P.H. Solomon's Blog, page 327

How to price your Indie book

PHS:

Clear ideas on Indie Book pricing – re-blogging on Archer’s Aim

Originally posted on Nicholas C. Rossis:

Guy Kawasaki, well-known author of APE: Author, Publisher, Entrepreneur – How to Publish a Book, has written a bullet-list article on how to price your book. Bottom line? It depends on the book, so it’s pretty much a case of trial and error for each author. Fortunately, as a self-publisher, you can test and change your decision if it’s not working.

So, what variables are there to take into account?

PRICING VARIABLES

There are five major variables that affect the price of your book:

1. Costs

There are two kinds of costs: preparation and production.

Preparation costs include such processes as design, editing, and layout. You might pay them only once, but nonetheless, you need to recoup them.

Production costs refer to how much it costs to make copies. If you’re publishing only an ebook, the cost per unit is almost zero. If you’re printing your book, you’ll incur…

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4 Novel Writing Problems and Their Solutions.

PHS:

I like to see some problem solving. Re-blogging on Archer’s Aim.

Originally posted on Dee Dee Chainey Writer & Illustrator:

I know a lot of writers are great at the writing aspect of their jobs. Manyhave read a myriad of books, articles and blog posts with advice on how to write their novel: planning their plot, constructing their characters, working with tone and voice, and so on. Many have honed their craft to a fine art. They then go on to take this further with their marketing strategies, again researched until their fingers bleed and eyes weep. What I’ve noticed though, is that I speak to a lot of writers who continually bemoan the piles of paper on their desks, the labyrinth on files on their laptops and even worse, the overused scroll function within their Word document, which does in fact contain THE WHOLE of their manuscript in one long arduous page-after-page tirade.

Now, being overly organised to the point of friends once pointing out that if I had…

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Blogging Outside Your Normal Schedule Pt. 2

Last week I enacted a strategy to improve my website analytics over the weekend  which can be seen in my former post.. The results were very good so I continued testing my strategy this week.

I’ve added a few tweaks:

I started using extra hashtags including #WordPress for the tweet from Publicize.
I tweeted and posted on Facebook more during the weekend over two weeks ago so that my average engagement was much higher during the week.
I’m posting an older blog on Saturday and a newer one on Sunday.

Here are the results for this week:

Saturday, 10/11/14: The strategy continued working well with 27% more visitors over last week and by 8.5 times on 9/27. Interestingly, due to a lack of time, my Twitter engagement was down somewhat but the strategy still worked with targeted efforts.
Sunday, 10/12/14: Visitor stats increased by 35%  over 10/5 and was over 6.5 times greater than on 9/28. Again, due to my schedule on this day my Twitter engagement was half what it was on Friday, 10/10 but didn’t affect the outcome. Again, targeted effort was just as effective.

These results continue to prove my strategy useful for now. It also continues to improve my weekend Twitter engagement.

Next week I will report once more on this little project as well as any changes or additions I make to the strategy.

Have you developed a strategy for your unscheduled blogging days? If so, please share your thoughts in the comments section. I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today!

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Filed under: Blogging, Creativity, Fiction, Indie Publishing, Marketing, Planning, Self-publishing, Social Media, Tech Tips, The Black Bag, Tips, Twitter, Writing Tagged: creativity, Facebook, Indie Publishing, Marketing, P. H. Solomon, Planning, Social Media, The Black Bag, Tips, Twitter, writing

Creating an Ironic Tone in Your Fiction

PHS:

I like these insights on creating tone in writing – specifically irony. Re-blogging on Archer’s Aim

Originally posted on jacksmithwriter:

First off, what is tone?  On the one hand, we might say that it’s the apparent attitude of the narrator toward the characters and the world they people.  But it should also be said that everything in a fictional work relates in some way to the tone.  If every character in your story drives crazily and exceeds the speed limit, this will certainly affect the tone.  If all the clocks are off twenty minutes, this will too. 

To create the right tone, you need to attend carefully to narrative style, plus you need to think about character actions, dialogue, and setting.  All of these will affect the tone of your story or novel.   

Being something of an iconoclast, I tend to go for irony.   And ironic tone is, of course, the right tone for satire—which is my usual medium. 

And…

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How to Generate Killer Story Concepts

PHS:

An interesting concept to build story ideas. Thanks for sharing Joshua. Re-blogging on Archer’s Aim.

Originally posted on Joshua M Swenson:

When I first started writing I had a few story ideas I thought were pretty good. As I mentioned in a previous blog post, one of the things that held me back was not wanting to mess up those ideas. And that still holds me back from time to time. I want to do it right! But ideas are a dime a dozen. Or maybe even a penny a dozen. There are so many ideas out there, so many possibilities. Once you start writing, you begin to realize this more and more. And if you haven’t had this realization yet, then keep going!

There are a lot of ways to come up with ideas: use a picture, use some story cubes, start with an odd person you saw walking on the street or in the coffee shop. Those are all great places to start. But you need something…

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Deep POV Pt. 6: Editing for Emotion

Editing

If there’s one problem I have trouble conveying in my writing it’s emotional expression. Sure there are opportunities in deep POV for these to occur but the question is how they should be expressed and appear in the story?

My characters sometimes read as too distant. If you have this same problem here’s some suggestions about editing for this problem.

I’ve started using the Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman to edit for deeper emotion. It’s a great resource to help you nail down your character’s actions and reactions, especially when trying to attain a deeper POV. It’s well organized and provides a wealth of information about  particular emotions and how they may escalate into a stronger emotion as well. The book lists external and internal workings of emotion and long-term effects as well.

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But how do I edit for it if this aspect is missing at some point where it should be present? Here’s my approach:

Identify where it’s missing. I make a survey with comments where I find my POV character to be emotionally distant in my manuscript – clearly these are places where characterization is flat.
Identify the emotion that may need to be shown. I add comments regarding what I think is the emotion that should be expressed with external or internal cues.
Consult the Emotion Thesaurus.  I look for that emotion and what relates to verify that my concept fits. Sometimes I find an similar emotional state that fits better, especially if there is an escalation building to a related emotion. Then I choose a sample the emotion is expressed and add it to my comments.
Find a way to work that emotional expression into your story. Once the survey is complete I have a template of changes to make that allow me to see the arc of changes needed that – hopefully – follow the story-arc. I try to weigh what emotional cue to use – an external or internal reaction to circumstances. Sometimes more than one is needed for clarity, especially the deeper your POV. Combining these cues with internalization and dialogue  should convey the character’s emotional state well.
For further thought on characterization: See this blog post from M. Talmage Moorehead at Storiform.com .

I use the survey for a full short story but it can also be applied to an entire chapter at a time. The Emotion Thesaurus is teaching me many ways to creatively express emotion rather than simply stating it.

What method do you use for showing emotion in your writing? I’d love to hear from you so please leave a question, idea or strategy in the comment section. I’d also love to connect with you over social media so check my contact page for that information. See the News page for announcements and remember to sign-up to receive news and posts by email. I’ve added a new sign-up tab on my FaceBook page to simplify the process. New followers can download The Black Bag via free coupon today!

Thanks for visiting!

PHS

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Filed under: Blogging, Creativity, Editing, Fiction, Indie Publishing, Planning, Self-publishing, Social Media, The Black Bag, Tips, Twitter, Writing Tagged: creativity, Facebook, Indie Publishing, P. H. Solomon, Planning, Short Stories, Social Media, The Black Bag, Tips, Twitter, writing

Do not fear self-promotion! It’s easy (and more fun than you think)

PHS:

Looking forward to these podcasts – re-blogging on Archer’s Aim

Originally posted on Dream, Play, Write!:

If the term “self-promotion” strikes fear into your heart because all you can think of is speaking in front of a crowd on a book tour or hard-selling your friends like a slick-haired used car salesman, I want to set your mind at ease.

At this stage, it’s more about setting up the basics of a solid, online promotion campaign, gathering followers, and building your audience a little every day.

OMG…what? That sounds even harder!

It’s not, and I’m going to tell you how to do it, step by step?on my podcast and through tutorials at my website.

All this week on my podcast, I’ll be talking about how to set up the perfect author blog and supercharge your promotional efforts.

Learn more and become a podcast listener at:
dreamplaywrite.com/podcast

Here’s tomorrow’s episode for free right now:

Learn more and become a podcast listener at:
dreamplaywrite.com/podcast

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FORGET MOTIVATION, REMEMBER DISCIPLINE

PHS:

This is a wonderful post. Even with a solid plan and schedule everyone needs discipline – re-blogged on Archer’s Aim.

Originally posted on Lessons for Life:

Motivation is overrated.

With every goal I try to reach and every habit I try to internalize, I always start off motivated and eager to climb the ladder to success.

But where is my motivation three months later at 5:45am, looking up at a long day of work after a sleepless night?

Where is my motivation during a horrible week, wrought with upsets and disappointments?

I curl up in bed, knowing full well what I have to do, but my motivation is no where to be found.

Motivation is a feeling. It is sand in your palms, sensitive to even the slightest breeze.

So what force do we use to accomplish our goals if not motivation?

Discipline.

Courage is not the absence fear, but the ability to go on despite it.

Discipline is not the absence of avolition, but the pledge to push forward regardless of it’s presence.

Discipline is…

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4 Platform Tips for the Fund Challenged Writer

Have you got a list of things that you need to do as a writer? Do you lack funds to acquire some or all of these needs for your writer platform. Here’s 4 tips for inexpensively improving your platform without breaking the bank.

1. Lack funds to create a website? Use a free one like WordPress.com. Want a custom domain name with your site for minimal cost? WordPress and other such hosts can help with that too. Here’s what WordPress can do!

2. Need to use email with your own domain name? Try it for minimal cost via Google Apps. Here are the instructions.

3. Have a product, announcement or other tweet you want new followers to see and retweet? Pin your tweet to the top of your feed and it will be the first post seen on your feed by visitors. Here are some visual instructions to do just that:

Go to your feed and choose something you’ve posted and click on the 3 dots for “More” and then click “Pin to your profile page”:

Here’s what currently stays at the top of me feed:

4. Want to add pictures to your blog posts but lack funds? If you have Microsoft Office installed you can use Click Art from Office. Verify that the Click Art is from Microsoft by either hovering over the image or right clicking on the image and choosing properties to see the originator. To access this library from Office 2010 click on the Insert tab and then on the Click Art button:

In fact, the picture at the top of this post is from Click Art. Read the terms of service for Click Art and understand how you may use it. If you need to use royalty free pictures for re-sale that’s another issue altogether so know what your are doing with pictures. For a great discussion of Microsoft’s Clip Art usage click here.

That’s all for today. See the News page for upcoming announcements like the month-long October special for “The Black Bag”! Feel free to leave comments below and I will reply! Remember to sign-up to follow by email and receive a coupon for a FREE copy (any e-book format) via Smashwords for “The Black Bag”. Thanks for reading!

PHS

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Filed under: Creativity, Fiction, Indie Publishing, Marketing, Planning, Self-publishing, Tips, Twitter, Uncategorized, Writing Tagged: creativity, Indie Publishing, The Black Bag, Tips, writing

I’VE DECIDED TO DO MY WORK…

PHS:

Nonnie, I’m right there with you on impatience – re-blogging on Archer’s Aim!

Originally posted on Watch Nonnie Write!:

While watching an episode (accidentally) of Oprah’s Life Class, I came across an interview that she was holding with actress Gabrielle Union.  In the piece, Gabrielle was speaking about how, in her past, she was a true-life mean girl.  She would be so jealous of other women in the business, that she’d spread rumors, speak ill of them, just tear them down…for no reason at all…well, but for that thing called the green-eyed monster (and you all know how much I detest her).  It wasn’t the part about her jealousy that struck a chord in me, it was the moment she said a friend convinced her that it was time that she “worked on herself.”  The friend came over to her one day, in the midst of her tearing another woman down and pulled her aside.  The questions the friend asked, caused Gabrielle to take a hard look at herself.

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