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Posts Tagged ‘award-winning writing’

Pursuit of the Dreamcatcher

March 11, 2013

Dreamcatchers are a fascinating Native American tradition. Intended to protect sleeping individuals, positive dreams slip through, while negative dreams get caught in the web to expire with the first rays of the sun.
~ Photo courtesy Nicolas Moulin

Positive or Negative Dreams
One of the comments I came across not too long ago in my indie-publishing research really stuck with me. I believe it was Mark Coker, the founder of Smashwords, who said it:

“In the self-publishing gold rush, more money will be made in author services than in book sales.”

What does that mean?

Well, put quite simply, it means the folks that are selling services to help you indie-publish are probably going to make a helluva lot more money than you are.

I’ve had a very modest success with indie publishing, which I hope is due more to book quality (see the press release containing my latest book review) than any marketing effort on my part or, for that matter, which service platform I used.

I’m locally known for doing my own e-Book conversions and for researching the tsunami of new services that promise to help indie authors self-publish. I was even asked to give a presentation on self-publishing options at the Rochester Writers Conference at Oakland University last fall.

The Dreamcatcher Mystique
What did I discover? It’s sad but true, Mark Coker was right. The vast majority of even traditionally published authors rarely sell more than five thousand copies of a book.

While there are exceptions (there are always exceptions) the odds of an indie writer-publisher selling even that meager amount of fiction is a significant longshot.

Still, we keep trying, don’t we?

I attribute that to the dreamcatcher mystique of publishing. We all want to be the next fabulous discovery. The next Stephen King or J.K. Rowling. Or even better, one of the indie-famous … like Amanda Hocking, John Locke (the self-published author, not the “Lost” TV-series character) or J.A. Konrath.

Who wouldn’t want to live that positive dream? But given the new multitude of services that promise to help an indie writer get to that Nirvana, where do you go for help?

The Results of All That Research
There are good single-channel, retailer-driven services, like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing, CreateSpace or Barnes & Noble PubIt!

You will also find (presuming you’re looking) good multiple-channel distribution services like Smashwords or BookBaby that often include some kind of formatting and conversion service. Along with the newer Apple iBooks Author (which I am just now researching) these are some of the best services.

If you’re like me and determined to do most of it, if not all of it yourself, these are the ebook conversion services I have used to date:

J-Edit, a free, open source program to convert my Word manuscript to an HTML file; and Calibre, another open source (free) program to convert that HTML file to the proper MOBI and EPUB files required for Amazon and other e-Book uploads.

Sigil is another multi-platform EPUB ebook editor that I’ve heard tons of good things about, but have not tried yet myself.

That’s it. Are these all of the services that are available? Not by a long shot. But they work for me.

When all is said and done, however, the hardest part … the very hardest part … is getting someone to notice your book. I’m talking about that most dreaded of “M” words … Marketing.

Now that spring is around the corner, I’m getting ready to launch a serious word-of-mouth campaign, starting with schools, book clubs, book fairs and possibly book stores. I’ll let you know some of the details as they come together, and will report on the success (or failure) of each of them.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, my lovely bride is asking me to get off the computer again. As much as I want to stay and see what the dreamcatcher has snared, I think she’s found a shorter pier for me to take my long walks on.

Or maybe she’s just calling me to breakfast.

Tags:award-winning writing, indie writers, press release, self-publishing
Posted in Award-Winning Fiction, Awards, Book Promotion, Book Review, Market Your Book, Storytelling | 4 Comments »

Universal Balance, Indie Publishing and a Tease

March 7, 2013

“Winter Beach” – blog and story © R.L. Herron

UNIVERSAL BALANCE
I read a lot. I guess I’ve said that about myself before and it sounds like self aggrandizement, even to me. But it’s true.

My reading speed with excellent comprehension is well over 1200 words a minute (sorry, Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics, I don’t need you).

There isn’t a day that goes by I don’t read my share of things. Newspapers (plural), magazines, books, letters, websites, email and blogs. Probably more than my share.

I’m sure there’s someone, somewhere, who didn’t have enough time to read today because I spent so much time doing it (I do apologize … I just can’t help it).

Why am certain? Call it karma, or providence, but I have this idea it’s somehow all about universal balance.

Well, all this reading leads to thinking, which leads me to ideas … and since my ideas often get hopelessly entangled in the emotional side of relatively mundane, often impractical things, I occasionally rant … or at least mutter about them under my breath.

My long-suffering wife has learned to deal with it by telling me to take a long walk. She often includes a comment about a short pier, but in the end I’m usually still muttering.

In the winter I think she takes pity on me. To get rid of me for a while she doesn’t send me out in the cold, she suggests I write some more on one of my stories or my blog.

Just last evening she suggested I write another book.

Since this would be in addition to the one I’m already working on, she obviously wasn’t satisified my mumbling had been sufficiently muffled by the bitterly cold walk I already took (or maybe she was upset the pier was too long).

In any event, I took her advice, gravitated again to the keyboard and now it’s you, Dear Reader, who has to deal with my thoughts.

That could be a good thing. It all depends on how you look at it.

INDIE PUBLISHING
As you know if you’ve been here before, I’ve been thinking about indie publishing a lot lately, because I’ve done so much of it this past year.

I brought out three books and had one of them become an award winner (you can’t see my broad grin but, trust me, it’s there).

I’m also working on book Number Four while trying to figure out how to market the ones I’ve already written, so I research incessantly. When I’m doing that, my wife wishes I would get off the computer.

If that sounds in direct opposition to her admonition to ‘go write’ you’ll understand why I’ve come to the conclusion I’ll never really figure her out, even though I’ve been trying for almost 43 years.

SAMPLE
That leaves only the “tease” I promised (an excerpt from the sequel to Reichold Street – unnamed as yet – that I hope to have out later this summer).

To set the stage: Randy and Donnie are brothers who grew up on Reichold Street. They are only secondary characters in this book, but will intereact with the main protagonist.

Both were wounded in a drive-by shooting (in the first book) and Donnie, a promising, talented writer, lost his wonderful ability with words. Shortly after that, they lost their mother to cancer … and now, fifteen years later, they’ve also lost their father.

This is written from the perspective of Randy, the oldest brother:

We made the ride out to Cloverlawn in silence. The cortège was a great long one; one of the longest I’ve ever seen. I failed to understand how Dad seemed so beloved by so many people in Brickdale. I had met most of his friends. There weren’t many.

My brother and I rode alone in the car behind the hearse, silent for the journey’s duration because Donnie made it clear he didn’t want to talk. So we sat there in black suits looking like two dressed statues made of stone. We didn’t even speak to the driver.

We made the long, slow turn near the woods Mom loved. As we entered the cemetery, I spied the first of the apple trees near her plot. It was far too early for Mom’s favorite blue Caryopteris to be in bloom, or for there to be ripe apples on the ground under the trees, but the twisted, gnarled old trunks showed plenty of promise with their blooms.

I stepped out of the car and the apple blossom scent, mingled with the damp musk from the woods, reminded me again how much my parents had enjoyed the area. They’d spent a lot of time looking for homes there. Years. It was, by itself, a good memory. They had always been happy in that patient search, although it had been fruitless. They never left behind the rusty, diesel smell of Brickdale.

For a moment I watched the long string of cars queue up behind us. Then I caught sight of the tent that stood over the dark maw in the earth next to my mother’s grave. Seeing the hole where we would bury Dad darkened my already somber mood.

Donnie was crying.

I honestly don’t remember the words the pastor said at the gravesite. I do recall saying the Lord’s Prayer aloud with the other mourners, but even that memory is vague. I felt faraway and detached as I watched Donnie throw a handful of dirt into the grave while the coffin was lowered into its concrete vault.

People started to leave, but Donnie and I sat on a pair of folding chairs and watched until the workmen had filled the hole completely. We were alone then, except for the driver from the funeral parlor, who kept looking at his watch as if we were keeping him from an appointment.

When I finally stood to go, the driver’s sigh was an audible, palpable thing. “C’mon, Donnie,” I said, “there’s nothing left to do here.”

Silence filled the back seat of the limo again until we were almost home. That was when Donnie quit staring out the side window and looked across the seat at me. “I should write about this someday,” he said.

Donnie turned back and stared out the window, while his hand held an imaginary pen and drew tiny figures in the air.

Then it was my turn to cry.

———-
Read this AMAZING review for my novel “REICHOLD STREET”
———-

Tags:award-winning writing, book marketing, indie writers, self-publishing
Posted in Award-Winning Fiction, Awards, Book Promotion, Book Review, Market Your Book, Storytelling | Leave a Comment »

Market Sense

February 24, 2013

Marketing your own work is often compared to trying to sail in thick fog. It’s hard to know where you’re going. / AP photo

How Do You Market a Book by Yourself?
I went to the monthly meeting of The Freelance Marketplace Writers’ Group last Tuesday.

It’s a local group that meets the third Tuesday of every month (except December) to discuss the business of writing.

I look forward to it, because I learn something about the business every time I go … even if it’s something eye-opening about myself.

This month we talked quite a bit about self-publishing, and I mentioned the difficulty of marketing your own work.

I truly believe the best marketing is still word-of-mouth … but how do you get people started talking? It often feels like sailing around in a dense fog.

When I had finished my novel, Reichold Street, I thought it was good, but then, why wouldn’t I? It was my creation, after all. Sort of like having a literary child.

And, although it’s not really her kind of book, my wife thought it was pretty good, too. While that did wonders for my ego, it doesn’t sell books.

The Traditional or Indie Way?
I knew most traditional publishers today won’t accept unsolicited manuscripts, so an agent is a requirement for entry; but I think most new writers have heard the tales about finding a reputable agent. It’s a chore unto itself.

It can take months or years and, even if you’re fortunate enough to find one willing to take a chance on you, there’s no guarantee of finding a publisher equally willing.

I’m not a total newbie. I’ve written articles for a major international company (although I’m not sure a literary agent would care). I even had a few fiction credits over the years. But the bylines for my fiction were dated and few … and not exactly awe-inspiring.

Then there’s my age. I’m no spring chicken. Not even a late summer one. I’m fast becoming a gristled old rooster. I had retired from the nine-to-five routine and was writing because … well, because I had to.

I’ve been writing since I was a kid because there’s something in me that demands it. I sent my first story off to collect a rejection letter when I was a teenager and I still have stories in my head that I need to write.

Need to.

So, I took the indie leap.

Ernest Hemingway’s famous quote about writing a book tells it pretty much like it is: There’s nothing to it. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed.

But I discovered going indie is a mini MBA program unto itself. You’ll never learn more about the publishing business than doing it yourself.

Writing can be difficult, but being your own editor is chore I don’t recommend to the faint of heart. Neither is converting it to the proper electronic formats. It’s boring and tedious … and you miss a lot when you try to polish your own work.

It took me several iterations to get it right.

The Really Hard Part
But as hard as all of that seemed, it (pardon the cliche) pales in comparison to trying to market your own book.

I had very little social media experience before publishing my own novel. I had built a web site for collecting old cameras, and started a little-used blog about photography that has morphed into the one you’re reading now.

I’ve discovered trying to build a presence on Facebook, Twitter (you can follow me there @ronherron) and Goodreads has a steep learning curve. I often feel like a hamster on a wheel, running to keep up with things that don’t always seem to be taking me anywhere.

I put a couple of books … my short-story collections Zebulon and Tinker … into Kindle Select the other day. They’re exclusive to Amazon for 90 days. I also used the Amazon free promotion program for each of them.

Zebulon had 125 free downloads in three days, and I’m waiting to find out if the Select program helps with sales (I’ll let you know what happens).

One of the new visitors to the writing group suggested I try to schedule school and library visits; perhaps even do a reading. It makes sense. I’d have to do it even if I wasn’t an indie author.

It will take some effort on my part to get the word out. I already know I can’t depend on social media to do it for me, but I need something to stimulate sales or I’ll be turning out more blogs than books.

So I’ve decided to get off my duff and do the legwork (although I may wait for Spring, when there isn’t so much snow).

I’d welcome any comments you have.

Oh, I did manage to write six-thousand more words on my next novel since my last post. That’s why I feel OK about blogging again so soon. I’m an indie author … and proud of it.

All things considered, it’s a great time to be a writer.

The Official Book Trailer for the Award-Winning “Reichold Street” –