Ali Noel Vyain's Blog, page 50

Book Marketing

So, once again someone has contacted me about book marketing for my book. Singular, not plural, mind you. This individual contacted me from bragged about how many books they’ve help to promote successfully. Of course I know they’re trying to make a living as the rest of us are.

However, them thinking there is only book and focusing only on Amazon Kindle makes me pause. They have not, just like others who contact me about marketing, given me any kind of marketing plan. Nor have they done any research.

If they would just look over my website which I maintain, they would begin to see that I have currently 50 unique book titles all with ISBNs and 9 more drafted that I need to finish. Further research would show there is at least one book series I haven’t started. It’s just notes for now. Actually, there is another book series which is just notes too. I just haven’t added it to my website yet. The books are organized into different series. Some of which aren’t traditional book series with book numbers.

All of that information is very critical when coming up with a marketing plan. The other piece of the puzzle is that I don’t work on the same timeline as the traditional publishers do. They may take a whole year before they release a book. So, I can draft, edit, package, and release books much faster than they can. As a result, their marketing strategies don’t work with my timeline.

The supposed experts miss important points such as that one. They also misunderstand that just because one method works for someone it should work for everyone else. That is a fallacy. I’ve been told similar things my whole life. I did what I was taught for work and I ended up with disastrous results. Now, I ignore what they say and I do my own thing because nothing else works for me.

One thing I know which makes book marketing harder for me, is that I know too many people who live in the same country as I was born and raised in who want to shove me out of their way. They believe I don’t deserve any kind of attention. I’m not worthy of their approval. They don’t want to listen to me. They want all the glory for themselves.

With that hurled into my face, it’s no wonder my numbers are low. To make it even worse, I am physically isolated to the point that I can’t network within the city I live in. So, no one should be surprised that all of that makes my shyness worse and can increase my anxiety. I find with social media I do better networking with people who live in other countries.

It’s a good thing I never limited myself to one country. With everything I have learned about book marketing, I wouldn’t want to. Besides, I mainly release my books via Smashwords, whose site is the same for the entire world. They sell ebooks, which can be downloaded anywhere. No need to limit to one country. I’d be fool to do so.

So, if you want to do any book marketing for me and believe you deserve to be paid, then I would strongly suggest that before you approach me (or approach me again) that you research my personal website and know what I’ve already done and then come up with an actual marketing plan you want to try to reach more people.

If you do not do those things, I will not be interested no matter how cheaply you sell your services. I cannot afford to pay people for work I already do when there is no guarantee that it will yield any sales.

6 Free Books Available Now

Do you like science fiction or urban fantasy? If so, you can read six of my books for free here on this website or you can download them from Smashwords. The six are the promobook The Strange & Unusual Universe of Silver Moon Unicorn, The Violet Series Book 1: A Water Nymph’s Tale, The Guardians Book 1: Formation of the Guardians, The White Lion Unicorn Series Book 1: A Colony of Tiny Nekos, The Starlover Series Book 1: Project Earth, and The Titanium Mysteries Book 1: What is She Doing Here?.

Happy reading!

Results of NaNoWriMo November 2019

So, it’s completely insane. I wrote 127,111 words during the month and drafted five new books. That’s a lot and it wore me out.

Here’s the list:

The Violet Series Book 6: Witches and Weres

Planets of the Universe

Medusa (poetry)

The Starlover Series Book 3: Traveling Teenager

All About Cats (poetry)

And there were quite a few little articles I wrote up and a lab report…I can’t remember all the titles now or how many articles I wrote up. I lost track too early in the month.

So, in addition to those books, I also have four more to work on as well.

Here’s the additions:

The City of Elsewhere, Platinum

Dr. Butterfly’s Guide to People of the Universe

The Starlover Series Book 4: Cassandra the Red Tiger

Various Articles Not Previously Collected in One Place

Yes, it’s an insane amount of work, but it will keep me busy and out of trouble. That’s the important thing.

Happy reading, everyone!

NaNoWriMo Time Again…

According to the NaNoWriMo site, this is my fifth doing NaNoWriMo. I suppose it is. I’ve lost track in all the writing I’ve done. In case you are interested, I’m actually doing HyperNaNoWriMo, which is 100,000 words instead of 50,000 in 30 days. Yes, it is insane, but I can do it. It will also keep me out of trouble. Since it is a different word count, I have to use a different word count to help me stay on track. I’m using WriteTract by David S. Gale.

Here’s the link to see my progress.

If you are doing NaNoWriMo too, don’t be discouraged. We all need to write at our pace no matter what the supposed experts say.

The Closet

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photo taken by Ali Noel Vyain

Finally the closet. The one place which has the most storage that I actually use. It’s not even full. But it does contain the wifi equipment. It’s out of the way and works well. My iPad can pick up a signal out on the porch and everywhere in the apartment. That’s just one of the benefits of living tiny.

The Office

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photo taken by Ali Noel Vyain

It’s really a breakfast bar, but it works well for my computer and other things I need to keep track of on a regular basis. I find it’s a great place for me to do my writing and graphic design work. It’s also good whenever I go into Second Life or the hypergrid.

I do also eat here. I just have to push the computer back closer to the fridge to keep it safe. The wifi equipment is in the closet out of the way. If there seems to be a problem with the wifi, I can turn my head to the right and check the signal. That’s a nice plus.

Nuri tends to jump on the breakfast bar to either reach the top of the fridge or to get down from the fridge. She also jumps down to the counter and walks over the stove. I have told her she can’t be on the stove when I’m cooking. Sometimes she still puts a paw on the stove when I’ve turned on a burner. I just move her paw. Or sometimes I have to pick her up and move her completely. I’m gentle. She complains, but I just tell her it’s to keep her safe.

She’s lucky she doesn’t have that many rules.

The Living Room

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photo taken by Ali Noel Vyain

Or whatever kind of room you want to call it. It has a bean bag chair, which might need some more stuffing for me. And of course it has Nuri’s furniture. It’s like her little house with her toys. Best of all she knows it’s hers for her use and she can destroy it too. It’s made of recycled corrugated cardboard. Something she likes to chew on.

I like the bean bag chair to sit on when I’m reading or sewing. It’s quite comfortable. I suppose I could have friends over. I’d have to tell them to bring their own chair or a big comfortable pillow to sit. But I’m sure a few of us could just hang out there and chat for a while. We could have dance offs in the kitchen…

The Bedroom

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photo taken by Ali Noel Vyain

Well, not really a regular bedroom. More like a captain’s bed in the living area. I have four regular sized pillows and a fifth smaller one. There are two stuffed animals hiding underneath the comforter. I still have to climb up and slide off the bed. It’s fairly comfortable to sleep on.

Nuri sometimes gets on the bed, especially on the headboard. She will not sleep me. Probably because I don’t lie still when I sleep. I can’t say I blame her. I have caught myself sleepwalking a few times in my life. I always wondered why I was doing it. I have learned that it’s just one of those things I inherited from my dad.

As for the drawers, I have the upper right one for my work uniforms. The upper left for the rest of clothes. Not that I have that much… And the bottom left drawer is for my sewing projects. Mostly just counted cross stitch pictures, but some patterns for making dolls and stuffed animals. And even a few little drawings of a possible dollhouse made out of fabric.

The Kitchen

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photo taken by Ali Noel Vyain

Perhaps I’m not too into decorating my own home, but who can blame me when the cat I had bottle fed like to knock everything on the floor that he could find lying loose. He did break a few things intentionally. That was just one of the things he would do when his food bowl was empty. I would have preferred he just come to me and ask me to fill it up. He was used to Sir Socks reminding me to feed him and anyone else who needed to eat…

As you can see from this picture, the food and water bowls are in the kitchen safely out of the way and within easy reach of the food that’s in the corner cabinet above the counter. And I was starting to cook a curried brown basmati rice with tofu and vegetables.

My lunch was delicious and I didn’t have to share it with anyone just like Nuri doesn’t have to share her food or even her treats with anyone else.

The Bathroom

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photo taken by Ali Noel Vyain

I didn’t do much to the bathroom other than hang up a couple of towels and a shower curtain. When I had first gotten into the place, I didn’t realize that I would need a shower curtain until later that night when I was winding down and thinking about getting ready for bed. So, I took a quick trip to the nearby store within walking distance and found one that didn’t cost too much.

It was easy to hang up. I did have to stretch to reach the shower rod, but I managed without using any sort of ladder or step stool. I don’t think the bathroom needs anymore decorations. It looks fine to me and it’s highly functional.