Inspiration Strikes

I have had a flash of inspiration lately.  I have found that happens when it comes time to work on promotion.  After creating two rough outlines for my next novel, a pre-post apocalypse story, I didn’t like my sequencing.  My order of peak moments just didn’t work.  The hero's motivations wouldn't work.  I was stumped for a few days.  Then I remembered something I learned at a writing seminar.

The instructor, author Jaimie Engle, spoke about writing techniques. One of them was writing in scenes.  Jaimie said that it doesn’t work for her, but a friend uses it all the time.  She writes her scenes on note cards, and then rearranges them until it suits her.  I've never been a note card kind of guy.  I've been spoiled by the computer.  I need my cut and paste when I write.
 
To that end, I have started a list of scenes, added notes, and in some cases begun filling in the details.  So far so good, but I’m still in the early stages.  At the very least, I will end up with the high points of my story, which I will piece together.  It seems to suit me as I tend to bounce around a lot anyway as the creative juices ebb and flow from one direction to another.  Sometimes working on a particular scene, I am inspired to add a character trait.  Then off I go to my character bios to add them there.  It’s a little ADDish, but it seems to be working.  Hmm, I wonder if that means something.

Beginning my Book Promotions

Advertising isn’t what it used to be.  In days gone by advertisers hit you with a pitch that encouraged you to buy.  It was a sheer numbers game.  Get your ad in front of as many people as possible, and SOME will buy.  The internet alone didn’t change that.  In the early days of the World Wide Web, advertising was still delivered in a similar manner.  But social media changed all of that.  Advertising has become interactive, and to be successful it requires more than just blasting out your sales pitch.  You have to develop an online presence and interact with your audience. 

Developing an online presence isn’t something that happens overnight.  You can’t just set up profiles on all of the social media sites and post “You’ll love my book.  Buy it Now!”  That’s why it’s called “developing.”  Developing takes time.  Building a following takes time.  And the only way to build a following is to give people a reason to follow you, and interact.

At first I looked with dread and the marketing and promotional aspects of my books.  But now I’m excited.  In a moment of self discovery, I realized it was getting started that caused me trepidation.  It seemed like such a huge job, one that had to be repeated for each and every web site on which I wanted to have a presence.  My first instinct was to put it off “until I had more time.”  THAT will never happen.  It’s like in writing, the often heard lament of: “I have this great idea but I don’t have time to write.”

Soooooo, I am starting with Goodreads.com.  It took a little over a week to take possession of my author page.  Sure I would have liked it to be instantaneous, but I know these things can take time.  I’ve filled in most of the profile, wondered if my bio needs work, and realized I can have fun rating and/or reviewing all of the books I have ever read.

Yes, I am looking forward to developing my presence on Goodreads, and adding other sites as well.  And maybe, somewhere, I’ll make the time to work on my next novel.

Inspiration and Procrastination: My Kindle Project

The previous post is why I have 3 completed novels.  Every time I would finish a novel and start to even think about searching for an agent, I would get inspired with another story.  "I can't waste my time looking for an agent today.  I'm really hot on this new novel.  I probably wouldn't find an agent anyway."

As a champion procrastinator, the first rule of procrastination when faced with an unpleasant task is to find something more important to do.  Since inspiration has no schedule, you must strike when the iron is hot.

That is not to say that, I haven't procrastinated a bit since I first began exploring the Kindle option.  At the present time, I have ideas for 5 more novels in various stages of notes.  In the last week or so I have become very inspired to write other things, but I am forcing myself to focus on Soul Searching.

I have the cover art.  That was a huge stumbling block.  I have finally sorted out the royalty option choices.  I know what format it needs to be in prior to uploading.  When the final proofread and corrections are complete, the file will be ready for upload.  But there was more more thing to agonize over.  The description.

The description isn't just something to go and fill in.  You don't just sum up your novel in the text box with no prior thought and move along.  The description is what will make people either click the button to download or keep searching.  I find that daunting, especially after searching the internet for tips.  "Write in the style of your genre," says one.  "It will drive your English teacher crazy but don't use complete sentences," says another. 

Today, inspiration struck for my description.  I'm still fine tuning it, but I'm sure I'll have it ready before the final draft is complete.

All I can say is "soon."  Which is actually a little frightening.  More on that later...

Going to Do It!

OK, you finished your novel.  YAY!!!  After 4 years, it’s done.  Endless hours, often late into the night, you toiled to get it just right.  They say once you finish your story you should polish it and polish it, then polish it some more.  You’ve polished it so long that some of the “i”s are missing their dots.

That sound like you?  It sounds like me to a tee.  I decided I can’t be alone out there in this feeling, so I decided to blog about the trials and tribulations of getting my books on Kindle.  I tried the conventional print method, but I could never get past the agent search.  After only a handful of query letters I gave up.  That could be a blog entry all of its own, and it will be at some point.

So in this series I am going to talk about the process and the amusement and anguish along the way.  Every once in awhile, something will work easily, and I’ll have cause to celebrate.  I don’t think that will include the cover art though.  Even though it’s not print, it’s been suggested that a good cover still matters.  I tend to agree with that as we are a visual society.  I suspect that on social media, images get shared more than plain links, and are probably more likely to get clicks as well.

I have all the tools, or know where to get them either cheap or free.  I have my concepts visualized in my head.  And I roughly know the process for Kindle.  I take my version upload it, and let Kindle do the conversion  Easy.  But if I remember correctly from my previous research, it’s a good idea to make sure in the process none of the desired formatting was lost. They recommend html, and since I have a familiarity with it, that's what I'll use.  But I will still create my final final final manuscript in document form.

I have three completed manuscripts, and have decided that the first will be my romance novel entitled Soul Searching.  It happens to be my wife's favorite, and I have an idea for cover art.  In the coming evenings, she will be doing the final read through, looking for any typos we might have missed in the last three final edits, and any formatting errors that might have cropped up from using a backup copy in PDF format.  I'll tell you about THAT next time.

So stay tuned for more blogs, coming soon.