Blog

Being a writer is creative. Being a published author is a business. A website and the blog are the public face of that business.

I get it. This blog is all that most people will ever “see” of me. As you all know, I’m out here at least once a week talking about what I’m doing and how I’m doing it. I had to make a couple primary decisions when I began about what I would and would not talk about on my blog. Dean (God of all things technical) encouraged me to look at other author blogs and determine what it was that I’d be comfortable doing and then he’d create a site for me. He reminded me that the website would be my public face and I should choose carefully. Blah, blah, blah. Big whoop! Or so I thought!

That was a couple of damned interesting days. Talk about having your eyes opened! Some author sites were very cool, some were lousy, some were downright obnoxious, some were so narcissistic it was scary, some were sluttish, and some were just too stupid for words. Some were nothing more than a page with links to their books, and some were like a flashing neon sign of desperation, “Hey, look at me and my ‘fabulous’ life.” More than one appeared to be operated by people other than the author.

There were times when I wasn’t sure what the hell some of these people were selling. Is this about your books, your kids, or just a pathetic cover for an escort service? There were several times when I wasn’t sure if I was reading an author blog or a private journal. (There was more than one person who desperately needs to spend time with a professional therapist. Just sayin’.) Based on the images some of these supposedly professional folks put up, I sometimes wasn’t sure if I’d wandered into some teenage girl’s fantasy, an ad for a travel agency, a cat sanctuary, a day care, or a place for some drunk with nothing better to do than post pictures of his/her booze. There were way too many instances of pictures and commentary that made me seriously question to what exact purpose were those sheep being used.

Never mind. After all those years in the military, I know better than to ask a question that I really don’t want an answer to.

By the fourth day, I had determined that I was terribly normal and boring and decided on the following things:

No personal photos. I’m not very photogenic and don’t feel a need to plaster my website with pictures of me, Mr. Scott, or my pets. Although, the pets are very cute and photograph well, neither they nor Mr. Scott write.

No discussions of politics or religion: I’m sort of old school – it’s not a polite subject. Your politics and religious views are much like a stranger’s penis being waved in a parking lot – unsolicited and unwelcome!

Images of people I don’t know. I’d be okay with using the image of someone to illustrate a point, but you won’t be seeing a fan picture of the latest hunka, hunka, burnin’ love who’s gracing the big screen. I don’t have a problem with others posting that stuff. I like to look at a little eye candy too. But it’s not me. If I were to post an image, I’m more likely to share a photo of the newest rifle approved for use by the USMC.

Images as illustration. As I said, I don’t mind an image to make a point, but I’m not writing graphic novels, so you won’t see a graphic blog.

Advertising for others. I personally find it a little annoying to visit an author’s site and find nothing but a damn advertisement for someone else. Post after post about who has a new book out. One every once in a while doesn’t bother me, but a continuous stream makes me think that this person is now reading instead of writing.

One of the upsides to self-publishing is that my publisher doesn’t require me to promote other authors from the stable. I am the other author.

Speaking of other authors. I mention other writers when their words have bearing on what I’m doing. I recently mentioned author Heather Rae Scott in a blog about getting the words down on the page. I’ll be sharing what other authors are saying about certain topics that are pertinent to the discussion. Otherwise – not so much. I don’t need to impress you with who I’m reading or corresponding with.

Off topic subjects. I will occasionally stray off the writing subject to tell you what’s on my mind. For those who read my blog, you already know that I occasionally rant. I’ve been encouraged to do that more often, but I’m actually trying to rant less in life. No really – I am! Stop giggling and pointing. Of course, if you think about it, this whole series is just a rant about the elements of self-promotion, so maybe I haven’t cut back.

The reality is that I’m not going to give you a blow-by-blow of my life. I’m not going to blog about my fantasies – that’s what my books are for. Well, that and I wouldn’t get anything done. And, I’m not going to share the other intimate details of my personal life. I’ll talk about my learning experiences with writing and publishing, and the things that most move me.

But you should keep your expectations of me low, thus avoiding future disappointment.

Oh, just to be fair, Dean was absolutely right about the website and blog. Make sure it fits you and your needs. And, please… no more sheep!

If you’ve been reading my blog, you know that publishing was never on my bucket list. Going the self-publishing route has fit me in many ways, but there’s a couple real problems involved in the process that I’m going to discuss in some of my upcoming posts. I get asked a lot of questions about what I do and I want to try to be open about some of it. What I like and what I hate. Today is about the concept of self-promotion for the purpose of selling your book.

Let’s not have any misunderstandings here – I suck at it.

Protecting Parker was published a little over a year ago. We put Parker out on Amazon and Barnes and Noble and started the website. There was no advertising beyond my friends and family. At the time, I think I had fewer than seventy personal friends on Facebook. I don’t have many more now. My attitude has always been that it didn’t matter if it sold or not – it was about the writing.

But even though book sales have never been a real priority to me, it is the question I’m asked most often. How many copies have you sold? How’s the book doing? Is the book selling well?

The truth is that asking those questions is simply asking someone how much money they make. I’d never thought much about it until I was speaking to a friend who runs a few head of cattle. He told me that the rudest question you could ask was, “How many cows do you have?” Cows equal cash on the hoof in his world, so it was like asking how much money he had in the bank. You could ask about acreage, because that’s public knowledge (county land records) and many ranchers lease from BLM, so it’s less intrusive, but cash on the hoof is rude.

How many copies have I sold?
I’m not likely to say how many books I’ve sold. It’s not a matter of shame or pride – it’s simply a matter of cash on the hoof, and that’s not anyone’s business. I will tell you that I am not even able to pay my monthly electric bill with the earnings.

How’s the book doing? Is it selling well?
When asked this, I want to ask my own question – Compared to what? I don’t really have anything to compare myself to. Protecting Parker has to be my benchmark. Every copy she sold was an exciting surprise. The simple truth is that it’s still exciting. I remember giggling uncontrollably when I got the first check for royalties. It didn’t matter that it would have barely covered a pedicure, it was still the coolest thing that has ever happened. I’m not sure that getting a royalty check for Protecting Parker will ever get old for me. Now every book I publish is a comparison against Parker. Some move as well – some don’t. But each sale is just as cool as the first!

Am I concerned about how my books sell?
Yes and no. I would like them to sell better, but once again, selling books was never the priority for me. Writing stories for my friends and family to enjoy remains the priority.

I am vain enough to want to sell more books.

But, just how do you sell a book? How do you get noticed among the millions of other books? How do you get anyone to give “you” a try?

All the things I’ve read on the subject of self-publishing list the following things:
An active author website
A page on a social network
Reviews
Guest blogging
Give a few away to get sales
Be willing to sell yourself

I’ll be talking about each of these things over the next couple of weeks. What I’ve tried, what I’ve learned, what I’m willing or unwilling to do, and why writing, not sales, will remain the priority for me. I hope you find it useful.

Am I allowed to use emotional tags in my blog? If so, then the tag today would be: *le sigh*

There are days when I wonder just how foolish I was to challenge myself to this. The challenge to write a novel in two months, start to finish with nothing more than an opening idea, might have been a bit of a stretch. I’m pretty sure there won’t be a line of people waiting to point fingers or fault me if I don’t make it. But I’m not about to find out if I can possibly help it. Trust me, I’ve always been much harder on myself than anyone else would be.

But please allow me a minute of self-pity here. As I’ve been working on this book, I’ve also been completing rewrites and edits on The Civilian – Blood Link III, putting out Stuck in Korea Time, and leading a fairly busy personal life. I’ve been distracted.

Also – what the hell was I thinking by choosing to write about this particular subject? The research has been… difficult. I’ve been asking questions that sometimes can’t be answered and the learning curve has been steep as well as painful at times. 99% of the things I need to know in order to write convincingly will never appear in the book. That seems unfair to the people who have so willingly shared their information.

Okay – enough whining. Moving on.

Where am I at in The Embassy Guards? I’m still not sold on this title by the way – my beta readers should plan on providing input and options. 33,000 words into the project and I’m numerically on track to finish on schedule. Sadly, while I know what happens next, I still have no idea how this one ends. Once again: *le sigh*

With the help of some wonderful friends, I feel like I finally have a handle on the bomb. I’ve already mentioned several times that things go boom, so saying it’s a bomb isn’t giving anything away. Knowing what the bomb is made of, and how the bomb behaves, has given me the confidence to move on with certain other elements of the book.

Now I have to get on with the nitty-gritty middle of the book and hope that the story resolves itself in my head. A surprise ending for the reader might be acceptable, but it’s damn hard on the author.

Author Heather Rae Scott informs me that you can’t edit a blank page—you have to get the words on the paper. It sounds like such a simple thing. Put the words on the paper. But there are days when the words simply won’t stick to the page. I stare at that blank screen in front of me and accomplish nothing. My two brain cells refuse to collide and create a spark, leaving me in the dark and feeling like a complete loser. Days like that, I try to go do something else since time in front of the computer is wasted.

However, I have found that writing begets writing. The more you do, the more you are able to do. Some days are better than others, but the words seem to come easier if I write more rather than less. It’s odd though that there are days when my head is full of “what comes next,” and yet, those are some of the days that cause me the most trouble. I seem to get hung up on how to open the chapter or where exactly to start the narrative. Then there are days when the story simply unfolds before my eyes and I can hardly keep up with what’s happening. It becomes a mad rush to get the basics down before the next part of the story pushes it’s way to the front of my brain.

When this happens, I wind up with things like this:

Nate looks to where the remnants of the event tent had been. Smoldering heaps, etc. Sees C.J. well ahead of others. She grabs a weapon. Sees the bad guys struggling to drag away Mathie and Nate runs in their direction. Sees the weapon in the bad guys hand. C.J. sees it too and shoots first one and then the other. First man isn’t dead and comes up shooting. What happened to the security patrols? The rest of the Marines arrive.

This is only a tiny part of what I got down as the scene unfolded in my head initially. It turned out to be more than half a page of bad sentences and jumbled things. But at least I had gotten down the gist of the scene. The next day, I was a little more clear-headed and constructed a reasonable scene from those notes:

Only then did Nate turn toward where the large event tent had once stood. The metal framework and canvas had landed well behind where it had been erected and was nothing more than smoldering heaps. The ice sculpture in the center of the tent was gone and appeared to be where the blast had come from. C.J. was well ahead of the other Marines running toward the last place Nate had seen the ambassador. The security detail lay unmoving on the floor. Looking past them, Nate saw what appeared to be some type of struggle going on between Mathie and two waiters. The two white-jacketed men were forcing the stumbling Mathie across the burning remnants of the tent toward the wooded area at the back of the property.

“There has to be more shooters.” Nate checked his weapon. “Someone took out at least ten men on the perimeter.”

Bad sentences and bad grammar, but Heather’s absolutely correct, words on paper give you something to work with and edit. Even now, I can see at least a dozen things wrong in this one small scene. This section will be re-worked ten to fifteen times before it even makes it to the beta readers.

The bottom line is – words on pages become sentences. Multiple sentences become paragraphs, then pages, then chapters, and eventually (if everything goes well) a novel.

Thirty days into my new project, tentatively titled The Embassy Guards, and I think I may have a handle on things – or not. At a little over 25,000 words, I’m somewhere around one third of the way into this thing. My main characters are already well established and the trouble that started on page one – continues. There will be much more trouble to come as my team of personnel try to figure out who the enemy is and take them out. This one is turning into a lot of fun.

Dean has created a draft cover for The Civilian – Blood Link III and I’m in the final edits. I expect to publish this one about 1 June. Saving Emily is in final beta reads and will be off to face Marcia’s eagle eye by the end of next month. Finally, The Damaged – Book IV of the Blood Link series is in progress. I expect it to be ready for edits soon. Busy, busy, busy!