Leon’s Comments (group member since Aug 12, 2014)

Leon’s comments from the Authors' Helpline group.

Advertising strategies are always difficult.

Currently, my main methods of advertising are
My webpage, on which I have a description of each book, a twenty page preview of each book and the front cover. I also have a short bio on there, a contact page and a short stories page. The short stories page is special because the stories are free, and in HTML format. This gives readers something for free, and it gives them a way of getting to know my writing.

Next is Goodreads, which I particularly like because of the interactive nature of the website. On Goodreads I have an author page, a blog and of course the Authors Helpline group. Because I only need to put up a post to do an update, it’s very easy and efficient.

Facebook. Ah yes, Facebook.
I have a love hate relationship with Facebook. I don’t really like Facebook, but everybody is using it, my friends spend an enormous amount of time on there and every website on advertising tells me to use it, and so I use it. Whether it is effective, only time will tell.

There are other communities I belong to that I also use to advertise, such as the motorbike community, but I have found that these don’t bring many sales.
Then there are the places where I haven’t spent much effort, but which I will probably give a lot more time to during the coming year.
These include my author pages on Amazon, Smashwords and other sites.

That is most of my advertising. If you do things differently, I would love to hear from you.

Once a book has been written, the next step is obviously to make tons of money.
I have found that is generally not the case.

At the moment, I am following a couple of avenues of sales, but I have to admit that sales, for me at least, are few and far between.

On Amazon, my books go straight to Kindle. Kindle is easy to upload to, easy to manage and lots of people have Kindle readers now. There are also Kindle readers available for other devices such as PC and smartphones.
My sales on Kindle are not good though, I think this is because there are just too many Indie authors out there.

Next come Smashwords. Smashwords have got their own online store, and also distribute to iStore, Barns & Noble and others. I have, in the past two years, only managed ONE sale on Smashwords, so nothing to write home (or a book) about.

Next is CreateSpace, which is by far my favourite. For those that don’t know, CreateSpace is a print on demand company, they will print your book in paperback format. They are my favourite because I order a box of ten books, at cost price, and then I sell those books myself.
CreateSpace has only got a fee per book, there are no setup costs or nothing, and personally I think their prices are very reasonable. It also gives me the chance to hold a real book in my hand, a paperback novel I wrote. That is a feeling that is pure magic.

So at the moment these are my outlets. If any of you know of more, please add them.

My newest novel, Serenity, has gone live on Kindle. This being my fifth novel makes me really excited, maybe I'm getting this writing thing right.
It's strange though, I was making editing changes right up to the last minute, it seems I cannot look at that manuscript without wanting to make changes. Maybe I should wait a year and then do a major edit, once it's cleared out of my head completely.

I like studying the Masters, to see how they write. To this end, I have read and re-read a lot of Stephen King, Terry Pratchett and JK Rowling books. I have read the Potter series at least three times, and will do so again in the future.

Why?

Because it gives me insights into what I do wrong, what I do right, and what they do that I don’t.

It lets me study the structure of the novel, the way sub-plots are woven around main plots. It gives me insight into just how much planning some of them put into their stories. Did JK Rowling know everything that was going to happen in the last book when she wrote the first Potter book? Did she know that Potter was a horcrux right from the beginning? I don’t think so, but it certainly gives me insights into how stories work.

Study the way that sub-plots weave around main plots, how they combine and come together to form the main plot. Stephen King will often only give the outline of what a room looks like, while Rowling will describe things in detail, yet both of them get the same result, the reader is there, right there in the room, by the time their description finishes. How do they do it? Read the books, study them, and you might found out.

Reading a story only once does not work for me, during that first reading I am submerged in the story, I have to go back and re-read the story to see how it was done. Yes, it does sometimes spoil the story a bit, but sometimes it brings out delightful things I have missed in the first reading.

(This is a short piece of the first chapter of my newest book, Serenity. The book follows the revenge of Agatha Crow, who was locked up for a crime she did not commit).
Sunlight slanted through the heavily barred windows and fell into the office, leaving a shaft filled with dancing dust particles hanging just above Karl Clark’s desk.
‘So what you are saying,’ said the head of the prison,‘is that we have no other option, we have to let her go.’ His voice was dry, irritated.
‘Yes sir. She has served her full sentence with no time off. As from today, she is free to go. No parole, no conditions, nothing. If she asks for help to get back on her feet, we are obliged to give it to her. I doubt she will ask though.’
The speaker was Bill Jackson, head of the legal department for Hacksville prison. The head of the prison, Karl Clark, looked at him and sighed.
‘Bill, I know this woman killed at least five of her fellow inmates.’ He raised his hand before Bill could object. ‘Yes, I also know there is no evidence, but that does not change the facts, she killed her fellow inmates. She is deranged and she is dangerous, yet you want me to let her go, let her walk out of the front door and disappear into society?’
Bill coughed. He felt uncomfortable having this conversation with the head of the prison, but his job was to follow protocol, to allow the law to run its course, not to indulge a man who thought he had the right to imprison people because he felt it was the right thing to do.
‘You have to let her go Karl, before six o’clock tonight. If you don’t, legal council will be breaking down your front door in the morning.’
Karl Clark banged his fist down on the desk, then stuck his knuckles in his mouth and bit down on them in anger.
‘Right,’ he said at last. 'Get the wretched woman out of her cell and kick her out. But make sure she doesn’t leave this building one minute before six o’clock tonight, is that clear?’
Bill nodded and turned to the door. He could not wait to leave Karl Clark’s office.

*

The heavy steel door swung shut behind Agatha Crow, and for the first time in ten years she smelled freedom. She inhaled deeply, and when she smiled her broken and yellow teeth were stumps in her mouth. Ten years was a long time, it had brought lines to her face and had stolen the colour from her hair. After a quick glance around she set off, eager to get as far away from this godforsaken building as her feet could carry her.
At forty years of age, Agatha Crow was a big woman. The police would describe her as being of average height, but ten years of prison life had given her a strong body, strong enough to look after herself in a hell-hole where fights were not just a way of life, but also a way of death, if a prisoner was not careful.
She knew where she was headed. With the small amount of money she had in her pocket she would only be able to keep going for a few days, but that would not be a problem for her. Her more immediate problem was that Karl Clark’s men would be tailing her. She knew he wanted her back behind bars, back where he could keep an eye on her, but she had played her cards well, had been well behaved the past twelve months, giving him nothing to hold against her. And now she was free, and there was nothing the son of a bitch could do to her.

Hi Tamara.
This looks, at first glance, well written. What is the name of the book? I think knowing the name of the book will help to understand the nature of this piece of writing.
Just check that first word 'mind' in the first paragraph, it's the only bit I don't understand. The sentence would make sense without that word.
But the story sounds interesting, compelling the reader to find out more about what did happen to the girl.
Good luck with it.

I hope you got as much writing done as I did over the past few weeks, or even more. I have at least finished a bare-bones version of my new novel, which means I now have two novels that I have to edit. Best I finish and publish at least one of them before I start a next one!
As for the New Year, may you all have a wonderfully prosperous time behind your type-writers, may your imagination flow and I hope that this is the year one of your novels turn into a best-seller. Or at least, if you have not got a novel finished and published, make this the year that you do so. Set it as your goal for this year, and make it happen.

Proofing your work
I find that proofing my work is one of the most monstrous tasks that there is.
What follows is a short description of how I do it. I would like to hear from the others on the board how they do it, I am sure between us we can come up with a wealth of proofing knowledge.

My first draught is always rough. Sometimes, I cannot think of the right word, then I simply use a lesser strong word, but I put that word in brackets so that I am reminded to change this at (checking) time.
See my example above? I know I want to change the word ‘checking’, maybe it will become ‘editing’ or ‘proofing’.
Because I don’t trust electronics very much, I always print my work and keep a hardcopy of my story in a file. I take this file everywhere, and I do my second write with pen in this file, usually sitting somewhere in the garden. I use a red pen to make sure I can see every change when I get back to the computer. This is the stage that I replace those words in brackets, scratch out whole paragraphs and write new ones.
I then put the work away for a few weeks. After about three weeks the manuscript can come out of the drawer and be read. It is during this read that I notice if there is anything missing in the story. Was there something I meant to say that I didn’t? Have I told the whole story? Did I waffle a lot and need to kill some pages?
When the story is done, I print out the whole thing again, and now the editing becomes serious. Out with the red pen again, and this time I read each page three times. Yes, three times. The first time I am mostly just reminded of what I have written. The second time I start checking words, sentences and paragraphs. Words that can easily be confused, such as ‘their’ and ‘they’re’, grammar, spelling etc gets checked. I find that I have to read each page three times to get this right.
After that, the work goes to my proof reader (read ‘long suffering girlfriend’). She is English, (I am Afrikaans, so my tenses etc suck). She points out more mistakes, fixes my funny English to be real English and also criticizes me.
Only once I have done all the changes she suggested do I see the work as being complete and ready to be published.

TMEB, this looks like a good start to a story, but yes, the grammar needs some work.
Have you ever printed this and then read it on paper?
I think I might do a post on how I proof my stuff, then others can give their tips in that thread, and we can all learn.
The good thing is that grammar can be fixed!

That sounds cool. Did you just post the description or is there a preview too?
As an exercise, why don't you try to rewrite your post to be the actual blurb to your book? Do a blurb like you would put on a website such as this, one that would go on the back cover of the book, and one that would go inside the front cover if the book ever came out in hard cover.

Welcome Rhystlynne and Gem.
Sorry for the late welcome, I've been away for a few days. Hope you enjoy the boards.

Zombieslayer/alienhunter wrote: "Girlfromdystopia wrote: "Hey I was wondering if the mods could make a topic where we post the summaries for our books and get advice from there."

Yeah, that might be cool."

I like this idea, so I created the folder 'Post a Preview, Get a Review' for these summaries. We will need some base rules so make sure that previews don't just get flamed for no reason. But I'm sure we'll work this out along the way.
Who is going to be first to post a preview?

Lena wrote: "Hey, I'm Lena! I'm an aspiring writer, so you may see me around, asking for advice! ;)

(Hey Tessa and Tamara!!)"

Welcome Lena, hope you get the advice you need.

When looking at writing courses, I notice that a lot is made of plot. Although I do agree that plot is important, the writing courses miss an important opportunity, and a main point.
The thing that they are missing is that writing is not about Plot and Characters. It is first and foremost about telling a story. Novelists sit down behind their word processors to write a story, that is what they want to do.
But the moment they start looking at writing courses, or do a bit of reading up on how a book should be written, their story quickly disappears into Plots and Characters.
I think we as writers should challenge this viewpoint, and make sure that what we do, firstly and foremost, is to tell the story.
Sure you should have a strong plot, sure you should have strong characters. But always remember, you went and sat behind your word processor or notepad not to plot or create characters, you went there to write a story, and that is what you should be doing.

Hallo and welcome Zombieslayer.

Hi Tamara, welcome here.

Welcome Shine and Dysa, I hope you find some help here. Please feel free to ask question, the rest of us will try as hard as we can to answer them.

You might have found that the setting of a novel is sometimes as captivating as the story and characters.
As an example, think of the castle in the Harry Potter series. Hogwarts, it has its own name, it has secret passages, ghosts, live armor and doors with paintings that only open with the secret password. It has, in short, a life of its own in the story, and it is almost a character itself.
Your setting might not be as captivating, but definitely should be at least interesting.
I would not go so far as to say that you should imagine, create and even write down the setting on your first writing. Rather let the setting create itself while you write the story. Once you have finished the first writing and taken a rest before looking at the story again, when you can see the forest instead of just the trees, then it is time to look carefully at your setting, and to bring your setting to life.
When creating your setting during the second write, look at things like fauna and flora, the style of the buildings, the countryside or city surrounding your central setting, geography such as mountains or jungle, and weather. Take each of these factors and make sure you describe them, because they are what will make the setting come alive for your readers.

Welcome TMEB.
Good luck with that first novel.

Think of the word character. Character means, according to my Oxford Dictionary, ‘qualities making a person or thing what he or it is’.
Try to keep this in mind while creating characters for your story. If you do not give your characters qualities to make them into something, then they will be nothing, they will be words on a page only. They will not be anything that your reader will care about.
Of course, characters should keep to their character. Unless a character has serious mental or emotional problems, he or she should not be caring, vindictive, outgoing and a loner. That is just going to confuse the reader.
In the newest book I have just such a character, but yes, she has some serious issues that come out in her back-story, and she is anything but mentally stable.
I don’t think a writer should decide, before writing the story, what the specific characteristics of every character should be, for the simple reason that most characters reveal themselves as the story progresses. Then they can be reinforced during the second writing.
Of course a character can, and should, progress through a story. A woman who starts out as shy and lonely might by the end of the book be outgoing with a ton of friends. An innocent everyday kind of guy might turn out to be the killer who takes out half the population of earth, that is character development.
Characters should have little characteristics, such as sucking on their lips when worried, or smoking, or drinking, or patting their hair down every few seconds. They should be human (well, if they are human, because dogs can also be characters!). If you want to learn how to create such characteristics, treat yourself to a cup of coffee.
Grab your notebook and pen, and head off to the coffee shop. Order your favourite Latte and then simply sit and watch the other patrons in the cafe. Write down the little nuances you can see. That fat old lady who keeps on pulling her dress away from where it is sticking against her body, write her down. Ditto the four year old girl who is fidgety while mommy tries to talk to some strange man. Write down that strange man as well, because he seems nervous, he keeps on having to wipe sweat from his forehead.
These are real people, and using what they do will take you a long way to creating real people in your books. I’m not saying to use the actual people you saw in the cafe, but to create your own characters based on their little nuances.
Make your characters peoples that your readers can relate to, and they will keep your book alive.