I Don't Get It

Sometimes I feel like I need to start a post with a disclaimer, and I guess this is one of those posts.  If you are one of these people, don’t take this post as an attack, because I honestly (as the title says) don’t get it.

I have a great friend in Lucky Dunbar, who has done the artwork for my stories and I hope he can continue to do so for as long as I need artwork for my stories.  BTW, visit his Facebook Page at LuckyArt.  But, as he continues to work his craft, he will be busy with other projects and I can’t expect to always be number one on his list.  So, I’ve been perusing DeviantART and finding other artists that I could use in the event Lucky just doesn’t have the time to get something done.

In my journey’s I have found a handful of artists that do some great work and their style fits what I am looking for.  For the most part, they aren’t too expensive.  If I want a character art, it costs X.  If I want a character and a background it is X.  If I want multiple characters, etc.  One artist has even gone so far as to show examples of what you would get for so much money, with the explanation that more complexity equals more money.  Very customer friendly, and since they only have certain times when they are available for commission work, I can assume business is good for these artists.

Then there is the, what I consider, not-so-customer-friendly artists.  You almost get the feeling that if you have to ask how much, then it’s too expensive for you.   

Now, let me make something clear, for those of you who are not familiar with DeviantART.  This is not a site for well known artists.  You won’t find Vellejo, Parkinson, Bell, or Kinkade hawking their wares (okay, that would be odd for a couple of them since their dead…bad examples, but you get it).  The artists found on that site are talented people who haven’t had the exposure.  Some want to be the next big thing, while others are happy with their niche in life.

So here we get to the part I don’t understand.  What is it about pricing your artwork that needs to be a secret?  Is it too complex for you to give the potential customer an idea of what they would spend if they worked with you?  Why do you shun the apparent model that other artists follow with their pricing structure?  Or, is it a case of “if you have to ask…”?

Look, I know there is some reasoning behind it.  You have a reason for not disclosing your pricing structure, assuming you have one.  But I have no clue as to what that reason could be.

Here is how it looks.  And don’t take this as an attack.  I am simply saying this is how it looks to your average customer with no training in business101.

You overvalue your work.

I am the average customer and that is how I see it.  I don’t see your art as better than the others.  In most cases, your artwork is on par with other people who are more than happy to provide pricing information.  Any guesses on which artist I will go to?

As I said, I don’t understand.  Perhaps you don’t overvalue your work, but because I don’t understand why you want to hide your pricing structure, that is how I see it.  Not only is that how I see it; that is how the average customer sees it.  The sentence “If you have to ask, it’s too much.” can be read from two different perspectives.

Busy, Busy, Busy

The only sign August existed is the calendar on my office wall.  I apologize for sleeping through it.

In reality, editing is more time consuming than writing.  At least it is for me.  I can spend several hours editing a single chapter, which sometimes moves in to the next day.  The good news is; I am making progress.  The first half of the book is in my editors hands, and I am near completion with the second half.

I have the cover art for a short story I promised.  The only thing left is an edit.  Unfortunately, I am finding it difficult to pry myself away from my other editing.  Which leads in to my lack of social media presence.

Every day I tell myself I need to blog, tweet, or share something on facebook.  Every day I sit down and grab the manuscript and work on some edits.  On one hand, the book is priority, on the other, I am neglecting other arena's of my writing life.  I could promise to do better.  I could.  But, I'm pretty sure it would be a hollow promise.

Personally, I think you would rather see a completed book two than another post on Facebook.

I will try to do a bit better, though.

So, where have I been other than editing?

Most of you know my parents lost their home in the tornado before the tornado that received all the attention.  Finally, they moved to their new home.  I was able to help a little, though not as much as I wanted.  I can't express just how happy I am to see this chapter finally coming to a close.  A huge thank you goes out to the people involved with the many churches in the area that came through where FEMA/Red Cross/United Way failed.

It is also summer time and I still have grass in my yard.  I think my next home will be in a gravel pit.

Until my marketing skills and my writing abilities improve, I still have a real job.  And don't take this as a complaint.  In many ways, my real job has afforded me the opportunity to write.

My wife deserves more attention than she has received.  And always will.

And my granddaughter is cuter than yours.

I need to get back to work.  Maybe I'll ramble on a little later.  Just remember, though there may be a sprinkling of truth, it doesn't make Thayer Evans any less of a hack.

Thoughts of Freedom

As we cruise up to the USA's Independence Day celebration, I thought I would share my thoughts on a certain family cult from Kansas, their desire for attention, and how their evil has created something good.

I will refer to this group as "unwanted guests", because that is what we call them in the Patriot Guard Riders.  I don't want them to see this post when they do their daily Google search for their organization, because that is what they want; attention.  Sure, they claim to be a righteous group that is against, well, just about everything.  The truth of the matter is they are those insecure kids that always act up just so people will turn their heads to them.

They are evil.  Yes, they carry around their bibles and crosses, preaching their interpretations of what they believe will cause pain to those around them.  I'm not even sure they believe what they preach; they just like to stir the pot.  Evil to the core.  Like so many cults have done over the centuries, they use religion as an excuse for their own misguided agenda's.

These unwanted guests show up at funerals to inflict pain on those who are already in pain.  Do not mistake this.  They are not their to spread "the word", there are other, more effective, ways to do this.  They laugh at your pain.  Evil.

Just like some rock and roll bands from the seventies and eighties, with their pentagrams and demons, the unwanted guests use their bibles and crosses to get attention and money.  And there you are, the core of it; they do what they do for money and attention.  And they love the fact they get paid to be evil.

The Patriot Guard Riders was formed in response to this evil.

Standing For Those Who Stood For US

And what a wonderful thing!  The Patriot Guard Riders attend funeral's of veterans and fallen soldiers only as INVITED GUESTS.  We stand a respect line before and after the services, escort the soldier to the cemetery, and stand watch during the burial.  All of this to shield the family and friends from unwanted guests, and most important, to show respect for the soldier.

Honestly, it is a shame that it took an evil cult to bring this about.  We should have already been showing this respect decades before.  It is a sight to see and it has brought tears to my eyes more than once.  One of the largest funerals I have attended, the procession of motorcycles stretched for couple of miles.  Regardless of how you feel politically about one war or another, these men and women served our country; some gave all.

EVERY SOLDIER DESERVES THIS!

As evil as the unwanted guests are, they have the right to do what they do.  Is it wrong?  From every angle, it is wrong.  It is just plain evil, but they have the right to do it.  Soldiers have given their lives to afford these knobs that right.

With all that being said, I just want to thank those unwanted guests.  I want to thank them for prodding us into doing what we needed to do. 

 

Anybody Want A Peanut?

Some conversations just stick with you, and often, when the conversation is over and you’ve had a few days to digest it, you think of that thing you should have said.  In this case, it was one of those things that needed to be said, but was left better unsaid; unless of course your goal is to hurt feelings.

As with most people, writers seek out those inspiring quotes from those who have been successful in our field.  These quotes are often motivating, or enlightening, some of us turn them into words to live by.

                                   “The first draft of anything is ****” – Ernest Hemingway

I love that quote, because regardless of how great you feel about that brain purge, well, Hemingway said it best.  I’m pretty sure it was a direct quote, though I have failed in finding the source of the interview and where he put it into print.  Too lazy to pursue it any further, especially since this is a well known quote of his…

There is a problem with these quotes.  Many times, like a quoted bible verse, the quote is taken out of context and the meaning is twisted and reformed into something that agrees with a belief we already hold.  This harkens back to one of my other mantra’s “Research, research, research.”

During the conversation the other day, one of the individuals involved quoted Lewis Carroll.  Taken at face value, this quote bothered me.  It seemed incomplete, and, well, wrong.

             “Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end: then stop” – Lewis Carroll

This quote has the aura of being profound, so it must be good.  Right?  The person who used this quote is an aspiring writer, and they strongly believe in those words, because Lewis Carroll said them.  If an accomplished writer said those words, they have to be true.

                  “I could tell you my adventures – beginning from this morning, but it’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.” – Lewis Carroll

Taken at face value, this quote appears to be in conflict of the first quote.  But, according to the presentation, this quote is something Lewis Carroll said.  Again, if an accomplished writer said those words, they have to be true.

Let’s take a gander of other “quotes” from established authors.  Feel free to pass judgment, since that is what we have done with the two quotes from Lewis Carroll.

                        “You probably mean well, but handing these people food is the worst thing you could do for them.” – Brandon Sanderson

                          “There are lots of guys out there who write a better prose line than I do and who have a better understanding of what people are really like and what humanity is supposed to mean – hell, I know that.” – Stephen King

                           “I am a disappointed drudge, sir.  I care for no man on earth, and no man on earth cares for me.” – Charles Dickens

                           “Many that live deserve death.” – J.R.R. Tolkien

                           “If you’re in trouble, or hurt or need – go to the poor people.  They’re the only ones that’ll help – the only ones.” – John Steinbeck

Interesting quotes, to say the least.  If we take them at face value, as the aspiring writer has taken the Carroll quote, we come to some bothersome conclusions.  Sanderson is selfish, King is humble, Dickens had no friends, Tolkien and Steinbeck were cynics.

Every quote on this post has one thing in common:  They were pulled from works of fiction.  They didn’t come from an interview, nor were they quoted from books about writing, all of them came from works of fiction:  Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Elantris, Misery, A Tale of Two Cities, The Fellowship of the Ring, and The Grapes of Wrath.

I know.  The argument is that the writer’s thoughts are often brought out in their works.  So, the first Lewis Carroll quote is how he feels about writing.  Okay, I can accept that.  As long as you can accept that Brandon Sanderson believes feeding people who can’t feed themselves is the worst thing you can do for them.  I can accept your blind devotion to that single quote as long as you hold that same devotion for EVERY phrase in that book.

I write words that would never come out of my mouth.  My characters say things that make me cringe.  Now, I could be pompous enough to believe I am the only one, but the truth of the matter is; when a character says something in a book, it does not always reflect the author’s beliefs.  I find it difficult to believe someone would be naïve enough to think otherwise.  But, if you are using a quote from a work of fiction as your mantra on how to write a story, well, that’s a tad bit on the naïve side.

On the other hand, if you just like something a character said and you want to use it as your mantra, then by all means, use it.  Just credit the character.  Don’t put words in the author’s mouth.

“And I mean it.”

“Anybody want a peanut?”

In the Beginning

I suppose my latest theme on this blog has been opinions on writing.  Sometimes I feel a bit pretentious offering up these opinions, and someday I may find myself disagreeing with what I write today, but keep in mind these are just the mere opinions of an old man still perfecting his craft.

I was a part of an interesting discussion this week and it involved where to begin when writing a story.  In the writing world, we call this the Point of Attack.  In a world filled with expectations of instant gratification, Point of Attack is extremely important.  I guess it goes without saying (yet I'll say it anyway), it hasn't always been this way.

One of the traps that we fall into, as writers, is trying to emulate successful stories of the past, but when you do so with tunnel vision you may be setting yourself up for failure.  Would Moby Dick even make it to print in today's environment?  Would The Hobbit take so long to get off the ground?  In my opinion, no.

We are programmed to believe Moby Dick and The Hobbit are wonderful tales that must be read, so we suffer through what we would now consider shortcomings in an effort to find that wonderful tale.  If either tale was published, as they are, next week, they would fall off into obscurity.  Not because they are bad stories, but because they aren't written to match up with today's expectations.

So, as writers, we can't pick up a book written before our parents were born, copy the formula, and expect the same results.  No matter how good our tale may be.

Which brings me back to the Point of Attack.

Some people say you must engage the reader within the first five pages, others say the first five sentences, and they may both be right, so it behooves me, as a writer, to start the story off in an engaging manner.  We want to share with the readers every aspect of our characters.  We want them to see where they came from and why they are who they are today.  But, if we begin a story with the birth of our character, we may lose the reader in those first five pages and never get to share the growth of the character with them.

You can share all there is to share and still engage the reader.  Begin your story with some conflict, and sprinkle in the past along the way.  Probably not in flashbacks, as they are often overused, but a couple of sentences can say a lot.

"Ole Joe knows hospitals better than anyone in this room.  What with that cancer he had as a child."

You don't even know Joe, but your imagination just painted a picture of his childhood.

When I say to begin a story with conflict, don't take that to mean you must begin with an epic fantasy battle or the like.  A simple conflict will do.  Think about an opening chapter where Joe is panicking because he forgot to pay the water bill and it's cutoff day.  Zipping through traffic to get to the utilities office before noon.  Worried about his wife's reaction.  Hoping the check doesn't bounce.  This is real world situation that could very well connect with your reader.  They find themselves wanting to know if he gets the bill paid on time.  How much more mundane can you get?  But, this is conflict in the writing world.  And, as an added bonus, it is something the reader can connect with.

So when someone tells you to start the story at the beginning, keep in mind the beginning of the story may not be the beginning of your character's story.  If we did that, The Hobbit would have began "There once was a hobbit born in the Shire."

Imagery

It has been a typical Oklahoma spring around here.  Thunderstorms, tornadoes, and the chaos that surrounds them has been ongoing for a few weeks.  As with most Oklahomans, I have spent my days dealing with the aftermath of Mother Nature's fury, and my evenings staring at the television screen and hoping the next twister finds empty fields.

Somewhere along the way, Summer sneaked in through the back door.

I know, officially it is not Summer, but Mother Nature isn't much for schedules.  I stepped outside yesterday morning to take care of some yard work and broke into a sweat before the mower hummed to life.  So, now we shift gears into a typical Oklahoma summer; hot, humid, and windy till the sun goes down, and then the wind will sometimes calm where you're left with just plain old hot and humid.

While I'm sitting in front of the television with the AC blowing full bore and a tall glass of lemonade in my hand, an Oklahoma Tourism commercial comes across the screen.  The scenes are inviting and made me yearn to load up the camper and find some of those beautiful corners of the state.  Then it hit me; those images on the screen felt inviting, by design, but they lacked an element of truth.  They were all missing the people gathered beneath a shade tree with drinks that used to have ice in them, holding them to their foreheads while fanning themselves with the other hand.  They also missed the constant drone of cicada's in the background.

This brought to mind imagery in my writing.  Most author's know that part of bringing the reader into the story is utilizing the senses.  Most of the time we rely on sight, but there is more to story-telling than painting a picture, though we can use that image to project other impacts on our senses.

The ceiling fan creaked with every rotation and once again Jonus wrote down oil on his mental list of things to do.  It would have to wait.  He leaned back in the chair and wiped the moisture from his brow with an already damp kitchen towel.  The smell of coconut oil told him Thea was escaping to the pool before he saw her prance across the room in her new two-piece she had paid far too much for.  He unbuttoned his shirt and felt the breeze on his soaked skin.


Feeling warm?  Passages like that help bring the reader into the story, and take note that the word heat was never used.  There is something about sound of a creaking ceiling fan, or the smell of coconut oil that brings summer to mind.

To me, Steinbeck was a master of imagery.  Pick up any of his stories and you'll have an urge to sit in front of a fan, or snuggle up to the fireplace.  One day, I hope to be that good.

So unless you are selling vacations in a hot and humid state, don't forget imagery.  Utilizing senses other than sight alone will help bring readers into your world.
 

It'll Never Happen

When the term technology is used our minds fill with visions of computers, wires, and laser beams.  Wind the clock back a hundred years, a couple of hundred years, or several hundred years, technology takes on a different sense.

The printing press was a technology frowned upon for many reasons, one of which was the belief that monks would become lazy.

The automobile.

Photography.

Flight.

All technological advances.  The commonality?  They were all feared, shunned, played off as a fad, and touted they would never, ever, not in a million years, replace “x”.

You just have to love us human-types.

Digital photography will never replace film.  That statement came from a photography magazine printed in 1994.  In all fairness, digital photography has not “replaced” film, but when was the last time you saw a new film camera for sale at your local superstore?  As a matter of fact, without doing a search on the web, tell me fast, where would you take that film to get developed?

People will always want to read the morning paper.  It will never be replaced by the internet.  There are hundreds (if not thousands) of newspapers and magazines that no longer exist because they failed to recognize the oncoming train of technology, and countless more that are struggling to catch up before they too go under.

“X” format will never replace the LP.  People long for the hiss and pop of the classic vinyl record.  Been to a “Record” store lately?  Oh wait, you can just get that online.  If you dig deep enough, you can even get a copy of that song with the hiss and pop included.

So, why do we believe electronic books will never, ever, not in a million years, outsell print books?

Already we see signs of that flawed belief.  Whatever happened to the “Big Six”?  What are we down to?  Five?  Four?  The big publishers sat mired in the mud for years.  Now they struggle to catch up with the very technology they downplayed.

When was your most recent trip to Waldenbooks, B Dalton, Borders?

Will the e-book ever completely replace the coveted print version?  No.  Much like a photograph printed on special paper, the desire will always be present.

However…

Much like a hand-tooled leather belt, the printed photograph, the hardback novel, will become cost-prohibitive for the average customer.  They will become novelty items relegated to the collectors and those with disposable income.

It won’t be today.  It won’t be tomorrow.  It may not even be within a decade, but there will come a time in your children’s life when special orders for printed books will be the norm.

The bookshelf, much like your photo album, will be virtual.  So, instead of fighting technology, find a way to make it work to your advantage.  After all, technology is coming, and it has been proven over the centuries, its force is greater than any resistance you can provide.

Go ahead, keep saying it’ll never happen.  You’ll be one less competitor we have to worry about when it does.

Shameless plug here:

I have three titles available; one novel, Blood of Two, and two shorts, The Leaf Pendant, and The Most Intelligent Orc in the World.  Check out Smashword, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Diesel, or iTunes to find a copy.

If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say

I have been conspicuously absent from social media for a couple of weeks.  I just haven't had anything nice to say, and it has been bothering me.  Am I really that much of grump?  Well, maybe I am, but this morning I realized what has had me residing in Grumptown; social media.

I open up my Facebook feed and it is littered with angry people, hypocritical people, and whiny people.  Read a few posts from these folks and see if you can live on the sunny side of life!

I have read post after post of political propaganda from all three sides of the fence.  Each of them taking a quote out of context, throwing out a number that sounds outrageous, but isn't true, or just bad-mouthing the other side because they can.

I won't go into my political viewpoint, because it really doesn't matter.  I don't care what side of the fence you sit on, when you distribute lies, YOU are the idiot; not the president, not the guy running against the president, not the NRA, not the anti-gun.

If you want to tout the virtues of eating healthy, eating organic, eating right, don't follow that post with a status of your location being a pizza house, or a burger joint.  Unless you're protesting fatty foods, you just negated your earlier posts.

And really?  I don't care how unfair life has been to you when you get on your iPhone/Pad, or personal computer to type that message out, while your munching on food you don't need, living in a climate controlled environment, thinking about where you are going to go to in your car that costs more than someone in Mexico makes in a year.  There's an undernourished kid in Uganda that would like to speak with you.

With all that said, I unfollowed a lot of people this morning.  Life is already looking brighter!  I haven't had anything nice to say because the people I surrounded myself with in the social media world didn't either.  Problem fixed.

When the world gets in your face
I say
Have a Nice Day!

No Reviews For You!

Let’s get this straight, before I go off on my rant: I like Amazon. I buy several items from them, including most of my reading material. On top of that, they are the key e-tailer for my books. My writing is sold through several different vendors, but Amazon has the broadest audience which translates into the most sales.


However, I do have a problem with one of their policies and how they implement it.

I ask my readers to write reviews, not only for my works, but for others as well. In turn, I feel it is my responsibility to write reviews also. Why?

1. I ask my readers to do it, so I should too.

2. As a writer, I crave feedback, so I assume others are the same.

3. I want to do all I can to support fellow Indie Authors.

4. A good book deserves praise.

5. A bad book deserves a bad review.

6. There are too many paid for reviews out there and the real reader needs to offset the bots.

Of all the reviews I have contributed, two of them were bad reviews, but all of them were honest reviews. Doesn’t matter. I received an e-mail from Amazon today stating that two of my reviews (the bad ones) do not comply with their customer reviews guidelines.

“Specifically, sentiments by or on behalf of a person or company with a directly competing product are not allowed in Amazon.com Customer Reviews. This includes reviews by authors, artists, publishers, manufacturers, or third-party merchants selling the product.”

Understand, I am not arguing the validity of this guideline. I like it, to a point. There are pros and cons to it, but the Customer Review is broken, and not just with Amazon. More on this later.

The problem I have: They only removed the two bad reviews. If Amazon was honestly removing my reviews because of the stated guideline they would have removed ALL of my reviews.

“…sentiments by or on behalf of a person or company with a directly competing product…”

If I am in direct competition with the authors who received my bad reviews, I am also in competition with the rest of them that received more complementary reviews. (by the way, I seldom give 5 stars…er, gave)

My reviews were removed because the author of the book that received my latest review complained about the one star he deserved. It stood in stark contrast to the many 5 star reviews he paid for. Just FYI, the book had an average rating of 4.2 on Amazon, while on Goodreads and Shelfari, its average rating was 2.

As I mentioned earlier, the customer review process across the Web is broken. It is no secret that companies pay for good reviews. Authors are no different. There are companies that sell reviews to authors. To achieve a four or five star rating on Amazon is easy; you just need the money to do it. This is one of the reasons I do not give five star ratings for anything, not just books.

Amazon is trying many things to combat this issue, but it is a losing battle. The only way to combat this issue is for actual customers to post honest reviews of products, be it a book or cellular phone. Right now, I believe the best way to find honest reviews of books is to find them on Goodreads. For the most part, the reviews appear honest.

Fear of Technology

It seems that most of my discussions lately have revolved around writing.  Go figure.  That's what I have been spending most of my time doing; writing.

Computers are all around us.  If you are reading this, you are doing so via some incarnation of a computer.  Chances are, your car operates because of a computer.  Modern flat screen televisions utilize computers.  Your cell phone is a computer.  When you withdraw money from your bank account, you most likely do so through the use of a computer (ATM).  Cash registers have evolved into computers that make that nostalgic cha-ching noise.

So why so scared?

I work around a bunch of scared little people.  They have to interact with computers on a daily basis in order to complete their jobs, yet they want nothing to do with them.

Myself?  I embrace technology and wonder how I can make it work for me.  I constantly write programs to make my life, and others, easier.  That is just one of the many things I get paid to do.  So it only makes sense that I would seek help from a computer to improve my writing.  Right?

Wow, don't bring that up in the writing workshop forum that I was formerly a member of.

The computer is only as intelligent as the programmer.  As a programmer, I teach the computer to do what I need done so the task can be performed reliably and efficiently.

In the writing world, what needs to be done reliably and efficiently? 

Editing.

I just felt several people from that workshop cringe.  Get over it.

Editing software does what I do (and will continue to do) reliably and efficiently.  I promise you, it will catch "now", when I meant "know" more often than I will.  Or how about "through" and "threw"?  I can edit a piece of work, much like my editing of Diplomat Elanya this last weekend, and still miss things.  When I dump it off to my editors, they will catch things and make notes, but they too will still miss things.  It is the way humans work; we are glorious imperfect beings.  We can scan a document and look specifically for "teh" and miss it a hundred times, a computer will catch it every time.

Editing software is just another editor.  I had three editors, now I have four.  Guess what?  I can ignore number four just as easily as I ignore numbers one, two, and three.

I don't want everyone's prose to be the same...

Seriously?  This is an actual line from a concerned writer.  Really?  This isn't the Jetsons where Elroy feeds an essay into a computer and the computer spits out an edited sterile dissertation.  Editing software offers suggestions (like a human editor) based upon data and algorithms created by a human.  You can accept the suggestions and make corrections, like you would with a human editor, or you can ignore the suggestions, like you would with a human editor.  The choice still remains with the writer.

By no means am I saying that every writer needs to use editing software.  I am saying that it is another tool available that has the potential to help you grow.  Just as Frank from Edits R Us can be another editor to use in your process, so can the computer.  It doesn't replace the human factor, it can't.

But, don't let your fear of technology hold you back.

And don't name your editing software Frank.  I already named mine that.

Shameless plug:
My short story The Leaf Pendant is available for free at most e-book sellers (except Amazon).  My book Blood of Two is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, Smashwords, and a multitude of other e-book retailers.  You can also pick up the paperback (though it is a bit pricey) at Amazon.  Read it, rate it, review it, and most of all, enjoy it.

Know What to Expect

When I jumped into the world of becoming and Indie author, I pretty much knew what to expect.  Or, I suppose, more of what NOT to expect.

I was not going to become an overnight success.
I was not going to make millions on my one title.
I was not going to grab the attention of a major publisher.
I was not going to let any of this slow me down.

It is really quite amazing to see how many of my peers expect the opposite.  I know of one author (and have read of many more like her) who published her book and expected it to sell in blockbuster numbers.  One of the problems was that the extent of her energy ended when she published the book.

Several weeks passed and her sales were non-existent.  She vented on her personal Facebook account about how people she thought were friends had obviously not supported her by purchasing her book.  That vent was the first time many of her friends even knew she had written a book.

Never mind the quality of work.  If you do not expend energy on marketing, you lose.  Unfortunately, there are a million ways to lose on marketing.

Research, research, research, research.  Before you publish and after you publish, research.  One marketing path may work for one author and fail for another.  A lot of it is a gamble, so you have to decide which avenue is worth the gamble for you.

I recently ran an advertisement on Goodreads.com because of the success stories I had seen about it.  It is relatively inexpensive, and it reaches my target audience.  I have sold books because of this campaign.  Not a lot.  I still have my day job, but through that campaign, I was able to reach more people.  My audience has grown, and I only spent the money I felt I could afford to lose.

The Leaf Pendant was released as a freebie.  Yes, it is another story, but it is also another marketing tool.  And this one cost me nothing.  That short story has garnered sales and increased the size of my audience.  I have broadened my exposure.

I didn't expect the world to know C. Hollis Gunter when I published Blood of Two, I did expect to have to tell the world who I was.  Nobody will open up their web browser and google your name if they don't know your name.  So, tell me, why do you expect instant sales of millions and an invite to Oprah?

I hesitate to call marketing work, because I have seen work (from a distance) and that ain't it.  Marketing takes time.  Time that could be spent writing your next masterpiece.  Your next masterpiece won't matter any more than your first if you don't spend some of that time to spread the word.

If you write, and that is all you want to expend your energy on, then know what to expect.

It's Over So Shut Up

There are certain topics that get banned from conversation during family get togethers for one reason or another:  religion, sports, politics etc.  Usually because the passion involved makes even the most likable person a true ass.

We all just suffured through another presidential election.  I think in many ways we suffered more than ever before.  In one sense, I am lucky.  I live in the state of Oklahoma.  In the grand scheme of things, Oklahoma doesn't matter.  We aren't one of those states that can decide an election, so no money isn't wasted on television commercials.  For that matter, if you are a democrat in Oklahoma, you may as well stay home on that one Tuesday every four years.

This time around it seems that social media was just littered with election garbage.  And it was just that; garbage.  The falsehoods propogated on Twitter, Facebook, etc. were astounding.  The sad part of it was that people presented these falsehoods as fact.  This of course makes them no better than the morally lacking candidates that ran for office.

Republican, Democrat, or whatever other not-a-chance party, it didn't matter.  The lies spread like an egg in a lopsided frying pan.  What really throws me off is that people that I thought were intelligent human beings shared, retweeted, reposted stories that were just outright lies, or misrepresentations of photographs.  So, either these intelligent people are liars, or they are dumber than I gave them credit for.  Either way, a lot of people, from all sides, lost a lot of my respect for them.

It all goes back to something I have said before on this blog:  Don't believe everything you see on TV, read in the paper, or find on the internet; research the facts.

If you share, retweet, repost a story without finding out whether or not it is true, then you have been made the fool.  Don the cute little hat with bells on it and do a little jig, because you are qualified for one thing, acting the fool.

And now that the election season has passed, I still get inundated with propoganda on the social media outlets.  It's over.  There is nobody that needs to be convinced that your side is the only side to be on for another four years.  And really, do you actually think that your lies will change someones mind?

It's over, so shut up.

My favorite line this election season, that says more about the speaker than it does about who they are speaking too:
"If you don't vote for Obama, then you are racist."

Shameless plug:
Blood of Two (Drums of Rallinwar:  Book One) is available in electronic format at your favorite e-book outlet, including Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Kobo, iBooks, Diesel, and Smashwords.  Buy it, rate it, review it.