Unknown ♥

There are so many people out there who will tell you that you can't. What you've got to do is turn around and say "watch me." --Unknown

It's a little corny, I know, but I like it.  Having just read Chuck Wendig's post about self doubt, the idea of losing confidence has been on my mind lately.

Last night, I got into a... not an argument, exactly.  More of a discussion... about self-publishing and why I should have sought out an agent and not self-published Aigaion Girl.  And for a second, I thought, Shit.  What if I went the wrong route? Maybe I shouldn't have done what I did.  Maybe-- and then I realized that despite his good intentions, the person I was talking to is not a writer, has not spent the last eight or nine years researching this and knows a lot less about the way the publishing industry works than I do*.  In short, I realized that I actually know what I'm talking about.

So this morning, I woke up early and started to plan my writing for the next few months.  Not a day-to-day plan, but something fairly rigid which includes reminders about important marketing-type stuff, like posting something on Twitter and my Facebook fan page at least four times throughout each month.  It, of course, also includes bigger writing projects like writing and editing fiction (for example, November is blocked off for NaNoWriMo).

I'm hoping I can stick to it and actually get some decent writing done this fall. I'm going to write some amazing things this fall and I am going to seriously boost my readership.  Watch me.

*He had some very nice things to say about the story, though. 
P.S. If you're wondering why I captioned the image with the same quote, it's because I hot linked the picture.

Marketing Time.

I've been thinking about self-promotion and marketing, trying to figure out what works best. What I've come up with is that, whatever it is, it's time-consuming.

There's the Twitter thing. I haven't built up the number of followers on Twitter that I'd like, but honestly, I don't think it's difficult to do, just time consuming. I know of someone who, in addition to random Twittery things (My dog looks so cute in her Easter outfit) just posts random motivational sayings directly out of a book of random motivational sayings - and has over 1000 followers - but she posts a few times a day. I hardly ever remember to even go to Twitter... but if I did, if I posted every single day, even just random bits of stuff, I might be able to get a bit of a following, and then I could post things to promote myself... could work.

Also, the repeatedly-googling-my-book-title-thing. At one time, Aigai-- autocompleted into Aigaion Girl because I spent a lot of time repeatedly googling my book title. Now, even if you type in all of Aigaion the software comes up before my book - because I just don't have the time to type my book title into a Google search bar 200 times a day. But it would be nice. I could definitely do with my book being at the top of the results page.

Reviews would be great. A lot of reviews. But I'm still not sure how to get them. A huge part of me is tempted to mail random copies of my book to completely random people - just pick names out of a phone book or something like that - because people who blog are likely to post something about it anyway. "I got this random book in the mail today, WTF?" would probably generate a fair bit of googling, if nothing else... but then that's kind of creepy, isn't it? Just mailing things to random people.

Also, contests. I think contests that are free to enter do well. They're certainly my favourite kind.

I'm mostly just thinking out loud and I really should get back to work. This is my last night at my day(night) job, and I want to make sure everything is done properly.

The People You Know

***First of all, I'd like to wish everyone a happy 2011 filled with book deals and adoring fans.***

Most writers write with an audience in mind, even if that audience is only a vague: people like me. Sometimes it's way more specific, with age, gender, even socioeconomic standing or ethnicity taken into consideration. Who a writer writes for will vastly alter what s/he writes, not to mention what gets cut during editing.

So, what I'm wondering is, do you ever find yourself writing for the people you know? Do you worry about what your friends and family will think about a certain scene, concept or character? Do you avoid basing characters off of friends of friends or colleagues, in case they're recognized.

There's no denying it can get awkward. It's kind of hard to hand your Dad a piece of writing with a sex scene and say, here, read this and not feel weird about it.

The popular theory seems to be that it's not what, but who you know that will determine your success as a writer. One of the best tools a writer has is his/her circle of acquaintance. Word-of-mouth is an excellent form of promotion (I know I'm personally a lot more likely to read a book based on a recommendation from someone with similar taste than I am to read one because it's a best-seller), but I find it kind of difficult to approach people and ask them to promote me - and even more difficult if they themselves are not part of my target audience, or worse, I know they're likely to disapprove of what I've written.

So, do you skip sex scenes to prevent your dad from reading them, or skirt religious debates to avoid upsetting your grandparents, try not to rail against your day job to placate your boss?

Do you just not tell people what you're writing and hope that some never find out?

Alternatively, do you just write the way you want to write, release your writing into the world and reap the whirlwind (/backlash)?

I was terrified to let Aigaion Girl go. I wrote it happily enough, not really giving any thought to anything other than the flow of the story, the realism of the characters, the cadence of the prose--It never occurred to me that I should avoid certain topics or images - until I was getting ready to publish, and realized that somewhere along the way, there was good chance my grandmother was going to read it. She won't, thankfully*. I was actually a little surprised that I didn't experience more negativity from my extended family. I didn't send them all invitations to join my Facebook fan page or anything, but, especially with social networking sites like FB, it's kind of impossible to keep my writing secret from anyone without using a pseudonym.

So there's a question, too: Is it worth it to write under another name, so that you can write with abandon?

Really, I'm just curious to know how other writers deal with their family and friends when it comes to their writing - how much of a consideration friends and family are.


*I love my Gran and I don't want to read something that I know will upset her (I've since been told by others that the book is really sexual, which surprised me because all the sex scenes are fade-to-black).

A Quick Thought About Marketing and Day Jobs

I'm amazed that day job wasn't already a tag, given the nature of DevCo and the nature of writing today (as in, skill and perseverance pretty much have to be combined with unbelievable luck in order to get far ahead enough to no longer require a day job), but there you have it. I'm at mine right now.

I came up with a great marketing idea, or at least an OK marketing idea, involving Twitter (I know :p). I thought I would post something every day (maybe first thing in the morning) telling people the best rate for Aigaion Girl and where they can find it. Eventually, the constant posts have to get someone's attention, right?

So that's my thought. How it pertains to my day job: I don't have a computer of my own, so I have to use the one at work - and that one won't let me use Twitter; it has some antiquated net nanny thing on it which I could probably disable really easily, but am not going to because I like my day job bosses.

OK, I think that's it for me. I'd put up a picture of Marco, but the only one I have is at home.

A Double-Shameless Plug

So now I'm at the point where I'm shamelessly plugging a product which I created for the sole purpose of shamelessly plugging my book, but what can you do?

As much as it sucks, humble authors are often unknown authors, and I have to get myself resigned to the idea that in order to succeed, I may have to spend a lot of my time telling people how great I am, shamelessly plugging my own work and (and this really scares me) asking other people to plug it for me.

So, I guess the question I really need to ask myself is is it worth it? Is my writing really good enough to warrant asking other people to stand behind it? I think that it is. I don't think I'm being conceited - I really hope that I'm not - but if I didn't believe in what I was writing, what would be the point? There are plenty of other, better paying jobs that I could get if I was willing to work toward them, but my writing is a part of me, hopefully a part that does me credit.

In a round about way, that brings me to something I've been meaning to mention about our ten rules discussion. When I started writing my post, I had one rule in mind, which, due to all of the other things I came up with, I ended up forgetting about. It was this: Never apologize for your writing. Telling someone something is rough is fine, but don't say you're sorry. Never use the word just about your writing. "It's just a rough draft" takes away from its importance. It's not just anything.

I'm not saying that writers should expect other people to love everything about their writing, or that they shouldn't accept criticism with an open mind, but I think knowing that a piece is important, that it's worth the time and effort to polish it, is good for a writer's soul.

This post got really far off topic. Its original point was to plug the Aigaion Girl tote bag which is now available for purchase. It kind of got away from me - but I won't apologize for that ;)

May 11, 2010

Okay, that title is remarkably uncreative, but it's early and my brain is too fried to come up with anything more useful.

So, my authorless book tour started yesterday. Moloch and the book travel to Mississauga, Ontario next, then on from there. There has got to be an easier way to maintain the flow of information about this kind of thing - and even as I type this, I realize that that way is to become famous enough that your publishing company pays for other people to organize these things for you. I don't mind, really, it's just that I'm scatterbrained, so remembering to update this blog and my other blog with normal blog like things, as well as update the tour blog, my news page, the Facebook page and Moloch's Twitter, is difficult for me.

Anyway, I didn't mean for this post to be a rant. Just the opposite, actually. I woke up way earlier than I intended to this morning, so I've just kind of been puttering around the house, and I decided to post my daily twitter post (I still refuse to say 'tweet' in that context, and I still usually post once per day or less). Whilst on Twitter, I noticed that Godchecker had posted something about the tour. My tour. Since I've been a big fan of Godchecker for years (not only an excellent reference site, but a great one for coming up with character (or pen ;) names), this made me qo squee in a huge way. They like my tour idea, they said, and plan to steal it. So that is pretty exciting stuff.

Also pretty exciting, Devereaux Court is going to be one of the stops on the June-July blog tour for Alison Strobel's new novel, The Weight of Shadows, released today. Alison is a member of Book Blogs and she found me in the Promote Your Books group (more on that site when I write the post on networking that I have planned for the nearish future). She suggested that we trade reviews, so here we are. I'm going to be interviewing her as well, about the writing/publishing process. I'll let you know when the post will go up as soon as I know. Sometime in mid-June to early July. Also, Alison is giving us a book for a giveaway contest, so there'll be details on that.

I think that's all of my news for today. Well, so far, anyway.

Introducing...

Marco, the marketing gorilla! I kinda felt like DevCo could use a mascot (not that I don't love the fish!). What do you guys think?

Also, on a total aside, I'm trying to find a way to a) put our profile pictures with our names at the bottom of each post and b) rotate the scribes list, so my name isn't always at the top. If anyone has any ideas on how to do either of these things, please let me know.

And now for the actual reason for the post, which wasn't really going to be about Marco, but was going to be about marketing. I want to know what you think of this idea for marketing on less than a shoestring:

My thought is this: I want to do a book tour, but without the author, the signings or the book stores. Not a blog tour (although I do plan on having one in the mid-to-late summer), but an actual physical tour. What I want to do is send a single copy of my book to someone who has agreed to read it, review it (this may be optional, not 100% decided) and pass it on to someone else who has agreed to read it (possibly review it) and pass it on to someone else, etc., etc.) Each person who receives it will write their name (full, first or last), approximate location (as long as they give province/state and country, they don't have to give a city if they don't want to) on the inside cover, along with, if they want, the date they received it. They'll also be encouraged to include small stickers/business cards/lightweight, flat tokens of their location (ie small canadian flag stickers, or whatever) next to their names or on the inside back cover of the book. For my specific purpose, I plan to include a little paper doll of Moloch which will fold flat and make the journey with the book, so that participants can post pictures on the Facebook fan page/blog that I'm going to create for the purpose of Moloch in their town/ wherever he ends up. I kind of want to make it an interactive sort of deal, where the page (wherever it is) would track the book's progress (and Moloch's adventure) as it travels around to various places.

So, that's my plan. Thoughts?

Ugh.

So, I went to my library today. Well, first I went to the nearby Williams so that I could grab a muffin and gather my courage, then I went to the library. I was crazy nervous until I convinced myself that all I was doing was asking the library to accept a free book. Finally, I made it up to the desk to speak to someone and was told that the library generally only accepts books from recognised publishers. Apparently, there are a very few exceptions, but basically, the chances of my book getting in to my local library are pretty slim. I get that a lot of self-published books are absolute crap, but so are a lot of books that were published through traditional means. Anyway, I'm going to go back in a week or so with a copy of the book and basically tell the lady who's in charge of fiction selection that if they decide to include it in their collection, they can keep that copy and if not, they can do whatever they want with it. My huge concern here, though, is that if I bring her the book and she reads it and hates it or is really offended by it, she could stop it from getting in. I'm not saying she would do that, but I don't know for sure that she wouldn't; people are strange.

I know I shouldn't be letting this get to me, because I haven't actually been refused yet, but I feel like absolute crap. I honestly might throw up. I don't think it even occured to me that there was a chance the library wouldn't want to carry my book.

Interesting point, though: while I was wandering around, trying to work up the courage to approach the information desk and talk to this lady, I came upon a book called A Dangerous Profession, which was about writing. Just the title made me happy.

Press Releases and Gorilla Marketing

No matter how much a book may write itself, I've come to realize that no book is going to sell itself. So, a couple of random tips on how to get your book (/product/whatever) noticed and (hopefully) selling.

First off, the press release. I didn't know this, but apparently, you need one. Any time a company launches a new product, or an author (or publishing house) launches a new book, someone writes a press release and sends it to every relevant media outlet they can think of. A lot of the people who receive it won't care, but some will, and it just might mean your name in a paper, in a blog entry or on the radio. Prefferably, you want to send your press release out just as your book (or whatever) is available. You might even want to send one out before it is available, telling them it is going to be available and offering a review copy, because many reviewers won't review a book that's already been released. I've sent the one for Aigaion Girl to our very own Jam to look over (Jam is the new Editor in Chief of The Muse - Congrats Jam!), and I don't know exactly how effective it will be, but from the tonne and a half of research I've done on it, this is how a press release (actually now called a Media release, because they're sent to everyone, not just papers) should look:

For Immediate Release:

Contact
(contact name)
(contact phone number)
(contact fax)
(contact email)

(Headline)

(City), (Province/State), (Date)

(First Paragraph)*

(Second Paragraph)**

### OR - End -

* The first paragraph should contain the basic info (who, what, where, why, why we care)

**The second paragraph should contain the more detailed info.

Always refer to yourself in the third person and try to write the press release as if you are an uninterested third party. I wish I had more info to share, but first we'll have to see if I've done mine properly.

As for the Gorilla Marketing, this is something I'm quickly learning about. The Internet has made marketing a million times easier, but in so doing, has made it a lot less relevant. There are a tonne of ads on almost every site you visit, so I'm not really rushing to add mine to the throng and hope it gets noticed somehow.

My theory is that the best way to get noticed is through search results. If someone types your (pen)name into Google, you want you to be the first person on the list. The same with your book/story/poem title. There are a couple of ways to achieve this. One, link everything. Link to your website from your other website, link your blogs together, include your website(s) in profile on every forum you belong to... and the second, which is kind of a pain in the ass, use your own links. When I have to get to my website, AthenaMcCormick.com (see what I did there?), I don't just type in the url and hit enter. No, I search
"Athena McCormick" on google, then I click the link that pops up for my website. I have the unfair advantage of a really unusual name (there is another one in Colorado), but my site is now at the top of the list, where it wasn't before.

Spiders are the best thing ever for marketing, especially for us poor, starving artist types, because they're relatively easy (albeit time consuming) to use and manipulating them doesn't cost any money. Six days ago, when I approved Aigaion Girl for sale, I got a little automated message telling me I could expect to wait 15 business days (or three weeks) before it would be available on amazon. That seemed a little long, so ten or twenty times a day, I went to Amazon and typed "Aigaion Girl" into the search bar a whole bunch of times. When I got tired of that, I typed my name. Aigaion Girl showed up on Amazon yesterday. Go see for yourself (and boost my spiderness) here.

The one other thing (and the final one for the purposes of this article) I wanted to mention was email signatures. They don't have to be overly complex or witty; they just have to have some basic information and link to whatever you want linked - and once you've written them, they're always there an easy to use. I discovered today that not all mail clients will interpret the links correctly, however, so I suggest instead of saying "click here", you say something like, "visit my profile at www.profile.com" and link the url, so if the link goes dead, your recipient still has your url.

Okay, I think that's it for me. Hope this helps someone, somehow.