Why am I blogging when I should be writing?
I'm not going to answer that question at once. First of all, I'm going to continue my rant...er, discourse...on the topic of self-publishing and the perils thereof.
I am now a bit less of a clueless newbie. What they don't tell you when you embark on this self-publishing malarkey is that you, as a self-published author, are basically invisible. No-one apart from your friends knows you are there. Why should they? And your problem is that you want to let people know you are there, and get them viewing (and maybe even purchasing!) your book. There are excellent posts on this topic by Tobias Buckell, who is also a traditionally published author , and Toby Tate, a publisher .
I have in fact been very fortunate, as I have had two interviews - one with Keith Brooke of Infinity Plus on his blog here, and one on Jan Edwards's blog here. It was fantastic to have an opportunity to chat about the new book, what I'm writing, and what I'm reading.
If I have learned anything so far, it is that it is critical to get your book reviewed, and to try not to drive all your friends and acquaintance bonkers by self-promoting too much, particularly on Facebook and Twitter. There is a terrible temptation to tweet all the time saying 'Buy my book, BLAH, it's simply marvellous!' to which everyone can only answer 'Why?'
I have a tendency to check my sales (and sales rank) on Amazon obsessively (well I would, natch) and it is hard to resist the temptation to do exactly what I have counselled against. It is harder to secure traditional reviews as an Indie author because everybody is inundated - either with books from traditional publishers, or with requests and submissions from indie writers in ever-increasing numbers.
Some of the good advice - I think it may have been from Toby Tate, cited above - tells you to carry on writing. (Could that be the title of a film?) This brings me back to my heading. Here I am in front of the computer, writing a post about self-publication and my adventures so far, wanting to promote my book without becoming a bore...but what I really ought to do is to buckle under and get back to my WIP (work in progress).
Which is tricky. Morale is low at Rydill Towers. I need to make like those famous men (in the song) and pick myself up, dust myself off and start all over again. I need to stop ruminating and move on to the next thing.
The next thing, which may be called Winterbloom, is being recalcitrant. I need to jump start it, because so far I have got no further than the opening episodes. This is partly due to self-doubt and the usual interruptions, and partly because I know where I want to go, but not how to get there. It's a bit like Google Maps which show point A and point B; I don't know how to get from one to the other.
Coming soon on Maniototo - photos of my old school, perchance.
I am now a bit less of a clueless newbie. What they don't tell you when you embark on this self-publishing malarkey is that you, as a self-published author, are basically invisible. No-one apart from your friends knows you are there. Why should they? And your problem is that you want to let people know you are there, and get them viewing (and maybe even purchasing!) your book. There are excellent posts on this topic by Tobias Buckell, who is also a traditionally published author , and Toby Tate, a publisher .
I have in fact been very fortunate, as I have had two interviews - one with Keith Brooke of Infinity Plus on his blog here, and one on Jan Edwards's blog here. It was fantastic to have an opportunity to chat about the new book, what I'm writing, and what I'm reading.
If I have learned anything so far, it is that it is critical to get your book reviewed, and to try not to drive all your friends and acquaintance bonkers by self-promoting too much, particularly on Facebook and Twitter. There is a terrible temptation to tweet all the time saying 'Buy my book, BLAH, it's simply marvellous!' to which everyone can only answer 'Why?'
I have a tendency to check my sales (and sales rank) on Amazon obsessively (well I would, natch) and it is hard to resist the temptation to do exactly what I have counselled against. It is harder to secure traditional reviews as an Indie author because everybody is inundated - either with books from traditional publishers, or with requests and submissions from indie writers in ever-increasing numbers.
Some of the good advice - I think it may have been from Toby Tate, cited above - tells you to carry on writing. (Could that be the title of a film?) This brings me back to my heading. Here I am in front of the computer, writing a post about self-publication and my adventures so far, wanting to promote my book without becoming a bore...but what I really ought to do is to buckle under and get back to my WIP (work in progress).
Which is tricky. Morale is low at Rydill Towers. I need to make like those famous men (in the song) and pick myself up, dust myself off and start all over again. I need to stop ruminating and move on to the next thing.
The next thing, which may be called Winterbloom, is being recalcitrant. I need to jump start it, because so far I have got no further than the opening episodes. This is partly due to self-doubt and the usual interruptions, and partly because I know where I want to go, but not how to get there. It's a bit like Google Maps which show point A and point B; I don't know how to get from one to the other.
Coming soon on Maniototo - photos of my old school, perchance.
Congratulations on working out how to do the blog list. What a lot of blogs you follow! I see you've started following Graham Beattie's blog - I find that very useful, it has a lot about publishing trends and loads of stuff on self-publishing. There's a post somewhere in the last few months about a literary award that will accept entries from 'indie' authors, which may be a hopeful sign of changing attitudes.
ReplyDeleteI hope so! I have to confess that I don't read all the blogs all of the time - I wish I could! I think you might enjoy Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley as it is (I think) a gentle satire on certain kinds of Christian communities from an insider's point of view.
ReplyDeleteIt took me quite some time to work out how to do the blog list! You introduced me to Beattie's Book Blog and I like it. There are a few others that aren't on Blogger and I may have to add them as links.