John Locke - The Indie Paladin

I have just read John Locke’s, ‘How I sold 1 million e-books in five months’; a title destined for the same success story as the top ranking e-book series to which it refers - Donovan Creed. I’ve no doubt that this book has sold to innumerable Indie authors and will continue to do so as his target audience pay homage to it.

Mr. Locke is a superb salesman; sharp, intuitive, witty and ruthlessly focussed. I felt as though I was sitting in a room full of enthusiastic wannabes hanging on his every word, chuckling heartily every time I found myself obeying his commands to, ‘go back and read that section again - I’ll wait.’

His book promotion strategy is based on knowing your target and aiming for it, or finding a niche and writing for it, though his admission that he wrote five books prior to publishing the first, did slightly quell my enthusiasm in the beginning. I, like many Indie first-timers, wrote the book, dived headlong into self-publishing and only then discovered what the old hands knew: publicise the book for at least six months before your release date.

This little setback aside, Mr. Locke goes on to help repair the damage with a concise strategy to homogenise your book with an existing readership. He goes into great detail about how best to use social media and maximise your blog entries, without bombarding your followers with inane chatter for the sake of something to say - the fast route to instant deletion.

Mr. Locke’s indomitable spirit and self-effacing manner are prerequisite tools for a good salesman. But in fairness, he reiterates that he wrote this book with a view to helping other authors navigate the self-publicising minefield that probably eliminates many good writers at the outset. He plainly routes for the little guy over the big bully legacy publishers and would be delighted to learn that his marketing strategy has created similar success for other Indie authors. And he clearly appreciates his OOU’s (One Of Us) readership, to whom he pays devout respect.

I too love success stories of this nature, and despite the fact that John Locke doesn’t need the income from his book sales, I sincerely hope that he continues to be a trail-blazing, guiding light for the Indie publishing revolution.

I’ve not had the pleasure of Mr. Donovan Creed, yet, but if he’s anything like his alter-ego I’m sure I’ll enjoy his company . . .

  

http://donovancreed.com/ 

Hail the reading angels!

Many authors, particularly the debut kind like me, depend upon dedicated book bloggers and reviewers to supply invaluable feedback on our work. Without these voracious and discerning bibliophiles, new authors would remain anonymous and unread. The internet is many things, good and bad, but as far as newbie scribblers are concerned it is a veritable gift from the gods of literary endeavour.

The review angels don’t charge fees to read once they accept your submission, and gift their time in offering an honest appraisal. If this kind of genuine altruism were as prolific in all walks of life, the world might be a better place!

I have requested a number of reviews from such reading angels and the feedback has been hugely helpful in understanding the way people perceive my book. Yes, it’s wonderful to get a five star, but I don’t expect that to be consistent. I received a review today from The British Fantasy Society - absolutely fabulous, but the reviewer did remark on something that slightly grated on him. I was strangely - or perhaps even perversely - pleased with his criticism. It tempered his otherwise glowing review, giving me valuable insight into which buttons my narrative presses. As it happens, he was spot on with his criticism and I know this because I’ve often seen close friends eyes rolling when I get on my hobby horse! I shall take this into consideration and work my messages with more subtlety and stealth. Sledgehammer back in the shed.

As reviews start filtering in, the heart of The Toy Sorcerer begins to beat. It feels almost as though the book is taking its first real breath as more people turn pages and give it life. The Final Prophesy is unfurling as I feverishly pound the keys every chance I get. I’m managing very little sleep these days, but that’s just a symptom of an active - or overactive - mind at work and I’m grateful for it. I live in terror of lethargy!

My quest for feedback continues and I shall be knocking on many more reviewer doors.

Hail the reading angels!

2012 - The year of bated breath?

Forgive me, for I have not blogged for three weeks! There never seems enough time in the day - or night - to achieve everything on the, To Do, list and getting a round toit is tough - perhaps I should try looking for them on Amazon?

Anyway, I digress as per. It is 2012, a year shrouded in eschatological beliefs and theories regarding the end - or spiritual rebirth - of our world. The Mayan apocalyptical predictions have always been a subject of much conjecture; depending on the interpretation, either the world will come to a sticky end or merely move into a new cycle (calendar). The New Age theory is similar; the Christian ‘Rapture’ or ‘Millennialism’, is entrenched in the idea of a rebirth of a world enjoyed by the good and the meek after the rest of the sinners have been judged by God. They’ll be a lonely couple, eh?

Another theory suggests that the Earth will be destroyed by a passing asteroid or planet known as ‘Nibiru’. There is also the sun flare theory. In fact, there are so many conflicting ideas and interpretations, one may as well toss a coin as to which you choose to entertain.

Personally, I’d like to consider that any ‘rebirth’ will apply to our species alone, as opposed to a catastrophic extinction event that affects the entire planet. After all, we have to face the fact that, so far, our behaviour hasn’t exactly been . . . exemplary, has it? Unfortunately, religion and politics - one and the same animal - is primarily to blame. Voltaire always springs to mind; ‘If God didn’t exist, man would find it necessary to invent him.’ And of course, the invention of gods has always been a highly profitable venture for their proponents - currently, the Vatican is the wealthiest corporate body in the world and grips the global purse strings in its despotic hands. This is off the back of a religion that propounds the theory that it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to pass into heaven. In which case there will be a very long ‘naughty queue’ of Popes and Bishops outside the basement door, won’t there?

So, if the ‘rebirth’ of human kind is burgeoning, how will it manifest? Divine enlightenment? Military apocalypse? Or are we teetering on the precipice of human evolution brought about by necessity?

Which brings me nicely to the book plug for, The Final Prophesy; second in The Toy Sorcerer Chronicles. It is essentially this event that Alice and her compatriots are instrumental in creating. The concatenation - isn’t that a delicious word - of dimensions; Earth and the Dream Realms, initiates a global conflict that results in the necessity to ‘reboot’ the way human kind behaves, not only toward each other, but everything else that inhabits the planet.

The knowledge of the Ancients is finally rediscovered - hidden for millennia by the bad guys - and the conspiracy of god creators and destroyers is exposed for what it is. The birth of the New Age unlocks the human mind and so begins our return to a symbiotic relationship with Earth.

But new beginnings are never easy; the yin and yang are forever opposed . . . book three.

Starting the next one . . .

I began writing the sequel to The Toy Sorcerer a week or so ago, after a couple of months constructing the plot, sub plot, beginning, middle and end. I knew where I wanted to finish - with a nice cliff hanger in readiness for book three - so the rest was quite straightforward. Until I actually began to write.

I’ve already had another idea for a sub-plot within the first couple of chapters; this doesn’t exactly smash the months of planning, but most certainly warps it . . . for now. I’ve never really followed any set of rules for creative writing, rather, I’ve learned by trial and error and some fabulous coaching from my editor, Susan Malone. But having said this, I wonder if other writers ‘make it up as they go along’. Personally, I prefer to think of my stories evolving naturally, with well rounded characters leading the way.

Having spent a number of years as an actress and then a commercial script writer, I learned the key skills of immersing myself into a character, so that the performance was completely natural. The very same principle works when writing fiction; if the characters have strong - or even weak - characters, then that is what you portray to the nth degree. Never make your character do something out of character, unless it is integral to the plot (or sub-plot).

One of my characters is destined for great things, however, so the more powerful she becomes, the stronger my storyline is going to have to be to do her justice. Truth is, I don’t know what is going to happen next, only what will happen at the end. Alice’s adventure is mine too and I know she’s going to take me to some incredible places and show me amazing things. Her enemies have some nasty surprises up their sleeves too. Human kind will be seen at its best and its very worst. I will be left wondering if humanity deserves to survive at all, when the darkest truth of our species is revealed - from a very surprising source. . .

I just love these journeys into the unknown . . .

The Marketing Maze

Okay, so you’ve written your book, then rewritten it again, a few times, edited it a few times more and then sat on it for another month or so - or in my case, fifteen years - deciding whether or not it’s ready to be read by anyone else.

When you’ve had one or two stern conversations with yourself, you finally, and rather naively, press the upload button. Upon preview your file looks like it was written in several different languages in numerous fonts. Your serial-abused PC suffers yet more verbal assaults as you reformat your book for the tenth tedious attempt.

Some time later, much later, your preview gets a little tick alongside of it and the deed is ultimately done. You are . . . elated? Popping Champagne corks? Ringing your friends?

Wondering what to do next?

Then your little bubble of self-satisfaction pops upon reading the phrase, ‘Marketing your book,’ and you realise that self-publishing is a little like pulling a loose thread on a sweater.

Everywhere you look someone ‘in the know’ states that you should begin marketing your book at least six months BEFORE you publish! Your attention is momentarily diverted to the copy of ‘Catch Twenty-two’ on your book shelf.

 Ah well, one step ahead you think, no one will have to eagerly await anything.

You read all the blog and author resources pages your sore eyes can handle and sign up for a twitter account.

You gaze vacantly at the little blue bird as the cursor blinks with monotonous impatience, waiting for you to tweet something. You’ve just written a 140,000 word novel, but the seventeen word maximum renders you a drooling fool.

You start a Facebook fan page and offer swapsies with your Linked In groups to ‘Like’ your page. You spend a day religiously perusing hundreds of fan pages, reading profiles, hitting buttons etc, then wait eagerly for reciprocation and hundreds of encouraging comments on your fresh new page.

The numbers look like a death row reunion party.

It can’t be because they don’t like the book - Google stats tell you that so far, NOBODY has read it yet! Well of course they haven’t, because you haven’t SOLD it.

You try and keep from picking up your copy of ‘Catch Twenty-two’ in order to avoid the issue of self-publicising after self-publishing.

And then it hits you. Until someone - a complete stranger - reads the book and reviews it, you may be deluding yourself you can actually write worth a damn.

You need an impartial review from a respected source; preferably someone who has a penchant for your genre/subject matter. Google works overtime for another few hours and you bookmark a number of review sites and blogs. Most of them are not accepting submissions at the moment. Those that are have a backlog of titles before yours comes to the top of the pile.

The cruel trill of marketing demon laughter echoes somewhere in the recesses of your bewildered mind.

Ultimately, there is little point in looking or hoping for shortcuts. The maze beckons, but as I’m beginning to discover, you meet some very interesting people navigating the same route.

An upside at last!

When do we make our genre preferences?

Some love to curl up with romantic fiction, others bloodcurdling horror; when do we make the choice and what draws us to specific types of genre?

When I was at school the curriculum included Thomas Hardy, Shakespeare, Miller, Kipling and best of all, Orwell, but for my own pleasure I read all the fantasy and science fiction books I could get my hands on. My mother has a voracious appetite for reading and although it was she who introduced me to the world of fantasy fiction, she isn’t a particular devotee of it herself, so it must be the machinations of my own slightly eccentric mind that seeks soulmates on Planet Strange.- - good name for a book!

Friends of mine turn their noses up at fantasy novels, claiming that it’s all nonsense and far-fetched make believe; truth is stranger than fiction after all. That maybe so, but often it’s not always very entertaining when your mind has had enough of the 'real world' for one day. And what’s more, it very much depends on the source of the ‘truth’ as to whether one can believe in it. After all, news reporting is supposed to be factual though we’re all aware it’s largely politically biased propaganda.

Mysteries and thrillers; yes I like those too, but then they often border on fantasy to some degree, which is probably why they are on my reading list. One might even suggest that George Orwell’s 1984 is more prophesy than fiction. Sadly, ‘Big Brother’ is now more synonymous with vacuous reality TV than his original incarnation.

Mainstream fiction; what is that exactly? It's a little all-too-encompassing and woolly a description for my brain. I apologise for my ignorance, but it's a category that has always slightly confused my sense of purpose.

Ultimately, we somehow, at some point in our lives, choose which writing genre we would rather spend an evening with. And it seems to me that our reading choices more often than not reflect our personality.
Oh, dear!

Why a professional editor is an absolute must for newbie authors.

When I finally decided to actually write my first book, rather than just daydream about it, I was brimming with enthusiasm and determination. I knew what it was going to be about, I had my principal character, my main storyline, basic plot and a reasonable construct. I scribbled away merrily for weeks, with the story and characters evolving nicely, or so I thought, but as I read and re-read I realised that I was losing my way. It had too many points of view and even I was becoming confused as to which of my characters bore the brunt of the action. I couldn’t see the wood for the trees.

I struggled on, deleting or switching chapters around, editing as brutally as I could, but I still wasn’t happy with the end result. This was back in 1996, when the internet was still fairly new - to me at any rate - and ‘surfing’ meant large waves and hunky fellas as far as I was concerned. However, I fumbled around search engines and eventually found a professional editor with a string of her own published books; Susan Malone.

I sent her my manuscript and upon its return a few weeks later I was blinded by red marker pen. Was I devastated? Not a bit of it; her notes and suggestions were spot on, as though she’d hacked all those spindly trees down and created a clear path for me to follow.

Her criticism was constructive and thought provoking; she made me realise that I needed to visualise my characters in more depth; give them unique idiosyncrasies, thereby enabling the reader to relate to them as ‘real’ people. And yes, I had to stick to no more than three or four POV’s at the very most, making certain that my principal was just that: principal. My skills as a writer improved exponentially as I employed Susan’s rules and tactics and my book became infinitely superior to its early incarnation. I probably rewrote the entire thing a half dozen times, with my editing ever more brutal and pernickety before I was sufficiently confident to ask Susan to make her final comments.

She loved it.

My life underwent a few drastic alterations shortly after I completed the book - another story - but although it has sat on a virtual shelf these past few years, like The Toy Sorcerer himself, it has been dusted down and set on the right path.

Thank you, Susan.

http://www.maloneeditorial.com/