K. Ferrin's Blog, page 19
January 20, 2016
Do You Really Need a Website?
WordPress for Writers – Do You Really Need a Website?
January 6, 2016
Writing Life Comic #1: I Got This
Art by the wonderful Kelci Crawford.Aaah, January. It’s still cold as hell outside but the motivational fires are burning hot on the inside. We’ve made resolutions, commitments to ourselves. We’ve got ideas dammit, and they are clawing their way out of our chests like a xenomorph. We are mighty. Our ideas are mighty. And our enemies small. I got this. We got this. This year, we will prevail.
The Writing Life comic is a once monthly comic on the trials, tribulations and outright humor that is a writers life. It comes out the first Wednesday of every month.
September 20, 2015
Weekend Writing Warriors #14
It’s Sunday, and that means it’s time for Weekend Writing Warriors! We last left Evelyn standing before a river-boat captain awaiting his pronouncement of her punishment for stowing away on the boat. In fear she lets slip that her father is Chancellor of Chanson. This is a dire mistake, as everyone knows the Chancellors daughter is a changeling.
The Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop is filled with talented writers. Hop on over using this link and take a peak at what this talented group has brewing.
The excerpt:
“She is a changeling!” The Captain raised a hand, finger pointing at the center of her chest. The accusation hit her like a physical force and she staggered under the weight of it. “She will destroy us all, get her off this boat!”
His eyes blazed from his face and spittle sprayed from his mouth as he howled his order to Dreskin and Fraser. Dreskin grabbed both of her arms, pinning them behind her back, and she felt Fraser’s arms wrap around her chest. They lifted her bodily from the deck and she screamed in outrage.
The ship shuddered, and a crack of thunder split the world in half.
Across the Darkling Sea is about a young woman who awakens one day to discover she’s not who she believes herself to be. Indeed, she is not even human. She is a changeling, a curse, put on her family by a traveling warlock many years ago. Adventures and trials ensue as she seeks out the warlock who did this to her and her family and a way to break the curse. The novel is targeted for release in early 2016.
September 16, 2015
The Dreaded S Word – Sales
I have been called many things in my life, but I can tell you with great certainty that ‘marketer’ has never been one of them. I can do a lot of cool stuff too. I can write books! I can design a large enterprise network, or write software, but if you ask me to sell something you’re quite likely to get a very wide-eyed and blank-faced stare. Huh?
But, I’m an indie author. This means I get to keep more of my hard earned money in my pocket, but it also means I’m responsible for every book-sale that generates that income. If I don’t market and sell, I don’t get paid. It’s as simple, and as impossible, as that.
So, with a great deal of trepidation, I am stepping out of the warm light of the familiar into the moist dark unknown terrain of sales.
There are two aspects to selling books. The first is public relations (known as PR in the biz), which has to do with the state of the relationship between you, the author, and the public. This includes things like how well known your name is or how much influence you have in the writing/publishing world. The second aspect is marketing, or the act of promoting and selling a product or service. There is a bit of overlap between these two concepts, but they are not the same thing. They each have a very different focus.
For a well rounded plan it is important to have both. I have been building my author platform for a couple of years now. I have a website with a blog, an active Twitter account and a good following, but what I don’t have is presence. I don’t do much commenting on other blogs, I don’t guest blog on other people’s blogs, I don’t invite folks to post on my blog, and hell, I don’t even post on my own blog with much regularity! Clearly, the PR portion of this plan needs some work.
In terms of marketing I’ve done… a whole lot of nothing. I have done one Good Reads giveaway – which was awesome and is where I’ve gotten the bulk of the reviews on my novel Magicless (a grand total of 11). Outside of that, I’ve done absolutely nothing. I have a steady stream of sales, but it’s a slow stream. People don’t know my book is out there. I’ve got to get it in front of more people.
So my strategy is two fold. One – get Magicless into as many hands as possible to generate more reviews. Two – build my influence and get my name ‘out there’ more broadly. This will take time and effort, things in short supply for most of us. I can’t do it all, so to start I am looking at the following.
Lower the Price: Look, I am entirely on board with the idea of getting paid for my work and not undercutting my worth as an artist. But I’m also an author than no one has ever heard of and I’ve got to get my name out there and get folks reading my book. People are far more likely to take a risk on an author they’ve never heard of if that risk is inexpensive. On 9/15/15 I lowered the price of the ebook to $2.99.
Advertise: There are thousands of places to advertise books. For my initial effort I am focusing on two areas:
First, I set up a marketing campaign on GoodReads. I’m running two separate adds with unique sales copy. I’ve no idea what combination of elements are the key to getting a sale and I felt two ads would allow me to compare results based on differing descriptions and target groups. I will allow each form of the add to run for a few days up to a week and see if either of them generate sales. I’ll continue running different versions until I settle on a format that seems to generate the best sales, or decide this is not worth the investment. I’ve started with a $100.00 budget and set the ads to active on 9/15/15.
Second, I’m going to attempt to take an ad out on BookBub, an online publication that shares discounted/free book promotional information with it’s readers. For the fantasy genre BookBub has almost 1.5 million subscribers, and they average just over 23,000 downloads for a free book promotion (see genre breakdown here). That is a lot of downloads for a debut novel from an unknown author! Books go through a selection process for BookBub and there is no guarantee Magicless will be selected. But you never know until you try! I sent in my first query on 9/15/15.
Expand my Influence: This is a tough one for me. Building influence is incredibly time consuming, whether you’re blogging, guest blogging, or engaging on Social media in other ways, and time is something we all have precious little of! So, I’m going to start slow. I’m continuing my existing level of engagement on Twitter, but I’m going to blog more regularly on my own site (2 x week), begin inviting guest bloggers to post on my site (try for 1 x mo), and I’m going to begin guest blogging for other sites (1 x mo). The key here is to make sure this does not interfere with my timeline for the next novel. Finishing the next novel is more important than any marketing or PR campaign. Your business depends on product, and the more product you have the better off you’ll be!
This is not an incredibly ambitious plan, and some might call it downright simplistic and conservative. But this is my first foray into marketing outside of extensive reading and I’d like to take it slow and identify which items really work and which just cost me money. I’ll post an update in October with the results of these efforts.
September 13, 2015
Weekend Writing Warriors #13
This week I am sticking with my currently in progress novel called Across the Darkling Sea. We are picking up almost immediately after last weeks snippet. Evelyn is still standing before the captain of the river-boat awaiting her sentence. The captain and first hand are dealing with the sailor who found her before moving on to deal with her. Things are not looking too promising.
The Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop is filled with talented writers. Hop on over using this link and take a peak at what this talented group has brewing.
The excerpt:
Fraser’s face shifted from ashen grey to a deep red and his eyes boiled with hatred as he stared at Dreskin. ‘Ling didn’t doubt the man would stick a knife in Dreskin if ever afforded the chance.
Dreskin’s pale features were impassive as he turned back to the Captain. “His insubordination will be addressed as soon as we finish here.”
Fraser’s face shifted back to a sickly shade of gray and he dropped his gaze to the rough wood of the deck beneath their feet. ‘Ling had no idea what the punishment for speaking out of turn on a ship such as this might be, but she could see a tremor in Fraser’s hands as he stood, head now bowed.
Her own fear swelled at the man’s discomfiture. If punishment of a small offense such as talking out of turn were so severe what would she endure for her crime?
Across the Darkling Sea is about a young woman who awakens one day to discover she’s not who she believes herself to be. Indeed, she is not even human. She is a changeling, a curse, put on her family by a traveling warlock many years ago. Adventures and trials ensue as she seeks out the warlock who did this to her and her family and a way to break the curse. The novel is targeted for release in early 2016.
September 9, 2015
A Changeling, You Say?
In 1980 a film called The Changeling came out. The film told the story of a man who had moved across the country after the death of his wife and daughter, only to discover he’s settled into a house haunted by the ghost of a young boy. He eventually learns the boy, a sickly and unwell child, was drowned by his own father and replaced with a stranger to ensure his inheritance remained with the family.
In 2008 Angelina Jolie starred in another film called Changeling about a woman struggling against the LAPD as it attempts to pass off an imposter as her child. These two films are indeed about changelings, but they have little to do with the changelings of folklore. In the old stories changelings are creatures of magic, often made of wood or earth (called a fetch). They are left behind as poor replacements for the healthy human child taken by some dark faye. In the stories they often grow weak and die quickly, leaving behind a devastated family.
Stories of human children being taken by a fairy or similar creature of faye appear around the world. In Cornwall the Men-an-Tol stones are said to have fairy guardians with the power to restore the human child to grieving parents. In Germany the stories tell that the devil, a female dwarf, a water spirit or a Roggenmutter have been known to take human children, leaving something else in its stead. In Ireland the changelings were often older fairies brought to the human world to die, as opposed to a substitute child. The changeling folklore exists outside of Europe as well. The Obanje in Nigeria and the Filipino Aswang are also said to take human children, leaving magical replacements behind that quickly sicken and die.
In my upcoming novel Across the Darkling Sea the changeling is a curse put upon a family for refusing to help a passing warlock. Rather than being a simple fetch of wood and earth that quickly fades and dies, this changeling moves easily, speaks perfectly, has the same emotions and feelings as a human, and even has the memories of her human counterpart. What must it feel like to know you are a curse against parents you love as your own?
k.
September 6, 2015
Weekend Writing Warriors #12
This weeks excerpt comes from my currently in progress novel called Across the Darkling Sea. Evelyn has fled everything she has ever known in a desperate attempt to break the curse on her and her family. She stowed away on a river-boat to get her to the coast but has been caught out by one of the crew. She is standing before the river-boat captain awaiting her sentencing, and the river-lords don’t take kindly to stowaways.
There are so many talented writers in the Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop, so use the below link to hop on over and check them out!
The excerpt:
The captain was a narrow man, and so tall his knees about touched his chin, though the chair he rested in had clearly been built tall. She wanted to laugh at the sight, but the cold glint in his eyes pinned her throat closed and sent an icy serpent of fear slithering through her guts.
He had smooth chocolate skin and eyes so deeply blue even the night-sky could get lost in them. He would be handsome but for the narrow gash of his mouth splitting the lower half of his face like a scar, and those cold, cold eyes. He sat calmly, like a coiled cobra, and ‘Ling quivered in desperation at the punishment he would surely mete out for her crime. Could human being’s really survive such fear?
But I’m not human.
The thought haunted her in an entirely new way. She would not just survive whatever was to come next. She would live eternally within it.
Across the Darkling Sea is about a young woman who awakens one day to discover she’s not who she believes herself to be. Indeed, she is not even human. She is a changeling, a curse, put on her family by a traveling warlock many years ago. Adventures and trials ensue as she seeks out the warlock who did this to her and her family and a way to break the curse. The novel is targeted for release in early 2016.
September 2, 2015
The Writerly Woes of a Day Job (comic)
The writing life is filled with all sorts of odd phenomenon. Like a cascade of ideas hammering through your mind all day while your trying to work at your day-job, only to vanish into absolute silence when you sit down later that evening to write. This happens to me far more than I care to admit.
The Writing Life is a monthly comic blog about the adventures of the writing life. They are posted the first Wednesday of each month. You can find more by clicking the Writing Life category over there on the right.
k.
August 30, 2015
Weekend Writing Warriors #11
I am sticking with Across the Darkling Sea this week. In this excerpt Evelyn has returned home after discovering she is not Evelyn after-all, but instead a Changling left in her stead. She’s picked up her own name now, ‘Ling. She is crouched below an open window listening to her parents argue. This is the tail end of that argument.
And hey – don’t forget to check out all the other awesome authors participating in the Weekend Writing Warriors blog hop.
The excerpt:
Her father stopped his pacing and stared at her mother as if he’d never seen her before. His eyes had a liquid gleam in the firelight and she gasped as she realized his eyes were filled with tears. He collapsed onto a chair as if his muscles didn’t have enough strength to hold his body upright any longer. “What would you have me do?” He asked. She’d never seen him so defeated.
“She can’t stay here.”
“You want me to chase a child away from her home,” Her father’s voice was flat and lifeless.
“I want you to chase a demon out of our midst,” Her mother corrected.
Across the Darkling Sea is about a young woman who awakens one day to discover she’s not who she believes herself to be. Indeed, she is not even human. She is a changeling, a curse, put on her family by a traveling warlock many years ago. Adventures and trials ensue as she seeks out the warlock who did this to her and her family and a way to break the curse. The novel is targeted for release in early 2016.
