Recap from my technical blog for writers

New posts from my other blog...the technical blog, Writing, Funding, Publishing Just in case you weren't aware that I've split my content...

How to add an ISBN to your book or other published work

How to add a barcode to your book or other published work

Interview with author T. M Brenner about his successful KickStarter campaign.

My blog is splitting up...but don't cry, it's a good thing.

It's true! 

My blog is splitting up.

Why?  One word; content.

This is my author blog which, in my mind is content that my readers will enjoy.  Lately I've been writing technical content that is more geared toward writers and rather than crap up this blog with technical stuff, I'm going to move it to another blog.

This blog, actually: http://writingfundingpublishing.blogspot.com/

If you enjoy my witty, creative content typical of this blog, stick around -it isn't going anywhere (and tell your friends!).  If you prefer the technical posts, stop by and visit (and follow) Writing. Funding. Publishing.   If you enjoy both, do not lament, I will post a blurb and redirecting link on this blog pointing to the other because if you are like me, following too many blogs makes my head want to explode. 

So, in review, this blog ain't going away AND I'll have a new blog for technical stuff for writers: 
Writing. Funding. Publishing.  
 http://writingfundingpublishing.blogspot.com/

I hope to see y'all wherever I see y'all.

And on a serious note, thank you for following.  Truly. I hope I provide some source of enjoyment or education for everyone.

An image from my new blog: Writing. Funding. Publishing.  

Keeping up with the ever-changing publishing world

by J.R. Wagner

click for original photo source

Whether you're an author, reader, librarian, publisher, editor, human, android or alien, most of us have seen or heard of the changes happening with the book publishing industry.  Ebooks are a game changer for publishers and writers alike. 

Much like the music industry, the publishing industry is powerless to fight against the digital age.  While several years behind, the publishing industry is going through the same growing pains the music industry fought through.

Nearly every day, I see things in the news, on blogs and on the internet about the future of the publishing industry. There is one source in particular that was surprising at first because I wasn't expecting to hear about it on the radio.  The first time I heard a story about the future of digital publishing on NPR, I thought perhaps it would be the last.  I was wrong.

NPR, for those of you who don't know, stands for National Public Radio.

They have a page dedicated to books alone, which in this age for a radio station, is a hard thing to come by. Check it out.

Here are a handful of great stories on the future of the publishing industry, the future of libraries and the future of physical books themselves; all from NPR. The great thing about them coming from a radio station: you can listen to or read the stories!

Libraries Grapple With The Downside Of E-Books

E-Books Destroying Traditional Publishing? The Story's Not That Simple

No More E-Books Vs. Print Books Arguments, OK?

Will Your Children Inherit Your E-Books?

At Last, They See: E-Books 'Democratize' Publishing

In The E-Book World, Are Book Covers A Dying Art?

To find more great articles about the industry, E-Books or most things book related, visit their website, npr.org/books

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 To purchase Exiled, option the movie rights, hire me as a writer for the next Blade Runner film, the next Star Wars film...any film! For updates on the soon-to-be-released novella(pictured below), book 2 updates, for videos, fan art, contests and more awesomeness, visit my website (click on the website tab)

New from J.R. Wagner...

A tale of perseverance, strength and redemption.

Coming soon.

www.TheNeverChronicles.com

In bookstores now

Follow Your Dreams: a guest post by Carlie Cullen

 A guest post by Carlie MA Cullen

Follow Your Dreams

Every new author is faced with the dilemma of deciding whether to go the traditional, indie or self-publishing route. To be fair, it’s a very difficult decision to make if you are serious about carving a career for yourself as a writer and want to give yourself the best chance of success.

There is a plethora of information available, some brilliant and some not so good and it’s still difficult to make that decision. So I thought I would share my experience with you in the hope it might help.

When I finished writing Heart Search: Lost and had been through the several rounds of editing and beta reading, I had already decided which path I was going to tread. I was going to plump for the traditional route, get an agent and hopefully get a deal with one of the big 6. Isn’t that everybody’s dream? However, my decision was partially forced upon me. Let me explain.

Last year, my daughter and I attended FantasyCon UK for one of the three days in was on. Unfortunately I was taken ill mid to late afternoon, so while I was in the Ladies room my daughter had gone to make a special purchase and was introduced to an Agent from a prestigious literary agency in London. She got talking to him and being the wonderfully supportive daughter she is, she told the agent all about my novel. He gave her his business card, said he was very interested and asked if he could have first refusal. Of course my daughter said yes on my behalf.

So when the ms was ready, I carefully followed their submission guidelines, wrote my query letter and sent it directly to him with a note to remind him of his meeting with my daughter and his request for first refusal. And then the waiting began.

I was given help with my query letter by a wonderful author friend, Guy Saville, who also told me it was perfectly acceptable to chase the agent if I hadn’t heard from them in six to eight weeks. After nine weeks I sent an email requesting an update and never got a reply. I wasn’t too impressed by this point.

Sixteen weeks to the day that he received my precious ms through the post, I still hadn’t heard anything so I decided to try one last email. However the weekend before, I had an inkling of what was coming and as I’m a member of Myrddin Publishing (an author’s co-operative of self-published authors), I began talking to various people I’d got to know very well about the self-publishing process. They were all there ready to pitch in and help; someone is designing a book cover for me, another is going to make a book trailer for me, another is going to help me with formatting and uploading.

As expected the email reply the following day was a rejection and I was quite angry. Having stressed he wanted first dibs and making all the right noises about how interesting it sounded and how it was the sort of thing they were looking for, it then took 16 weeks and two emails from me to get any sort of answer. I have lots of people asking when the book is coming out and felt I was denying them the opportunity to read it. I could have self-published weeks ago!

So as of Monday 6^th August, I have pushed the button on self-publishing under the banner of Myrddin Publishing and hope to have the book out as soon as possible. In the meantime, I’m still going to look for an agent and pursue my dream of being signed by a decent publisher.

You might be wondering why, if I’m self-publishing I still want an agent. It’s all to do with following my dream. A large number of agents these days are prepared to accept self-published authors and I believe (and only time will tell if I’m right), that if you can show an agent how well you’ve managed to sell your book and market it and yourself in the process, it will actually give you a better chance of success with securing one. It would also be a plus for any publishing company if your name is known a bit and you can demonstrate your skills of marketing and selling (the days of big advances and unlimited advertising budgets are over except for the super-powers like J K Rowling).

I hope by telling you of my experience, it will help you decide which way you want to go with your book. However, if you decide to self-publish, I can’t stress strongly enough the importance of getting a decent editor and having your novel beta read by someone you trust, but who can be totally impartial. There are too many authors who think they can self-edit and capture all their mistakes, and in the main, they are the ones who give self-publishing a bad name. You are too close to your own ms to be impartial enough to edit it properly and as many published authors will tell you, when you read through your novel, you see what you want to see and not what’s actually there!

Whatever path you decide to take, my advice is don’t be put off when youå hit a hurdle and to follow your dreams! Who knows where they might lead . . .


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Visit Carlie's wonderful blog HERE (stop in and say hello) 

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As always, find interviews, writing samples, videos, contests and more on my website.

www.TheNeverChronicles.com

In bookstores now

Creating a following BEFORE your novel is published? part VII

This is going to be a brief one simply because it is still a WIP.  I took on the task of finding out if RedRoom and Scribid were good places to go and network.

It turns out, simply creating profiles etc. are more work than I thought they'd be.

I found THIS article about the CEO and Founder of Redroom, Ivory Madison, which is somewhat comforting thSat all the work I've been putting into RedRoom will be worth it.  My experience thus far has been mediocre.  The interface is clunky, the uploading is slow and the ease of navigation isn't the best.  BUT, I believe if I stick with it, there is a good chance I'll get my name out there among my peers, authors, publishers and most importantly, readers so I will stick with it.

I THINK scribid may have the same potential.  What I don't like about either is that they offer a link to my facebook account, but the link ties to my personal account and NOT my author page, which is infuriating.

So, I've got more work to do on this topic.  I've also decided to add the Writer's Digest community to this list.  I will get in there and see what that's about and hopefully have a more insightful observation of all three for next time.

Another topic for a future post will be Creating A Calendar To Manage Social Media Marketing.  It is insanely easy to forget what you have where and how often you need to take action in those places.  I've got a method that may help.

So.....For next time,

Scribid
RedRoom
WD Community

If you feel so inclined, check them out yourself and let me know your thoughts.

P.S.

Visit my PAGE and tell everyone you know to check it out!  Read my first chapter, follow my blog and get hooked!  My novel is coming late spring/early summer!

Issuu, an excellent tool for all authors (established and aspiring)

It's funny, I use Issuu to post documents in this very blog and have never given them their due credit.

First, it's free.  Did I mention it's free.  By the way it is FREE!

Once you create a profile the user interface is very easy to use.  The uploads are fast and the results are eye-catching.

Essentially you take a document you'd like to publish and make a PDF from it.  Once in PDF form, you can upload it to your profile in Issuu. The more documents you 'publish' on Issuu, the larger your library becomes. Now for the cool part.  Issuu allows you to share these documents on dozens of sites. (I mostly use it for facebook)  Also, it will give you the embed code, which you can paste into places (like this blog) and it will link back to that document in the Issuu reader.

The documents read like a book -page turning, audio (if you add it) and more.  All my Entries from the Lost Journal are uploaded from Issuu along with my sample chapter of The Never.  Take a look!

I recommend it to anyone and everyone who has documents to share and manage.  They also have a community (facebookesque) where other folks who publish documents, magazines, photo books and creative mostly where one can do some networking. So go register and start uploading!

And no, I am not being paid by Issuu for this entry.

Last thing: Visit my author page and show your support!

Here is an introductory video:

New entry from the Lost Journal

Open publication - Free publishing - More author

Creating a following BEFORE your novel is published? part VI

Well, it is time to move on to other sources on the internet that can help increase your following.  My page following has increased its following by 4x's since I've started writing (and following my own instructions) this blog.

A quick google search led me to The Savvy Book Marketer  website.  One click on marketing tips and I come to a long list of what look like great sources of information.

I clicked on the first one that drew my eye, fiction marketing, and was directed quickly to a page full of hype that ended with an ad for her book explaining all about fiction book marketing. So I clicked on resources and, once again found a nice list of information and every link leads to something for sale.  Can I blame them? No.  Is it frustrating that nobody wants to throw me a bone? Yes.  Onward...

I found a magazine..Social Media Marketing Magizine, which is a bit too broad for our purposes at the moment. Then I found this, a 'free' ebook from scribd that specifically touches on social media marketing for authors. There was some good introductory information that can be useful including a link to RedRoom, which I've never heard of but intend on visiting. It also mentions scribid, which hosted the free ebook.  Surprisingly, there was nothing at the end pitching the sale of the author's book.  It was just straight-up free information.  A rarity these days.

So, the mission going forward will be to research RedRoom and scribid and see what they're about and how effective they can be.  I apologize for the lack of actionable information this go-around.  The next entry should be full of goodies.

Until then, visit my page, tell your friends, tell your friend's friends and I'll be sure to share the love!

Here is a shot of my page today!

Creating a following BEFORE your novel is published? part V

A quick followup to part II, which focused on facebook ads.  Since October fourth, that particular ad had netted me 57 new followers.  Of the 60 people who clicked on the ad, only three decided they didn't want to 'like' my page.

Enough about paid ads.  Here are some things that are completely free that you can do to increase traffic to your page.  I'm assuming you've reached the point where you know what genre you've targeted.  Knowing that, you can search for other pages with the same interest.  Lets use en example: Horror.

As you can see, several other pages immediately come up.  If it has the little molecule icon as a picture, they're no good because they're not regularly updated and the information is fed by wikipedia so skip them all together (I know, it's tempting when thy have 96,000 likes but there is no following there.)

If you find one that looks promising, click on it.  Check out the page.  Do they allow others to post on the page?  If it is only the moderator posting, the answer is no.  Even though you may be able to post on their wall, your post will be removed before anyone can see it.  The other thing to look at is the page's likes (on the left).  Click see all and look through their favorites.  This is a great way to expand your potential network because pages generally 'like' other pages related to their own subject in some way.

I would try and get as many relevant 'likes' as possible.  For time's sake, lets say you reach 30.  Now you need to start trolling those pages for opportunities to insert yourself into their conversations.  Every time you post, they see the link back to your page (as well as everyone else looking at their page, who most likely will be interested in your page because it is a related subject)  I would avoid 'spamming' where new authors drop in, leave a post on their wall saying something like 'come look at my new book" and never say anything again.  Try and build a rapport with the people who post on these pages.  The more they see your name involved in the conversations, the more interested in your page the readers will become.  Soon, those who like their pages will like your page and so it spreads.

Remember to share the love.  If someone mentions your page on their wall, reciprocate.  This can have a snowball effect sending your number of followers through the roof. The more work you do here, the more results you will see. Yes, it takes time and effort for it to happen but in the end, I believe these followers are more likely to purchase your book than those who simply click on an ad and 'like' your page.

Sell yourself, you're a writer so when you post or converse you need to write like a writer.

So next time I'm going to touch on some non-facebook ways to draw a following (back to facebook).

Until then...good luck and keep writing.

Visit my page early and often for prizes, wiring samples and more.

Creating a following BEFORE your novel is published? part IV

Following up on part III...the ad I placed on facebook is still running.  According to the stats I've gotten 19 clicks and 13 connections meaning out of the 19 who actually clicked on the ad, 13 ended up liking my page.


So, is this method effective?  I'd say so.  Especially considering I've spent a hair under $4.00 for the ad so far.  But, I don't plan on using facebook ads alone to generate a following and neither should you.  I also can't afford to run the ad until I reach the number I'm shooting for (1000).  So, what's left?

Tons of stuff, actually.  Have you considered making a video trailer for your novel?  Increase your exposure by drawing youtube viewers to your page! I went as far as making a 'teaser' trailer with text and some basic effects and am working on a full-length trailer with actors (volunteers of course).  That being said, I have an affinity for filmmaking and understand that not every writer does but if you're writing fiction, you have creativity and imagination.



This is what I came up with.  Simple text with cool sound and effects (I think anyway).  If effective, your trailer should spark the interest of potential readers enough to want to follow your page.  HD video cameras are insanely cheap right now and it is amazing what one can do with a simple editing program.  If you have the wherewithal , I highly suggest giving it a shot.

Create a storyboard. What is a storyboard, you ask?  Basically a series of images you'd like to see in your trailer.  I draw like a four-year-old. I'm okay with that.  The purpose isn't to be pretty, it is simply to give you a solid projection of how you want your trailer to look. Below I'll paste a video on storyboarding if you're interested.  You can get blank templates for storyboarding here.  When you go to shoot your trailer, the storyboard will direct the angles of the shots and help make the entire process much smoother.   When you have your volunteer actors all gathered around you waiting to do something, winging it generally produces bad film. If you know what angles you want, where you want the actors to be in relation to the camera etc. BEFORE you're on location with everyone, things go much smoother.  Trust me. Okay, I'm digressing.

Video trailers are great tools to get people interested in your novel (potential publishers like them as well).  When you're done, stroll on over to your potential agent or publisher's page and post a link to your trailer.  Why not?

Here is the storyboarding video.  I'll be the first to admit it is a bit on the slow side...but it helps.



Next time we will talk about getting your Author Page exposure within facebook with your target readers for FREE!

Just a reminder, I am implementing this for myself as I go, sometimes just before I write about it.  If something doesn't work or you have suggestions that I haven't mentioned, feel free to comment.

Until next time, visit me, tell your friends to tell their friend's friends and I'll be sure to share the love.

Oh, and for a laugh, here is a funny video I made.  I think all Star Wars fans need to get at least one of these out of their systems before they die.



RIP Steve Jobs

A new entry from the Lost Journal! (a creative outlet for yours truly...nothing more)

Open publication - Free publishing - More akil

Creating a following BEFORE your novel is ever published? part II

Step #1, you need to get your name out there in the social media circles. If you don't have a facebook profile, make one. Once you have a profile, make a page. The page is where the magic will happen. Make sure you tell your friends early and often to 'like' your page. This is where I (for lack of a better suggestion) will keep a tally of my following as we go. The number of 'likes' will correspond to the number of people who are following my progress and therefore (hopefully and in most cases) buy my book when it is released.

The more eye catching your facebook page, the better. There are tons of websites out there that tell you how to do it yourself and also tons of websites that want to do it for you(for a fee). You can also specify where you want new visitors to go when they arrive. This is called the landing page. This is your chance to get them hooked. I am currently using Pagemodo, which is free and seems to work easily.  The interface is user friendly.

Now, you want to drive as much traffic to your page as possible.  The first, easiest and cheapest way is to post often on your profile page and entice your friends to take a look at your author page. Make sure to tell them to 'like' it.  If you have friends with websites, ask them if they'll link your page in their site.  The more external links the better.  Here is my link, which will hopefully drive some of you over to my page. Remind your friends that your author page is out there and needs your help! ...I better do this now!

Unfortunately, I'm running out of time right now.  I'd still like to cover driving more traffic to your page and driving the right kind of traffic to your page...until then.

J. R. Wagner

Creating a following BEFORE your novel is ever published?

Yes, that's right. The literary market these days is so unstable, uncertain and uncomfortable with taking risks on authors (especially first time published authors) that, with each passing day it becomes more and more difficult to find an agent or publisher who will even look at your manuscript.
Is it the end for all of us first-time authors? What can we do? The answer comes in three words. Build a following.
An agent or publisher picks up your query letter, glances it over, likes what she sees but your genre is too risky right now. She's had dozens of submissions (and rejected them all) in this genre, some of which she's liked but it just isn't worth the risk to take on a new author when she isn't confident the book will sell. Then she sees something at the bottom of the query letter that changes her mind.
Between my blog and my facebook page, I've managed to generate over 1000 followers.
In her mind that's 1000 book sales, which isn't a bad run for a first time author in the fiction market. What if that number were 2000 or 5000 or 10,000? Think she'd be interested then?
It's a new world for writers. Follow along with me as I research and implement the fruits of my research. Through my experimentations, I hope to be able to pave the way for all new writers looking for a path to publication. Let us begin...