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The further adventures of a recently born novel… July 18, 2012

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I have been a published author for 2 weeks now. I had a chuckle the other day when a friend told me the number of weeks old their baby ways, and then later in the conversation I told them how many weeks my book had been published. The parallels amused me, but also thinking about how I felt about the book, as ‘my baby’. Now I know that the feelings and connection are not the same, but I created my book, so I do have some affection for it.

But I digress. This week saw sales of my book rise to 12. I don’t get email notifications from Amazon, so I have to remember to check, but only check once a day. Something about a watched pot not being a kettle? I have been told by many who have gone before me that it will not be a quick thing, you will not make millions. Now, while there is a part of my brain that knows this, GOSH I would love people to buy my book and discover how awesome it is, and tell ALL their friends.

Which leads me onto Goodreads.  . That will take you to my Author Page, where you can find my book. What Goodreads is, in my layman terms, is a social network of readers and writers. People put your book on their bookshelf. If they like it, they rate it. Their friends see what books they have read and then think – we have similar tastes, I too will read this. And so on. A massively potential word-of-mouth marketing opportunity. AND a place where I can find books I don’t think I would normally read.

I have often felt that reading and writing is a bit of a solitary pursuit. I have wanted a community of like-minded creatives. I have that in Nanowrimo, and soon perhaps I will have the same in Goodreads. Here is hoping đŸ™‚

And did you know, I have yet to buy myself a congratulations gift for publishing my book! What should I buy, I wonder….

One big leap for this writer… June 26, 2012

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I am writing this blog post after I put the finishing little buff of the arm sleeve to my book, The Girl From Out of Town. This is very exciting for me, very scary, very, LARGE. This weekend, I am releasing my first novel to the world. While people have tasted a free sample, and many of those people loved it and pestered me for the whole book, this will be the first time I have ever released a significant body of work.

I have written 9 other novels through Nanowrimo and various friends and family have read them and said I should publish them, and while I nodded my head and said- sure, just one more re-write, I have never been at this point before. No more re-writes. No more telling someone that I am just doing a bit more editing. This is it. The book I have sitting on my hard drive, and on my USB key, and emailed to three different email addresses and a friend, is about to be published, by me.

I am quite nervous, I must admit. I have invested a lot of time and energy into this, and it is something that I created, so I do hope people like it. I am trying to ready myself for the haters, reading advice such as this – ‘Someone will hate your book‘ and this one ‘It’s okay if you’re not perfect‘. I like the second one because it mentions a person who afraid of failure they never got published. That would be me, some time ago…

There is another post I have read about people hating your book, and how inevitable it is, and something about how there are people who hate puppies, so like, if there are people who hate puppies of COURSE there will be people who hate your book.

It is also going to be a relief to get this book out there, so I can then move onto the next book. I am not one of these people who can have multiple writing projects on the go. Mind you, having said that, I have had the novel, 2 websites and a safety guide on the go, at the same time, in past weeks. So, who knows.

Tonight I helped one of my editors create a Facebook page (And by help I pretty much made her do it), and from there, conversation lead to different ways to market your book. Scarlett, the lady who designed the cover for my book, is going on a Virtual Book Tour, her tour dates are HERE. I am thinking of doing something similar as well. We discussed book trailers, especially after I witnessed an awesome 30 second YouTube ad for an editor in Sydney, with grungy guitar riffs. I won’t link to the video because, sadly, he has put typoes into his description, and I would like to give him the chance to edit himself before we all go and see it. But, a girl I know who is a multimedia creator is interested in working on a book trailer, so that could be loads of fun.

So, this is going to be a crazy couple of days. Investigate B&N and Amazon, put a new page on my website for the book, discuss marketing options, re-brand my professional writing self, umpire basketball, go to a house warming, read tarot cards. OH MY GOSH! Busy little vegemite!

A baker’s dozen June 18, 2012

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I have been counting down to the end of June. At the moment, it is 13 days until July. I have been doing this through the profile picture on Facebook. So far, only 4 people have asked me what it is I am doing. I might have to make it more obvious.

So, 13 days until I launch my book. Is it finished? Gosh no. I will read it in the coming months and years and think- wow, if only I added that. Perhaps I needed to add a scene with a city square so I can include it later. Oh, wouldn’t it have been awesome if I had thought of that…  And it is not finished in the sense that I am just going through the final editing notes. When your editor suggests you write MORE because she wants to see MORE description, well, who doesn’t like to write more? I have this world lavishly coloured in my imagination, and now I get to dip the paint brush back into my mind and dab it on the page again? I just might do that, thank you very much!

So, with the creative side of the book coming to an end, sadly, I am now shifting to the marketing and selling of the book, which is fun in a different kind of way? How do I represent it on the web? How do I get the message out? How do I get the message to lots of people? Where do I sell my book and what do I need to sell my book? So, I am getting the talented  to help build a landing page for my book which ties in thematically with the feel and look of the book as it is now. It will be hosted on my website and then direct you to where the book can be sold. I am also thinking of getting other marketing material from her, but we will see how far the coin stretches.

I am also re-launching myself as a professional writer. I am re-branding myself. While I am, indeed, Matthew Farmer, Copy Writer, I am much more. I have edited and helped re-write a website or two, I have audited a website from a content point of view. I have written a tender document, helped with presentations and report writing, which is much more than ‘just’ copy writing. So I am re-branding myself to reflect this. I am hoping to do this on the 1st of July as well.

BIG DAY, huh?

There will, of course, be related marketing surrounding that, with new business cards, a new-look website and such; promotional and thank you gifts, of which I have been given some great ideas. But, as you know, marketing costs money, but you have to spend money to make money. Well, we will see.

It has been such a busy month, with just under half of it to go. I am going to be full of nervous energy in the coming weeks, and during July it is going to be crazy!

I like this kind of crazy.

Act 2 re-written and being reviewed March 10, 2012

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I has been a full-on week for me. Novel work, copy writing work, an education about what happens when a client isn’t happy. All good stuff really.

I finished Act 2 re-write this week. It felt more like a first draft, maybe version 1.2, rather than a full version 2.0. Some tweaks to the plot and story in Act 1 flowed through to Act 2. My main characters (Oh! I can name them now! You all have downloaded Act 1, so you know who I am talking about!), Navarr and Mizzell no longer pay their way on board and are chummy with everyone. As you know ;), they fell on to the ship, well, you don’t know that, but hey, it isn’t such a huge spoiler. So, they are not automatically chummy with the crew. But, through their actions, particularly Navarr, they become friends with a few of them.

This is important since it is Navarr’s journey I need to focus on. It is his development as a character, going from meek little office boy to a man of the world, with a woman! Just a little bit of cheese cake there.

Another piece of advice I followed was not introducing so many characters. I know who all the weird and wonderful characters are, I invented them, I found imagery to best represent them, I wrote down some details for them, all for me. So I know them all. But as a reader, another name can over load the brain. Hard to keep track of the main story elements if you need to remember all those names. I know that when I read epic fantasies, such as Feist’s Magician, and the Game of Thrones, having to reference that glossary of names at the back, takes me OUT of the story.

So it was good to get Act 2 in the bag, for a brief while at least. I will get it back in a week with ‘suggestions’, I know it. It also gives me a good idea on the time line. I might have to push the full release date back a bit, but this is okay. I have a plan and there is a time critical element that I cannot control. And yes, I am being very vague here. đŸ™‚

The Creative Penn released a blog post back on the 4th of March- The 7 Worst Mistakes of Indie Authors and How to Fix Them. I am keeping a keen eye on anything which talks about indie authors of late. A friend of mine, Catherine Gracey, blogged about how our friend Scarlett and myself, have been inspiring her on her journey of being an author – blog poster here. It is fantastic to know I am inspiring a fellow writer to rethink her journey. I am finding that is it a very supportive group of people I am getting involved with. Catherine and Scarlett are there to bounce ideas off, and to edit. I throw thoughts at Sarah Billington who is much farther down this indie publishing route than all of us, and yet is quite open and friendly for chats. I throw shout outs to these people where I can, and in return they share the love back. It is great.

So, back to the Creative Penn. They say it is best to learn from the mistakes of others, so I read this article with a keen eye to my own progress. I will address all seven items in this list for you all.

1. Know myself? What am I doing? Why am I doing this? I consider writing to be my best talent. It is what I am best at. Now, I can be great at customer service or communication or knowing the rules of basketball and blowing my whistle, but writing is something I enjoy and something I am good at. It is why after so many years I have leapt before I looked into the world of freelance copy writing. It is also why I am self-publishing a novel. I have said for a long time that I wanted to be a published author. I have said for a long time that – I will just re-write this and then send it off for publication, without actually doing anything with it. Hello, I have a 5 book epic sci fi series sitting there wanting love…  So, for number 1? I am doing it, not to make money, but to get it out there. So many people want to read my work, so I want them to read it too. I am also really enjoying taking my writing seriously. Marketing myself, getting an ISBN, a cover artist, real editing from friends. I can make some pocket money off it, sure, but the whole process is fun and exciting for me.

2. Being a writer, being involved with NANOWRIMO, I know professional editors. And, I have asked that they don’t be nice to me because we’re friends. I have even offered payment. Of course there have been ‘mates rates’, but it is legitimate. It feels good to say- I had a meeting with my editor today. It is also good to get a fresh set of eyes on the manuscript.

3. As I have shown you all in earlier blogs, Scarlett Rugers designs has done a fantastic job in designing my book cover and additional web banner advertising. Another sign I am taking this seriously. I could have scoured free photo sites and mocked something up, but I doubt I could have achieved anything like what Scarlett has.

4. This is why I am only doing e-publishing first off. It is cheaper for me and I don’t have to have a pile of books in storage waiting for sales. I would love to have books, in hand, which I could sell and sign and give to people. It is something I will consider, but yes, did not chose the print then sell path purely for this reason.

5. The cover design was part of a Nanowrimo promotion. Smashwords is free, the editing I can pay for in chocolate. I am definitely all over number 5.

6. My marketing for the free Act 1 release included emailing my friends, flooding facebook, to my friends and asking them to tell their friends. Posting on my blog and twitter, and again, getting my friends to re-tweet. A web banner on the bottom of my email and sticking the web banners wherever I could. Very little marketing for the free download.

7. Well, I am focused on this one book, currently, because it is the current book I am writing. I already have book titles for the other two books in the series, and I have a vague story arc, so there will be a trilogy. Hoping 2nd book in the same year, but possibly 1 book a year. It depends how much I can cram into my life and earn money.

And now I would like to leave you with a quote from a friend who read my book. I like it. It is honest and positive and amusing:

“I will admit to starting to read the book out of ‘politeness’ (I said I would, so I was) and I really got into it. Don’t tell me that I have to wait for the rest (I was intolerable when the Lord of the Rings trilogy came out – I had to wait a *whole* year to see the next instalment!!! Now the Hobbit looks like it is going to do the same thing – Agggggg!!!!) 

 
You should be really proud of your book – It is definitely publishable material (in my humble opinion!). Try to remember us little people when you get famous đŸ˜‰“

The day before the rest of my life… February 13, 2012

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A little dramatic, I know, but it is kind of how I am feeling. Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, February 14th. The date that I proclaimed I would release my debut novel, The Girl From Out of Town on to an unsuspecting world. Well, if you were reading this blog you might have suspected something.

That plan changed, and I offered a free preview, Act 1, to grab readers who want to know the rest of the story. Still to be released on February 14th. This nearly did not come to pass. I gave one of my editors permission to go balls’n’all nasty on my manuscript. I thought – it’s not THAT bad. I received something to the contrary back from her.

Now, admittedly this was an email conversation, and upon actually talking the news wasn’t all THAT bad. She wanted MORE description. I was sitting in the school of an economics of writing. Write the scene in as few words as possible to get the story across. But she wanted more, more description of the environment. I am creating a rich and colourful world, so I should show the world. And some of the scenes had no direction, there were a lot of names no one would remember, things like that.

This left me deflated on Sunday. But, we came to a compromise. I want to get something out as a free preview. I have added some more colour and depth, I have removed names that are irrelevant, my poor lead character only has 3 friends now, not 4. I removed an entire plot hook since even I saw it was kind of dumb.

And so now I sit, late afternoon, February 13th. I have yet to format to Smashword’s specifications. I must go out and run around a basketball court now. And then come home and figure it out. Should be easy, right?

But, I am sitting here, and I am paranoid scared and proud. I am paranoid people are going to read it and find spelling errors. Words which are spelled correctly but are the wrong word for that place, and they will think- what a hack. Couldn’t get that edited out? I am waiting for me to find something I left in which could have been better! And then I should re-write it and re-publish it and tell everyone- hey! I changed 5 words! Download the new version!

I am scared because I have never done this before. I have let people read my work before, but I knew them. This is the internet we are talking about now. There are far more people out there I don’t know, than I do. There is a possibility they wont like what I have written. I am both okay with this and not okay with this. A) Okay with is because not everyone likes everything. People are entitled to their opinion, and I know, in myself, that it’s a good story. I enjoyed writing the story, I love the characters and the world I have created. So in myself, I like it. However B) because I like it so much, I want everyone else to like it as well. And if they don’t, and if they throw mud at me, that might hurt. That would give my inside voices ammunition to use against me.

And I am proud because this is a MASSIVE step along that journey I started ages ago. I started this blog to chart my journey as a writer, and this here is a massive step along the way. I announced a date and, while I had to compromise along the way, I am sticking to that date. That is something I am proud of.

Tomorrow is most definitely going to be a strange day.