Author's Archive

Games, Films and Novels

Posted by - Tuesday, January 24th, 2012

I use to be afraid that no one would read novels anymore. The more technology increased with providing images for the eye to see, the more I began to believe that the imagination would disappear.

And then technology brought a few saviors.

My fear? The films that I actual love: Science Fiction and Fantasy. As every year passed, technology put to screen the imagination that once sat in the mind. We use to just have comics on paper; game boards and small self-painted figurines for Dungeons and Dragons; the Renaissance Festivals and Muppets. Yeah, Muppets made up for imaginations, and so did cartoons. Jim Henson was The Man with his puppets like in The Dark Crystal (1982). And then time flashed forward and films like Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001) came out. That film opened many eyes and even brought fear to actors and actresses who started copyrighting their faces and features so that it couldn’t be duplicated in CGI without permission. “OMG! They won’t need us anymore!” the actor’s mind screamed. “It will all be Computer Animated! And computers don’t argue back on how to say a line, or want to argue about adding additional lines. It would be so much easier for the director and we’ll be paid less and less!”

Then Television had to keep up with Film and Cable, and CGI entered that world, and story lines got better and my favorite shows became a must to watch: Stargate, Fringe, Dexter, True Blood, Game of Thrones, and on and on and on….

Then there were these incredible games like Final Fantasy XIII and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim with graphics that blow your mind! Grass move, stars gazing with realistic movement of clouds, individual voices and characters with stories and attitudes and religion, night turns to day and day into night, and even the food looks like something you want to pick off the screen and have on your own table in these games. I’m not a gamer, but my significant other is. And I sit and type and do my social network, and I watch this engrossing world that is simply… Beautiful!

There’s nothing needed for your own imagination when it’s visually there for the picking.

So… I thought novels and books were going to be obsolete.

And then eReaders started to explode, and I saw how SO MANY PEOPLE who weren’t readers of novels and books before, became readers. The Kindle became an desired object, and one can even read from your own cellular phone. There’s Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogs, Forums and all sorts of things online that one must read; and even the entertainment on game consoles had entire novels to read like in Skyrim where books sit on shelves of castles and huts and cabins that have completed stories for the gamers to read.

To Read. Sigh.

The imagination inside the mind hasn’t disappeared yet. In fact, it’s growing!

Until Next Time!

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Power and Rainbows – Octavia Butler

Posted by - Monday, January 16th, 2012

Sometimes the lack of something in a young person’s life, or concentrated and continuous reception of pain, would form a hyper-creative mind.

I was reading over a transcript I had printed out on a forum with author Octavia Butler as the guest. It was in 2001 where the moderator/host was Ben Trumble for SCIFI. It was a promotional tour mainly for the novel Kindred which had been adapted into a four-part audiodrama miniseries for SCIFI.COM.

During the discussion, Octavia was asked the question about power…

QUESTION: “Ms. Butler, many of your novels deal with power relations: the gifted vs the normal, the time-traveler who knows vs. the manipulator. What about power interest you so much as a writer and human being?”

BUTLER’S ANSWER: “I don’t feel that Dana has power in Kindred, and only a little knowledge. Power is what she needs. Power does interest me. I grew up feeling so powerless, not only because I was Black and female, but because I was so shy. I wrote about power so I could understand it. It still interests me in the way that people use it. It’s such a part of being human.”

At those times where someone lacks power, the natural deepening of creativity explodes.

During the SCIFI discussion, Octavia states: “I used to live next to my landlady and I told everybody she inspired me. And you don’t need imagination because everybody has it. We carry it from childhood. And forget about talent. If you have it, wonderful. If you don’t…read a few best sellers and see who else doesn’t have it, then get to work.”

She stated that she began writing Science Fiction before she began reading it, or at least recognizing it.

And even after finally getting published, she still had to deal with a complete disregard when it came to her creative art.

First Cover Newest Cover Trilogy Cover

QUESTION: “I recently had a chance to see an earlier print of Dawn and on the cover was a Caucasian woman pretending to be Lilith. What were your reactions when you first saw that cover?”

BUTLER’S ANSWER: “Well, my reaction was the same as when I first saw any of my early covers. Writers have no control over that. Well, maybe Stephen King. It’s the luck of the draw and sometimes there is no luck. I think it was the marketing ideas of the time. Black people don’t read SF. Blacks on the cover don’t sell books. As my books sold more, that changed. I literally outlived the adversity. I have editors now who actually care what I think. My early editors frankly didn’t. They’d send a cover and say, “Isn’t it beautiful!” If I thought it wasn’t, that didn’t matter. They would explain to me why I was wrong.”

Octavia stated she received the audio script of Kindred as a finished product. She didn’t get a chance to view it before it went into production. She stated in the discussion that the audio told a different story than the one she was telling, but (she added as a positive note) it did what it did in a very interesting way. She also added another positive statement that she liked the way the slave narratives were handled.

When I read those two positive statements from Octavia about the audiodrama, I still could hear the disappointment, and perhaps even the anger, of these people who took it upon themselves to take her creative art and do what they wanted, only to tell her: “It’s All done! Look! You should be thankful!”

Today, though, one’s inspired creativity from the darkness of childhood experiences, can be shared to everyone exactly how the author intended it to be. Self-publishing allows just that. It takes time to see those beautiful lights of the rainbow especially right before the dark scenes of life. And I’m so glad that today has the true freedom of expression–the way that it was intended.

Authors, like Octavia, helped to pave that way, with their silent acceptance of what they couldn’t change, but bursting their light through in places where they could.


Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006)



As most know, every story that has ever been written has already been written. While I wrote in my young age, I never came across any stories similar to mine, until I picked up Octavia Butler’s book. I had no idea she was a Black author because of the cover, and a few years later, I picked up another book in the library, and started reading, and yes, I had already read it. It was Dawn, and I had now the Trilogy, and the excitement, to read the next few books of this story. That was in the early 1990s, during my college years. I had hoped one day that I would have the honor to someday sit down and speak to the wonderful author who wrote so similar to my own thoughts and imagination, but unfortunately, it would now never be.

Today, I can only continue my version of story telling in the similar steps as her own. And I’m happy to be able to do just that.



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Pictures and Blogs

Posted by - Tuesday, January 10th, 2012

picspeakIf you started reading this blog site from the beginning, you’ll notice there weren’t any pictures for each subject I spoke about. Being that sometimes I’m late to the game, I didn’t realize, on the internet, how just “words” could be so boring. What made it dawn on me to starting posting up pictures? I looked at other author blogs and realized, as a reader, what I found appealing.

PICTURES!!

I mostly use the ClipArt in MicrosoftWord and modify them with Gimp or Paint. Then, when I did a little research and learned on some forums where I could get some pictures from, I included that as well. I mainly search on Flikr for “Creative Commons” images that have rights to modify and create derivative works. There’s also Stock.XCHNG that has photos. It was mentioned that you can find some fonts too, free fonts at FontMaster.com and 1001 Free Fonts. If you make your Book Covers yourself, these are good places to find stuff.

I wrote a blog on how to size your pictures for websites. That’s important to have the right size picture and wrap words around it.

The other thing I’m still debating on is how often to post on my blog. I really, really, really, don’t have much to say on self-publishing unless I run into something that triggers a topic. Posting three (3) times a week, the internet world states, is the key to getting an audience. Once a week, keeping a schedule on a specific day of the week, works too. I like the once a week thing, but that takes material, and, again, I don’t know what to provide that’s not already in one of the lists above already.

I really would have to dig around for some content…or get guest blogs; but I’m picky about novels because I don’t want to have an author on my pages who I’m not interested in their writing, or doesn’t have much of a fan base–such as myself.

So…. I’ll think about it….the once a week thing. We’ll see.

Posted in Blogging, WebDesign | 2 Comments »

The Value of Peers…KDP Select and EFT/Check Mystery

Posted by - Monday, January 2nd, 2012

Running your own business, your self-publishing busines, can be lonely, frustrating, expensive (sometimes) and a bit fearful. That’s why I really value my peers who are doing the same thing that I’m doing.

Everyone takes different paths and find different leads, and you really won’t know or understand those options if you’re all alone and not speaking to anyone.

THANK GOODNESS FOR FORUMS!!

I’ve gone to several forums over the past couple of years, but I mostly spend time on the Kindleboards. A lot of times, I just see the same ole statements, questions, excitement etc. etc. And it gets boring after seeing these same things over and over…especially after being a member for a few months.

But then there’s those times where a jewel sparkles!!

There have been several things I’ve learned from my peers this year, but the most recent information was regarding Amazon’s KDP Select and the Mysterious Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) change to “check” option.

Amazon’s KDP Select

Looking at the discussion board regarding Amazon’s KDP Select, I was able to see different sides of the story of this brand new project Amazon has decided to take on. Honestly, I didn’t know anything about it until I read it on the forum. It sounded GREAT! at first glance for those who saw the advertisement. But there were those peers who read between the lines to make a decision if this was a valuable option for them. Thanks to my peers, I made a decision that, at this time, the KDP Select would not be valuable to me for several reasons.

For one, it’s limited to Amazon Prime members who own a kindle, AND they can only borrow a book once a month. To be an Amazon Prime member, that’s $79/year, which is basically $6.58 a book each month. I know that’s not counting the the benefits of have the two-day free shipping, but it applies to many who have to do A LOT of shipping on Amazon to get any benefit from it.

The question is, how many Prime members are there? Also, they can only borrow one book once a month? That’s not that many books for availability for ONE person. It’s all numbers from here. You have to have A LOT of individuals who want to borrow YOUR book for THAT particular month to earn anything.

There’s also the exclusivity of the novel for 90 days (Only eBooks–does not include paperbacks) in the Kindle Direct Publishing Terms and Conditions.

Exclusivity. When you include a Digital Book in KDP Select, you give us the exclusive right to sell and distribute your Digital Book in digital format while your book is in KDP Select. During this period of exclusivity, you cannot sell or distribute, or give anyone else the right to sell or distribute, your Digital Book (or content that is reasonably likely to compete commercially with your Digital Book, diminish its value, or be confused with it), in digital format in any territory where you have rights.

Authors don’t have to take down their books at other distributors. They can opt to put only their next new novel and wait the 90 days, pull the book from KDP Select and send it out to everyone else. But for me, 90 days is an awfully LONG time. What happens during that time when people have interest? You can’t do anything but have them wait until the 90 days is over. Then there’s the ambiguous statement about not having another book that has “more value” than the one with Amazon? Huh? So, I guess, if a novel is more successful elsewhere online, then you violate this terms of agreement??

Amazon is basically asking for First Published Rights, but I think for very popular authors, this might bring customers to Amazon. It becomes a “status” club where only certain fans would have access to read that book FIRST while everyone else has to wait.

For those Authors who have a lot of books underneath their belt and can afford to have customers “wait” and they don’t mind the “wait” and not getting much money in return…it might benefit them. However, for authors like myself…I would really need to have a lot of sells already to benefit from this type of program.

EFT to Check Mystery

I almost skipped over a discussion regarding some strange thing that happened with accounts at Amazon. Instead of receiving an automatic deposit of money into the bank account, the authors were notified that they would be receiving a CHECK. A What?! That wasn’t what they had selected for the delivery of their money. They had opt for the automatic deposit option–EFT. Sure enough, when they went to look at their option, it had somehow changed!

As I continued to read, several other authors chimed in that theirs had changed too. I just thought it was a fluke. I figured it just affected just some people who just didn’t know what they were doing. I decided to take a look at my account anyway. First, I had to remember how to check it (It was at the Top Right where I had to click the “Deana Zhollis’s Account” hyperlink). Then, low and behold, I saw my options were set to received CHECK as well.

What?!

I changed my options back to EFT for the US, UK, and DE (FR, ES, and IT were ok).

Wow. How odd!

I would have never known what had happened until my next payment came in the mail instead of my bank account. Then I would have been frustrated and confused on WHY this had happened. That discussion thread save me a lot of headaches and emails and phone calls to resolve something that kind of…just happened for no reason.

Thank Goodness for Peers!

*~*~*~*

I know these two examples were both related to Amazon, but it’s not to put Amazon in a negative light at all. It’s the bread-and-butter for many authors today–especially self-published authors. I’m simply showing the huge value of what information one could receive when one is a part of a community with a common business service/product. A Community of Writers is definitely a tool you will need while self-publishing.

There’s always something new to learn, and to grow, in anything, … you must keep learning.

Until Next Time!

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Deana Zhollis – Writing Tools

Posted by - Monday, December 26th, 2011

I’ve been a very BUSY BEE!

And you know that feeling when IT’S FINALLY OVER and you can FINALLY REST feeling? Well, that’s how it feels like after 40+ hours working on instructional videos for my new website: Deana Zhollis – Writing Tools.

There’s been so many people who need that extra help on formatting their books for Print-On-Demand and for the Kindle, I figure I would try my hand at giving some instructions and templates for people to use.

And it’s FREE!

Yep. Free Information. You know that “F” word is my favorite word when it comes to Self-Publishing. So, I’m giving out information and templates for FREE and it’s going to stay that way. Why? Because I wanna: Be Like Google! If you give people want you want, you get things in return. So I’m putting my instructions out there and in return, I get some Good Karma my way. Give to Receive. That’s always been my Motto!

And does it work, you say? Why, yes it does! It’s ALWAYS worked for me.

I enjoy helping out others in a technical kind of way. That’s why I decided to do a blog, and now I’ve added this new level of experience–Instructional Videos!

Granted, they’re not perfect and I make a WHOLE lot of mistakes that I can only laugh at and move on, but it at least might give a bit of help here and there for those who really need to VISUALLY SEE how to do this formatting thing.

  • I created Microsoft Word Templates for the paperback 6×9 printers and show how to put it into a PDF format.
  • Along with the Word Template for printers, I added a Smashword Template to help those upload for the eBooks format.
  • I created a HTML Kindle Template and show how to update it using a FREE Web Page Design software that anyone can download.
  • I also created a Open Office Template, but I really don’t know how to use it, but I figure I put it out there for a starting point for those who could use it.

It was long and tedious and A LOT OF WORK to try to figure out the steps on how to show people what to do, and learning the software Camtasia. And I make mistakes and just ran out of steam to redo the ENTIRE VIDEO again from scratch, so I just made notes in the videos when NOT to do something, and hopefully that would keep it entertaining. I’m sure I’ll receive messages and statements from those people whose motto is: “It’s easier to criticize than to contribute!” types of folks. But that’s okay :). I’m sure I’ll be helping someone who needs it, despite the Human Errs.

So, if you’re one of those individuals who need a little help on formatting, take a look at the site and hopefully it can help direct you into what you would like to do.

Until Next Time!

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Posted in Novels | 2 Comments »

Making Your Book Free on Amazon — Or Should I?

Posted by - Wednesday, December 14th, 2011

Making your book Free on Amazon — debate. So, yes, there’s a way to make your book Free…but the question is… should you?

Let’s take a look at the Terms and Conditions Pricing Page

According to Amazon… here’s the deal….

Matching Competitor Prices
From time to time your book may be made available through other sales channels as part of a free promotion. It is important that Digital Books made available through the Program have promotions that are on par with free promotions of the same book in another sales channel. Therefore, if your Digital Book is available through another sales channel for free, we may also make it available for free. If we match a free promotion of your Digital Book somewhere else, your Royalty during that promotion will be zero. (Unlike under the 70% Royalty Option, if we match a price for your Digital Book that is above zero, it won’t change the calculation of your Royalties indicated in C. above.)

Reading this, you might think that they’re saying if you want to put your book Free for promotional purposes, then they will match it. Nope. They’re saying that if the “sales channel” does it NOT you the author/publisher. So, if Barnes and Noble decides to put your book up for Free for prompotional puroses, THEN Amazon will price match.

Think about the List Price as the price you set at, let’s say, Lightning Source for your printed book. So, your printed book is $13.00, and Barnes and Noble wants to put on a promotional deal like: “All Books Are Now %30 Off”. Then Amazon’s robots (the bots) will see the price lowered at Barnes and Noble and then set their price the same.

If YOU, yourself, change your book to free, then you’re manipulating the “List Price,” and this circumvents the system, and the Terms and Conditions with Amazon as stated below.

Setting Your List Price
You must set your Digital Book’s List Price (and change it from time-to-time if necessary) so that it is no higher than the list price in any sales channel for any digital or physical edition of the Digital Book.

But if you choose the 70% Royalty Option, you must further set and adjust your List Price so that it is at least 20% below the list price in any sales channel for any physical edition of the Digital Book.

By “list price in any sales channel,” we mean the suggested or recommended retail price or, if you sell your book directly to end users, your own sales price, for an edition of the book available outside of our Program.

When you set your List Price for our EU websites, you have to factor in the additional 15% value-added taxes (the Luxembourg statutory rate) we will add for EU customers, so that your List Price complies with this section after adding these VAT taxes.

What that is saying is that you need to set your price for your book the same for all sale channels.

“BUT,” you say, “Amazon’s lowest price is $0.99”.
Yep. That’s as low as Amazon will go, and so you, according to these Terms, are NOT to place your book any lower than $0.99 at other sale channels, which includes making it Free.

“But,” you say, “I got an email from Amazon stating that’s the only way to make my book Free is to make it Free somewhere else!”
Yep, I know. But I think now, with the flood of authors doing this exact same thing, it’s gotten out of hand and Amazon has now changed their tune. Email them today and see if you get that same advice. Probably not.

Does this mean I can sale my book Free on my personal website since it’s not a distributor?
Hmmm…well…. I mean, the words “sales channel” seems to cover any where. I would think that would include your personal website as well.

Will I be penalized if I do “manipulate” the system and make it Free anyway so that Amazon’s Bots will make my book free on Amazon?
No. Not right now. You just won’t get any royalties, which, at one time, Amazon did give Royalties for Free books with the the 35% Royalty Option (meaning your book was listed as less than $2.99). But making your book Free means, for most authors, that they didn’t look to get paid anyway–however it did increase their sales with their other books.

But everyone I know is doing it!
Yep. They are. But, now you know. You would be violating the Terms & Conditions if you decide to manipulate the bots. Everybody I know drives over the speed limit, and cops don’t seem to give away tickets to those who are just over by 10 miles per hour. Yet, you really can get ticketed if you’re just ONE (1) mile over the speed limit. Yes. Really. It’s the law.

That decision is up to you:: Do it until there’s an actual penalty, or follow the terms that you agreed to.

What are YOU, Deana Zhollis, going to do?
Who? Me? Uh…. well… er… uh. I’m human just like the next person. Don’t ask me that question! That’s too much pressure!

Heh. Heh.

But, seriously, more than likely, I’ll wait for an opening, some other kind of way…because there’s ALWAYS another way to get to the same type of results, right? I want to be seen and get more fans. The Free thing was a fast option for that. There’s anyway, albeit, much slower, but it’s still to the path of the Emerald City. When I find that yellow brick road, I’ll let you know.

Until Next Time.

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Posted in Novels | 2 Comments »

NaNoWriMo and yWriter

Posted by - Sunday, December 4th, 2011

Of course I figured out AFTER THE FACT (after NaNoWriMo) how to use yWriter during NaNoWriMo.

What’s NaNoWriMo? For those who don’t know, it’s National Novel Writing Month where participants take on the challenge to write 50,000 words (approximately 175 page novel) by writing from November 1 and end on 11:59:59, November 30.

Is it a Contest? No. Do you win anything? No. It’s a self-perseverance experience to help those, like me, who need that extra help and reminder to… JUST WRITE. No worries of spelling, or grammar, or plot, or character names, or anything that gets a writer hung up. The point is just to WRITE. This activity has helped me with two novels in the past and with the almost completion of the 3rd novel of The Calling series. People chat on forums, meet-up with fellow writers in their local areas, orchestrated by the local Municipal Liaison (ML) who volunteer to help cheer people on to their goals to reaching the 50,000 word mark. The ML also coordinate write-ins where you meet up and all write together.

There’s parties too 🙂

This year, since I’ve been using yWriter on all new materials now, I wanted to use it’s word count to keep track of my progress. Also, I heard that it’s programmer used it specifically for NaNoWriMo as well. As mentioned earlier, I missed out on the feature during the November time-frame. I was busy looking at the bottom of the yWriter window and trying to jot down the “Added Today” word count into a Excel spreadsheet instead of looking around the software to find a much easier way to see what I wrote for every day of my novel project.

DUH.

Heh. Heh. You know me. Silly, silly.

I wanted to share how to use yWriter with NaNoWriMo for those of you, like me, who wanted to know, but just didn’t look hard enough for the answer. There’s an ongoing, running tally of your word count under: TOOLS > DAILY PROGRESS LOG (picture below).

yWriterDaily

In the picture, it also tracks the days you just open up the software and didn’t do anything. Notice my Zero counts on the first three rows (Dec 4, Dec 2, and Nov 29). The word count goes all the way down to the very beginning of the start of the project (which I don’t show in the picture, but you get the idea).

PRETTY NEAT HUH?

You can also set a target of when to complete your novel and it’s word count. The picture below, is just some kind of estimate that I’m most likely am NOT going to reach, but I added it in there anyway.

I put a Start Date for Dec 4, 2011 and an End Date of February 5, 2012 for 75,000 words. The green bar gives my status on my goal.

So, yes, I’m a cheerleader for yWriter. I can’t help it. It has REALLY helped me with getting around my novel, knowing what characters are in what scenes, what items are used, where I use certain locations in the scenes…EVERYTHING, that I think a writer needs. It’s awesome, and I did show my much appreciate by donating…because it’s FREE you know 🙂

Before I go, if you noticed, I don’t have Winner! as my picture for this blog, but just Participate. Yep, I wasn’t going to complete the 50,000 word count…at all. But I participated because it helps me, and I met my goal to add at least 10,000 more words to my current novel Creations. Last year, I believe I only wrote about 3,000 words during the month of NaNoWriMo.

It’s okay though. My local ML said to me in 2009 to just participate for the writing and that I didn’t have to really reach the 50,000 word count. It stuck in my head, and I decided to give it a try for 2010, and I did it again this year.

I enjoy it!

Maybe I’ll reach the 50,000 word count in some future time as when I first participated in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005. But for now, I enjoy the experience.

Until Next Time!

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Have A Thoughtful Mind…

Posted by - Sunday, November 20th, 2011

Sometimes Self-Publishers get carried away when we feel that self-empowerment. We march in our own parade, throw up picket signs of how digital is overcoming print. We scream how the Big 6 is goin’ DOWN, man! We tell our stories of the long months of waiting, and how we now have taken back our own power and WAIT NO MORE! We take pride of our power that we have over our own creativity–no one to answer to but ourselves. We can “DO IT YOURSELF” (DIY)!!

So, sometimes, we get a bit carried away and forget… forget that there are two sides to a story; two sides of a coin.

No one can really talk about someone, or something, else unless one has personally been involved in it. To say that such companies are going down without knowing someone, or being personally involved, in that business…well, one gets a bit carried away.

Now what a Self-Publisher can say is what they see as fact online. Yes, the top lists on Amazon are self-publishers…but there’s still an ENTIRE WORLD…Offline. Take note of the people around you: in your office, your friends, the neighbors, the parents you see when you pick you child up from school, the people next to you at the restaurant, at the dry cleaners, at the amusement park, at a concert, on the freeway, overseas…people everywhere. There are many, many people still not connected to the digital book. And they are reading…print.

Not everyone wants to read on a digital device, or on the small screen of their mobile phone, or can afford an eReader, or sit looking at a screen of a laptop or desktop…to read. And just like there was a change from tape cassettes, to CDs, to iPods, SD Card…there are some who still just use CDs.

Now, there is a change heading towards digital reading…but one must not think that the big companies WILL NOT be a part of that. They WILL be a part…as they have always been.

One company will fall, if they don’t change, and be replaced with another. It’s just the scheme of things. We’ll see how it goes. And we’ll see what part Self-Publishing will take.

Have a thoughtful mind about the other side, so one won’t have to regret words later.

Just sit back, and wait and see what happens. Then one can honestly form an opinion.

BE THANKFUL, especially during this special time of year, that there is now more options for those writers who want to SHOUT TO THE WORLD and share their stories!

For now…I’m just enjoying the Self-Publishing progress and what it has done for me. I’m excited about every sale, and do my happy dance whenever I complete another VERY BIG learning curve in this technical software stuff, and I’m optimistic of the future. It’s a wonderful journey! A path well taken. A self-realization of the fulfillment of my personal capacities.

I Enjoy it! I’m amazed by it! I’m Thankful.

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Posted in Novels | 2 Comments »

Tools for Self-Publishing

Posted by - Saturday, November 5th, 2011

WritingTools
I wanted to post, and also make a page, of actual tools that writers can use for self-publishding. I love lists because lists are easier to use and has step-by-steps to follow, instead of fishing through a lot of blog posts.

NOTE: The majority of the software below can be downloaded all at once at Ninite.com

NOTE of NOTE: After reading the list below and you’re still needing help, check out my Tools Page. It has step-by-step videos on formatting your novels for printers, Smashwords and Kindle.

1) A writing software

– I’ve used Microsoft Word because that is what majority of people use and that’s what came with the laptop. But you can also use Open Office (free tool) for those who can’t stand Microsoft or don’t have the money for it. My current and most favorite tool now is yWriter (another free tool). yWriter helps me jump around from scene to scene; keeps track of: locations, items and characters (with character descriptions); and I can find almost anything, anywhere, so much more easier. It’s a great thing! I have tips on how to get your MSWord document ready before importing into this software. It’s long, but it’s well worth it. Though the software is free, I donated because it was THAT useful to me.

2) A PDF converting software

– Adobe Professional is what I use, but you can get a cheaper version (a poster told me about) that’s hundreds of dollars cheaper called Serif Page Plus X5. Either way, they both are learning curves, meaning you do have to learn the software to know what you have to do…which is basically for all softwares. Want something FREE! Try DoPdf. You can size the pdf to the specific print size of 6×9 (which I couldn’t figure out how to do in CutePDF) and embed fonts. It won’t work for Lightning Source, since they have specific PDF requirements dealing with PDF/X-1a:2001, but you can try it with CreateSpace printer. I looked into PDF995 (also free), but it had like four (4) separate parts and I couldn’t easily just “click a button” to get it working. I’m sure there’s someway to get it to work, but I just couldn’t figure it out. DoPdf was easy and quick. And I’ve heard Open Office conversion worked well with authors too. It has a button that you just click. Give the Freeware a try in CreateSpace first before going to Lightning Source, to save some $$. If it works in one place, it just might work at the other.

3) A photo software

– Here’s where my GIMP comes back in for me. It’s help edit everything that’s a picture, and it’s also free. Need to cut your pictures to 800×600? Use FrameSize. You can NOT keep the entire image when you turn it into this size without skewing the picture, but you can view what will be cut out first before sizing it with this frame tool. This helped me with my Book Trailers. Oh! And make sure to have a photo of yourself, because you’ll need it to post…EVERYWHERE!

4) Web Design Program

– I first learned webdesign on FrontPage and moved on to Dreamweaver. I’ve also read good reviews on a Free software called Kompozer. I downloded Kompozer, exported it to my desktop, and it worked great! I took the code in my Kindle Template, pasted it in the Source tab of Kompzer in the “body” section, and did the Preview to see what it would look like. Watch the Step-By-Step videos on how to use it. There’s also SiteSpinner that’s cheap to buy (less than $60.00).

You should get something faster to upload your files from your PC to your domain, however. I use CoreFTP. Need to learn HTML or remember an HTML code? Go to W3Schools and self-teach. If you’re not much into web designing, just go to Blogger and you don’t have to worry about domains and hosts and html. You just need your Google ID (same login used for YouTube, Analytics, Adsense and Feedburner). A lot of authors have pages with {authorname}.blogspot.com. For more about Web Design stuff, go to my blog: Design a Website for Us Beginners. Oh! Forgot! I purchased my domain name from Namescheap and my host is ICDSoft.

5) Audio software editor

– Whenver I get to this point, I’ll be looking into Audacity (free) for recording audio books. PodCasting 101 has a great list for beginners and what to get, and there’s a Podiobooks 101, so to speak, to help as well. If I ever have another 4-5 hours a day, this would be next on my list to get into, but until then, this is waaaaayyyyy down the list for me.

6) Flip Page software

– You might want to give a nice way for people to get a free peak inside your novel on your personal website. CodeBox and Flip Builder (I use this but it only gives 20 pages) and BookBuzzr are some good options. They use pdf files. Also note, that Kindle and Smashwords allow for a free sample…if you use the checkbox option for it. With Smashwords you can just link to the page that has you book preview and you don’t have to worry about one for your site. You can also make a separate sample page of your novel on your website.

7) Website Statistics

– It’s time to get narcissistic! The best tool to know how many times someone visits your webpage is Google Analytics. I look at this everyday. WebStatChecker is pretty cool as well. Just type your domain in, and click on the underlined hyperlink number for the Yahoo Backlinks. Headkeys gives you an idea of the popular Key Words your website is using that people will search for and possible click to come to your site. Reverse Internet can give you some ideas of who is linking back to you.

8) Book Trailer Tools

– I used Windows Live Movie Maker, which is free, but MAC users can use iMovie. You can get stock photos (images you can use that are royalty free and where someone won’t have a problem with you using their picture) from Dreamstime and your music from AudioJungle. Places like that. Then when you’re done with the Book Trailer, you can post them everywhere like this list below (NOTE: I’ve only done the first five because you get tired of having to create YET another profile/login/password again and again…). Check it out:

  • Your websites/blogsites
  • Your Facebook Page
  • Your Smashbook Book Profile Page(s)
  • Your Amazon Author Profile Page
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
  • Your Myspace MySpaceTV
  • MetaCafe–You have to deal with commercials though
  • Yahoo Video–If you already have an login for Yahoo, then no problem here on having to manage yet another login ID
  • Google Video-But if it becomes popular on YouTube, it will list here. Your google login/Password works here and YouTube and Analytics
  • Media Photobucket
  • Blazing Trailers

9) Backup Your Work Tools

– I use an external hardrive that can plug into my laptop, but mostly I depend on DropBox. After I make changes, I drop everything in here. It’s FREE! And if you don’t have your laptop, but can get access to a PC with internet, you can always access your work.

10) Writing Process and Marketing

  • Help with words

    – Online Dictionary and Thesaurus are my best friends. But TheSage is my blood-brother. Don’t have to be on the internet for this one, though it can work with online help as well.

  • Critique Group

    – Join an online critique group such as CritiqueGroup. I write Science Fictin and Fantasy, so I found a group specific to my genre: Critters.org. For fairness, these sites make sure you critique others and keeps up with your amount of critiques. If you keep a certain average/amount then you can upload your work for critique. If you want to meet physically with someone and/or work with other writers in your area, a local group, try finding one with MeetUp.

  • Getting it Done

    – Have Writer’s Block or just can’t start that book? I HIGHLY recommend NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month). It takes place mainly in November, but there are writing stuff to do throughout the year as well. It helps you forgive yourself for not being talented, not knowing grammar, and not knowing what to write. Just write without anything stopping you that you think normally would. It has helped me complete several novels. Need a quick boost before sitting down to write? Try OneWord. It’s fast, 60 seconds to write about One Word and it gets the juices flowing.

  • Community of Writers

    – Find a community, rather it’s online or in person. You’ll need the support. You’ll need to talk about writing with those who understand. Find a forum. I enjoy KindleBoards. You can find a community in a critique group as well. Currently, I no longer have a face-to-face critique group, we disbanded after many years (Nothing negative; it just people move one, lives change. That’s the way life goes, you know? A new season…a different reason.). However, I got SO MUCH help from them. They were wonderful people! I now keep track of them on Facebook. I haven’t submitted my work for critiquing for the entire year of 2011, but from 12 years of being in critique groups, I know what to look for now. I also have a reader to look at my novels as well as an editor that I pay for her skills.

  • A Laundry List of Marketing and Promoting

    – See this very long list of things to get into: How To Find Readers and that will keep you busy for a few years while time and more time will get your spiraling to your definition of success!


That’s it! That’s all the brain, downloading/dumping, I can do. Hope it helps!

Later!

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Posted in Marketing, Tools, Writing | Comments Off on Tools for Self-Publishing

How to find readers for your novel–ACTUAL STEPS! Honest Answer

Posted by - Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

SeeMeEvery time I’ve searched for information on how to get readers and/or how to market or promote my novels, I find a “great title” but absolutely NO REAL INFORMATION on what I should do.

That’s been my frustration and one of the main reasons I started this blog. No one provides REAL steps on how to accomplish things. Either that, Or maybe the majority of people don’t know HOW to give steps, like providing driving instructions– they give just pieces of what to do and where to go and you have to try to make sense of it all or figure it out like a puzzle.

Now granted, I understand that if you follow someone else’s steps that it may or may not work out for you, but at least provide something that DID WORK and give some kind of direction, STEPS, on how it got done. If you do find a site that claims they have the actual steps on how to get fans and/or how they self-published and sold thousands of books, you then would have to pay for it, and usually (though I haven’t paid for any information…but I know this is what would happen because the first part of information offered for free isn’t anything useful) it would be just some “workshop-generic” stuff that just wouldn’t help me, because I found that information, FREE, online somewhere else.

So, what if you’ve already done this list below, which seems to be the basic of what I always find online:

  1. Create a blog
  2. Create a website
  3. Put RSS on your sites
  4. Social media outlets
    1. Create a Facebook page
    2. Get a Twitter account
    3. Sign up for LinkedIn

Then there’s this list that’s practically very hard to do:

  1. Get Book Reviews
  2. Begin an email newsletter
  3. Setup a Book Tour either online or locally

In the beginning, I did dip my toe into sending out to have my books reviewed (just to three places, and yeah, I know that isn’t enough. Like I said, I dipped my toe…and then stopped). And…you know…it reminded me of sending a query letter all over again to publishing houses and agents–the long wait, the rejections, the silent unresponsiveness, the uncertainties. Just like publishing houses and agents, these places that do Book Reviews are SWAMPED. So it’s hard to break in, or to get anyone, to review your book, and to accept you for a Book Tour (You can pay for one of these too, if you like, but see my Slush Pile fear further below). Then, if you DO FINALLY get one or two book reviews, it would take awhile before it’s posted, and they just might not like it, or what if you get a bad review?

I’ve changed my idea on trying to get Book Reviews. And besides, I had always HATED when I went to the bookstore and saw a cool cover, turned the book around and all it had was Reviews and NOTHING to tell me what the book was about. I don’t know who these Reviewers are unless it’s a big name like Stephen King. And the statement about “Best Seller…New York….” review?…this has been sssooo overdone, I’ve just ignore them. I figure, if/when my book starts to get a fan base, my fans will put reviews down for me, and word-of-mouth would be the review. And they did: See Going Free on Amazon…And Book Reviews.

I got confirmation on my new belief on not getting Book Reviews from this person: Brian Spratt. On Number 6 on his page, Letter B, for his Advertising advice, let me quote:

Reviews-They really don’t do as much as one would think. If so, my books wouldn’t sell for The Unsuspecting Mage, my free book, has been eviscerated repeatedly by reviewers. Yet, it is the one that drives all my sales.

Think of it this way, no amount of good reviews will mean squat unless someone can find you to read them. Even then, the climate for reviews is suspect.

Now back to the three-item list above. The item regarding the “newsletter” advice….uh DUH! You need a fan-base FIRST to send them to? Unless you PAY for your novel to be sent by someone who already has a subscriber database. I’m always scared of those because I’m thinking that they would be sending my novel and everybody else’s novel to the SAME PEOPLE (Same Blog sites), and, again, my book would just get lost in the Slush Pile.

However, you can slowly build a email distribution list by having a field/option on your website to subscribe for notifications whenever you get a new novel out. Make sure to add where they can subscribe to the back, or end, of all of your books. However, you do need to have people actually BUYING your book in order for them to want to subscribe…sigh.

Then there’s these additional items to do:

  1. Join forums
    1. Kindle forums
    2. Barnes and Noble Nook
  2. Post comments on blogs
  3. Have friends and family post USEFUL reviews on Amazon
  4. Go to the Author Central on Amazon and sign in to make your Author Profile
  5. Create a Listmania! list on Amazon
  6. Get Car magnets
  7. Do Search engine optimization (SEO) on your website/blog
  8. Make a Book Trailer
  9. Do the LINK thang

I’ve joined author and writing forums, and then realized, though they are also readers, I wanted to now reach people who weren’t authors and writers. I mean, authors and writers got enough on their plate and probably have a back-load of books they’ve been meaning to take time to read…that is, once they get that next chapter finished…and that next novel completed. Plus, they’re doing the same thing I’m doing, and that’s to sell their books. That’s like two salesmen trying to sell the same product to each other. So, I continue the forums to learn something new, but now I’m turning my focus to finding readers. That was the theory anyway. But then I learned something NEW and my theory of selling to other authors changed. Other authors and writers can help to promote you, they can write reviews of your book, they can give you guest posts and interviews on their blogs, share your stuff with their circles and help reach other readers as well. They can help push your book FORWARD. Staying in touch with these forums keeps the sales going.

As for commenting on blogs…if the blog isn’t already FULL of other comments, who’s to say that yours would even be looked at. Besides, the blog-site might have high traffic or even low ones, but don’t want you posting your URL there. You can try to get around it with spelling it out, but people can see what you are doing. The only thing that will benefit is having your link on a popular blog that will help make your website become more popular by the search engines for having your link there.

Friends and Family? Trying to get your friends and family to post USEFUL Reviews besides “it was great! buy it!” is kind of hard. I mean, I feel like I’m dictating to them on what they need to say and how to state it (Now, children, remember to answer the Who, What, When, Where and How questions when completing the review). And more than likely, that would delay them from commenting because that would take too long to type and they would have to find time to type it. Speaking of delay, they may just be that type to delay anyway, late on everything…especially delaying to read your book in the first place (heh. heh.).

The car magnet idea? It might give me some curious bystander once in a blue moon, to come over and inquire, which has actually been pretty fun :). And the Amazon Author Profile is only useful when someone actually finds you. And the Listmania! is useful if people like what you list, which might be connected to what your write. And doing the LINK thing to increase your site’s popularity, goes along with SEOs. You could also create another website on another topic that you are interested in and post LINKS back to your novel’s website as well. But that’s another topic and readers might not be interested in your novel if it’s not related. Or, they might like your personality and be curious about you and buy your novel…that is, if your novel’s topic happens to be another one of their interests. This also goes along with posting on forums (in your signature is your Link Thang) and comments on other blogs. If you write Reviews for anything that you buy, link it back to your Author Name–that is, spell out your first and last name and post it at the end of your review, and put your URL in your profile (i.e. Amazon products that you’ve bought). Don’t put your website at the end of your review because that just changes the mode of your posting–making it sound as if you WANT something and not GIVING something. If someone likes your review, they would Google your name and/or look at your profile to see who you are. Then, BOOM, your URL is right there for them to see.

As for the SEOs? Please don’t pay anyone or anything for it. I’ve got four (4) pages as “top ranked” and I didn’t do anything but post on my blog information that I just didn’t find anywhere else and no one was talking about it. That’s how you do it. Put the search words, you know, words people would type to find sites on Google, and put them in the Tag lines (NOTE: Google Analytics gives the search words used that direct people to my websites and I put those exact words in my Tag listing), but mainly put it in your Title of your site or blog. And that’s it! That’s all I did. No hard-coding html, no looking up of “keywords” or anything. I just posted up simple things that I wanted to share because I couldn’t find it on anyone else’s site. I did the work to do the deed and shared what I found out. Also, my blog has AGED enough (being that I started it in the latter part of 2008) for the search engines to know that my site isn’t Spam. The obvious about getting “top ranked” is that your site just won’t get there if it’s information that’s already saturated. Example: Science Fiction Author. Those keywords just ain’t gonna cut it. So ::shrug:: gottah find another way out of the slush pile of the internet of Science Fiction and Fantasy novels, and that is posting something unique that people might want to read about. My unique things was posting stuff about things I could not find readily on the internet to help me…so I figured it out myself and posted it up.

The Book Trailer, though, was pretty fun to make for me. See my posting about it Book Trailers here. But we’re back to square one–people need to know you’re out there for them to view it. I would recommend Fiverr and do a search for jerrylittlemars to get help on increasing your audience on YouTube. He has some ideas, being that I was a newbie and all, that I had no idea about. Some of the ideas may seem like “cheating” to some people, but the tagging thing on Amazon that some authors take part of (Google: Author Tag Exchange), or “liking” each other Facebook pages, or adding Followers on a huge, already populated list of authors for Twitter… all of that may seem like “cheating” to others as well. Just do what’s comfortable to you, which mean, you can use the tools as it’s intentional purpose–it will take longer, but you’ll benefit from it nonetheless. I, for one, will do a little of this or that (more this than that). And I don’t like to support other Authors if I really don’t like what they write…which makes my list very, very, very, very slim. But does Book Trailers bring readers? Not really. It’s one of those “nice-to-haves” for those who want to know a little bit about your book…when they do hear about it. I wouldn’t pay thousands to have one made…it would be a waste, unless you’re already have a huge fan base and you have that kind of money to support your art.

Advertisements(below): let’s not forget the list suggested for that. Most of them you would have to PAY for (and You know I don’t like that word):

  1. Google AdWords $$
  2. Projectwonderful.com $$
  3. local community/city newspaper $$
  4. prlog.org FREE
  5. prweb.com $$
  6. Pay-Per-Click: Google, GoodReads $$
  7. Facebook Ads $$

I’m not using two dollar signs to say it’s expensive, I’m just saying that it costs money. I guess advertisement won’t hurt, but I always go for the FREE stuff (See what I said about PrLog). And then there’s that thing of trying to get the reader’s attention (Hey! Marcel! Are you listening to me!… Heh. Heh. I think that AT&T U-verse commercial is funny). You, again have an ad in a slush pile of other ads. AND from what I’ve read, PAYING for advertisement, just doesn’t quite work most of the time. You end up wasting money. But it has worked for others….

Then there’s the other social stuff that requires a little less effort for those who love to read books where you can do GiveAways and ARC.

  1. GoodReads
  2. Shelfari
  3. LibraryThing

You get involved in these communities and also suggest your book and/or provide free books with GiveAway promotions. Just don’t put up only your books on your read list and only have YOUR BOOKS always on the forefront of your entire profile/login and in your ENTIRE conversation. Be a part of the community because you’re also reading other works. Learn about the community in order to become a part of it. For me, however, I barely have time to write, let alone read books. So, this will come later for me…when I have that time again, to really get into the community, I think it would help–but I did sign up. I listed some books I’ve read 20+ years ago on Shelfari (I used somewhat the same list I have on Listmania on Amazon), only because Shelfari is connected to Author Central. See my “What the Heck” blog on what happened when I did that. I also exported the Shelfari list and imported into GoodReads and LibraryThing. Easy Peasy. Writers are Readers–we love books! So, reading and talking about books you like makes you a part of something fun!

You can also do the GiveAway by providing coupons to people through Smashwords. Do the coupon instead of using your own money of gifting in Amazon, which, though you get some money back, you have to pay taxes on it. And, if you do use Amazon for gifting, use a limited credit card–i.e. gift credit card you can buy from a store. Do not use your personal credit card, to buy it. It helps manage things better, and keep the Credit people from thinking someone stole your credit card (one author posted) for buying items for people overseas. Offering ARC (Advanced Reading Copy) to readers is something you can do too. ARC is a proof of a book prior to full distribution. They are usually not the final copy of the novel and are uncorrected. It’s used for promotional purposes–NOT FOR MONEY. You don’t sale ARC books. But getting people to WANT your ARC is the same as trying to get a Book Review.

Then comes the bottom line about getting readers….

If none of this is working for you, then the last thing you need to do, the online “helpful” people state, is:

  • Make sure you have a polished book (grammar, edited, good cover etc.), and a well written one, because that might just be the problem

What if you’ve already did this (hired the editor, great cover book artist) and you know your book is professionally done and there’s still no one buying your books and there’s still no traffic coming to your blog and/or website?

How do you get those readers darnit!

Sooo…how do you do that?

You might be a bit disappointed of my answer because you wanted answers to that MAJOR question…but if you’ve looked everywhere like me, you’ll see that there isn’t one. You might feel jilted and bamboozled because you read this entire thing for an answer, and that’s exactly how I felt doing this research. THERE IS NOT AN ANSWER. That’s the bottom line. No answer. Nope. No answer. None. Zip. Zelch. Nada. Nothing. Nooooo.

And when I can’t find an answer, then I come up with my own. That’s what you do, and that’s how things happen. During this journey, I’ve come to the end and seen the answer; and though all the things that I’ve stated above sounds negative and pessimistic–and that’s only because none of it will guarantee ANYTHING–my answer on to how to market and get your book notice…?

DO IT ALL!



Do every thing that you can possibly do to be seen. DO EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!!!

My personal example…

In 2009, I didn’t sell a single book..the ENTIRE year.
In 2010, I didn’t sell but ONE book, and that was in December.
From December 2010 – February 2011 I was selling one (1) book a month on Kindle.
Then starting March 2011, there were four (4) books on Kindle.
In April, it went to three (3) books sold on Kindle.
In May 2011, there were three (3) books sold on Kindle.
In June 2011, there were six (6) books sold on Kindle.
In July 2011, there were seven (7) books sold on Kindle, along with my new book I just added this month, making four published books total.
In August 2011, there were 40 books sold on Kindle, because Irid, amazingly, went free. See my What The Heck! posting. I had lowered my pricing to $0.99 as well to encourage more buys. And at Diesel, through Smashwords, sold six (6) novels. I then raised the price again back to $2.99 before September.
In September 2011, there were about forty (40) books sold on Kindle..and the sales kept up a few weeks after my book stopped being free. (Any sales for Smashwords this month, I have to wait on reporting because they have to wait on the other stores to send them their report).
In October 2011, sales have trickled down to 19 on Kindle, so far this month.

It might sound like very small potatoes and numbers to you…but for me IT SOUNDS GREAT!! I don’t know where these readers came from or how I did it (I didn’t sell anything in 2009 or 2010–well, one book in 2010). It might be when I started giving my books for FREE on Smashwords (i.e. Nook as well), and going FREE on Amazon definitely helped. I have no idea. But, I highly suggest you do that, being a new author, make your book Free, because who can’t pass up a Free Book? And who wants to spend money, and take a wager, on someone they don’t know? Give your book away…for FREE. I know, you want to get paid for all that hard work and all that money that you put into this project, but to get money, you have to spend money/loose money…and build a fan base.

BETTER YET, think of this strategy as NOT HAVING TO PAY FOR ADVERTISEMENT. This is how Word-Of-Mouth helps you out. FREE is a marketing tool. You’ll reach a lot of people this way, and it will save you hours and hours of trying to market it yourself. It’s worth it. Also, just because it is Free doesn’t necessarily mean people would be interested in it–so, don’t be fooled. They might not like the description, or sample, and pass it up. OR, they just might like it enough to actually purchase one of your other books. If you don’t want to do the FREE thing, do the $0.99 thing. Call it a PULL (as Role Playing Gamers call it when positioning a Boss Monster for the kill). Pull your fans to you. Give to Receive. Provide service in order to be served. The yin and the yang. And with each hard step, or fun one, you will reach your goals.

I’ve reached my goal!

Yep, I sure did. These small potatoes of sells have MET MY GOAL! Yep. Yep. All I wanted was a few “strangers” to read my stories. That’s it. I didn’t have a number of “how many,” I just wanted someone to be interested.

And someone was…interested. YEAH! WHO-YAH!
Take that FATE! Take it! Take it!

Yeah! I’m EXCITED with a capital E.T. !

I’ve done the deed and met the goal without the “formula” to do it–because there is no formula.

JA Konrath

Chance. Luck. Randomness. We hate these things, because we want to be in control of our careers. We want to believe that working hard will make us winners.

That isn’t necessarily true. But working hard can improve your odds at success.

No one has a formula of what will be popular. If one Book was popular, someone could take another book, do the exactly same things for promoting it and it bombs. You don’t have to be popular or famous or already in the marketing to know this. Just look around at music and TV shows and movies. Ideas are started, and those who started the idea become shocked with the results when it becomes popular. Case in point: Married… with Children (TV show) and The Simpsons.

Then there’s shows that I really, really liked: Witches of Eastwick, Journey Man, John Doe, Stargate Universe, WitchBlade, The Dresden Files, TheBackYardigans…and they were all cancelled before I was ready for them to go. But shows like Smallville goes on for years (I like Smallville, but not as much as I liked those others I listed that were cancelled). And look at The Bee Movie. Great animation, great line-up of actors, but the story and so called “comedy” was horrible! And how about that famous photo V-J Day in Times Square. Who knew that a photo like that would last for lifetimes! And those other iconic photos: The Kent State Massacre and the Vietnam War, and Marilyn Monroe’s flying dress, and the raising of the U.S. Flag on Iwo Jima. So, you get what I’m saying. No one knows and no one has the golden key. So…

DO EVERYTHING!

DoEverything

And that’s what you have to do. Increase your Odds.

Increasing the amount of stories for consumption would help too.

WRITE MORE BOOKS

Yep. Increase your odds. Get working on those novels, short stories, novellas…. The more works out there, the more consumption, the more readers, and more of keeping it NEW.

And make a few of them FREE!

Aaannnndddd…lower your expectations. Yeah. lower them. Start with small goals and when you meet them, then start another. My goal?…To reach a few strangers who might like my book. DONE! My next goal? I wanted (Past Tense “wanted”) to see those FREE Books on Smashwords numbers continue to increase. I wanted them to keep going until they’ve reach 5,000–for one book, not a combination of them. That was my goal.

It didn’t happen.

What did happen was that I surpassed the 5,000 downloads goal when my book IRID went free on Amazon. Over 8,000 downloads!

Goal met!

My next goal? To keep my trickle of buys per week…UP. How to do that? I’m working on an idea and we’ll see if it works.

Back on topic on goals: Small accomplishing goals. Think Small. Any other way of thinking, you might as well be thinking of winning the lottery (see this blog on Publish your book or play the lottery?). So, really? You’re gonna win the lottery? That’s what is means to be as “successful like Stephen King, J. K. Rowling and Amanda Hocking” is all about. You have to change your mindset…and build gradually…and define your own success. But You CAN make a living, according to Dean Wesley Smith on his blog: You CAN Make Money Writing Fiction. All you need is dozens of books for your store instead of having a store and only selling ONE (1) item. Having a store with MULTIPLE things for purchase can help you make money.

Read: So You Want To Become A Bestselling Author–Here’s How (Part 1)

It might redirect your mental aim a bit and get you where you need to go. Because running after the Lottery would only smother your spirit. And you give up. You stop. And become bitter. Instead of concentrating on increasing your merchandises for purchase, you just stop.

So, continue to do it all. DO EVERYTHING. And after you’ve done everything, then there’s TIME. Yep, time. You have to wait. Let things build up. Just like webpages have to age to be accepted as legitimate sites, so does your name and book titles. You have to wait and wait and wait. And while you’re waiting, you’re writing; and while you’re writing, you’re blogging and socializing. DON’T SELL–SOCIALIZE! Do the things you love to do online and become social. The more you’re out there and become a part of many different communities, the more people get to learn about you and what you do. Then you wait some more, and get more novels out there, and wait some more, and communicate to the online communities, and wait some more. Some writers state it takes anywhere from 9 months to 2 years before your books starts getting noticed and bought.

I don’t mean to disappoint anyone, but that’s the Honest Answer….so don’t go paying for one, because it’s not out there.

You might say, “Well, you’re not successful! You’re not selling thousands of books!” To me, that’s the same thing as saying, “Well, you’re not a millionaire! So, you’re not successful!” And to both of those statements I’ll say, “Successful? Why, yes I am!” Because I met my goal. I have a house. I’m debt free (meaning, no credit cards and everything paid in cash); both cars paid off, student loan is history, a little savings, a daughter, a cat, and a wonderful husband who cooks my breakfast, lunch and dinner (I do the cleaning); and I can travel twice a year for vacations; and we’re not living from paycheck to paycheck. Now that’s successful in life for me. And it took years to build it–from elementary to college to temporary jobs to professional experience, to giving up cable, to saving and not spending on things that are not “needful”, and doing a lot of stuff myself (my hair, my lawn–though now we can afford someone else to do the lawn–ironing instead of dry cleaning, etc. etc.). This is the same as self-publishing.

My novels? I have a few strangers buying…and it’s slowly building. And I got a few more books that I’m working to release. I’ll let you know if I’m still not successful in a few years, and even then, I’ll tell you the same thing: “Why, yes I am!” Because I wrote my first book in 1997 (finished two years later) and didn’t decide to self-publish and do the “Do It Yourself” project and get it out there until 2008. I wrote books over the years, and today I can afford to pay an editor and a Cover Designer, when I couldn’t 12 years ago. And my book is being bought! Something that wasn’t happening several years ago.

You understand what I’m saying now? Remember your first job? I do. Mine was at Del Taco. Am I still working there? Heh. Heh. Not in your life. So that’s why I can honestly say, if you ask if I’m successful in a few years… my answer will still be: “Why, yes I am!”

Your goal is to be successful, and to do that, you have to make your own way and find and define your own answer, because it’s the uniqueness of things that are popular.

JUST DO IT! DO EVERYTHING!

And then let time take its course.

Until Next Time.

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