Less blogging - More writing...

      A few minutes ago I read a post, a link to a download actually, from Seth Godin's "The Domino Project" page and I hope you go over there and take a look at what Seth is doing. 

A marketer? No. THE marketer, along with Guy Kawasaki, I think these two guys are the best out there.

 The Domino Project - Seth Godin

Those of you who have followed me for any length of time know that I am not the biggest fan of the way marketing is done by many of the so-called marketers out there. Especially the ones online and in social media. I monitor my Twitter and Facebook accounts carefully to limit, as best I can, how many and what types I allow. Early on, in my Twitter and Facebook life I allowed almost any of them because I thought quantity was good. Wrong. It took me a lot of hours, and still does, to delete accounts from following me. I've probably deleted several times more followers than most people have. It's definitely over ten thousand but that includes the weirdos and porn people too. I don't take my end of social media too seriously but I take it serious enough and you should too if you're going to do it. Just don't invest you identity to the point that you flex you creative soul from the ups and downs or trends in social media. 

(I often wonder why more of the major authors don't engage fans in social media. I'm not saying hang out all day but I am saying I think they should connect. I'm convinced they could add a couple zeros on their sales figures and make a lot of people happy to be in direct contact with them too.)

     The article at the end of this link brings up some good points. I want you to click on the John Mayer link too, although I think Mayer thinks he's a bigger star than he actually is, he brings up some very good points and I'm happy to see him going back to what made him such a gifted song writer and performer in the first place. He lost his way and he knew it AND he did it in front of the whole world in social media - on Twitter.

Seth gets to the point I think, with this article and this is something I must say, dawned on me awhile back and this is essentially the point: Work the writing. Don't detract too much from the writing and the development of the writing. I myself have been guilty of this and it's a pitfall that many thousands of writers are falling into at this very moment. You are NOT you're Twitter or Facebook identity, it is you, and if you intend to be a respected(whatever that really means....) and bestselling author then you need to be about the writing not the 'telling' people you're a writer. I mean by this that don't give it too much credence. You'll get a lot more famous a lot faster if you crank out a book that creates buzz and money than you will developing a huge following or doing a serious amount of hustling and ass kissing in and on social media or in the blog-o-sphere. Besides, and keep this in mind; many people will only, if ever, give you any thought or tweets or whatever if you can help them. Others will see your sincerity, if you actually have any, and reciprocate any and all effort you make on their behalf. And almost no one does that, un-selfishly anyway. That is the key to what social media activity you engage in, in my view. That's the deal out here in the jungle.                                                     

     I have 2 Twitter accounts, 4 or 5 actually, but my two main ones started out as completely separate in terms of what I needed or wanted them for. Now the're pretty much close in content, I even use the same photo, which is a bad idea in some ways but I do have a lot of different friends on each. TWR will end up being the more technical or professional side of me and my writing while my DA Twitter page will be just me, Daniel. Yes, there is a difference. I help my friends and or people whose work I admire every single day. I've heard from a couple major author friends that my blogging, social media activity and reviews have actually influenced their sales noticeably. 

In case you're wondering, I started blogging over 3 years ago in an industry where there was a need for good writing on issues that needed attention. Then a couple of years into that I went on radio. I have some background so, going into social media I brought a lot of people with me and found even more. It's simple but not easy. Any way you want to look at promotion or self promotion or branding(I hate this term) or whatever it means to you I will strongly caution you to think carefully about using dis-associative terms and tactics in trying to endear yourself to the world. If you're a writer then BE a writer who drops in to give a little support to other writers and your industry as a whole. Marketing expertise is not going to impress anyone, at least not anyone looking for literary superstars to read and enjoy, or say Hi too. Most of the marketers, the big ones, are making their money from selling books on marketing. Books they release in stages. Very few of them do anything else, with the exception of sidebar money streams connected to the "brand" they've built. Clever if you like that sort of thing. For me, being a creative writer appeals a lot more and that's the route I've taken. This is why, though I could have been, I am not a marketer. I don't even like sitting here at the computer, believe it or not.

I'm a writer, an artist, working on my craft who makes time for friends and other writers. 

I recommend you read this article, click on all the outlinks and meet the people Seth hangs with. You'll get a really good insiders view of what makes the ENTIRE internet tick and as a writer you'll be able to determine the best route to take on "the writer's road."  OK?

YOU can do this....

...you know where to find me......

LUVU

Update: The Horror...

I'm working on uploading my little short story to Smashwords, in, hopefully, the premuim listing. After a few days of "WHAT?!?! type stuff I decided there was too much of a learning and sidebar issue curve to take the time to do it and I opted to enlist someone's help. Thanks God for social media, I found someone who works for, or is, a publisher and she says she'll format and upload it for me for $25.
Works for me.
I have enough tech skills and experience to learn this stuff, it's mostly figuring out Word,  then adjusting the way Word displays and then being able to adjust the "settings" for the appearance of the piece when it's splashed onto the Smashwords page. Otherwise known as formatting. I cannot imagine doing this with an 80K word story. No way.
Here's the thing, and this is something for YOU to think about too. We've all heard the phrase that speaks to, "picking our battles", right? For me it's the same thing and that reality has been graphically brought home to me having spent 3 days trying to master the process of upload and tweaking and photo adjustment and a bunch of other stuff my ego wouldn't let me let go of. If I told you how many hours a day I spend, already, on the computer, or netbook(on my nightstand in my room), or laptop or iPhone(if I'm outside or in the bathroom or at Target) you might not believe it. I don't mind, in fact I love learning, but some things just don't ring my bell. Like formatting and book covers.
Excuses?
Look, I don't give a damn, I'll do what I 'gotta' do to pull this off but again PICK YOUR BATTLES.
 My point is that I'm prioritizing my time, I have to and so do you. I was absent the day someone etched in stone the imperative to learn Word so I use Works and Notepad to tweak and layout my stuff, even when I was blogging to a million or more people. It irks me that Word becomes so invasive to my system and that it costs so much.

I focus on the two peak things I need to do, every day. Write and Network. I put in biz class high speed Wi-Fi in the house. Speed, capacity and access. And, YES I actually keep in touch with the people I follow, bloggers and writers, reviewers and readers and people I just want to follow(THIS is why SPEED is paramount, both download AND UPLOAD). Learning the craft of writing came behind my blogging and radio stuff because I could do those things on the fly. I traveled for almost 3 years nonstop. Almost a year later I'm still feeling the effects of 20 hour days for 3 years, with little time or energy to write during it all.
Writing on a high level is very serious business, I'm sure you know this but I'm just saying - I take it seriously and am working on it all the time and it takes a LOT of time. So, I'm sure you too make choices, every day about all kinds of things on a lot of levels. Self publishing means self promotion and that means WORK. Building a "platform"(I'm still not sure what that means and I don't think anyone else does either even though you see it used all the time) or network, is a major element and will take time to build and maintain.
Anyway I think you get the point.
Evaluate, re-evaluate and focus on the elements you need to, stay flexible, loose and know it's a blessing for anyone in the publishing industry to give you the time of day and a miracle for someone to take an interest in you.
Technology is the horse you rode in on, nothing more.

The HORROR of it all hits me when I look back and realize I should have spent my time more wisely on the things that matter most to me at this point in the struggle. It's about WRITING  and PEOPLE.


YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND ME....


LUVU

It's NOT as easy as it seems....

     What do I mean by "it's not as easy as it seems" ??? I mean, okay, let's say you've been writing (a really cool short story) day and night, editing as best you can and now you finally come up for air hoping a waiting world will crowd around to see what you've come up with. But wait, you think, I need feedback to see where this thing is.....After all there may be things here I just can't see (and, there will be.....). Crit groups are good, paying for high end editing is better in my opinion, though there is much to be said for the invaluable and multiple opinions a crit group will offer. Both work for me. I knew this beforehand however - the time it takes. And, well, it's kind of like networking: you can spend as much time as you have to spare, doing it. Genre specific reviewers who can put you on their roster, blogger writers with skill and patience for up and comers is something to explore and great avenues too, if you can find them. What you'll find is what I'm finding and that is this: It's work to get your stuff looked at, it's work getting the piece tightened up, it's work putting it into various formats to send out, it's work doing your homework to find people to help you. Sitting down to write, even to write well - isn't as easy as it seems when it comes to what you need to do before, during and after, writing a story.
I'm finding that the most difficult aspect is not networking, it's not finding other writers or reviewers or editors or figuring out what to do, it's figuring out when and how to do what you need to do. The world, you suddenly realize, is NOT your oyster....
Planning is simple in theory but it will need to be an ever evolving, flexible plan based on your writing schedule and resources as well as the present tense availability of others whom you will surely need. Every time you look at the big picture, it might have changed, and will keep changing.
Kind of like trying to pin the tail on a donkey on speed.

You know where to find me....


LUVU

I'm editing.....

     A short note, I didn't realize it's been a few weeks since my last post. Hard to imagine being on the computer and not having the time to blog, but it's true. Editing is a process that requires a lot of time and focus, especially when you might have a lot of eyes on you watching for your first effort, even if it's a short story. I'm learning a lot about self editing, that is, taking your little baby as far up the writer's road as you can on your own, as tight as possible. For me, this piece is about redoing a lot of sentences and trimming it a little, and looking at my arc, etc. There's also symbolism and showing, not telling, in a piece like this - in 3rd. (POV)
     Like you maybe, I read a lot. It's deceiving how the great writers today make it look so easy. Lean, evenly paced, well blended high end work that looks so simple it makes you think you can do it....like....today...then you write a few chapters, look it over and alarms go off somewhere in your writer brain and you can't figure out why till you go over the work in a elemental breakdown way. This is also part of the process....and for those of you further up the writer's road than me, you already know this....(it's okay to laugh now....) I don't want to sound too much like a beginner here because in some ways I'm not, I know this stuff from writing a blog that had readers all over the world and some in journalism on a major league level, friends, who let me know stuff.
Fiction is a horse of a different color, when it comes to writing. Mastery of this craft is a long road...one that I've been on for awhile, and I've discovered that only in our work can we tell where we're at. No amount of talking, thinking, hoping, dreaming, or self delusion can replace the mechanics and practice of writing, and it's all practice till you get to a commercially viable level, at least for me and in my view. I wish I had the desire and capacity to be a true literary type and writer, but I don't...Maybe it's the mutt in me....(now I'm laughing...).
As you know, I'm on Twitter and I hope you'll head over and look me up and zing a few tweets back and forth. All my social media links are in the sidebar here, even my Goodreads page. I'm not so much trying to plug my stuff as I am hoping you'll get involved for your own sake and on your own terms. Every author needs to take some responsibility for their own promotion.

Daniel on Twitter

The Writers Road on Twitter


...you know where to find me...


 LUVU

When the Thrill is Gone....

    You're excited about the book rolling around in your brain. (For me it's more like a bag of rocks in a dryer on HIGH) Notes everywhere, an outline maybe fills the pages of a spiral notebook. Compelling images of characters and their plight, or, hero escapades  play and replay in your mind. [You've done your research so some expert doesn't call you an idiot when the book comes out.] Finally, the moment comes when you sit down to begin composing your breakout novel, the book that will make you a household name and put an Escalade in the driveway.
You are inspired and thrilled to be a writer.
You wonder if it will be good enough as you slog through the sentences, paragraphs and pages, but you press on. The family, in the next room, is listening to Wheel of Fortune. They have no idea what the agony of artistic endeavor does to a future bestselling author such as yourself. But, in their ignorance, you love them anyway.
Your drifting. Back to the writing Einstein.....
Are you adding the elements the writing books and blogs and author vids you've read and watched tell you to? Have you practiced enough? Is this book practice? WHAT?
Commas. Dear God, watch the commas, and SHOW Don't Tell!
Make sure you ratchet up the tension like Donald Maass says in his great books on writing fire and creating breakout novels.
Right. Got it.
Modifiers, verbs and adverbs. Ok, I was absent that day.....
AND you don't want the story to appear too amateurish so you read aloud and look for rhythm, or rather LISTEN for rhythm. Gotta have rhythm....Side margins, double spacing, oh yeah.
Do I need cover art with some good looking young guy with killer abs and a haircut like the singer from Def Leopard, on the cover? Sure. Even if it's a story about redoing the driveway? Absolutely.

Bio. ( for the back cover)
 Can I use a photo of myself just after I woke up or do I need one that makes me look like an accountant with a "edge"? How about the one I took awhile back, you know, with a hip three day growth and pissed off look? Works for me....

Moving right along.

Occasionally, as you labor at the really noisy keyboard you peek through the grungy blinds to see if the news crews are stationing themselves in your yard yet, in anticipation of the book of the decade. Nope. Not yet. But they will.....
Hour after hour, day after day you write, and write, and write. You try not to go back and revise the previous chapters, but you do sometimes. Some mornings you dread sitting down at the computer, you just don't feel the "mojo" and no one will notice anyway, right? Yes, right.
Sometimes you wonder if you'll pull this off, if you have what it takes, then you read a runaway bestseller and think to yourself: Yeah, HELL NO..... 
Not knowing what else to do you plow forward through rain and sleet and hail and snow. (cue the soundtrack from the film Exodus please....someone...)
As the words and chapters pile up, you sneak a look by reading what you've written thus far and realize this novel is taking form, shape. A story, a really good one is unfolding from your finger tips.
Suddenly one day you understand. You get it. Yes, it's work, maybe even hard labor. But something now pulls you forward. Something else.
Someone from the living room yells; "Watermelon Festival in Iowa!" in answer to a "phrase" puzzle on WOF. Pat Sajak, in the background, almost sounds as if he's even interested in his own show.
You smile and refocus.
Forged in the furnace of fire you are.
When your daughters psychotic kitten leaps onto the keyboard erasing 3 hours of work in an instant and then you twist your knee trying to catch the little sh....darling...to rationally discuss the matter.
Yes grasshoppa......Forged like iron you will be.

True, the initial thrill is gone....but it has been replaced by a steel will and confidence borne of determination, a new and better kind of thrill. The willingness to do the "work" is something you now are a partaker of.
For love of the game....or craft....or art....is why you do it.  Not the thrill. Not the thrills that you once did it for, anyway. They are now gone. You don't even look in the rear-view anymore. Your lazer gaze is now fixed on the writers road, ahead to the horizon. You grit your teeth and smash the gas pedal.
The awareness that you may be way to theatrical crosses the mental field of vision like a rabbit darting across the interstate, but you dismiss it, allowing yourself a little useless drama and paying no attention to the puffs of fur coming from under the back end of the car as you zoom onward.
Amused, you sculpt the novel of your dreams, word by word and page by page.
The thrill isn't gone....you smile knowingly.....

You know where to find me....

LUVU