A writer looks backward and forward

My quick writerly recap for 2011:

a) Had my first professional sale (thanks again, Dr. Henry Gee, at Nature: Futures)

b) Cracked the code on writing flash length fiction, something that has vexed me for years

c) Wrote about 3 new short stories and dangled them before various editors

d) Ground out some chapters on Vortex, the novel

e) Published Dark Doses, an anthology of 7 short, sci-fi stories, on Amazon

f) Promptly signed up Dark Doses for Amazon’s KDP Select program and started exploiting that program’s offerings

g) Joined SFWA

In addition I could also say that I continued expanding my writer network. All-in-all, not too shabby of a year, if I do say so myself.

New Year’s resolutions and I don’t mix well. I can’t say they’re my bag really. I just don’t see why there is anything particularly compelling about January 1 that you cannot also devote yourself to any of the other 364 days of the year.

Still, there are some writing focal areas I have in mind for 2012. Let’s call them my Writer’s Code of Conduct to live by. They are summarized as follows.

Todd’s Writing Code of Conduct:

1) Write more often. This is how a writer strengthens their DNA.

2) Don’t dwell on WIPs that are progressing slowly. A story takes as long as it’s going to take to reach THE END in a satisfactory way.

3) Write a variety of works. This is how a writer avoids getting stuck in a rut.

4) Market your finished products. Because marketing is a way to generate demand.

5) Network. Strength, enlightenment, inspiration and passion are contagious and are to be found in your connections to other writers.

6) Show love to all outstanding submissions. Sure they get rejected, but with a kiss and a quick touch-up, they can be aspiring beauty queen candidates again for other editors.

7) Learn more about the craft of writing. Once you stop learning, you start stagnating.

8) Seed the idea farm. Capture worldly inspirations and store them in a bank of ideas where they can mature and have sex, which ultimately gives rise to great new stories.

9) Take holidays from writing. This is how a writer avoids burn-out.

10) Pay it forward. Every chance you get, because others are doing it for you and we’ll all win in the end.

What's good about giving away your book?

Easy answer: to make new friends and fans.

Which (hopefully) brings about more friends and fans.

To be followed by yet more. And more after that. Rinse. Repeat.

Giveaways are goodwill and good business. I tried one this past weekend. I offered Dark Doses for free on Amazon for 24 hours over New Year's Day.

I figured some folks would use the day to try out the nifty new Kindle they got for Christmas. Others would be taking it easy and browsing the Kindle store in a semi sleep-deprived state. Still others love jumping on freebies because it's a no-risk way to discover new escapes and diversions (not counting any time invested for the download and actual read through). Perhaps the severely hung over folks would be punching the download button in sync with the throb within their skull.

The result for my book: over 250 downloads spread across 4 countries. Not stupendous and colossal, but I like that outcome very much. Because I'm hoping 1% to 2% of those downloads turn into reviews and ratings.

Because reviews and ratings are what leads to new friends and fans. Which then provide more reviews and ratings. Which leads to more...

You get the idea.

Smoke detectors get too old and die

I recently gave some family and friends a test. They all failed. I asked, "Have your smoke detectors expired?" The answers were mixed but pretty much amounted to, "I'm not sure."

The bottom line is: you should completely replace your smoke detectors after 8 - 10 years of use. So guess what I did after Christmas? Yep. Good thing, too, because 1 of my old detectors actually had malfunctioned.

So the house is now equipped with brand new dual sensor alarms throughout. And if you're wondering just how tardy I was accomplishing this important task, let's just say it should have been done 6 years ago. --face palm--

Creating an eBook via The Killer Cookie recipe

If you’re into self-publishing, you are likely acquainted with J.A. Konrath. Over on his blog, Joe provides quite an insightful view of the journey he’s taken. I think most would call it a highly successful one, though Joe hasn’t yet crossed the proverbial finish line and declared total victory.

When it comes to publishing a successful eBook, I like Joe’s formula. To me, Joe simply follows a recipe for producing The Killer Cookie, namely:

1. It has to catch your eye,

2. It has to sound good to eat,

3. It has to look positively delicious,

4. It has to be priced so you don’t even think twice about it,

5. It has to be found where ever you want to buy it, and

6. It has to make your taste buds squeal when you munch it.

In eBook terms, this translates to:

1. Have a striking cover and a title that grabs

2. Have an arresting book description, search tags and keywords

3. Have all aspects of the packaging be clean and crisp

4. Have a low or even impulsive buy price

5. Be readily available across all major store fronts

6. Be well written, engaging, compelling and error-free

For the most part, I’ve tried to be faithful to The Killer Cookie recipe in producing my latest eBook, Dark Doses. I consciously chose to deviate from point #5 though. Here’s why.

I opted in to Amazon’s KDP Select program. Dark Doses is exclusively offered via Amazon for at least 90 days.

Let me be upfront and acknowledge this ploy by Amazon to lockout the competition. In this post, I’m not going to dwell on the potential consequences and ramifications of Amazon’s tactic. Plenty of writer blogs are reacting to the launch of KDP Select and perhaps that’ll be the subject of one of my future missives.

Instead, let me just say that there are lots and lots of cookies out there. More are rolling out every day. What’s an aspiring cookie-baker to do?

Play the numbers game. The majority of cookie-lovers are going to browse and consider the selections put forth by the number one cookie peddler in the world. So for a brand new, just-released Killer Cookie, I’m exploiting all available tactics to break into that leading market.

Amazon is selling a million Kindles a week. There is a lot of muscle and inertia propelling that market. I hope to tap into that as best I can. Not to specifically get rich via KDP Select’s anemic remuneration terms but to get better known.

I seriously doubt I’ll keep Dark Doses exclusive to Amazon for any greatly protracted period of time. I don’t especially like being locked out of non-Kindle eReaders.

But, at least for now, I’m willing to test this one modification to the recipe.

My anthology "Dark Doses" is published on Amazon

Just in time for Christmas, I've added one more temptation to the Kindle store hopefully to entice a few of those customers Amazon is selling e-readers at a rate of 1 million a week. I titled my anthology Dark Doses and it joins the lone short story I had available in the store. Click the cover image on the right if you'd like to visit the Amazon page.

I'll blog some more about the whole eBook publishing process in the days ahead since I used a different approach than for Game Over, my short story. Also, it's going to be a while before I release the eBook to other venues like Smashwords since I enrolled it in Amazon's new KDP Select program. More on that too in a future post.

Building an eBook? Here's a pointer...

If you're building a first eBook and are game to tackle the work yourself, browse over to Paul Salvette's web site. Paul has plenty of advice, guidance and additional links to assist you with the process. I'll toss in: get ready to get your hands dirty. With patience, effort, and Paul's coaching though, you can prime your masterpiece for a professional-grade release via Kindle, Smashwords and the other e-venues.

Maybe you aren't too worried over the finer points and are willing to accept 'good enough' quality. That's your choice and certainly there are shortcut methods you can resort to. Another alternative is you can just pay to have your eBook prepared. Plenty of wranglers are available for a modest fee.

But if you aren't put off by some text manipulation and HTML editing, give Paul's approach a shot.

Home on the range, where the deer & the jackalope play

After 4 years of blogging on LiveJournal as my primary spot, I've decided to transition over to Blogger. Other than occasional performance problems and a stray issue every so often with select web browsers, I can't complain much about LJ... with one exception. Cross-posting from LJ as the source is simply fraught with challenges. Enough to make me switch.

I'm probably destined at some point to take the Wordpress plunge. Until then, Blogger is my prime choice.