Another rant - this must be my rant week

So I’m frustrated. I am in the running for a prize at the My Gutsy Story contest site. Up until yesterday another contender and I kept taking the lead back and forth, but now I’m seven votes behind.

I’ve sent out two group emails, posted the contest info all over the place on Facebook, tweeted about it, other folks have tweeted about it, and just today created an event to ask people to over there to vote. And out of all that I have forty-five votes. I need seven right now just to tie the first place guy. And I would think that wouldn’t be so hard to do.

Don’t people respond to requests like this anymore? Is this going to make me lose some of my FB friends and make me seem like a pest?

It really isn’t pesty, I don’t think. Just a simple request:

Click on a link, look on the right sidebar, find the Polling place, and click on my name. Should be a piece of cake. I can’t even get my family to do it.

So now I’m at a loss as to how to draw folks in and to click where I’ve asked (practically pleaded with) them to click. And I wonder if this kind of response is typical in everyone’s experience.

I’ve questioned before about the reasoning behind Facebook fan pages and getting lots of Likes, all the tweets, the LinkedIn messages, the Facebook friends and posts. Sure I’ve made a lot of friends, but most don’t chime in. I’ve also had a few books sell as a result, but not that many for how much work I do

That’s why I’m frustrated. It doesn’t look like all my work and all my contacts are making any difference what-so-ever. It’s really too bad. What does it take for a thought or a piece of writing to go viral? Plus, what does that mean anyway? Is that just in terms of sharing something around or does it also mean sharing and taking some kind of action?

Well, folks, please take some action here:

Click on this Link

Read the story

Look on the right sidebar

Find the Polling place

And click on my name

Thanks for reading, forgive the rant, and please vote before July 11.

OOH, I take some of this back. A couple of votes just came in as a result of the FB event. Yay, something is working. Thanks so much.

Outline a novel first or just go for it?

A recent discussion on LinkedIn in my Authors, Writers, Publishers, Editors and Writing Professional group was about the question: Do you write with an outline or without one and just from your mind? The answers are all over the place, some for an outline, some against an outline and for the free-writing approach, and some for a little of both.

I am of the outline-before-writing school of thought in most cases. When I worked on proposals in the aerospace business, the maxim was plan the writing before you write – that was to have a top level outline, annotate it with details and a graphics plan, get it approved, and then begin the writing. For my novel I did it a little less formally. In the first novel workshop I ever took, I learned these steps: write the first scene, write the last scene, and write a middle scene. Then write a list of scenes that go in between and start filling in the details of those scenes. Once all that is done, go back and fill more details: results of research, descriptions of characters, locations, time, etc. – spackling the instructor called it.

I found the list of scenes very valuable. It doesn’t have a lot of detail, but it gave me just enough to delve into the writing of the scenes. And by the way, the list doesn’t preclude adding more scenes or deleting some that I have. I think it provided me with a lot of flexibility as well as an anchor for my writing. I just wrote the dialogue first for some scenes and then went back and filled in more detail. I wrote a quick draft of the whole thing for other scenes. 

Now that I have over 85000 words and something written for every scene I’m going back and taking out repetition, massaging the writing, and adding missing details. I figure that’s going to take me another couple of months or so. Right now I’m working on a section I actually wrote twice and plopped into two different locations in the book. To alleviated this problem, I’ve copied and pasted the scenes onto two new documents and placed them side by side on my desktop so I can more readily combine, delete, and enhance and finally come up with one cohesive writeup. I wonder how many times I’ve done that throughout my book?

Well, I’ll find out. That’s the value of editing. It sure gets rid of a lot of messes.

I think my list of scenes – or simple outline – has kept me out of trouble as well – at least for the most part.

List of Scenes

Part 1 - Intro chapter – describing Ira’s trip back, set up about the boys’ deaths, the Sokolow landscape.

1.     Homecoming - 1908

2.     That night

3.     Ira takes Daniel to the main street. They visit his old shop now run by his friend

4.     Ira takes Daniel to the bank of the Struga River

5.     Ira comes home to find Ruth crying. They talk about the death of their sons. She cannot be consoled.

6.     Ira goes back to America

7.     Train Ride, Stop in Liverpool, and The Ship

8.     A daughter Ava is born nine months later

9.     Three years go by and Ira finally sends enough money to get his family to America

10.  They stay with Mr. and Mrs. Katz in Chicago before going to Danville – four scenes here.

11.  They settle in Danville, small town in central Illinois

12.  They bring Jewish life to Danville

13.  He works in the shop alongside his brother, Jack.  Break in time here.

Part 2 - Intro chapter about what has transpired between the time they settle in Danville until 1926 –Descriptions of family members here. What’s going on with them in 1926.

14.  A Sabbath dinner – 1926

15.  Ira and Daniel after dinner

16.  Ava and Mama at dining table after dinner

17.  Daniel is in college at night and working as a gofer for a textile salesman during the day. He is learning the textile business

18.  Ava in the rehearsal room Danville 1926

19. Ava at the Tea Room after rehearsal

Birthday post mortem or how I'm moving forward

Just about a year ago – on Mother’s Day and near my last birthday  – I achieved a huge goal. My memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, A Mother’s Memoir of Living with her Son’s Bipolar Disorder and Surviving His Suicide, was published. In it I tell the steps I took in living with the loss of my son. First and foremost I chose to live and take care of myself as a woman, wife, mother, writer.

In hopes that my story will inspire others to find ways to survive their own tragic experiences, I’ve devoted most of this last year marketing my book. I have become increasingly more engaged in social networking, through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest, I had a blog tour through Women on Writing (WOW), radio interviews, and many speaking and book signing engagements.

I’ve also embarked on a whole new writing career – writing for the Huffington Post That’s Fit and Healthy Living columns, the Naturally Savvy website as its over sixty expert, PsychAlive, a website that focuses on suicide prevention, and just recently contributing to Open to Hope, a wonderful site near and dear to me that looks to finding hope after loss.  

Since my publisher, Lucky Press, decided to cease doing business this past April 30, marketing my book has become more of a priority for me. But, what has been so encouraging is all the help and suggestions I’ve received from the relations I’ve made through my social networks. I never would have believed how close some of us have become.

Though I suspect that I’ll be involved in making next-step decisions for another couple of months at least – about going the self publishing route or continuing to try to find a traditional publisher to reissue my book – I know I will continue with the mission that has slowing and surely evolved through the years since my son died: erasing the stigma of mental illness and suicide in the hopes of saving lives.

I’ve also had a huge surprise this year. Little did I know that I’d become a published author, poet, and web journalist at this stage in my life. I’ve found that I’m definite proof at age 72 that it is never too late for opportunities to reinvent our lives.

Go traditional or self-publish - good advice on LinkedIn

I started a discussion on LinkedIn in the Authors, Writers, Publishers, Editors, and Writing Professionals group asking: “If your publisher went out of business, did you look for another publisher or take the self-publishing route?” I got a lot of encouragement for trying to get another traditional publisher and a lot of good solid information about how to self-publish. I even had an offer from a self-publishing resource. 

Here are a few helpful comments that came back:

Dottye: If you had one publisher interested in your book, your chances may be good another will - if you are considering self-publishing, Mark Levine wrote a great book on the top self-publishing companies to consider and those to avoid. Check out www.millcitypress.net for a 100% royalty free company.

Lori: If you self-publish, whether you go electronic or not, you still need to be prepared to take care of the distribution and marketing yourself. Typically, folks with niche markets that dovetail with their business do very well in self-publishing. Self-published books often have a longer shelf life, whereas a book by a traditional press may need to shoot out of the sales gate for a publisher to keep it in its stable of titles. As far as genres, these days, novels and short stories can do very well as self-published titles, if you are prepared to pay attention to promotion and publicity. Some authors enjoy those aspects of the business and others don't. So, now would be a good time for you to assess your goals and strengths, to see what you are prepared to undertake and how you want to spend your time.

Donald: Yea, sure, 100% royalty free and you keep "all" of your money. Let’s see, Mill City Press has publishing packages for sale. They start at $1697 and run up to $5997 and that's before marketing and royalties are even taken into consideration. If you are self published, by definition you keep "all" of your royalties from a sale anyway. If you need help, look at CreateSpace by Amazon. Use it as a benchmark when looking at different companies. Lulu has a good rep and is reasonable for publication services. If you need help, consider comparing them to the others out there. Last, look at what the traditional publisher takes from the sale. What does he do for it that you can't do for yourself?

Rachel: That happened to me, too. I found an agent who would take it, and she's beginning to shop it to other publishers. It sure slowed things down, but I think the fact that you already had a publisher will help as you look for a new one.

Charlotte: I had two publishers go out of business. I got the rights to my books back and re-sold the very same day. I know we have a lot of self-published authors here in the group but I would strongly recommend trying to get a traditional or e-pub interested in your book before you self-publish. 

And more from Donald: Look at Lightning Source Printing (a subsidiary of Ingram Distributors) and look carefully at what they will do for you for a whole $12 (yes that is twelve dollars) a year. In fact, I'll save you the trouble of looking it up. They do all the logistics and accounting for just $12 a year. They take care of the business and you get a check, based on your books' sales, in your bank account each month just like you did before. You still have to do your own promotion, which you were doing anyway. Yes, Lightning Source will do everything that the publisher you lost did or what a new publisher will do - for a whole $12 a year - and what did your publisher make off of you last year? Figure it out. Yes you paid him a huge portion of "your" royalties. If you can look realistically at these numbers and want another publisher I'd be surprised. 

If you really want a new publisher, you won't have the least problem finding one, if your books are selling. It's free money you will be giving him. Any publisher will jump at it. 

To double your profits, or better (assuming sales remained the same as last year), all you have to do is pick a business name and in less than a half a day you can get a tax ID and a business bank account and you are now a publisher and are ready to do business. It takes about ten minutes to set up your account with Lightning Source, and less than a hundred dollar file set-up fee per book. The books will automatically be listed on Amazon.

If you are looking to sell to Barnes and Noble too, (hard copies) look up Aaron Shepard on the internet. He has a blog that will show you how to set up files at two printers, "CreateSpace" for Amazon sales and Lightning Source for Barnes and Noble sales and you will pick up a 15% premium on your Amazon sales. (Barnes and Nobel discount is 55% off list price Amazon through create space is 40%) All of this with no logistics work for you. 

 

The Independent Author Network

I recently joined The Independent Authors Network and I think it is paying off already in turns of book sales and reach. I recommend it to my author friends out there who have stagnating sales rankings, and who don’t get a lot of marketing coverage. Now I think tweeting about my IAN involvement is a necessary part of my marketing work.

Here are few bits of information about the network. But I suggest you click here to find out more and to determine whether it’s something you’d like to do. And if you decide to join, click here. 

In the words of The Independent Author Network:

Q. What is The Independent Author Network?

A. The Independent Author Network is a group of like minded authors who are self published or published by a small indie press. The group is open to authors who are active social networkers at sites like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn etc. The group works together to support and promote each other online.

Q. How does I.A.N. work? 

A. Members are asked to Tweet and Facebook their IAN Member page and the pages of the other authors. If a member has a new book releasing, a book signing, a blog tour or any event the info would be posted to our blog and the others Tweet, blog, Facebook etc. the event as their time allows. 

Q. What is the cost to join?

A. Yearly Basic membership is free at IAN, however to help cover rising site costs we require new members to please pay a one time set up fee If you have 1-6 books to promote the Membership setup fee is $24.95.Please contact us if you have more than six books to promote.

Q. Will I need to pay this fee yearly?

A. No this is a one time fee and will not be charged again!

Q. What else do I need to join?

A. All new members must have a book that is published or near publishing at a small mainstream independent press or is self-published. We ask that all members have a twitter. Other useful accounts include: Facebook, LinkedIn, GoodReads, Shelfari as well as a blog and website.

Social network and novel work updates

Social Network Update

I’ve now joined BranchOut and Pinterest – as if I needed more social network connections than I already have, e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Goodreads. I really don’t know what BranchOut is all about and Pinterest is even more of a riddle.

A recent pin on my Pinterest 

for the home board

According to their websites:

BranchOut makes it easy to search for jobs and see inside connections in your network. Our quick tour will help you discover BranchOut's powerful features.

Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.

I haven’t really worked with BranchOut yet because I haven’t been actively looking for a job – but of course one never knows.

And, I’ve seen some interesting and beautiful pin boards on Pinterest. I’ve even joined in with the rest in pinning and repinning and liking existing pins, but I don’t get the point yet. I signed up to take a free 45 minute Webinar about it next week, so maybe I’ll come out with a whole new outlook then. Since my main goal for all of these sites is to get the word out about my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, I can’t tell how BranchOut and Pinterest will help me do that.

Novel Update

And, I’m going to take a break from my novel today. I passed the 70,000 word mark yesterday, I’ve begun to create chapters, and next week I’ll probably start pinning the book up on storyboards (not to be confused with Pinterest). That way I’ll be able to see the holes in my content more clearly. Up until now I’ve been scrolling through a big document, and scrolling back and forth through 170 plus pages is not the way to go. I’ve also dropped my stuff into Dropbox just in case I want to work on it when I’m not at my home computer.

Needless to say, my online and writing life keeps getting more and more involved and complicated. Maybe I need to go around for a while, paper notebook in hand, and write some poems – like the good old days.

Is my marketing program beginning to pay off?

So, it looks like there’s been a little movement in my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On, Amazon sales ranking this week. It went down from as high as in the one millions to the 700,000s earlier this week, and back up to the one millions again and down to the 300,000s today. Does that mean two books have sold? I have no clue what those numbers mean.

But hopefully all that has been going on in the last few weeks has spurred some sales: my talk at the American Association of University Women in mid November, Marla Miller (Marketing the Muse) highlighting my platform earlier this week and posting my July 19, 2010 blog piece about my journey to getting published yesterday, my showcase on The Hamilton Gallery with links to Amazon for book purchases, and another five-star review

up on Amazon yesterday. It’s really been a yeasty time.

Plus I’ve had more and more Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter connections, and I look forward to a piece about my work and book in a future issue of the Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services newsletter. I’ll be interviewed for that a week from Monday.

I just find that I spend much too much time worrying about sales ranks and all the other social networking I’m doing to try to interest people in buying my book.

Maybe it’s a good thing that I’ve taken steps to be hired as a proposal consultant again. Working on a proposal for a couple of months could take my attention away from what’s on my personal network pages and give my life a better balance. 

Paul, four years old

Midweek Work Progress Report

This week has been very productive.

I’ve sent off my second piece for the PsychAlive website, and I got word from the editor that it’s ready to go live. The piece is called “Comforting Those Who Grieve.” I’m still awaiting word from my Savvy Over 60 editor about when my November piece for them will be up.

I also started working on a piece for a new blog I’m interested in called, Heartache to Healing, founded by grief coach, author, and speaker, JoAnne Funch. Hopefully, the piece will be good enough that I’ll be allowed to contribute there once in a while as well.

And I started working on my speech that I’m scheduled to make on November 19 for our local chapter of the American Association of University Women. It was suggested I talk about the mental health and suicide prevention services available in our area. I’ll do that and expand the speech to tell my story of healing after my son’s suicide that I describe in my memoir, Leaving the Hall Light On.

And surprise, surprise, I got a chance to write a poem and work on my novel this morning. I plan to continue with my creative work for the rest of this week.

Then this Saturday I’ll be signing my books from ten in the morning until four in the afternoon at the Ventura County Book Fair at the Pleasant Valley Community Park Auditorium, 1605 Brunley Street in Camarillo – about an hour’s drive from my home in Manhattan Beach. I’ll also get a chance to do a ten-minute reading in the early afternoon. So, if you’re in the neighborhood, please stop by. I’ll be at Table 28.

Of course all of this takes place while I continue my everyday social networking work on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Book Blogs, my blogs on Choices and Red Room and prepare for my next blog tour in the spring. I’ve learned that there is no rest in a writer’s life.

And as my garden Buddha seems to say, it’s all good.

If you Like me, what's the point?

My memoir book cover photo by Madison Poulter

There is a thread going on, on LinkedIn that goes like this: I’ll like your fan page and Amazon book page if you like mine. So I’ve been responding to a lot of those requests,  and now I'm up over twenty-five new likes in just the last week. 

But, I wonder what’s the point? Do these new likes translate into book sales? So far, I don’t think so. A few people that I've met through my social networks have said my book is on their list, but I haven’t seen a bump in my Amazon rankings as a result.

So with all this social media networking – over 900 Facebook friends, over 400 Facebook fans, almost 250 LinkedIn connections, and a constantly growing list of Twitter followers, I wonder where it is all getting me. And I find that keeping up all the connections is a lot of work.

Okay, I won’t be so down about it all. I’m only into this marketing game about six months. I’ve got to give it more time. Plus the fact that my book is a hard sell – like my son just said, hard to read but beautiful and powerful. I have to hang on to that beautiful and powerful comment and hopefully lots more people will agree.

Also, someone on LinkedIn just answered my what's the point? question that if he gets just one sale from all the exposure – that’s what it really is, exposure – he’ll feel it’s worth the effort. Okay I can go with that. I won’t be greedy. One sale is sure better than none.

By the way, if you care to Like my Facebook author page, click on the link.