Meredith Bond's Blog, page 18

Go to where the readers are

It’s great advice for a writer who is looking to sell more books. I’m all for it, just as I’m all for selling more books. But I am questioning the way the author who suggested this (and, no, because I’m criticizing what they said, I’m not going to reveal who said it or where, sorry) said to do so.

The author of the blog post suggested that to find readers for your books, you go to where they hang out. Well, that’s a terrific idea. But they said to do so as a reader, not as a writer. This author said to put on your reader hat because all authors are readers, and hopefully they read the same genre as they write and join the readers groups as just another reader. This is an honest this thing to. I’m totally with this person.

I am a reader of paranormal romance. I love it and I read it voraciously. Give me a good fantasy with a great romance and an interesting twist on the paranormal part and I’m happier than you can imagine (yeah, tried to find a good simile, couldn’t think of one that wasn’t a horrible cliché – care of offer one?). I’d be more than happy to join a group of other readers to discuss the books I’ve read.

But I’m so busy writing my own stories (and editing them, and then editing them again… and then, yes, again), that I don’t have time to hang out on Goodreads or Facebook reader pages or search through Twitter hashtags. I wish I did. I would probably find a lot more books to read (not that I need them, honestly, I’ve got so many books sitting waiting to be read it’s not funny).

But let’s just say that I did have the time to hang out with other readers. Yes, it’s good to know what they read and why they read what they read. As an author I definitely want to know that. But is it going to change what I write? Probably not. I write what I want to read. I write from my own imagination. I generally don’t write to the market – I’ve been told not to (by agents and editors), and I’ve been told I definitely should (by other writers).

And let’s just say in this hypothetical world where I’ve got so much time on my hands, that I hang out with these other readers. I make friends. We chat about books that we love to read. We have a grand ol’ time – until I suggest one of my own books. And then I know what’s going to happen. I’ll get shunned. Kicked out of the group. It’s nearly happened before. I got my hand slapped by the moderator of a Goodreads group for recommending one of my own books.

So how is hanging out with readers of books like mine going to help me if I can’t suggest my own books to them? I do want to reach these readers. I do want to develop relationships with them. But I don’t want to be thought to be a spammer, or worse, a user without authentic intent. It looks to me like I can either join readers groups as a reader and stay a reader and not let them know that I’m an author or I can try to find these people elsewhere…somehow… by being open and honest and telling people that I’m a writer, that I write fun books they’d probably enjoy reading, and I hope they give them a try.

So, where do you find readers? Do you hang out with them as a writer or as a reader? What do you think about this?

Format It Yourself

Should you learn to format your own books? I think you should – and this is coming from a woman who runs a side business formatting books for other authors. No. I’m not deliberately trying to put myself out of business, honestly. But I do think that whether you do it or not, every author should know how to format their own books.

Why?

For one all-important reason – one of the greatest thing about self-publishing is that you can change your work! It’s not set in stone once it’s published! Honestly, it’s not. It used to be.

With traditional publishing, once your book was published that was it. Once you accepted that copyeditor’s changes and made a few more of your own, that book might as well have been carved into the side of a mountain. There was absolutely nothing you could do to change a comma, put a “n” after an “a” because no one caught that tiny little mistake, or anything. It was done. Period. End of story, live with your typos.

But with self-publishing, that’s not the case. Forgot something? Go back and put it in. A clever reader catch a few typos? Fix them! Find out that Amazon has changed their keywords and added subcategories to their lists? Oh My God! Go and change those keywords! That’s what I’m about to do to my books – oh, and I somehow forgot to put in the right code for a left-single-quote in Storm on the Horizon, so I’ve got to back and fix that. Not a big deal. You know why? Uh-huh! Because I formatted it!

Yes, I made the mistake. But I can just as easily fix it. It’ll take me about 15 minutes to fix it and re-upload the corrected book. Oh, ok, maybe 20 because I’ve got to re-upload it to 5 e-retailers where I’ve got it for sale. But I can do it. Easily. And you know what…

SO CAN YOU!

Yes, you can learn to format your own books. It’s not hard, really! It’s tedious. It can be downright boring at times. I put on some fun bopping pop music and get formatting. And I get decide exactly how I want my book to look (within the limitations of an ebook where I can’t choose the font). I can put in pictures and drop-caps. I can have my chapter titles in the center, on the right underlined, or even on two lines (although, I have to admit I didn’t like the way that looked). And I can really go to town with the CreateSpace version! There I can put in pretty fonts to my heart’s content. I can put pictures in between chapters (did that with the anthology Tales From The Mist), and do all sorts of other fun things – really whatever I want.

So, how do you learn to do this? Easy! I’m going to be offering a formatting class on-line. Yeah, you knew that was coming, didn’t you? J It’s going to be the week of July 15th, but I’ll be taking questions for a few weeks after the class ends so that as you try out all that you learned, you can ask for help. It’s just $25 for a class that could make your books entirely your own.

Interested? Fill in this form, the information will be emailed to me:

[contact-form]

Beautiful Architecture

I’m baaack! If you follow me on Facebook (ie, “like” my author Facebook page (which you can do so easily by going to www.facebook.com/meredithbondauthor), you’ll know that I spent the last two weeks enjoying three European cities. My husband had to go on business, and I finally had the time to tag along (he’s been nagging me to do so for a while now since he travels a lot, but I always had previous commitments: teaching, caring for children and what-not). Well, the kids are now old enough to take care of themselves and my teaching duties are finished for the summer, so I went—to Moscow (for three days), Oslo (also three days) and Stockholm (for five days). Let me tell, you they were beautiful cities! I mean gorgeous!!

St. Basil's in Moscow

There’s something incredibly special about European cities—mainly because they’re old. They’ve got amazing architecture. They really knew how to build a house/building/church hundreds of years ago. Somehow Americans never really caught on to building beautiful buildings. Yes, some buildings in the US are pretty, some are very grand and imposing (they really went for the classical Greek look at the beginning of this country), but none have that beauty that just makes you want to pull out your camera and start snapping pictures—which is just what I did while I was there. So, here, for your pleasure, are some of my photos from my trip.

Through a door in Oslo

And, yes, I really wanted to tie this into writing or self-publishing somehow — I don’t know, maybe on the importance of aesthetic beauty in your formatting, but what they hey! Why can’t I just have a blog about something completely different every now and then? What do you think? Should I stick 100% to my topics of writing and self-publishing? Or is it ok to just have a blog with something pretty, or different, every now and then?

I always feel sorry for these guys who hold up buildings. This is in Stockholm.

Guest Poster Jennifer Piester

I’m very happy to have a guest poster today! Jennifer is my very first guest on this blog, but she won’t be the last! Every so often I’m going to have author friends joining me, so, please be kind and give her a warm welcome.

I love being self published, but once I was going to be published by a publishing company. Due to the number of books I planned to publish, the owner suggested  I create my own company and publish under it. I did and now own A & M Moonlight Creations. The owner instead became my editor. This is first thing I like about self publishing; getting to choose who I work with.

After edits were done and artwork, of which I do my own, the book was given to several English teachers of different grade levels to decide my books reading level. They decided on ages 8-12 and anyone who loves animals and magic.  Some of them would find minor problems and one would suggest additions to the story of “Wolf Magic”, in which my character of DWW takes on the role of full time magic teacher to two magical wolf pups. Her job is to teach them not just magic, but how to hunt and fight as well. Previously I had written nothing about them learning to hunt and fight.  I did add one fight, and two hunting scenes, which became my favorite parts of the story.

My book then went to a layout designer, who I would only be using once and only to set up my print book. Since then I have become a layout designer so I will set up my next books. I also created my website: www.mortalrealmwitch.com.

Before publishing, there was something I was supposed to change but never did-the description on the back of my book. Both then and now it reads: You are about to enter a new world…a world of witches, warlocks, familiars and much more. Come meet DWW who is learning she is a witch and that her dog can talk and he is going to teach her how to use magic, but it won’t be easy. Along the way you will also meet other fabulous characters.

It sort of describes the story but says nothing about how everything is told. This is the description I use now: Mortal Realm Witch: Learning About Magic is Book One in the uniquely written Mortal Realm Witch series. It contains six separate stories. Throughout you will learn about DWW, who will tell you her origin story about becoming a witch and learning about her new powers and responsibilities, and more, and you will get to read stories about DWW from the point of view of her familiar and the Head of the Witches Council. DWW will also become a magic teacher to two magical wolf pups, as well as try to stop a warlock from taking over the Realms. You will also meet Air Raid, a dragon, and his new friend and witch, Ally. Ally wants Air Raid to be her familiar, but Trom says dragons don’t make good familiars. Together Ally and Air Raid will try to prove him wrong.

This description is long but I have had people read the short description and come into my book expecting something it isn’t. Much of the book focuses on my character of DWW’s struggles to learn responsibility and what happens when she finally does. Once the book was available, I created Amazon and Goodreads profiles and changed my books description on these sites.

Although not the most fun, another thing I have come to enjoy about being self published is having control over my marketing. Most of my sales have come through attending local vendor/craft fairs and selling signed books and bookmarks that are only sold through myself. This may change a little as my book was recently released as a Kindle eBook and book two, of which I have people waiting for, is due out this summer.

My favorite thing about being self published is being able to choose my own writing schedule. I could never work on a schedule so I love not being forced to write because it allows my ideas freely and naturally, and for me, there is nothing better than this.

 

To learn more about me, my books, to read a free stories I wrote and more please visit me in the following places:

www.mortalrealmwitch.com, www.goodreads.com/jenniferpriester, and www.animalsandmagic.wordpress.com

 

Jumping into the Self-Publishing Pool

This weekend I was honored to be asked to give a talk to the wonderful Washington Romance Writers on self-publishing. I asked them what, exactly, they wanted me to cover and they said, basically, everything someone needs to know to get started. I was good with that. Even fact, I was great with that.

I get a number of new authors coming to me to ask me to format their books for them, which is terrific, but then they really have no idea what they need to give me or what to do with it once I’m done. They don’t know exactly what they want me to do either — there are a lot of options out there, which is one of the wonderful things about self-publishing. You get to do your book any way you want. It’s your book! No one is going to say “this is the way we do it here” because there is no here here. There’s only you. You are the publisher, so you get to have your book any way you want it. There are, of course, industry standards, and most people want their book to look like it was professionally published (or they should), so I guide them and help them create the most professional book I can. But there are a number of things you need to do before you even come to me to format your book. And here’s where this blog comes to a screeching halt.

There is just way too much information to include in one blog!

My answer to that? Put it up elsewhere. You can find the Power Point I gave to the WRW here (this is the section of my blog for writers, so you might just find other useful information there as well). If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to write and ask. It’s that easy! Good luck!

Getting Organized, Part 2

Last week I started telling you about how to organize your novel. It’s a big task, but happily, not a difficult. If you missed part 1, it’s here. In it I discuss what you need to organize and got started by talking about how to organize your characters. Today, I’ll move on to your plot.

You might have thought that you had a lot to organize with your characters – all those worksheets, interviews and what-not. Well, that was nothing when compared to what you need for your entire plot! Especially if you’re a plotter like me – although, I have to admit I don’t hold a candle to Darynda Jones (one of my favorite authors) who writes a detailed forty (4-0!!) page outline.

I will graph out my story structure (see this post on your story structure options) and write an outline (usually five pages or so, but definitely not forty). And then I’ll create scene charts for many (although not usually all) of the scenes in my book. These charts can be as simple as:

which can fit onto a 3×5 card or a sticky note for storyboarding (see this fantastic article on storyboarding by Joan Swan at Romance University.)

Or, I’ve got a full page version for my binder which covers more detail for my binder (in my book, Chapter One).

If you’re doing this on the computer, you should probably consider using a writing program like YWriter (free!), WriteWay or Scrivener. They make organizing your plot easy – basically allowing you to create a virtual storyboard, but the sticky notes can be anything from your scene chart or the entire written scene – or both.

And finally, if you want an easy way to see all of your scenes at once (and haven’t storyboarded – or even if you have!) creating a scene table in Word or Excel is incredibly handy. This is what mine looks like,

but you can have whatever you want in the columns – although I would recommend, at the minimum, the super-brief description and the conflict in each scene. Whatever else you add after that is up to you and what you know you need to keep track of.

The last two sections of your binder (or tab in OneNote) is research and notes. If you write anything that requires research (almost anything) you’ll want to keep it all together in one place. Please do because you don’t want to be doing that all a second time because you’ve lost your notes. And I always pre-write before I write a scene in order to get myself into character and into the time and place and situation of the scene – it helps me write deeper. All of that writing I keep in my notes section, along with ideas for future scenes, thoughts on scenes I’ve already written and what I need to change.

The most important lesson in all this is that there is no “right” way to organize your novel. And just because you do it one way for one book, doesn’t mean you can’t do it another way for the next.

Have fun! Play with it! Do whatever feels right for you.

Getting Organized, Part 1

I’ve toyed with all sorts of different ways to organize my books ever since I started writing eons ago. Some worked, others didn’t. Some books wanted to be organized on paper. Others felt more comfortable on the computer. Most worked with a combination of the two. Over the next two weeks, I’m going to talk about a couple of different methods I’ve used, but just to be different, I’m not organizing these blogs by paper vs. computer as I do in my Start Write class where I teach people how to get started writing a novel, instead, let’s look at this in a slightly different way.

Here’s the big picture

What you’re going to need to organize are the big, important aspects of a novel, namely character, plot, research and notes. These are the headings, the tabs in your binder, the files on your computer – however you organize your book.

It doesn’t matter if you organize these on paper or on the computer, you are still going to be shifting around the same information just in a different medium.

We’re going to look at the first two separately because they’re the biggies, and then I’ll touch briefly on the other two. So, today, let’s start with

Your Character Tab

To organize your characters, look at what you’ve got, or want to get about them. Do you have worksheets you’ve filled out? (I’ve got two in my book Chapter One which I’ve cobbled together over the years, plus I use some created by Michael Hauge). Perhaps you’ve got interviews with your characters, so you could get to know them better. Briggs-Myers tests? Just random writings or observations?

These all need to be corralled in a meaningful way. So, depending on where all this “stuff” is either create a binder (if it’s all on paper) or a tab in OneNote or a notebook in Evernote.

OneNote is a program from Microsoft which usually comes bundled with Word and Excel in Microsoft Office. It is, essentially, a virtual binder. You just cut and paste your information onto one of their pages and, voila, your notebook is done. It’s easy to put in pictures too – and it’s always great to have a visual to go with your characters.

Want to have access to your virtual notebook wherever you go? Create it in Evernote. It’s a free program on the web which has apps which can be downloaded to your laptop, table or phone. It’s easy to use and terrific for organizing things. (Honestly, once you’ve got your book organized in there, you’ll find yourself using it to organize everything in your life!)

Putting all that information, by character, together in one place will help you immeasurably when you need to check on a quick fact (was the hero’s eyes green or blue?), or need to be reminded of your protagonists overall goal if you’ve stepped away from your book for a little while.

Good luck with this! Have fun and check back here next week when I’ll talk about how to organize your plot.

Working hard, too hard?

I recently received an email from a friend who was on vacation. She had referred me to another friend of hers who needed her book formatted, so she wrote to me to tell me this. While on vacation. I didn’t think anything of it. I do the same thing. A day doesn’t go by without me checking my email and responding to at least those messages that need an immediate response, no matter where I am or what I’m doing. We all do this, right?

Well, in today’s ultra-connected world, yeah, we do. But should we?

This idea was brought home to me yesterday when I was talking at the Frederick Book Festival on a panel about the pros and cons of self-publishing.

One of the things I asked the panel (I was the moderator as well as a participant) was to name the worst thing about self-publishing. Some people said it was the fact that you have to do everything yourself – see to the editing, cover art, formatting, as well as all the marketing after the book is published. Some said it was that all of these things are expensive and you’re taking a risk laying out money for something you don’t know will sell. You don’t know whether you’ll earn that money back or not.

I made the point (as did Jeanne Adams, who was also on the panel) that when you’re a self-publisher you are your own boss. That’s not easy. Jeanne talked about her difficulty with deadlines — they’re so much easier to meet when they’re being imposed by someone else, rather than yourself.  For me, I’m my own worst boss because I rarely let myself slack and even more rarely do I give myself time off, even when I’m on vacation. And clearly, as evidenced from this email I got from my friend, I’m not the only one.

What sort of example are we setting for our kids? Is this a good thing that we do this — that we don’t or can’t let go of our work? Do you do this too? How do you feel about it?

Showing vs. Telling: Living the story

Showing versus telling is, I believe, one of the keys to writing a great book, rather than just a good book. It’s not an easy thing for a writer to catch a hold of either because we are born story tellers, not story writers. So, sometimes, it takes a second pass at your writing to make sure that you are showing your story rather than telling it.

Let me start out by explaining the difference.

When you tell a story, you are telling your reader what’s happening in the story:

Julian was hurt, but he wasn’t going to let it show. Not tonight. He forced himself to continue on despite the cuts he was receiving left and right. He stopped and tried his best to be polite, to talk to people, but to no avail. He was still the ostrich in a room filled with swans.  

He turned and caught sight of the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. She looked just like a porcelain doll. He just could not take his eyes off of her – and she was looking back at him!

That’s ok, but I’m telling you how Julian felt. I’m telling you how he was being treated. You can read this, but you’re not drawn in to the story. And that is the key.

Think for a minute about why you read a novel. It’s to transport yourself away, out of your life, out of wherever you are, even if it’s just for a short time. Reading fiction is an escape. So if a writer doesn’t do that, doesn’t transport you to another place or another time, what’s the point?

When we read, we want to live someone else’s life and experience all the exciting things that they can do that we cannot in our ordinary lives. I would even add the caveat, that we really, honestly, don’t want to do all the exciting things that characters do in book. We don’t want all of the horrible things that happen to them to really happen to us. But it’s exciting and enjoyable to read, nonetheless. We get to experience adventure and exciting things, without actually getting hurt or nearly killed – or in the case of my example, being treated with such rudeness that a person might just want to curl up into a little ball on their bed and never venture out into the world again. (But if my hero did that, I wouldn’t have much of a book, would I? No, poor Julian has got to be heroic. He’s got to put up with such rudeness and smile in the face of it. He’s got to continue on because he is a hero.)

To bring a reader deeper into your story, you can’t just tell them about what happens to your hero (as I did in the example above), you’ve got to let them live it. More like this:

Julian Ritchie entered the ballroom with his usual self-confident swagger. This night was going to be different, he told himself.

He didn’t know what it was that made him think so. Indeed, he had entered many a ballroom before thinking the very same thing, only to be severely disappointed.

But tonight there was something in the air—something magical. It was going to be a good night.

He stopped for a moment just inside the door and took in the ballroom. The brilliant colors of the ladies’ dresses and the officers’ uniforms warred with the vibrant colors of the flowers which were everywhere overflowing from sconces on the walls and in vases on every surface. The smell filled the room. It made for a very nice change from the street smell of spices and animals that always seemed to hang in the air.

And then there were the people themselves. All of Calcutta’s English society was here. Everyone who was anyone had been invited to Miss Renwick’s coming-out ball. He could even see a few prominent, wealthy Indian gentlemen present.

Julian had been a little surprised that he had been invited, but then, everyone in his office had been on the list of invitees. It would have been too obvious a cut if he alone had been left out.

Besides, he believed his employer, Sir Lionel Renwick, rather liked him, despite the fact that his wife loathed the sight of him. He suspected Sir Lionel had insisted on Julian receiving an invitation. Lady Renwick certainly would not have issued one otherwise.

Julian took a deep breath and headed for the first group of people who were standing and chatting nearest the door.

“How do you do, Mrs. Hurst, Miss Hurst,” Julian said, bowing to the two ladies.

Adelaide Hurst turned around, gave an imperious sniff and then turned her back on him once again. Her daughter, Anne, did little better, managing a small nod in his direction before turning back to her conversation.

Julian did not let their reactions bother him. He moved on, slowly strolling about the room and nodding to people who deigned to notice his existence.

He stopped outside a few different groups of people whom he knew, but they always closed their ranks against him just as he approached.

He found Sir Lionel in conversation with the Governor-General, Lord Minto.

“Good evening, sirs,” Julian said, bowing to them.

“Ah, Ritchie,” Sir Lionel said, nodding to him, “I am happy to see you could make it.” 

“Good evening, Ritchie.” Lord Minto gave him a very brief smile and then turned back to his conversation with Sir Lionel.

Well, it was the warmest welcome he had received all evening, Julian reasoned.

He turned toward the dance floor. The dancers hopped and skipped about as they executed the complicated steps of an English country dance.

But his gaze was held captive by the young woman at the head of the line. She was dressed in white and staring directly at him.

Julian couldn’t help himself. He stared right back.

She was beautiful.

There was an odd sensation in his stomach. As if a fire had been lit somewhere inside of him. Heat began to rush through him as he watched her.

She was like a porcelain doll. Her creamy complexion set off by just a little flush of color on her cheeks from the exertion of the dance. Her eyes were the color of the sky and her hair the color of the sun.

If her mouth was a little too wide, or her nose a little too small, he could not say. To him, she was perfect.

But why was she looking at him, of all people?*

Wow, that took a lot longer, didn’t it? That’s the thing with showing. It takes a lot more space, a lot more words, but you really felt it that time. I brought you into the scene and I let you live it right along with Julian. There is description of the place through my hero’s eyes (and other senses). There is dialogue. There is what he’s feeling. Everything pulls the reader into the scene and allows them to live it.

Give your reader this experience. Let them live your story – show rather than tell.

 

*Excerpt taken from An Exotic Heir (by Meredith Bond).

Snoozy Newsletter? Not for me!

 

What do readers want from a newsletter? What do they hope for when they join a mailing list?

I can’t imagine that anyone joins a mailing list in the hopes of being left alone, or without the expectation that they’re going to get notices of books being published by the author producing the newsletter. So, why do you join a mailing list?

I imagine you all noticed last week that I have created a sign-up for my own mailing list. It’s because I’ve been told a number of times recently – and by various people – that I really should have one and that I should reward people who sign up for my list with a newsletter. This naturally got me thinking about what I would put into a newsletter. It can’t be boring, or else people will un-sign up for it as quickly as they signed up. And it can’t be filled with “buy, buy, buy”, because that’s worse. So what goes in there? What do I write about?

This past year, I have been lucky enough to be able to publish three “books” (I put that in quotes because only one was a full length novel, one was a novella and another a short story.) and I’ve got more (full length novels) sitting on my computer waiting to be published after professional editing. This does mean that I’ve had news which I could have shared with any potential newsletter readers. Since I had no newsletter, I put the news up on my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/meredithbondauthor). In essence, I’ve been treating my Facebook page as a newsletter that goes out to my friends and readers every day.

So, I’m looking at different things to put into my newsletter. I could put in a super-short story (5-8 pages), articles on writing, reviews of a book I’ve read, or even a serial novel. What would you be interested in reading? Tell me what you want and sign up.

 If you’re an author, what do you put in your newsletter? If you’re a reader, what do you want in a newsletter?  If you’re both, tell me all!