Quit Watching Your Pot

This month, I have been focusing very little on advertising my book as I participate in National Write a Novel in a Month for the very first time.  Truthfully, my books sales have suffered.  But that doesn’t matter so much as I had very few sales to begin with.

What I have done in the way of marketing is plenty of giveaways.  I’ve had one  giveaway or another happening since mid-October.  So far, the giveaways haven’t produced many new sales, and they probably won’t, at least not until I get the next books in each series published.  But what they have produced are reviews, many from book bloggers who aren’t even accepting review requests, and also followers.

I checked in with my numbers today.  My facebook fan page has doubled in ‘likes’, as have my twitter followers and blog subscribers.  I’m sure the experts will tell you this is an all important step in building a fan base (well, duh).

Still, I was amazed at what happened to my numbers.  The old adage, ‘a watched pot never boils’ comes to mind here.  But I am admittedly obsessed with numbers, so I can’t not watch my pot for too long. 

Check out my latest guest post and giveaway at Alexia’sChronicles.  My advice to all of you Twain Wannabe’s?  Give.  Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

NaNoWriMo - You are a fickle, fickle, whore. And so is your mother.

I was going to say bitch in the title but I'm trying to keep this blog PG.  Quick update on my writing this month – it is sucking.  Literally.  It is sucking the life right out of me.  Why is one hour in the morning and one hour in the evening so hard?  I'll tell you why – because if you don't accomplish it, you fall behind very quickly.  Then you begin to question your very skills as a writer, and motivation is fleeting.  The first week went well, the second week – not so much.  A few things I have definitely learned:

1 – The month of October needs to be WAY busier than the month of November.  Meaning, October should be filled with researching, planning and plotting.  It is fine if you write well on a whim, but it is soooo, soooo necessary to have a plan for when your muse fails you.  Additionally, if you already have books out, October should be spent pre-marketing for November.  This means blog posts, interviews, giveaways and blog hops all planned in advance so it is a quick copy and paste exercise in November, allowing you to return to your wonderful cocoon-like writing world.

2 – They should shut down Twitter AND Facebook for the month of November.  Unless you are counting your tweets and posts toward your 50,000 word goal, which I do.  The trick to writing is setting aside time, but the secret to productive writing is turning off all the gadgets during your time.  I firmly believe there are little 'time' demons running around, that have some sort of agenda against NaNoWriMo, who cause your phone to buzz when someone @mentions you on Twitter or makes the little red circle next to the Goodreads mail icon to pop up.  In fact, I may write a book about these demons.  The nemesis of whom, will be the angels sending e-mail notifications alerting you someone has bought your book on Smashwords.  Those are interruptions I welcome. 

3 – December is going to suck worse than November.  I am not looking forward to the many hours ahead of reviewing, editing and revising the crap I am producing.  But, I will march on, and at least turn it into polished crap.  Then my editor and critique group will march on and turn it into the most wonderful piece of writing forever and ever.  Well, maybe not forever.  Forever is a long time and I just can't be sure.

4 – Hate mail works!  For some reason, giving myself an outlet to spew curse words at NaNoWriMo about how much this sucks, has allowed me to break though that writer's block.  I was able to churn out this post in less than 10 minutes.  Ain't blogs grand?

So my goals for the third week?  Catch up on my goals for the second week.  And for the fourth week?  This will be the week I use writing as an excuse to avoid holiday get-togethers with my in-laws as much as possible.  I take what I said about you back, NaNoWriMo, perhaps you aren't so bad after all.  Are we still friends?  No?  Fine - you take the bed tonight.  I have writing to do anyway.  

And now I can add another 558 words toward my 50,000.  Score!

More about You

Thanks to my last post, I received great advice on finding my muse - and what to do about it even if she remains MIA.  Soon, I'll combine all the advice with some witty banter and catchy phrases, and make a great post out of it.  In fact, this advice is so great - I was even able to churn out a few guest posts in addition to my NaNoWriMo novel.  Check out the latest one at The Next Best Book Club, and if you missed my previous guest post, it is still up at Indies Unlimited.

Still can't get enough of me?  I have a new page on my blog; just click on 'More of Me'.  But enough about me - let's focus on you.  YOU should check out the latest promotion on 'Water', found under 'My Books'.  Enjoy!

Not-So-Lofty Goals

Quick update on my writing this month.  I am closing in on 10,000 words, which puts me right on track for my 2,000 words/day goal.  The problem is, I am running out of inspiration.  At first, I had clear goals what I was going to write.  Goals that I have already accomplished.  So apparently, I need loftier goals.

Which is why I am writing a blog post; I simply don't know what else to write.  But just so you know, each word in this post most definitely counts toward NaNoWriMo totals.

While my muse is on vacation, I do have some semi-helpful writing tips to share:

• Set aside time.  I do one hour before the kids wake up and one hour after they go to bed each day.  Come to find out, this is not the worst thing in the world, and is a schedule I can conceivably continue even after November; as long as the coffee holds out and the baby doesn't develop some awful form of insomnia.
•  Turn stuff off.  This includes your Twitter screen, Facebook account, e-mails, etc.  One quick glance leads to several minutes, and possibly hours, of distraction.
• Check in with friends right before you start writing for the day.  Look at their word count totals, let your competitive side take over – and totally leave them in the dust!  Feel free to add me as a writing buddy (I am Terra Harmony) on the NaNoWriMo website so I can totally leave you in the dust.
• Use non-writing time to do your thinking and planning.  While you are in the shower you can come up with a name for that new character you just introduced.  When you are driving to work, think of your next plot twist.  If you get stuck while writing, use XXX. This does not mean 'insert extremely vulgar porn here'.  It is a method I use to bookmark places I need to revisit to fill in the blanks.

 That is really all the advice I have.  This is my first year and I'm still trying to figure out what works.  Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a muse to hunt down, hog-tie and strap to my desk, feeding her just enough water to survive but keeping her weak enough to never escape again.  Oh – just thought of a new scene… 

In a Shock and Awe Sort of Way

Decided to do a last minute post before I delve into NaNoWriMo.  If I do what I'm supposed to be doing, there won't be many blog posts during the month of November.  I'll try to focus solely on writing new material and will be judiciously ignoring my laundry, kids, cleaning duty and most marketing efforts.  I say 'most' marketing efforts because I will continue to participate in blog hops and giveaways.  I've decided to cordon off an upper section of my blog to devote to these announcements.  The Spooktacular Blog Hop Giveaway has led to an increase in blog followers; I have yet to find out if it has led to an increase in sales; I'll do the science later – after November.  No Science in November (NoSciNo).

I will also release another vampire short, a prequel to Gleaming White.  The only thing left to do is cover art – and out it goes!  You may see a tweet or two when it is done.

I find myself at an awkward stage in the publishing process; I have two polished ebooks published that have made ok sales, but certainly not enough to turn a profit (50 or so book sales between the two of them).  Meanwhile, I anxiously await the posting of reviews.  I have certainly expected some to churn out by now, but I am holding off on harassing the reviewers for fear of being black-listed.

I have resorted to other methods of garnering reviews:

1 – E-book giveaways on Goodreads (offered the first of my vampire short story book to the first ten commenter's, then offered the second in the series for free if they post a review before a certain date).

2 – E-book giveaways on blog hops: Same premise – give away the first, offer the second if they post a review.

3 – If a reviewer doesn't have the time to read your book, counter with an offer to do a guest blog post, interview, or giveaway on their site.  I've recently received a lot of exposure this way.

But now what do I do while I sit back and wait for the reviews to flow in, thereby magically increasing my sales numbers?  I write more books...duh!  With all this marketing, researching, and experimenting, it is easy to forget that above all, we are writers.  I am hoping that the month of November will bring me back to that concept (in a shock-and-awe sort of way).

Good luck to all you Twain Wannabes attempting NaNoWriMo, and follow me afterwards to figure out what to do next!

NaNoWriMo = NotSoPubRedNo

As I sit here, thinking about NaNoWriMo – I started freaking out.  There was a reported a surge in self-published ebooks that had no business being on the market in December of last year (unsubstantiated, I did no science).  I can only attribute this to NaNoWriMo participants who were naive enough to believe they had a publish-ready novel after a month long 2000+ words/day writing binge (for the sake of this article, we will refer to them as NotSoPubRedNo's).

This scared me as a self-publisher of ebooks.  Would anything I put out in the few months after NaNoWriMo be automatically labeled a NotSoPubRedNo?  Probably.  If I were a book review blogger I might just be inclined to reject all submissions at least until February.  That is probably why I am not a book blogger.

To combat the NotSoPubRedNo plague, I will take two approaches. 

1 - Get out all my review requests for completed works by the end of November.  So yes, I am back to stalking reviewers.  I found a creepy, new method too.  For those that are closed to reviews or those who haven't responded to a request – find them on Goodreads, friend them, suggest your book.

2 -  Start a campaign within the NaNoWriMo community to just say no to NotSoPubRedNo's or in other words...NoNotSoPubRedNo (ok – I am probably getting a bit ridiculous here, I blame the rum).

This campaign will consist of tweeting, facebooking, google +ing, blogging, talking, Morse coding, smoke-signaling (again with the rum) all the steps writers must take after NaNoWriMo to produce a PubRedNo.  See what I did there?  Hashtag it.  Tweet it. 

Step 1:

Finish it.  50,000 words does not a novel make.

Step 2:

Edit it.  Substantively, professionally.

Step 3:

Edit it again.  Grammar, punctuation.

Step 4:

Critique it.  Join a group; get feedback.

Step 5:

Edit it again.

Step 6:

Cover art.  Hire those Mormons - see my post on why.

Step 7:

Format it.

Step 8: 

Publish then market that bee-atch!  Bee-yatch.  Beetch.  None of those look right.  I'll have to google it.

So there you have it.  Eight steps.  Boom!

NaNoWriMo - The Devil Wrapped up in a Twinkie. Sounds Delicious.

(The title was just to get your attention.  It worked, suckers.)

When a member of my writing group first asked me, "Are you doing NaNoWriMo?"

My immediate response was, "What'd you just call me?"

He explained.  Sounded like torture.  I said I was in.  My biggest concern, of course, is how it will affect my favorite holiday of the year.  My kids I can ignore, my day job can suffer, my laundry can stay dirty – we will all probably survive the month.  But that feast must go on.

With NaNoWriMo just around the corner, we have started to hear a lot of *ugh*, *sigh* and *not again*'s from within the writing and publishing communities.  Many people take umbrage with the fact that a novel can be written in a month.  On SheWrites, an author recently posted a blog 'Just Say No to NaNoWriMo'.  I felt compelled to reply, as did many others.  Chuck Wendig (avid tweeter, writer, creator of Terrible Minds) has many things to say about the NaNoWriMo.  Some good, some bad, some not for the faint of – ear?

As Chuck would say, 50,000 words does not a novel make.  No one participating should be under the illusion they will have a marketable product by the end of November.  The NaNoWriMo website itself says, "The ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output.  It’s all about quantity, not quality.  Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap."

What this will do is force writers to write – perhaps discover the plot, storyline or characters as you type away instead of hashing them out in advance.  It'll get you past that writer's block – in fact, it will force you to punch that block square in the face and that is after you mow it down with a semi-automatic weapon.  Yes, my friends, it will be gory.

But you can do it!  Use resources offered; participate in forums, tweet about your progress (use hashtag #nanowrimo), find local writers and create a group.  But most of all – write!  Aim for 2,000 words a day, every day.  When you get stuck, move on.  Start a different story, introduce a new character, write about how much you hate your life.  Anything!  Besides, if you 'win' (yes, NaNoWriMo has conceded to the gamification of society), you receive special offers from the sponsors.

I am curious to find out exactly how soon after November we see a surge in self-published e-books (or a surge in divorce rates, for that matter).  Makes me want to get out more review requests now.  Just keep in mind Twain Wannabe's, that months of adding to, subtracting from, editing, formatting, cover art and more editing will be in your future after NaNoWriMo.  With luck, you can have all that done by July 2012 – just in time to start prepping for the next NaNoWriMo. 
 
Damn – I am getting sick of writing that word, acronym, whatever it is.  Did I mention I am a writer?


Anyway, excuse my blog for the month of November while I will mostly be blogging about how much I hate writing.  But follow me afterwards, as we can 'finish up' and tackle the self-pubbin' beast together.

NaNoWriMo, 50,000 words, GO!!!  Yes, go…you really don't have to wait until Nov. 1.