it was the subject matter that drew me to the books, but as I look back now, I think it was more the way he told his stories. The Creature Feature Movies and the Comic Books were aimed at a more innocent audience, but the Stephen King books were aimed at scaring the hell out of adults, and as I was reading them, not completely understanding all of what was being said, I was thinking that I was being let into the world of adults, like I was pulling back a door and looking into a world I was not yet a part of. Stephen King wrote in such a way that it drew me in and made me a part of that horrific event at the center of each novel and in doing so he personalized it, he humanized the horrible, and that he made you feel each and every action that was perpetrated on his characters.
I wasn’t alone in feeling like this, because at that time Stephen King was the absolute Rock Star of writing, every single one of his novels was a blockbuster success, and they were all being made into movies, one right after the other. So it’s fair to say that what I was feeling as a reader was what other were feeling too. But really when you look at what he was producing at that time, Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Firestarter, Cujo, Christine, and Pet Sematary and you realize it is a succession of great books that tap into some of our deepest fears. I’m not sure which book I started with, but I think it was The Dead Zone. Today I understand politics, and how the wrong person in office can have dire consequences, but at the time I had absolutely no idea what any of that stuff meant, all I knew was that Stephen King made it scary as all hell and totally engrossing to read about. And from that point I was hooked. I went racing through the books as fast as my little mind would allow me to read. I remember it got so bad my mother would take the bulb out of my light at night so I wouldn’t stay up reading too late, but I couldn’t be thwarted, I got a flashlight and a bunch of batteries and just kept reading. King had that kind of effect on me, I felt compelled to keep turning the pages until I reached the cataclysmic conclusions of his books.
And then came The Shining…
Of all the books I read by Stephen King The Shining is the one book that made me sleep with a light on at night after I read it because it just terrified me. The Overlook Hotel, the snow, the moving hedge animals outside, the little girls, Room 237, all combined together in a nightmarish vision that frightened me half to death. I mean they were stuck, miles away from anything and anyone else, in a hotel filled with horrifying things, and that had this strangulating feel to it, like there was no possible way out, and everyone was going to get killed. Of all the books I’ve ever read that one made one of the deepest impression Ive ever felt.
It was hard to top The Shining. The Kubrick Movie left a bad taste. I started college. I moved on to Clive Barker, and I didn’t read anything else from Stephen King…
And then came Doctor Sleep.
Doctor Sleep was the first Stephen King book I’ve bought since my last year of high school in 1984. It wasn’t as good as The Shining, but it was still a pretty damn good book. More than anything, for me, it was like meeting up with a good friend, where you find yourself falling into the same patterns, and memories, and you walk away with a smile on your face because you remember just how much that friend meant to you. Stephen King ushered me from my childhood into the adult world of reading for enjoyment. He taught me that a writer could be a superstar, that his books could be made into a massive succession of movies and TV shows, and that a writer could have a deep influence on a persons life. Doctor Sleep brought me back to those thoughts. It gave me an idea what actually happened to Danny Torrence and his mother. It gave me new creatures to hate and fear. It gave me a new hero to cheer for. King gave me a story I could deeply enjoy like a fine wine that’s been aged to perfection and is filled with all of those tastes that remind you of where the grapes were grown, what barrel it was aged in, and the person who made it. The story wasn’t deeply original, and borrowed from a lot of sources, but it was very Stephen King and that was greatly satisfying for me.
As I begin my own writing career I’ve had a lot of influences in my life, my parents, Mr. Murphy in high school english, too many movies to name, a whole bunch of books, and Stephen King. I don’t think my head would be filled with all the thoughts I have of writing glory if I hadn’t started reading that first Stephen King book. If I hadn’t watched Stephen king become a household name. If I hadn’t read The Shining. As I went through college as an English Lit Major I remember teachers looking down their noses at what they called “populist writer” like Stephen King as they tried to get me interested in all of the greatest literature, and yes some of those books and plays were very good, but it was very wrong of them to do that. I don’t care if it’s Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, or Stephanie Meyer, if the books get people excited and make them want to read, then teachers should encourage that and they should embrace it. You never know where the next writer is going to come from or what is going to influence along the way.
Doctor Sleep is a very good followup to The Shining. I couldn’t recommend it higher. But I make that recommendation with one piece of advice, read The Shining first, and make sure all the lights work in your house, because you might need to keep a few of them on.
And then somewhere around the seventh grade I discovered Stephen King and everything changed…
Stephen King took the horror that I saw on Creature Features and made it scary. The Stephen King novels were the first full length books that I read for pleasure. At the time I would have told you that it was the subject matter that drew me to the books, but as I look back now, I think it was more the way he told his stories. The Creature Feature Movies and the Comic Books were aimed at a more innocent audience, but the Stephen King books were aimed at scaring the hell out of adults, and as I was reading them, not completely understanding all of what was being said, I was thinking that I was being let into the world of adults, like I was pulling back a door and looking into a world I was not yet a part of. Stephen King wrote in such a way that it drew me in and made me a part of that horrific event at the center of each novel and in doing so he personalized it, he humanized the horrible, and that he made you feel each and every action that was perpetrated on his characters.
I wasn’t alone in feeling like this, because at that time Stephen King was the absolute Rock Star of writing, every single one of his novels was a blockbuster success, and they were all being made into movies, one right after the other. So it’s fair to say that what I was feeling as a reader was what other were feeling too. But really when you look at what he was producing at that time, Carrie, Salem’s Lot, The Shining, The Dead Zone, Firestarter, Cujo, Christine, and Pet Sematary and you realize it is a succession of great books that tap into some of our deepest fears. I’m not sure which book I started with, but I think it was The Dead Zone. Today I understand politics, and how the wrong person in office can have dire consequences, but at the time I had absolutely no idea what any of that stuff meant, all I knew was that Stephen King made it scary as all hell and totally engrossing to read about. And from that point I was hooked. I went racing through the books as fast as my little mind would allow me to read. I remember it got so bad my mother would take the bulb out of my light at night so I wouldn’t stay up reading too late, but I couldn’t be thwarted, I got a flashlight and a bunch of batteries and just kept reading. King had that kind of effect on me, I felt compelled to keep turning the pages until I reached the cataclysmic conclusions of his books.
And then came The Shining…
Of all the books I read by Stephen King The Shining is the one book that made me sleep with a light on at night after I read it because it just terrified me. The Overlook Hotel, the snow, the moving hedge animals outside, the little girls, Room 237, all combined together in a nightmarish vision that frightened me half to death. I mean they were stuck, miles away from anything and anyone else, in a hotel filled with horrifying things, and that had this strangulating feel to it, like there was no possible way out, and everyone was going to get killed. Of all the books I’ve ever read that one made one of the deepest impression Ive ever felt.
It was hard to top The Shining. The Kubrick Movie left a bad taste. I started college. I moved on to Clive Barker, and I didn’t read anything else from Stephen King…
And then came Doctor Sleep.
Doctor Sleep was the first Stephen King book I’ve bought since my last year of high school in 1984. It wasn’t as good as The Shining, but it was still a pretty damn good book. More than anything, for me, it was like meeting up with a good friend, where you find yourself falling into the same patterns, and memories, and you walk away with a smile on your face because you remember just how much that friend meant to you. Stephen King ushered me from my childhood into the adult world of reading for enjoyment. He taught me that a writer could be a superstar, that his books could be made into a massive succession of movies and TV shows, and that a writer could have a deep influence on a persons life. Doctor Sleep brought me back to those thoughts. It gave me an idea what actually happened to Danny Torrence and his mother. It gave me new creatures to hate and fear. It gave me a new hero to cheer for. King gave me a story I could deeply enjoy like a fine wine that’s been aged to perfection and is filled with all of those tastes that remind you of where the grapes were grown, what barrel it was aged in, and the person who made it. The story wasn’t deeply original, and borrowed from a lot of sources, but it was very Stephen King and that was greatly satisfying for me.
As I begin my own writing career I’ve had a lot of influences in my life, my parents, Mr. Murphy in high school english, too many movies to name, a whole bunch of books, and Stephen King. I don’t think my head would be filled with all the thoughts I have of writing glory if I hadn’t started reading that first Stephen King book. If I hadn’t watched Stephen king become a household name. If I hadn’t read The Shining. As I went through college as an English Lit Major I remember teachers looking down their noses at what they called “populist writer” like Stephen King as they tried to get me interested in all of the greatest literature, and yes some of those books and plays were very good, but it was very wrong of them to do that. I don’t care if it’s Stephen King, J.K. Rowling, or Stephanie Meyer, if the books get people excited and make them want to read, then teachers should encourage that and they should embrace it. You never know where the next writer is going to come from or what is going to influence along the way.
Doctor Sleep is a very good followup to The Shining. I couldn’t recommend it higher. But I make that recommendation with one piece of advice, read The Shining first, and make sure all the lights work in your house, because you might need to keep a few of them on.
September 29, 2013
See me, Read me, Remember me...
I think staying in touch is important. I mean, how do you feel if a friend or family member you haven't heard from in forever calls you up to ask for a favor? Generally you're not as willing to do it. But a friend or family member that you see or talk to often who asks you to pick up a check and says they'll get the next one, you're ok paying for, because you know you see or talk to them often and they'll take care of you. The same holds true for independent authors, you can't come out of the blue and ask people to buy your books, they don't know you, they don't want to spend their hard earned money on an unproven author, and they already have their favorite authors. But if you have blog, and you're on Facebook, maybe post a few videos on YouTube, and you Tweet often, then you have an audience who is familiar with you and willing to step up to the plate and buy your book when you finally get around to finishing it. I try and blog as often as possible. The easiest thing for me to blog about is what I'm watching, or what I'm reading, or like this post, what I'm thinking about a particular subject. And the reason I do this is because I want to stay in the front of people brains, instead of falling into the back of them. I want to be that friend or family member that you hear from often, the one you trust, and the one your willing to help out. It's not a new concept because it's really just basic public relations, but it's amazing to me how many authors just fall off the face of the earth in between books, and then are left wondering why their audience isn't all there when they come back. Blogs don't take a tremendous amount of time to write, and you can do them in the spaces in between everything else that eats up time in your day, but the dividend that the blog will pay is worth every second you put into it. The blog keeps you connected, it keeps you talking to your audience, it lets them know what's going on, what you're thinking, what you're watching, and it maintains that relationship that you've worked so hard to develop. You'll note that I'm not mentioning Twitter and Facebook in here, and that's because my blogs post to Twitter and Facebook, so I'm killing a few birds with a single stone. Now you also have to make sure that you constantly re-Tweet, Follow Back, Friend, return E-Mails, Messages, and answer Comments, review books and join groups on Goodreads, but then you add in your blog to make sure that you're getting in front of your potential readers as much as you possible can. Even if you're doing reviews of TV shows, or movies, or books, or posting random crazed thoughts, you're still reaching out and touching your readers, and if you do it on a consistent enough basis, then you'll reap the benefits of your efforts when it comes time to release your next book. I didn't know this before I released my first book, but I've been reading blogs and articles, and have developed my own experiences ever since, and the idea of maintaining and continuing contact is really solid, so I'm passing it along, and hopefully future self-published authors will learn from my mistakes, and we can all move forward into a successful future of selling a lot of books.
August 4, 2013
I'm buying an Island! Or how to manage expectations as a Self-Published Author.
I know that I'm not alone when I say that I've imagined myself becoming rich and famous. I know I can't be alone in having the thought that as I walk around Universal Studios on a tour that some famous director is going to see me standing there and say, "You are exactly the person I was thinking about for my next big blockbuster". Or that I'll be the one that hits the lottery and is actually able to keep the money longer than the three years most people who win the lottery are broke in. Or that I'll write my book, Self-Publish it, and within days be living on my own Island…preferably Bainbridge Island. Now as a writer it's my job to have a very active and wild imagination. But as a thinking individual who needs to pay bills and eat, I really need to dial back on the imagination a little, and look at the reality. Because the reality of the situation is that even if I'm successful as a writer, it's not going to happen overnight, and even if it does, it may not completely replace my current salary, so I need to manage my expectations.
I'll admit that as I was writing and self-publishing my first book I had more than one star in my eyes, and maybe a few dollar signs too, but then the harsh reality of just a few books selling, hit home. It wasn't that I wrote a bad book, quite the contrary, most people who've read the Rock Star have praised it as being in fact a very good book. But whether the book was good or not didn't play into the lag in sales. You see I did a combination of Smashwords and Amazon and I just put the book out there with nothing other than my own self-produced commercials. I didn't join Goodreads, do a giveaway in advance of the publication to get interest up. I didn't get a Twitter account and start building up a following and promote my book in advance. I didn't have a blog or a website. I did post it on Facebook, which did lead to a few of my friends buying it, but even there I really didn't build it up and then launch it. In other words, I went about this thing all wrong. I put it out there and then I started thinking about how to promote it.
I didn't realize just how many books are published every day on Amazon alone. I didn't realize how many other authors had a plan and a way of getting people to buy their books. I didn't realize that sales are built up one reader at a time, one book at a time, and that I really needed a very long term view of working towards being a successful author. I didn't realize it was going to cost so much to edit my book. I didn't realize paid advertising was going to cost so much. I didn't realize I was going to lose a whole lot of money up front before sales started kicking in, and even then it's still going to take awhile to earn back what I've spent.
Now my point in here is not to make you feel sorry for little old me, whose dreams just didn't work the way I expected them to, because I still have a very nice day job, and I'm going to be perfectly fine. But I want to make sure that others learn from my mistaken impressions. That other authors realize it's a long haul, and your going to have to work your butt off to get your books sold, and your going to have to spend some money up front to get your book published, and that it might be a while before you get all of that money back. That you as an author have to look at the reality of the market and know that you have a lot of competition and that it's not going to be as easy as you write the book, you become rich.
But if you manage your expectations, go into it with your eyes wide open, then you can manage your finances to survive the lean years as you build up your base of readers, who will hopefully be growing, with each passing novel. It's not all about money. The true joy of it all is when somebody actually reads your book and tells you they like it, because there is no greater feeling of accomplishment than knowing that your book has successfully entertained someone. Huge sales and massive amounts of money would be great, but when it come down to it, knowing that people are enjoying what you're writing is a very satisfying feeling, which you really can't put a price tag on.
I'll admit that as I was writing and self-publishing my first book I had more than one star in my eyes, and maybe a few dollar signs too, but then the harsh reality of just a few books selling, hit home. It wasn't that I wrote a bad book, quite the contrary, most people who've read the Rock Star have praised it as being in fact a very good book. But whether the book was good or not didn't play into the lag in sales. You see I did a combination of Smashwords and Amazon and I just put the book out there with nothing other than my own self-produced commercials. I didn't join Goodreads, do a giveaway in advance of the publication to get interest up. I didn't get a Twitter account and start building up a following and promote my book in advance. I didn't have a blog or a website. I did post it on Facebook, which did lead to a few of my friends buying it, but even there I really didn't build it up and then launch it. In other words, I went about this thing all wrong. I put it out there and then I started thinking about how to promote it.
I didn't realize just how many books are published every day on Amazon alone. I didn't realize how many other authors had a plan and a way of getting people to buy their books. I didn't realize that sales are built up one reader at a time, one book at a time, and that I really needed a very long term view of working towards being a successful author. I didn't realize it was going to cost so much to edit my book. I didn't realize paid advertising was going to cost so much. I didn't realize I was going to lose a whole lot of money up front before sales started kicking in, and even then it's still going to take awhile to earn back what I've spent.
Now my point in here is not to make you feel sorry for little old me, whose dreams just didn't work the way I expected them to, because I still have a very nice day job, and I'm going to be perfectly fine. But I want to make sure that others learn from my mistaken impressions. That other authors realize it's a long haul, and your going to have to work your butt off to get your books sold, and your going to have to spend some money up front to get your book published, and that it might be a while before you get all of that money back. That you as an author have to look at the reality of the market and know that you have a lot of competition and that it's not going to be as easy as you write the book, you become rich.
But if you manage your expectations, go into it with your eyes wide open, then you can manage your finances to survive the lean years as you build up your base of readers, who will hopefully be growing, with each passing novel. It's not all about money. The true joy of it all is when somebody actually reads your book and tells you they like it, because there is no greater feeling of accomplishment than knowing that your book has successfully entertained someone. Huge sales and massive amounts of money would be great, but when it come down to it, knowing that people are enjoying what you're writing is a very satisfying feeling, which you really can't put a price tag on.
