From the battlefield...

Hi All,
 I'm grinding my way through the 40's in my novel trying to create very high stress action scenes with both tension and....(I can't think of the other word) but I usually scan the social media world first before I get to writing. Today I happened upon an article and video of the Harper CEO Brian Murray talking about a number of things, including libraries and how they matter to Harper. He makes some really good points and expresses, what I think, are some great perspectives on book sales. Below the article you'll see a couple of comments that will make you wonder, though both contributors make good points.
DBW article with Harper CEO

The landscape of publishing may be changing in terms of delivery methods in the rapidly changing digital frontier, but like Murray says, it's still ultimately about getting books in peoples hands, whether that be via ereaders or whatever. I found it interesting when he expressed his thoughts on the publisher view(Harper) of authors and also, the struggle to find the most commercially viable books. I have a friend, a major author who is on Harper and I would die to be one of their authors, as would most writers of fiction.
I hear and see a lot of stuff written about the new world of self publishing and all that, but for me, if I could get a deal with a major pub house I would jump on it in a heart beat. At the end of the day, for a writer, it's about a lot more than just writing and self editing and trying to self pub and promote in the individual issue sense. I'm tech savvy too but that doesn't mean I want to spend a huge amount of time doing and learning what it takes to be a self promo pro, as an author. It's just too much. This is why you see major indie authors signing with major publishers. Read Amanda Hocking's post about why she did it, Joe Konrath too. Many writers start down that road and eventually realize that the self promotion part is the tough one, if nothing else but from a time standpoint. Not to mention cover art, editing on several levels, and formatting, and finding a good print co. if you want a hard copy version too, which I do.
This isn't to say that it can't be done. I see authors who have great book review sites and blogs with "how-to" instructions everywhere. Some even have books doing well on the digital charts. It can be done if you have enough tech savvy and/or money to have a good promo co. do it for you, and there are some good ones out there. But for the author/self promo types, behind the scenes, I know they struggle with the one element a writer treasures but has only so much control over and that's - TIME.
And believe me when I tell you, having a large blog or social media following is not a guarantee of anything.

     Take a look at this article and play the interview video. No modern author, in his or her right mind, would or should ever write off big publishing, no matter how defiant you are about them. They are out to sell books. They have the staff, the knowledge and money to do it and they WILL figure out how to ride the tiger into the future. I personally don't think the major houses are going anywhere.
True, the playing field, in some ways, is more level and that's great. I love the idea of being able to get my stuff in front of people with enough hard work and tech smarts, but if I had my way, I would recluse myself and write all day, every day and leave the rest of it to the pros. It may not work out that way, but I'm going to give it a good try and take my first novel effort as far as I can and hope it gets someone's attention.
Eventually I hope to be able to pay my electric bill too.

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

My Short Story is out....finally!

 Hi all, I know I've been missing in action lately.
This short story, now available on Smashwords for the various ereaders is one of the reasons why. I'm also 40K + into my 1st formal thriller novel and I work on it almost every day. Aside from the usual "life" stuff, some of it near crisis level, the book is moving along. I hope you'll take a look at this story, it's a classic example of self-publishing on 0 budget and I have a lot of friends to Thank including Jessica Riggles ( @Jesilea on Twitter) and Barbie (known as KeeperofDreams on FB and Twitter)
Here's the link to my Smashwords page where you can look over a sample of the 3400 word short story, (at .99 cents it's still a deal...) and I hope you decide to buy it and add it to your library.

The Train Whistle. A short story.


I hope to have the Kindle version up soon but there are one or two formats on my SW page that Kindle supports, you should see them there. I'll let you know when the official Kindle version is out. I'm a Nook fan so I have it in my Nook already.
 It was kind of a cool moment for me, this being my first actual fiction story published anywhere and even though I published it, it's still out there for sale and it gives me a feeling that I'm moving forward. In my present situation that in itself is a colossal thing..
For me it was the first of many such milestones, God willing.
I will be posting another blog edition right here very soon.
(We've been working on my dance tune too, I forgot to mention that, so far it sounds great.)
Alright well, that's it for now. I'll be online mostlikely on Twitter and looking in on FB every now and then. Again much heartfelt THANKS to Barbie and Jess for hookin' me up!

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




LUVU

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