Here are some more links to interesting blogs and articles I found on the web.
Tweet a novel?
http://blogs.reuters.com/india/2009/08/09/writing-a-novel-just-tweet-it/
Approach the blank page.
http://writeanything.wordpress.com/2009/08/09/approaching-the-blank-page-part-3/
Fifth time's a charm.
http://hubpages.com/hub/NaNoWriMocom-Can-You-Write-a-Novel-in-a-Month
For young writers.
http://www.examiner.com/x-19400-NY-Gifted-Education-Examiner~y2009m8d10-Gifted-Education-101-Expert-advice-for-the-aspiring-young-author
Road to publication getting harder?
http://www.zeriously.com/1412/get-a-book-publishedthe-roadto-publication-might-be-getting-a-little-rougher-3/
Great article about podcasting novels.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2009-08/07/novels-by-podcast-how-to-make-money-from-free.aspx
9 ways to promote your books online.
http://www.examiner.com/x-16045-Portland-Writing-Examiner~y2009m8d5-9-ways-to-promote-your-books-on-the-internet
Hope these help you out.
Until next time, let's keep on writing.
www.jhughthomas.com
www.facebook.com/jhughthomas
Showing posts with label podcast. Show all posts
Showing posts with label podcast. Show all posts
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Valuable Writing Podcasts.
Every writer finds methods to continue learning about the craft and business of writing. There are blogs, ezines, books, and magazines just to name a few. I use most of these resources but today I want to focus on podcasts.
What do I learn from podcasts? I learn about the craft of writing from authors and writing professionals. I learn about how to market your work. I hear interviews with authors which teaches me what to expect when (hopefully) I am one day being interviewed. And I can learn all of this in the flexible form of audio from a podcast.
Either from your computer or on your MP3 player, you have the flexibility to listen when you have time, and even take care of other minor tasks while you listen. Here are a few of the podcasts I currently enjoy, and I welcome you to post any that you love in the comments.
A 24/7 Writer's online radio station that I recently discovered. You will find some great interviews with Author's.
http://www.writersfm.com/writersfm/
The greatest combination of humor and practical guidance I have ever heard.
http://www.writingexcuses.com/
Mur is a great example of building a career through podcasting.
http://murverse.com/category/projects/podcasts/i-should-be-writing/
Great interview show broadcast out of Irvine, CA with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett hosting.
http://penonfire.blogspot.com/
Valerie Connelly, a writer and publisher, hosts this interview and tips show.
http://www.globaltalkradio.com/shows/callingallauthors/
Until next time, let's keep on writing.
http://www.jhughthomas.com/
www.facebook.com/jhughthomas
What do I learn from podcasts? I learn about the craft of writing from authors and writing professionals. I learn about how to market your work. I hear interviews with authors which teaches me what to expect when (hopefully) I am one day being interviewed. And I can learn all of this in the flexible form of audio from a podcast.
Either from your computer or on your MP3 player, you have the flexibility to listen when you have time, and even take care of other minor tasks while you listen. Here are a few of the podcasts I currently enjoy, and I welcome you to post any that you love in the comments.
A 24/7 Writer's online radio station that I recently discovered. You will find some great interviews with Author's.
http://www.writersfm.com/writersfm/
The greatest combination of humor and practical guidance I have ever heard.
http://www.writingexcuses.com/
Mur is a great example of building a career through podcasting.
http://murverse.com/category/projects/podcasts/i-should-be-writing/
Great interview show broadcast out of Irvine, CA with Barbara DeMarco-Barrett hosting.
http://penonfire.blogspot.com/
Valerie Connelly, a writer and publisher, hosts this interview and tips show.
http://www.globaltalkradio.com/shows/callingallauthors/
Until next time, let's keep on writing.
http://www.jhughthomas.com/
www.facebook.com/jhughthomas
Sunday, March 29, 2009
How to Start Marketing Yourself While You Write Your First Novel
We all have those dreams of great accomplishments from time to time. Of climbing Mount Everest, skydiving, or writing the great American novel. Maybe that is you, the writer who is ready to break out. Or maybe you just want to give it a shot. Regardless of the setup, you are reading this article because you are either writing a novel or you want to write a novel. I understand you because I am you. I am on the journey of writing my first novel and hope to finish my first draft soon. However, the pages I have written in my novel only account for a portion of my writing over the last year.
It is just as important to study the current methods, techniques, and technology of marketing novels as it is to write your novel. Why? Because once you are published (think positive), your publisher is not the primary push behind marketing your novel or you as an author. You will be the primary marketing department for all of your creative work. This is a shock to many writers once they become published authors, and probably results in many one time novelists who sell five hundred copies and fade away.
But knowledge is power, and now you know.
So what do you do about it? Read and learn. There are literally hundreds of free online information sources dedicated to online marketing and the more narrow discipline of marketing fiction, both online and through other mediums. I will just lay out a few of the things I did for starters as a baseline.
1) Choose your author name
I know, sounds silly. But if you try Googling your name, you may quickly find that it is very serious. Most people have at least three names, first, middle, and last. You want to find the combination of those names and/or initials least represented in a web search. This will allow people to find articles and websites about you with much less competition from others. For example, I searched for Hugh Thomas and found a well known historical writer by that name listed for pages on end. Then I searched for "J Hugh Thomas" and found no writing competition. Therefore, as a writer I am always J Hugh Thomas.
2) Buy your domain name
It is cheap and in today's world, it is pretty much expected. This also factors into your decision on your author name, because ideally you want to choose that name as your domain, in my case jhughthomas. It is best to get the .com domain, but if it is not available you can always go with something like .net or .info instead. Buy the domain from a company that will allow you to put up a simple website without a hosting fee. This means that for less than $10 per year, you can have a searchable presence on the web with some basic information about you and your novel.
3) Start a blog
In the past you could write a great novel and either academics or media figures would fall in love with it causing old style viral marketing. Today, users are coming to expect a new level of access and interaction with the producers of fiction. This combined with the fact that blogs are probably the single best way to develop a web presence makes your blog critical. My recommendation is to blog about writing your novel, or blog about parts of your novel. The reason is to keep you from being overwhelmed going in too many directions at once. Just write about what you are learning and doing. And post regularly. The best way to lose followers is to post sporadically. Once a week is usually a good schedule. Many free blogging sites exist but I use blogger.com.
4) Feedburn your blog
Now we are getting into some real marketing. By using feedburner.com, you are optimizing your blog to be delivered through RSS feeds to whatever platform the user chooses. In addition, you can give users the option of subscribing to your blog by email. You can setup feedburner to ping Google every time you post a new entry causing it to be instantly indexed for search. There are more features than I can cover here, but I think you can see that this step will go a long way to making you very searchable on the internet. Remember, every skill you learn now will be applied in new ways once your novel is complete. This is a time of education with some side benefits.
5) Blog or podcast some free fiction
I have not reached this stage yet, but I think it is the next logical step. When you are trying to sell a $10-$15 soft cover or a $25-$30 hard cover book, why will a reader choose your novel? Once you are established you have your brand name, like Stephen King or James Patterson, and the brand is what attracts the buyer. The reader does not see a Stephen King book as being a big risk. You do not have that luxury. If you are willing to write some great fiction and give it away, you have a bigger chance of developing readers who will buy your books. The key here is "great fiction," not just your leftover ideas. Spend as much time, if not more, writing multiple drafts and editing your free fiction as you do with your novel. This is your first impression so dazzle your readers so they will come back for more.
This only scratches the surface of all the ways you can market yourself while writing your novel. I hope that these ideas will help you as you complete your novel, get published, and market like crazy to drive up sales.
J Hugh Thomas is a database developer and a programmer who is writing his first novel. Read his blog http://onwritingmyfirstnovel.blogspot.com to see all of his writer's resources and free advice.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=J_Hugh_Thomas
It is just as important to study the current methods, techniques, and technology of marketing novels as it is to write your novel. Why? Because once you are published (think positive), your publisher is not the primary push behind marketing your novel or you as an author. You will be the primary marketing department for all of your creative work. This is a shock to many writers once they become published authors, and probably results in many one time novelists who sell five hundred copies and fade away.
But knowledge is power, and now you know.
So what do you do about it? Read and learn. There are literally hundreds of free online information sources dedicated to online marketing and the more narrow discipline of marketing fiction, both online and through other mediums. I will just lay out a few of the things I did for starters as a baseline.
1) Choose your author name
I know, sounds silly. But if you try Googling your name, you may quickly find that it is very serious. Most people have at least three names, first, middle, and last. You want to find the combination of those names and/or initials least represented in a web search. This will allow people to find articles and websites about you with much less competition from others. For example, I searched for Hugh Thomas and found a well known historical writer by that name listed for pages on end. Then I searched for "J Hugh Thomas" and found no writing competition. Therefore, as a writer I am always J Hugh Thomas.
2) Buy your domain name
It is cheap and in today's world, it is pretty much expected. This also factors into your decision on your author name, because ideally you want to choose that name as your domain, in my case jhughthomas. It is best to get the .com domain, but if it is not available you can always go with something like .net or .info instead. Buy the domain from a company that will allow you to put up a simple website without a hosting fee. This means that for less than $10 per year, you can have a searchable presence on the web with some basic information about you and your novel.
3) Start a blog
In the past you could write a great novel and either academics or media figures would fall in love with it causing old style viral marketing. Today, users are coming to expect a new level of access and interaction with the producers of fiction. This combined with the fact that blogs are probably the single best way to develop a web presence makes your blog critical. My recommendation is to blog about writing your novel, or blog about parts of your novel. The reason is to keep you from being overwhelmed going in too many directions at once. Just write about what you are learning and doing. And post regularly. The best way to lose followers is to post sporadically. Once a week is usually a good schedule. Many free blogging sites exist but I use blogger.com.
4) Feedburn your blog
Now we are getting into some real marketing. By using feedburner.com, you are optimizing your blog to be delivered through RSS feeds to whatever platform the user chooses. In addition, you can give users the option of subscribing to your blog by email. You can setup feedburner to ping Google every time you post a new entry causing it to be instantly indexed for search. There are more features than I can cover here, but I think you can see that this step will go a long way to making you very searchable on the internet. Remember, every skill you learn now will be applied in new ways once your novel is complete. This is a time of education with some side benefits.
5) Blog or podcast some free fiction
I have not reached this stage yet, but I think it is the next logical step. When you are trying to sell a $10-$15 soft cover or a $25-$30 hard cover book, why will a reader choose your novel? Once you are established you have your brand name, like Stephen King or James Patterson, and the brand is what attracts the buyer. The reader does not see a Stephen King book as being a big risk. You do not have that luxury. If you are willing to write some great fiction and give it away, you have a bigger chance of developing readers who will buy your books. The key here is "great fiction," not just your leftover ideas. Spend as much time, if not more, writing multiple drafts and editing your free fiction as you do with your novel. This is your first impression so dazzle your readers so they will come back for more.
This only scratches the surface of all the ways you can market yourself while writing your novel. I hope that these ideas will help you as you complete your novel, get published, and market like crazy to drive up sales.
J Hugh Thomas is a database developer and a programmer who is writing his first novel. Read his blog http://onwritingmyfirstnovel.blogspot.com to see all of his writer's resources and free advice.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=J_Hugh_Thomas
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
What is the podcast/podiobook business model?
OK, let me start by saying this is a loaded question. All I can do is give you one take on it. What I will present is based on listening to and reading podcasts, interviews, and blogs featuring many different authors taking this approach. I welcome and encourage anyone with opinions to share with all in the comments.
I see the business model as more of a progression, a set of building blocks that you assemble over time. Here are some of the steps involved in this progression.
Step 1: Write some great fiction - It may seem obvious, but until you have some fiction to offer up, you will be stuck at step 1. The beauty is that because you are planning to podcast, you can write short story length, novella length, or novel length. You will probably be podcasting in fifteen minute segments, so you longer source material just means more episodes. It may even be preferable to start with a shorter story to cut your teeth.
Step 2: Reformat for a podcast - In the same way that you can't just act out a novel in front of a camera and get a movie (thus, the screenplay), you may want to do a mild once-over on your story to make it more suitable for audio. Consider how narrative and dialogue will play out in the spoken word by reading your story out loud to yourself. I'm guessing that just as with story writing, the more you do it, the better you get at hearing what works best.
Step 3: Record the episodes and post them - I'm not going into all the details on recording or where to podcast your podiobook in this post, but this is where you really put yourself out there. You are now putting your fiction out into the universe to see what happens. It is important to note that you are giving your fiction away for free. Many people also offer their fiction in PDF format along with the podiobook. More ways for people to consume your fiction. Which leads to the next question. What if no one listens?
Step 4: Market yourself like crazy - This is where you have to spend most of your education time. Learn how to use combinations of social networking, blogging, interviews, podcasting, newsletters, and many other methods to increase the profile of your podiobook and your name. Your goal is to become a recognizable name and a very searchable name on the Internet.
Step 5: Repeat Steps 1 through 4 - The first podiobook is just the gateway to your second podiobook, your first novel, your online collaboration, etc. I won't pretend to know how many times you need to do this to "arrive." The goal here is to build a fan base. With each podiobook you release, you are developing this fan base. Once they are posted, they are there forever so people finding you one year down the road will find a year's worth of content. The growth of free, quality content over time combined with a unique level of customer content is how you will develop a following.
Step 6: Publish you novel - This should probably be one of your podiobooks or a new story taking place in one of your podiobook worlds. It could come in the form of traditional publishing supported by the strength of your online following, or in the form of self-publishing leveraging your online fans who are willing to pay for more of your fiction.
Think about it logically. With the millions of books out there, how do you choose what to read? You read authors you know you can count on for good fiction because you have read their work before. The podiobook approach allows a large group of people to hear your fiction without risking anything but the time to listen. If they like what they hear, they don't think of buying one of your books as taking a risk.
It is a whole new way of thinking. A radical change from traditional publishing.
I'm not saying one way or the other what I will ultimately do, but I know this is a viable model that can produce results if you have the talent and are willing to put in the hours.
Until next time, let's keep on writing.
www.jhughthomas.com
I see the business model as more of a progression, a set of building blocks that you assemble over time. Here are some of the steps involved in this progression.
Step 1: Write some great fiction - It may seem obvious, but until you have some fiction to offer up, you will be stuck at step 1. The beauty is that because you are planning to podcast, you can write short story length, novella length, or novel length. You will probably be podcasting in fifteen minute segments, so you longer source material just means more episodes. It may even be preferable to start with a shorter story to cut your teeth.
Step 2: Reformat for a podcast - In the same way that you can't just act out a novel in front of a camera and get a movie (thus, the screenplay), you may want to do a mild once-over on your story to make it more suitable for audio. Consider how narrative and dialogue will play out in the spoken word by reading your story out loud to yourself. I'm guessing that just as with story writing, the more you do it, the better you get at hearing what works best.
Step 3: Record the episodes and post them - I'm not going into all the details on recording or where to podcast your podiobook in this post, but this is where you really put yourself out there. You are now putting your fiction out into the universe to see what happens. It is important to note that you are giving your fiction away for free. Many people also offer their fiction in PDF format along with the podiobook. More ways for people to consume your fiction. Which leads to the next question. What if no one listens?
Step 4: Market yourself like crazy - This is where you have to spend most of your education time. Learn how to use combinations of social networking, blogging, interviews, podcasting, newsletters, and many other methods to increase the profile of your podiobook and your name. Your goal is to become a recognizable name and a very searchable name on the Internet.
Step 5: Repeat Steps 1 through 4 - The first podiobook is just the gateway to your second podiobook, your first novel, your online collaboration, etc. I won't pretend to know how many times you need to do this to "arrive." The goal here is to build a fan base. With each podiobook you release, you are developing this fan base. Once they are posted, they are there forever so people finding you one year down the road will find a year's worth of content. The growth of free, quality content over time combined with a unique level of customer content is how you will develop a following.
Step 6: Publish you novel - This should probably be one of your podiobooks or a new story taking place in one of your podiobook worlds. It could come in the form of traditional publishing supported by the strength of your online following, or in the form of self-publishing leveraging your online fans who are willing to pay for more of your fiction.
Think about it logically. With the millions of books out there, how do you choose what to read? You read authors you know you can count on for good fiction because you have read their work before. The podiobook approach allows a large group of people to hear your fiction without risking anything but the time to listen. If they like what they hear, they don't think of buying one of your books as taking a risk.
It is a whole new way of thinking. A radical change from traditional publishing.
I'm not saying one way or the other what I will ultimately do, but I know this is a viable model that can produce results if you have the talent and are willing to put in the hours.
Until next time, let's keep on writing.
www.jhughthomas.com
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Podcast your novel. The new face of publishing.
Often in history, innovation causes a shift in the direction of business. The telegraph industry gave way to the telephone business. The horse and buggy were replaced by the car industry.
That's not what we are seeing in publishing.
It is a new age where people operate in a new way. In the last ten years, the ipod, audio books, podcasts, and blogs have come into their own. People consume entertainment and information in the midst of a busy day, on he fly, or on-demand. On an average day, most people read less on the written page than on the computer screen. Increasingly, people hear less on a CD than on their ipod or computer streaming.
It isn't a replacement of a previous industry, but a change in the way we operate, and therefore the way the publishing industry must operate in order to keep up.
I still think it is a valid pursuit to seek traditional publishing, and probably the best place to start. Just don't stop there. And depending on how small a market you expect, you may even want to start with the "non-traditional" approach.
You should study the pioneers of the podcast novel including J.C. Hutchins, Scott Sigler, Tee Morris, Mur Lafferty, and so many more. If you listen to interviews or personal podcasts by these individuals, you will quickly find that the podcasting route requires a lot of work... I mean a lot. But it can pay off in the end.
Check out the selection of Podiobooks that are available. You could be next on the list.
This is a good article about the brave new world of podcasting fiction.
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1872381,00.html
I will probably do a more in-depth blog on the podcasting option in the future. Until then, let's all keep on writing.
www.jhughthomas.com
www.myspace.com/jhughthomas
That's not what we are seeing in publishing.
It is a new age where people operate in a new way. In the last ten years, the ipod, audio books, podcasts, and blogs have come into their own. People consume entertainment and information in the midst of a busy day, on he fly, or on-demand. On an average day, most people read less on the written page than on the computer screen. Increasingly, people hear less on a CD than on their ipod or computer streaming.
It isn't a replacement of a previous industry, but a change in the way we operate, and therefore the way the publishing industry must operate in order to keep up.
I still think it is a valid pursuit to seek traditional publishing, and probably the best place to start. Just don't stop there. And depending on how small a market you expect, you may even want to start with the "non-traditional" approach.
You should study the pioneers of the podcast novel including J.C. Hutchins, Scott Sigler, Tee Morris, Mur Lafferty, and so many more. If you listen to interviews or personal podcasts by these individuals, you will quickly find that the podcasting route requires a lot of work... I mean a lot. But it can pay off in the end.
Check out the selection of Podiobooks that are available. You could be next on the list.
This is a good article about the brave new world of podcasting fiction.
http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1872381,00.html
I will probably do a more in-depth blog on the podcasting option in the future. Until then, let's all keep on writing.
www.jhughthomas.com
www.myspace.com/jhughthomas
Sunday, November 23, 2008
Marketing my book online... before the book is finished?
In case you are not sure from my title, I have not completed even the first draft of my novel. And yet I brazenly state that I should be marketing now. Am I completely insane? Possibly, but I will explain why I think that regardless of where you are in the writing process, your marketing should already be in the works.
There are many facets to marketing: advertising (print/TV/online), interviews, podcasts, blogs, book signings, etc. I only know a little about marketing because I am unpublished, but I am convinced that the earlier you begin one portion of marketing, the better off you will be. What is this portion?
Your online presence!
You don't need a published book or even published articles to begin establishing an online presence. You just need some time and the will to explore your options. Here are a few of the areas that I am exploring during my writing process.
1) Buy your domain name. In today's world, this is a no-brainer because it is cheap and expected. Most importantly, it takes time for your domain name to be crawled by all the search engines, linked to by other websites, blogged about, etc. This time translates into quick and easy search results when you do get published and someone is Googling your name. Which leads to point number two.
2) Choose your author name wisely. May sound silly, but in my opinion, this is a big one. I go by Hugh but I choose to use J Hugh Thomas as my author name in part because the domain name jhughtomas.com was available. In addition, when I Google Hugh Thomas, I get many results for a history writer named Hugh Thomas. To prove my point, Google the name "j hugh thomas" and you will see my website and this blog right at the top. That is what you want... to be easily found if someone is looking. Not to mention, many people will start by typing in the URL of the person's name before they even Google. Every advantage counts.
3) Write a blog. Since they are free to run, this is another given. What do you blog about? I'll answer with the question, what are you interested in? What is important is that you are writing regularly in a communicative way, not in fiction style, and you are establishing more of a web presence with every post. Don't forget to link back to your domain name in every post which also helps boost the ranking of your primary site. Have many interests? Write several blogs. But make sure you can post at least once a week. If you post less than that, you will loose any loyal readers. I recommend blogger.com because it is what I use, but I'm sure the other free services are just as good.
4) Feedburn your blogs. If you don't know what this is, go to feedburner.com and read all about it. Bottom line is you have a distribution option for people to subscribe by email or RSS feed to your blog, you can track your subscribers, see when your blog is web crawled, tell the service to notify the search engines every time you post a new entry, etc. It is a free marketing and management plug-in to your blog, and all it costs is your time to set it up.
5) Social Networking. If you don't already have them, setup Facebook and MySpace accounts at a bare minimum. Once again, you will link between your blog/domain/facebook/myspace which helps your web presence. More importantly, you can join writers groups for support and reading groups for future marketing opportunities. The more friends you add over time, the more people you can directly market to once you are finished with your book. One important note here. DO NOT OVER MARKET TO YOUR FRIENDS OR GROUPS!!! This is a big no-no and you will be shunned if you take advantage. However, an email/message blast when your book is launched is perfectly acceptable. You would also be surprised how many professionals are lurking in these groups... agents, marketers, editors... so you may end up with a great support network to boot.
That's enough to start with, but it is just the tip of the ice burg. Don't get overwhelmed by it all. Just do something now so you aren't rushing to appear online after your book is on the shelves.
Resources:
Writing Excuses is a fun podcast that is entertaining and informative on the writing process. It holds to a short 15 minute format which is perfect on the go. You'll find yourself laughing and learning in the process.
Here's an article on How to get your first novel published by Jackie French. Since she is a published author many times over, better to follow her advice than mine.
Oh, and I forgot my weekly writing update last time. Over the last two weeks, I have finished another three scenes for the screenplay. The story is coming along nicely and I think I have reached the half-way mark. I believe that by the end of the year this will be done and I will be back full-time on the novel.
Until next time, lets keep on writing.
www.jhughthomas.com
www.myspace.com/jhughthomas
There are many facets to marketing: advertising (print/TV/online), interviews, podcasts, blogs, book signings, etc. I only know a little about marketing because I am unpublished, but I am convinced that the earlier you begin one portion of marketing, the better off you will be. What is this portion?
Your online presence!
You don't need a published book or even published articles to begin establishing an online presence. You just need some time and the will to explore your options. Here are a few of the areas that I am exploring during my writing process.
1) Buy your domain name. In today's world, this is a no-brainer because it is cheap and expected. Most importantly, it takes time for your domain name to be crawled by all the search engines, linked to by other websites, blogged about, etc. This time translates into quick and easy search results when you do get published and someone is Googling your name. Which leads to point number two.
2) Choose your author name wisely. May sound silly, but in my opinion, this is a big one. I go by Hugh but I choose to use J Hugh Thomas as my author name in part because the domain name jhughtomas.com was available. In addition, when I Google Hugh Thomas, I get many results for a history writer named Hugh Thomas. To prove my point, Google the name "j hugh thomas" and you will see my website and this blog right at the top. That is what you want... to be easily found if someone is looking. Not to mention, many people will start by typing in the URL of the person's name before they even Google. Every advantage counts.
3) Write a blog. Since they are free to run, this is another given. What do you blog about? I'll answer with the question, what are you interested in? What is important is that you are writing regularly in a communicative way, not in fiction style, and you are establishing more of a web presence with every post. Don't forget to link back to your domain name in every post which also helps boost the ranking of your primary site. Have many interests? Write several blogs. But make sure you can post at least once a week. If you post less than that, you will loose any loyal readers. I recommend blogger.com because it is what I use, but I'm sure the other free services are just as good.
4) Feedburn your blogs. If you don't know what this is, go to feedburner.com and read all about it. Bottom line is you have a distribution option for people to subscribe by email or RSS feed to your blog, you can track your subscribers, see when your blog is web crawled, tell the service to notify the search engines every time you post a new entry, etc. It is a free marketing and management plug-in to your blog, and all it costs is your time to set it up.
5) Social Networking. If you don't already have them, setup Facebook and MySpace accounts at a bare minimum. Once again, you will link between your blog/domain/facebook/myspace which helps your web presence. More importantly, you can join writers groups for support and reading groups for future marketing opportunities. The more friends you add over time, the more people you can directly market to once you are finished with your book. One important note here. DO NOT OVER MARKET TO YOUR FRIENDS OR GROUPS!!! This is a big no-no and you will be shunned if you take advantage. However, an email/message blast when your book is launched is perfectly acceptable. You would also be surprised how many professionals are lurking in these groups... agents, marketers, editors... so you may end up with a great support network to boot.
That's enough to start with, but it is just the tip of the ice burg. Don't get overwhelmed by it all. Just do something now so you aren't rushing to appear online after your book is on the shelves.
Resources:
Writing Excuses is a fun podcast that is entertaining and informative on the writing process. It holds to a short 15 minute format which is perfect on the go. You'll find yourself laughing and learning in the process.
Here's an article on How to get your first novel published by Jackie French. Since she is a published author many times over, better to follow her advice than mine.
Oh, and I forgot my weekly writing update last time. Over the last two weeks, I have finished another three scenes for the screenplay. The story is coming along nicely and I think I have reached the half-way mark. I believe that by the end of the year this will be done and I will be back full-time on the novel.
Until next time, lets keep on writing.
www.jhughthomas.com
www.myspace.com/jhughthomas
Sunday, November 9, 2008
Abusing misdirection
One of the great tools in writing is misdirection, where you have the reader thinking in one direction and then you pull a quick change and they say "Ooohhh. Now I get it." It is great fun to write this way, but beware of the pitfalls.
1) You left no clues along the way, nothing the reader can pick up on, and therefore the reader feels bamboozled. This is probably the biggest pitfall, and the most common offense. And I'm not talking about the crime novel where you don't have all the clues until the end. I'm talking about the trusty sidekick who has been acting in such a way that there is no shred of animosity, no hint of trouble, and in the end the sidekick tries to kill the main character because he jailed the sidekick's father. Whoa! The point is, if you are writing without a plan and you end up shifting in this direction toward the end of writing the story, it means you have to do a major rewrite to allow room for the sidekick to turn on a dime at the end. No quick change. It is cheating.
2) The entire story is a house of cards building to an expectation of an emotional climax where the lead character confronts his father's killer. Then, in an unexpected twist, we find out the lead character is a CIA operative who has to save the world, leaving personal problems behind. OK, go ahead and use the CIA part, but for heavens sake, don't build up an expectation for an emotional confrontation and not deliver. It is cheating the reader, and it may actually turn the reader off so much that they either don't finish the book or never read another one of your stories. You don't have to be predictable, but you must provide some level of emotional satisfaction to the reader.
3) It was all a dream. Cough... cough... gag... Sorry, unless you are finishing the Newhart TV series (which was a brilliant end), I don't recommend you use the "it was a dream" ending unless you do it with the greatest of skill, and there is a darn good reason... and it is emotionally satisfying... and it won't make the readers all say, "That was the stupidest ending ever."
Just my two cents. If you have any additional insights or examples, feel free to comment.
Resources:
Here is a blog entry on Writing Software and Downloads. I haven't tried any of them, but they look promising.
http://www.mindtweaks.com/wordpress/?p=963
The mighty Mur Lafferty, podcaster extraordinaire, had a good podcast interview with Benjamin Rosenbaum, talking about using the Creative Commons license. It is an interesting license and worth exploring.
http://murverse.com/2008/11/03/isbw-104-interview-with-benjamin-rosenbaum/
That's all for this week. Until next time, lets all keep on writing.
www.jhughthomas.com
www.myspace.com/jhughthomas
My Facebook Page
1) You left no clues along the way, nothing the reader can pick up on, and therefore the reader feels bamboozled. This is probably the biggest pitfall, and the most common offense. And I'm not talking about the crime novel where you don't have all the clues until the end. I'm talking about the trusty sidekick who has been acting in such a way that there is no shred of animosity, no hint of trouble, and in the end the sidekick tries to kill the main character because he jailed the sidekick's father. Whoa! The point is, if you are writing without a plan and you end up shifting in this direction toward the end of writing the story, it means you have to do a major rewrite to allow room for the sidekick to turn on a dime at the end. No quick change. It is cheating.
2) The entire story is a house of cards building to an expectation of an emotional climax where the lead character confronts his father's killer. Then, in an unexpected twist, we find out the lead character is a CIA operative who has to save the world, leaving personal problems behind. OK, go ahead and use the CIA part, but for heavens sake, don't build up an expectation for an emotional confrontation and not deliver. It is cheating the reader, and it may actually turn the reader off so much that they either don't finish the book or never read another one of your stories. You don't have to be predictable, but you must provide some level of emotional satisfaction to the reader.
3) It was all a dream. Cough... cough... gag... Sorry, unless you are finishing the Newhart TV series (which was a brilliant end), I don't recommend you use the "it was a dream" ending unless you do it with the greatest of skill, and there is a darn good reason... and it is emotionally satisfying... and it won't make the readers all say, "That was the stupidest ending ever."
Just my two cents. If you have any additional insights or examples, feel free to comment.
Resources:
Here is a blog entry on Writing Software and Downloads. I haven't tried any of them, but they look promising.
http://www.mindtweaks.com/wordpress/?p=963
The mighty Mur Lafferty, podcaster extraordinaire, had a good podcast interview with Benjamin Rosenbaum, talking about using the Creative Commons license. It is an interesting license and worth exploring.
http://murverse.com/2008/11/03/isbw-104-interview-with-benjamin-rosenbaum/
That's all for this week. Until next time, lets all keep on writing.
www.jhughthomas.com
www.myspace.com/jhughthomas
My Facebook Page
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Think about marketing? Already?
That's right friends and neighbors. The time is now to start considering marketing. Who is in your target market? Which magazines, news outlets, websites, blogs, radio shows, etc. are the most productive for reaching your target audience?
Now I don't think you should go overboard, or loose focus on the main objective, finishing your book. But from all I have read, it seems writers often think only in terms of their creative outlet, not how to sell it. If you imagine the publisher will take care of "all that stuff," think again.
The authors willingness to market the book is probably the biggest factor in the success of the book, or lack thereof, in terms of sales. The publisher's job is to produce a quality product, the physical book. Beyond that, don't expect much, except maybe connections and help knowing where to market your book.
I hope this is not too discouraging. Better to know now than after the book is published. Just be aware that you need to pickup the marketing skill set, so you can have a published book one day that is read by more than your family. And believe me, this post is just as much for me as for you. I have only just begun to learn about marketing, so hopefully I will bring you more detailed marketing information in the future.
For now, Google away.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Resource: The Secrets
I found an excellent podcast and newsletter from bestselling sci-fi and fantasy writer Michael A. Stackpole. He has a free podcast on the craft of writing which I have learned from, and he also offers a paid subscription to his bi-weekly newsletter, The Secrets. I highly recommend his podcast for any writer, but especially if you are interested in sci-fi or fantasy writing.
Podcast RSS Feed: http://www.stormwolf.com/thesecrets/podcasts/secretfeed.xml
Podcast Home: http://www.stormwolf.com/thesecrets/podcasts/
The Secrets Website: http://michaelastackpole.com/thesecrets/
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Resource: Instructional Podcast
If you want to take a creative writing class minus the tuition, I recommend the podcast at americanwriter.com. It will challenge you to move from just writing a book toward writing literature.
It is not an active podcast but the available archive is worth listening to. Tom has a teaching background which comes through in his well delivered teaching sessions. They run longer than average podcasts, usually from 25 to 35 minutes. You will find yourself wishing that they were longer, and that there were more of them.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Resource: Podcasts
As I meander through my writing diary, I will post some entries with Resource in the title. Here I will digress from my story, and direct you to a book, blog, podcast, or some other resource that I found helpful.
Today I will focus on the deep resources available through podcasts. The benefits of podcasts are plentiful. You can educate yourself during your daily commute, while waiting at the doctor's office, or while you take your morning jog. It allows for multitasking in a life where time is in short supply.
In addition, you are hearing from an array of authors, publishers, editors, publicists, and other experts. The advice that these seasoned professionals provide is free of charge. That is my kind of price. And yes, you may go on to buy one of their books. A technique that you will one day use when selling your book.
Here are a few podcasts that I have found useful. If you are not the parusing type, I will highlight some individual podcast episodes in future Resource entries which will be directly linked.
Calling All Authors - Hosted by Valerie Connelly who is an author, teacher, and publisher among other things. The archives are a treasure box full of informative interviews and publisher's corners.
http://www.globaltalkradio.com/shows/callingallauthors/
Writers In The Sky - Hosted by Yvonne Perry, Published Author, Freelance Writer, Podcast Host and Owner of Writers in the Sky Creative Writing Services. Once again, look through the archives on the right hand side as you scroll down.
http://www.yvonneperry.blogspot.com/
Search for podcasts on "writing fiction" or whatever your interest, and you will find a host of results.
http://books.podcast.com/
These are just a sample. Google writing podcasts and you will find almost endless resources.
Until next time,
Hugh
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