Fiction Writing

Let's try to write it

Fiction Writing - Let's try to write it

Monthly Archives: October 2011

eBook Giveaways

eBook Giveaways are a great way to increase publicity, ratings, and reviews for your books. They are also hard to pull off. You need a quality amount of web traffic to ensure that you can get the numbers to boost your giveaway’s return on investment. So developing a network is first via blogs, groups, friends, family, advertising, etc.

The next is good editing. Edit that book as best as you can. With proper editing you can really increase the level of reviews you will receive. So do it once, then let others do it, then do it again. The more the better.

A good book, nothing but a good book will really get you the results you want.

Check out here to post an eBook giveaway and get some links to your site.

Kids and eBooks

If you think eBooks are popular now, think about the new generation of kids whose parents have smartphones, laptops, eReaders, and every other device.  More and more parents are handing off their iPhones with apps to entertain young children or shut them up.  The youngest of the bunch get apps with music and animals and stuff to keep them occupied.  The older ones who read get more printed words and simple games.  Up the ladder we go until each child will have their own eBook device.  Already people are reading more because of eBooks.  They are cheaper and far more available.

In this technological age children under 8 are spending more time than ever in front of screens.  Those with the technology are the more affluent while the low income groups are still watching TV.  For kids under 2, they found no educational benefit to watching television, and, in fact, believe TV could actually delay language development.  Reading remains the best path to developing language skills.

Common Sense Media, a San Francisco non-profit group, just released the first study of children and screen time from birth.  Almost half of affluent families downloaded apps specifically for their young children, while lower income families were far less at 1in 8.  As technology gets cheaper expect more and more younger children to have more screen devices.  Presently, the study found half of children under 8 had access to a mobile device like a smartphone, a video iPod, or an iPad or other screen device.

Television is still the number one screen device but that will likely change as interactive programs will no doubt challenge children more, keeping their interest much more than static television programs.  But even with the state of the economy, 30% of children under 2 have televisions in their bedrooms.  I can’t comprehend a TV in a child’s room that young.  My children had no TVs in their rooms and, I believe were much better readers for it.  As incomes rise, the preponderance of TVs in kid’s rooms drop.

In regards to another screen, the computer, preschoolers are using them ever the more.  Putting your child in front of a computer or other screen has to be better than the TV, education-wise, anyhow.  Parents do like their laptops and iPhone and games and we all know children copy their parents.

So, if children are attracted to the screens so much it’s a good time to wean them from TV and get them specific apps to encourage reading and interaction such as music.  When this new generation of eKids grows up they should be better readers and subsequently do better in academics.  They will have access to humungous online libraries directly from their rooms.  I just don’t think they’ll be as excited going into a bookstore or library as I was.   Better readers will find this technology easier to use and have advantages over others.  It may even result in children reading at younger ages.  Read more:  http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/us/screen-time-higher-than-ever-for-children-study-finds.html

yatscoffbooks.com

Publicity through short stories

Hello!

Short story sites are a great way to get people interested in your site. It is important to write many stories and get them out. This provides links to your website and also build credibility. Self published authors should definitely check this out. If you self published your own book getting exposure is one of the most important ways to do this. I recommend online if you are self publishing via Amazon because you can link everything together making navigation for your readers easier and buying books easier.

Post them here.

Here are some great links I found, best to worst.

eStory submission site

First is a place for contests, publicity and overall exposure.

Short Story Submission Site

Short Story Site

Online Ebook Marketing

So I’ve been trying to market the book: Old Flames. A really great ebook by E.R. Yatscoff. The ebook giveaway is still going on till the end of October, so you are free to join until then on Facebook.  That is one way I have been marketing the book. So it had been good. Got about 100 subscribers. That will hopefully amount to 50 reviews or more. It would help boost sales.

Next is trying to boost incoming traffic to the authors website. This is done via website linking. Don’t link the name of the site i.e. :www.yatscoffbooks.com. Use a different term i.e.: firefighter ebook. This will help search engines define how it is linked and changes the search terms of people looking for your site. I also get incoming links via directories and blog rss feeders. We’ll see how well they work. It is a slow process as overdoing it one month can ruin google’s view of your website. Slow and steady is the key.

There are also more traditional approaches to ebook marketing like newspapers and paid newspaper reviews, but those are expensive and beyond my budget.

Good luck!

10 Myths About Writing Fiction eBooks

These are my own personal list.  Remember writers, when folks express disbelief at your story: tell them ‘fiction’ means I made it up.  Then tell them to go see PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 4.  They’ll think you’re a bloody genius then.

  1. eBooks are a technological fad:  Fact is, eBooks are beginning to outsell hard copies.  The older generation doesn’t like reading from a screen and loyally stick to hard copies.  The next generation are tech savvy and read books on devices.  They can get download eBooks at train and bus stations or at home–anytime and nearly everywhere, cheaper and faster than ever.  As long as the tiny Asian village you’re stuck in has some sort of wireless signal you will be able to get a book and be happy.  So far the big publisher hard copy authors are the eBook bestsellers.
  2. You must have an education: Do you need a degree in English or a background in Journalism to be a decent writer?  It probably doesn’t hurt.  In fact, many fiction writers don’t have any qualifications.  If you are an avid reader you should know about sentence structure, grammar, dialogue, etc. and why that book you read was so enjoyable.  How about that unforgettable character?  Academic writers must learn to write differently for fiction because their audience isn’t in the trade/science/ specialist field and they have to reach a broader audience.  Journalists must learn to embellish, as their writing is usually sparse, confined due to of space restrictions.  Academics often write boring prose that thrives on specific, long drawn out passages, unreal characters, and far too detailed imagery–and win prestigious awards for it.   Writing courses and subscribing to writer Mags will help, so use them.
  3. Editors–My friend/relative does my editing:  That’s almost funny, but so many people say this.  Your friends and relatives are rarely qualified to edit your work.  They love you too much to criticize and face your wrath.  You’ll mistake the advice for a secret dislike.  “I always knew she didn’t like me….”  The worst is self-editing.  It’s like representing yourself in court–you are too involved to look at your own work objectively.  What you truly need is competent, intelligent, reasonably objective criticism.  Can you really trust yourself to kill off an unnecessary character?  Will your spouse know what happens when a vein is sliced, as opposed to an artery?  Good editors go through your work and find A,B, and maybe C .  Great editors find those and far more, from theme to plot to dialogue, to imagery to character development, and on and on.  Few people can do that.  Great editors are usually well-paid and work at publishing houses.  Great editors are like music producers: add a little horn, tone down the background vocals, etc.  That’s why Justin Beiber is a star, he’s got a great producer.  Bad editors will kill your style.  Some try to write your story how they see it.
  4. Writers Groups are a Waste of Time:  All writers need feedback.  Writing is a lonely task where you create a world in your head.  Your job is let readers see your world, smell it, feel it, cry over it.  The only way to know if you’re succeeding is to let others into your world and critique it honestly.  A writers group will edit for free.  You will have several people offering their opinions and knowledge.  By the time your work gets through the gauntlet it should be a much better read.  Join a writers group, or start one.  There’s a few online if it’s not possible.  Members are strangers, and don’t care if they hurt your feelings.  It should be constructive criticism.  If not, find another group.  My writers group is wonderful and I mention them in the dedication part of my eBooks.
  5. Biographies:  Unless you are an illiterate celebrity, or have done something truly remarkable in your life, only your friend and family will care.  Many people have survived cancer, moved to the coast, caught a big fish, murdered a spouse, climbed the Great Wall, retired early with a special plan, or tended to disabled kids.  In spite of what your mom told you, you are not special.  I think my life is far more exciting than yours, so why would I read yours?  You think your life is far more interesting than mine, so why read mine?
  6. Know what you write:  It helps to write an eBook mystery if you’re a cop or lawyer or investigator or work in a morgue.  It isn’t necessary to know the particular special skill.  Finding a sympathetic soul to offer advice in their field is easy.  Meet cops at neighborhood fairs or show-and-shines.  Contact their PR person.  Drop into a fire station with your kid for a (nudge nudge, wink wink)tour.  If you tell people they’ll get a credit in your book many will jump at the chance.  If my story deals with living on the moon I’ll research material on the internet where there’s a world of everything at your disposal.  Setting a scene on a Polish street is easy when you use cruise the alleys with Google World.
  7. Everyone wants to write a book..: but no one wants to park their ass for countless hours and go bleary-eyed from editing and still have a decent story to tell.  If you want to write badly enough you will make time for it and you will find a comfortable place conducive to creativity.  When I buy a watch I just want it to work, no problems, accurate time, nice looking, I don’t want to know how it works or how it was built or be constantly thinking about how bad it is.  Same with a book; I don’t want to correct mistakes, figure out if the bad guy’s name had just changed, etc.  Writing is hard work–period, and why celebrities hire ghost-writers.
  8. Technology can edit my book:  Don’t count on it.  Spell Check and Grammar Check are wonderful tools.  I know a guy CJ who has tools, but the clown still put the fence post in crooked.  Did your character make a mess on the coach, or the couch?  John Denver was a plain down to earth guy?  Or was he a plane down to earth guy?  See what I’m saying?  Printing out your work and reading it, is the best way.  Reading it aloud  works, too.
  9. Selling eBooks is easy: It’s not.  You have to stand out and be noticed like all books everywhere.  Pricing, cover art, genre, size, content, etc, all are variables.  However ‘story’ is the most vital.  There are a lot of readers groups online and they all share info.  You want to get their attention and garner reviews.  It doesn’t seem to matter what you write or how you write it, if someone likes your work, you will hear about it.  There’s still a lot of crap out there, and always will be, in eBooks and hard copies.
  10. I can’t find the time or a place to write:  Then shut the hell up and quit telling everyone you want to write a book.  Got a page written?  Whoopee-ding, break out the bubbly.  A first draft?  Now we’re talkin’.

yatscoffbooks.com

The Importance of Titles

Presently, I’m completing by 3rd firefighter novel.  I think a wrap up should do it, but one never knows where the creative process may lead. The original title was FIRE & ICE until a quick Google took me to hundreds of books, games, poems, etc, with the same name.  Standing out as an eBook is my focus.  My next choice MAY DAY and WHITEOUT  also encountered too many similar titles.  Now, I’m fooling with TOO LATE FOR SPRING,  DARK IN WHITE,  KHIONE (norse god of snow) RULES.

The point of a title is to convey the gist of the story as well as attract readers.  Literary fiction often takes a tiny mention of something in the book for a title.  THE POLISHED HOE for example.  Not exciting or tempting to pick up but the hoe has some significance to the protagonist.  I have to convey murder, isolation, and extreme weather.  Maybe the cover can illustrate the weather angle.

I believe a title and a super cover for an eBook are extremely important because they have to slow, and stop a book surfer for a look.  Perhaps shock value might….

Grammar in eBooks Down The Tubes?

Without traditional publishers assigning editors to new authors, who’s watching the grammar store?

Whenever I’m ready to do a detailed edit on a manuscript I run the word search for was and that and had especially had been.  Usually, I find far too many of them.  Their elimination forces a writer to restructure the sentence and actually ends being better.  You can’t eliminate them all but I’d say you can kill 90% of that, 3/4 of was and most hads

I recently found a wonderful site which demonstrates the problem.  At AutoWizard Editing Critic you can paste in your best 500 words and it will automatically find all kinds of stuff you’ve missed.  Try it.

Editors at traditional publishing houses have kept the grammar consistent.  We know eBook providers have no editors.  When eBook sales surpass hard copy books the grammar is going to be all over the map.  People I’ve met through my Writers Group say their friend edits their work.  “You are such a fab writer!”  “I can’t see anything wrong with this.”  “I love you.”  Bad idea. So is self-editing.  Style guides for writers abound and you’d think people getting into eBooks would have one or two at hand.  Strunk and White-The Elements of Style, and the Chicago Manual Of Style are two of the better known ones.

Writing, that is the creative process, is easy for me.  The editing is where the work is and I’ve spent countless hours on my stories.  Everyone wants to be a writer, but few will put in the required work.  The devil is in the details and the details are editing.

The Next eBook Trend

Harry Potter may be gone but in his wake are scores of copy cats complete with dragons, witches, talking animals, mysterious planets/cities, nether worlds.  The situations/topics are in YA and juvenile/MG writing.  Has this run its course?  There’s always Zombies.  One synopsis I read was something like : ‘these Zombies are different; they’re good Zombies’.  No, it wasn’t a comedy, but I laughed anyhow.

Irony and mixed messages:  I remember perusing agent and publisher sites (pre-Potter) submission pages.  They all said “No talking animals“even though some of the most successful books in the genre had creatures that spoke.  Which proves that the industry doesn’t know what it wants until it hits them on the head. I attempted to write a talkie about a hyena that not only laughed but sang.  Well, it didn’t ring true and anyhow the furry bugger lied way too much.

 

So what’s next?  Mystery eBooks with lawyers and cops will always be the solid rock, not normally pushing the envelope unless it’s a certain SNL skit with the great Phil Hartman when he portrayed  the unfrozen caveman lawyer.  That’s pushing the envelope.  You’ll always have the investigators tracking down bad guys.  Women will always tear through romance books.  In the genre of YA and juvenile eBooks, have the young readers grown tired of all the fantasy?  Whatever goes around, comes around.  Will the trend of reality ever regain its former popularity?  Can young readers handle real world problems without a magic wand or secret door?   I’m hoping my juvenile/MG eBook novels will soon get on a new trend.

Are give away campaigns effective for eBooks?

So since I’m marketing my dad’s ebook Old Flames, I need to find the best way to market it. What is the best way? Low budget of course. So far I’m starting giveaways. I am advertising the giveaway on Goodreads and Facebook. Trying to get as many people to write reviews of the books as possible.

So I started the campaign at the start of October and will finish at the end of October. Give them 15 days to download then see how many reviews we get on all the sites. Hopefully it works out well.

100 people so far will receive the book, I really hope it gets up to about 500 though. That would make some waves in the market.

Other methods of Ebook Marketing

The next step would be advertising online.  Maybe PPC via google or even on Goodreads.

I am also using this blog, another blog, to bring web traffic to my father’s interesting book site.

Another strategy is using web directories to increase incoming links to my father’s website. I add his website to about 3 -6 directories each month to increase incoming links. These are good websites as well so they should increase search percentages.

I’ll keep you posted on the ebook giveaway. So far I have about 100 people joined, but that’s not good enough. Need more. Join the Facebook group if you do want the book though.

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