Hellooo!!!!
It's not a natural thing for me to blog. I am not, by nature, the most sociable of creatures. It's not that I'm anti-social. I don't live in a cave in a remote desert and throw rocks at people that come within fifty yards. I usually wait until they are at twenty yards, once you can see the whites of their eyes. That's the point I usually start hurling boulders.
However, I recently published my first novel and all that has had to change.
Now, I am by no means a naive person, I didn't expect to publish a book and lie back and bask in a hammock of praise as the royalties rolled in. I knew there would be work involved, I just didn't know what that work would entail. Somewhere in my head a thought would pop up now and again and say words to the effect of 'you know at some point this novel will be finished and you will need to sell it'. But it was a bridge to cross at some future date.
Of course I exaggerate. I had a Facebook account which I looked at now and again and thought to myself, hmm, maybe I should be a bit more social…. Tomorrow would say my inner-self, to which I readily agree, knowing that tomorrow the same will happen again…
In fact, in the current circumstances this could be an example of a conversation.
The wife, (well, ex-wife actually, long story). “I’m sick and tired of all this self-isolation and social distancing.”
Me. “Oh is that still a thing, is it?”
It would be fair to call me ‘The reluctant blogger.’
So, the day came and I published my book and I stood at the threshhold of the bridge that I now had to cross. And what a bridge. You set up a web page....
https://bobsharp.co.uk/
And a facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/bobsharpauthor/
And an instagram and a twitter whatever and a newsletter. You build a following and you publicise your book to a following that consists mainly of authors who have followed you so that you follow them, and have no interest in buying your book and in turn you have no interest in buying their book. But still you do it.
So the building of my social media empire continues, it is still painful but now I cast a cursory glance as I see a post from a ‘newbie’ on all the author and writing promotion facebook groups you find yourself being sucked into. I laugh as I think how short a time that fresh faced enthusiasm has to live. If this was ‘Nam' I would be the blank eyed marine in grubby and blood stained fatigues watching the next generation of enthusiastic recruits disembarking with their shiny uniforms and their dreams intact.
And still the sales fail to impress.
But I persevere. Why? Because I have confidence in my product. It just needs to fight it's way out the dusty cellar that is the basement of the amazon kindle store. And my god there is a lot of dust down here.
It is a rollercoaster of a ride, you scrabble about for the main driving force of sales. Reviews. You get all sorts of interesting offers from dodgy men and women offering you limitless reviews for merely the cost of your soul. And people who for an arm and a leg will publicise your work to a following of other people who want to publicise your work.
This is the downside of that ride. The upside for me personally is that all the feedback I get is good. The reviews are good and genuine. The positivity from messages and on my FB page is overwhelming, and then there is the odd sale. This is what keeps me going, this is what drives me to keep pushing, and more importantly to keep writing.
I used to think writing was hard, sitting down daily and staring at a blank screen with a half finished sentence in your head used to be painful. Now it's a pleasure.
Moan over....
On the subject of writing(at last) I hope to publish a novella(about 75, 000 words) by the end of August. This will be interspersed with short stories on the same theme and the final total will be about 90, 000 words.
Also in the pipeline is a new Alfred Jones novel, with the subtitle Sunday and Sons.
Funny story(Well a story anyway) I got the inspiration for Alfred Jones when driving home one night along a road that followed the coast of a Scottish sea loch. It was just an average scottish winters evening, dark and windy and raining cats and dogs. I saw a crude hand-painted sign that pointed into a dark forest and simply said 'Jones Brothers.' By the time I got home the seed that became Alfred Jones and Son, Bros. was born.
I now live in Spain and one morning out for a walk I saw a crude hand painted sign that said 'Domingo a Hijos' Sunday and Sons. And so the sequel was born...
I would like to finish this blog by saying, I have no real idea what a blog is. I'm not even sure if what I have just written is a blog. I should probably look at other authors and see what they blog about, or something. But you know what, with my facebook and my instagram and the occasional twitter I just haven't got the heart.
So if it's not a proper blog I apologise but it is what it is. And let's face it, nobody reads it anyway.... Here I can scream away and nobody will hear it. Hello?
Goodbye and thanks.
However, I recently published my first novel and all that has had to change.
Now, I am by no means a naive person, I didn't expect to publish a book and lie back and bask in a hammock of praise as the royalties rolled in. I knew there would be work involved, I just didn't know what that work would entail. Somewhere in my head a thought would pop up now and again and say words to the effect of 'you know at some point this novel will be finished and you will need to sell it'. But it was a bridge to cross at some future date.
Of course I exaggerate. I had a Facebook account which I looked at now and again and thought to myself, hmm, maybe I should be a bit more social…. Tomorrow would say my inner-self, to which I readily agree, knowing that tomorrow the same will happen again…
In fact, in the current circumstances this could be an example of a conversation.
The wife, (well, ex-wife actually, long story). “I’m sick and tired of all this self-isolation and social distancing.”
Me. “Oh is that still a thing, is it?”
It would be fair to call me ‘The reluctant blogger.’
So, the day came and I published my book and I stood at the threshhold of the bridge that I now had to cross. And what a bridge. You set up a web page....
https://bobsharp.co.uk/
And a facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/bobsharpauthor/
And an instagram and a twitter whatever and a newsletter. You build a following and you publicise your book to a following that consists mainly of authors who have followed you so that you follow them, and have no interest in buying your book and in turn you have no interest in buying their book. But still you do it.
So the building of my social media empire continues, it is still painful but now I cast a cursory glance as I see a post from a ‘newbie’ on all the author and writing promotion facebook groups you find yourself being sucked into. I laugh as I think how short a time that fresh faced enthusiasm has to live. If this was ‘Nam' I would be the blank eyed marine in grubby and blood stained fatigues watching the next generation of enthusiastic recruits disembarking with their shiny uniforms and their dreams intact.
And still the sales fail to impress.
But I persevere. Why? Because I have confidence in my product. It just needs to fight it's way out the dusty cellar that is the basement of the amazon kindle store. And my god there is a lot of dust down here.
It is a rollercoaster of a ride, you scrabble about for the main driving force of sales. Reviews. You get all sorts of interesting offers from dodgy men and women offering you limitless reviews for merely the cost of your soul. And people who for an arm and a leg will publicise your work to a following of other people who want to publicise your work.
This is the downside of that ride. The upside for me personally is that all the feedback I get is good. The reviews are good and genuine. The positivity from messages and on my FB page is overwhelming, and then there is the odd sale. This is what keeps me going, this is what drives me to keep pushing, and more importantly to keep writing.
I used to think writing was hard, sitting down daily and staring at a blank screen with a half finished sentence in your head used to be painful. Now it's a pleasure.
Moan over....
On the subject of writing(at last) I hope to publish a novella(about 75, 000 words) by the end of August. This will be interspersed with short stories on the same theme and the final total will be about 90, 000 words.
Also in the pipeline is a new Alfred Jones novel, with the subtitle Sunday and Sons.
Funny story(Well a story anyway) I got the inspiration for Alfred Jones when driving home one night along a road that followed the coast of a Scottish sea loch. It was just an average scottish winters evening, dark and windy and raining cats and dogs. I saw a crude hand-painted sign that pointed into a dark forest and simply said 'Jones Brothers.' By the time I got home the seed that became Alfred Jones and Son, Bros. was born.
I now live in Spain and one morning out for a walk I saw a crude hand painted sign that said 'Domingo a Hijos' Sunday and Sons. And so the sequel was born...
I would like to finish this blog by saying, I have no real idea what a blog is. I'm not even sure if what I have just written is a blog. I should probably look at other authors and see what they blog about, or something. But you know what, with my facebook and my instagram and the occasional twitter I just haven't got the heart.
So if it's not a proper blog I apologise but it is what it is. And let's face it, nobody reads it anyway.... Here I can scream away and nobody will hear it. Hello?
Goodbye and thanks.
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