Turning fiction into a business opportunity

[joanna]

Thought I really need to stop hijacking other people's threads for thinking out loud. So here goes my attempt at some public accountability.

I really like the term Writer-Publisher. It better reflects my work as well as my future goals than something like writer (definitely not aspiring ), or self-publisher. Here's a summary of my current status:

• 7 books published
• 3 pen names (2 fiction, 1 non fiction)
• several books in the works (fiction and non-fiction)

Quick background

I'm web developer/designer turned book cover designer these days. I started publishing about two years ago with non-fiction. Decided to jump onto fiction even before half the Warrior Forum was selling WSOs about it. Though I have to admit that was more of a passion based decision than something I intended to quickly turn into a regular income.

Although I'm not a native speaker, my education was in EFL. Still, speaking a language and being able to tell compelling stories isn't quite the same thing. Hence I spent a lot of the last two years learning a lot about the technical side of writing and storytelling.

My goal

I would like to achieve the following:
1) Establish a small, niche focused publishing house called "Wing & Fang" (with my love for fantasy and paranormal you can probably guess what the focus would be )
2) Improve my book income, so that I can drop my "day job"* and focus the time gained by that on writing and 3)
3) Develop the set of tools for writers I've been planning for over a year

*OK, I'll admit, I don't really have a day job per se. But the stuff that currently pays the bills takes more time than I'd like it to, and until I can replace that income, ideally with 2) & 3) then ell, I'm stuck with it.

With that in mind you can expect progress updates on not just strictly writing, as I'm trying to buckle up and start getting things done.

My Books

When it comes to pen names I'm not shy about revealing my main one, if anyone wants to check out the books you can look here for WIPs (working on The Hunt now), and links to published books are on my site.



I'm considering redoing the fantasy covers, since I want something more obviously "epic fantasy". These don't seem to get much attention (though I do have a certain sentiment for these...). We'll see how that goes (got someone working on the illustrations soon).

Stuff I Use

I thought I'll include a handy list of tools:

• Scrivener (PC) - use it for writing and planning (the note cards are fun to use)
• MS Word - I find it works great as a final draft revision, tend to pick up more staff than Scrivener's spell-check, and the change of layout helps your brain find problems you might have overlooked before. Since you can use it to submit to Kindle and Smashwords likes a .doc it's a nice format to keep the final manuscript in and use it as base for conversions.
• Calibre - took me a while to get a hang of this, but it will give you all the formats you need (and more) to submit to sites like Kobo (direct epub), AllRomance (epub, mobi, lit, etc.) and what else you might need. Though pdf I do directly from MS Word (it looks nicer, Calibre for me is a pain to even get a decent looking pdf, they all feel clunky).
• Sigil - Great tool if you want to mess with epubs directly. Autmates some of the stuff you'd have to do by hand if using plain html.
• http://salesrankexpress.com/ - Go here to check for adult filter on Amazon.
• DragonNaturallySpeaking (DNS) - dictation software, still trying to get used to this one. The recognition is really good, I just have to overcome the awkwardness of talking out loud.
• Dropbox / SkyDrive / GoogleDrive / etc. - if you don't backup your files, it will come to bite you in the *** sooner or later. Better to lose a few words than half your manuscript if say you hard drive fails completely...
• I'll add more if I think of something or find something else...

I do consider myself lucky in the sense, that I can do a lot of the work involved in publishing books myself at at least a decent level: covers, formatting, websites, promo materials, etc. I still do hire an editor though.


What I Struggle With

There's quite a few things I need to improve on, some I'm happy to work on; others, I really wish there was a magic button for...

• Increase word count - seems I'm averaging about 500/h which isn't great, also need to get to more than 1k words per days
• Marketing - *gasp* really not my thing...
• Defining audience and genre - this is mainly for the pen name above, my other books are pretty well defined (commercial work does that for you I guess). But for this one every time I think I finally know what these are, it just, hmm doesn't quite work.
• Motivation - we all probably have those days, when you look at the manuscript and want to throw it out the window...
• Sales copy - I think my blurbs are getting better, but still need improvement in this area
• Procrastination & time management - sometime's there's too many cute cat pics, other times I overbook myself and after client work there's no time for writing
• Managing the mailing list - I never grew it much, and not really sure what to do with it at the moment for those ten people on it...

I haven't joined NaNoWriMo this year for a few reasons, but still going for a 50k+ word count - just more of a collective across a variety of writing projects (blogs, fiction, etc.). OK, I think that'll do for an intro. Congratulations to anyone who read this far

 

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[joanna]

Couldn't resist doing the cover now that the story is with the editor, even if it goes into the anthology first. Still not 100% set on the title though.

Not much other progress to report. Ghostwriting is nearly done, should have the whole story finished this week or with editing possibly early next week. Might try to squeeze in some outlining between client work, just to see if it helps me focus things.

 

[joanna]

UPDATE: First of all I should really update more often. Have been a bit overwhelmed with all the stuff on my plate recently.

Writing

The Hunt is now on 39k. I was planning for 45-50k, but might end up with more. I'm in that mood now where it all seems boring, uninspired and deserves trashing, so just plugging through.

I've started on the second ghostwriting book for the same client. Also had a short break in writing for a week, when I did an edit for him of a third book.

Publishing

Still waiting for the anthology to be published. But in the meantime I entered the cover I did for the story into a competition. So far I made it to round 2! If you have a few moments to spare I'd appreciate any extra votes on no.9 here: http://www.ultimatefantasybooks.com/best-book-cover-2014.php

I got back the illustration for the new cover for The Hunt, as well as a new logo for the series. Need to combine the two and prepare the new cover.

Starting a small publishing company, not just for my own books has been on my mind for a while (long while...). Unfortunately, as some other progress threads here show that requires capital, and I was going to wait till I gather some before jumping on that bandwagon. That, and possibly hone the process on my own books. But... as it usually happens in life, an opportunity presented itself, so I went for it.

A friend of mine had a book that I liked and that fits my publishing company theme (cross genre, but focused on dragons, vampires, warewolves, etc.). He's focused on his novel, and complained about all the "publishy" things around releasing the other book. So we'll see how that works out.

Things I've learned - Pinterest

Since the last update I had a bit of an epiphany on how to use Pinterest as an author. Might not be something revolutionary for some people but something clicked in my mind when I started to think of it in terms of mood-boards for individual books, rather than a place for collecting themed images. From: trying to post, say dragons, at regular intervals, I focused on giving the boards a purpose, something a reader could find useful in relation to my books. Like things that represent or inspired scenes, characters in each specific book.

 

[joanna]

@COSenior, @HeldforRansom, no offence taken. I wouldn't suggest doing everything at once if you haven't been doing it before. If you improve one aspect at a time to the point it becomes semi-automatic, then might be a good idea to try to fix the next thing. Certain genres are more tolerant to these imperfections. Thought verbs can be a fun challenge, but as everything still have a place in writing.

For me part of the frustration is vocabulary too, so I find it easier to do a sloppy, telly first draft and then find the right words during the editing. Otherwise I get stuck in a translator-dictionary-thesaurus hell for hours. Also just to be clear, I don't aspire to any literary awards

On a side note just got the final version of The Survivor (cover will need adjusting) from the editor and submitted it to the anthology. Now to finish the ghostwriting project...

 

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[joanna]

My cover made it to round two, but unfortunately not round three Ah well, there's always other competitions (might look some up once I'm less busy).

Writing:
Making good progress on the ghostwriting project. Thinking about The Hunt, but no time for this one likely for the next two weeks.

Publishing:
After creating a contract for my first publishing acquisition (I so hate dealing with formalities like that...) I'm now going over the draft and leaving comments for the author.

Design:
Spurred by a few comments on FB I finally got my **** together and put up the first of the cover design templates. I've been sitting on these materials for a while and kept finding excuses not to put them up - not good enough, not pretty enough, no sales copy, no this no that... First the starter cover template, and in the coming weeks looking to package the themed templates and a few other bits and bobs.

* Starter Cover Template *

Need to work more on my sales copy. Any tips would be much appreciated.

Process:
I spent quite a bit of time this week organising and planning. Although I'd like to focus completely on the publishing business (writing and publishing) unfortunately I have a few other things on my plate that I need to either automate/outsource or complete so I can move on. I already released a few domains I've been hoarding over the years. I've also prepared a weekly plan of attack, that should keep me focused on getting things done.

 

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[joanna]

@joanna what is your reason for using a pen name for non fiction? I'm wondering if using your real name or pen name for non fiction would be better depending on the topics.

Sort of similar to why I ended up using a pen name for the fiction books - branding. I use my full name for coding/design work, and any books in that area will be published under that name. If you have experience that adds klout to your books, it makes sense to go for your real name.

The current non-fiction books I have were in a niche were using my name wouldn't really make a difference. A pen name also makes it easier to sell the business as a whole if I ever decided to do that.

In general, use a pen name in non-fiction if you want some sort of anonymity and/or you want to distance yourself from the brand. Also a bit like in fiction, certain genres might react better to a certain personality types. It doesn't necessarily have to mean you need to be a fake, but just be yourself within that facet of your personality. I guess you could think of it the same way actors or singers have stage names.

Without knowing more details about your situation generic advice only goes so far

 

[joanna]

Quick update.

3k into the parrot story. Trying to deal with wedding organisation, a week long renovations project that has me move out of the house till it's done and running other parts of the business doesn't leave much writing time. Hope to catch up a bit while the painting is going on next week.

Finally got around to re-doing the cover for the next book in the Dragon series (had the new logo and illustration done months ago...).

 

[joanna]

Thanks for chiming in. I think sometimes I have a title (or at least a working one) come to me early, other times the working title is so lame that I definitely need more work in that department. Like, one of the prequels so far is just referred to by the name of the main character, and given that's "Twee Yra Antra" I can't really stick with it

I kind of like DWS's idea of doing "half-titles" as calls them, though I think that works better as an inspiration for a story, rather than if you already have something brewing in your head / started writing a story.

On the topic of titles I've been pretty set on "The Hunt" for the next book, but today my sis suggested changing it to "Feral". The new cover will have a feral child on it, so maybe it will suit better?

Finally got started on the short for the anthology. Recording my progress, and process, as I go along. I thought it might be fun to share those details - though I have to say trying to record the screen while I type made me extremely self-conscious (just reminds me how maaaany typos I make as I go).

Wrote nearly 700 words in an hour for that project. Quite surprised. Hope I can keep that speed since it's due by the end of the month, and we all know what a time-sink holidays can be

Ghostwriting project moving forward too.

 

[joanna]

Thanks for the kind words @seamles. I didn't have much progress recently so been quiet, mostly doing ghostwriting, editing and covers, so haven't had time to write my own stuff. Got a few publishing related things to be done soon, but have to keep my head down to get everything in place.

Recently I did a live streaming of a cover design, so once I process the 3h of raw footage into something more manageable with design tips and commentary, I'll make that a mini-product.

The anthology has been out for a while, but haven't seen sales being affected by it. So going to publish the story as a standalone soon. Looking to use that as an example for a "publishing process" video.

A few things popped up recently that completely messed up my schedule, but slowly recovering. So hoping for a productive week.

 

[joanna]

So... it's been a while.

*Ghostwriting*

Finally finished the ghostwriting book. The two books were an interesting experience. Sort of like my two years as a teacher. After the first year I thought it was great and maybe it could be an interesting career choice. Then the second year made me thoroughly revise that choice... A class of primary school children from hell for a year can do that to you My ghostwriting experience has been similar in the sense that the second book did force me to look long and hard at the time cost involved. I thought I can just let things flow and follow a given outline. Unfortunately I can't help but try and fix things, and inject logic and make things believable. Argh, which leads to a lot of time wasted on analysis, and the word count being a bit unpredictable (and I seem to have trouble writing short). Although my current client is very understanding the general expectation is to write to a given count, or at least close to it (not around 8-10k turning into 28k... because argh, damn transition scenes).

After a bit of deliberation I decided that my time will be better spent on other things like design and writer tools, and devote writing time to only my own work.

*Publishing*

I've mentioned before I have acquired my first author. Long time without updates... The book is now published:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00KSNGAV2/?tag=tff-amazonparser-20
It's a Twilight parody vampire adventure story. I'm looking for reviews ( as always ) so if there's any takers it's discounted at the moment.

*Design*

I've actually kept to the weekly schedule with me Live Design session (except this and next week since I'm on holiday). It's nice to have some external pressure, even if no one does show up live At the same time one of the Live Design Pre-mades already sold, so it's quite a fun thing to do.

Doing these session also made me realize how much time the covers take. With 3h+ for a pre-made, and often a lot more for a client, as well as multiple stock images per cover I decided to up my prices. I think I'm also starting to specialize in a certain look (photomanipulation heavy) which has its benefits, but again the downside is more time taken. I'll keep the cheaper price for the simpler pre-mades, but more complex ones will now be more expensive.

*Writing*

As part of relaxing on holiday I want to get started on the short story about a soul devouring parrot I did the cover for this (and the sequel) some time ago:

Well, short-story *caugh*, will see about that.

 

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[jimr]

How about getting some of your covers turned into posters and sign them for the first ten fans that reply to your email?

 

[Chris R]

That's a pretty neat idea. Even if not for the fans, I'd love to have some of my cover art up in my office. Any idea where to get stuff like this done?

I can. PM if interested. I also can manufacture custom bookmarks to any shape with any desired printing and marketing printed on it.


If you wanted custom bookmarks that you mailed to everybody who purchased from you shaped like your avatar, I can do that. I can even cut the "t" out, put creases in it, cut other images out of it. And do it for pennies on the dollar without waste!

 

[Mark Anthony Le]

So, this leads to my question for today. How do people come up with good titles? And do you do it before or after you write your story (or in the middle)?

I usually try to have my title and description already done before I even start on the outline. I usually get a few good ideas and from there I tinker with what I feel best describes what I want to write about the most.

It's either that or if you want a very calculated approach and aren't afraid to spend some $$ with it, you could go the Split A/B route with Google Adwords where you come up with a select few titles you're interested in using and putting it up as a headline in the payperclick ad. The one who gets the most clicks should be continously tested even further with another A/B test until it yields a higher click through rate of atleast 50.

BUT that just takes way too long and takes up way too much finances to get a 'title' going since Amazon sales doesn't just relate to Titles but cover and description as well.

Just my take

 

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[joanna]

Here's the blurb so far:
"An orphaned dragon girl haunted by her past and stalked by something sinister hiding in the forest struggles to survive and find her way home. But lack of food and shelter are the least of this four-year-old’s worries when the creature made of wilderness gets a taste for her blood. Can she survive against the odds in a place where a strange voice is her only ally."

It's a bit of a survival story with the theme of retaining humanity. "The Hunt" was a bit of a play here (but maybe as usual I'm being too subtle) since when the book starts she is hunted by people, and later on by the creatures, while by the end she is the one doing the hunting.

The idea to record progress? I've seen a few people doing an "over the shoulder" type of thing before, and I thought I might give it a go. Even if just to document things for myself. It does force you to be a bit more clear why you are doing certain things and to be more structured.

 

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[joanna]

Update time.

I've been keeping a diary of my progress on the short story. The numbers aren't ground shaking - 3k done, but have been slowly adding to the word count despite Christmas preparations: cooking, shopping, gift wrapping, cleaning, etc. I'm about half way through and going to do a bit more writing tonight. I've got nearly 4h+ of car travel this week and I so wish I could read/write in the car (I'm not driving, but my body deals with motion sickness by falling asleep).

Most of my work time has been spent on ghostwriting. On the plus side I'm almost finished with that story. Yay. And the client already hinted he'll want me to write the next book so that's good too. My cashflow at the moment stinks

My friend, who's the co-author of the world my Dragons Reborn books are set in and my beta reader gave my main character this song for Christmas. That was so sweet. At least someone cheers for the Empress ha ha ha

Alpines – Empire (https://embed.spotify.com/?uri=spotify:track:7p2uEp8UZ0MU6FMX90vrRH)

And on that note I'd like to wish everyone Happy Holidays/Merry Christmas and an amazing 2014!

 

[joanna]

Phew. That was hard - just finished the short story for the anthology last week. The problem? At about 90% I realized my intended ending would require several more scenes and since this was a submission I really could not exceed the 6k limit. Found an alternative ending that worked and finished at 7k. Lovely. *sigh* And usually when editing my word count goes up, not down, as I get rid of the tell and replace it with show...

First two rounds of editing - I chopped off 400 words. At that point I realized I needed something more drastic. So out went some unnecessary details - bracelet had a tiny screen? Not any more. Wanted to know what they provided the MC at her fancy house? Tough luck (I'm still mourning the ornate cutlery and a made up wooly animal...). And the ending is still kind of abrupt, but not much I can do about that. 50% of the time I hated having to cut-out the words. The other 50% was just tightening prose, which doesn't hurt as much. I've actually compared the doc I exported from Scrivener (6583) with the current version (6009) - lots of red there.

The deadline was 1st Jan, so there was definitely a lot of pressure. And then the moment I finished the edits an extension was introduced. Ha ha ha, typical. But that gives me time to maybe get a second pair of eyes on it before submission. I so need to get a group of betas organised...

Other than working on the short, I've taken a bit of a break over Christmas, so not much progress on anything else (lots of family time instead). Back to serious work from Monday.

 

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[joanna]

I wondered if you go ahead and tell in the flow of the story and then go back to fix it? Or is it that you don't realize you're telling until you edit?

A mix of both I would say. I would like to think I've gotten better at doing more show straight away, but still nowhere near the level I'd like. I definitely did get better at spotting it during editing hough. While I'm saying this I should mention that telling is still a valid storyteller tool, so not all of it has to go, but you want to know when you're using it deliberately vs. just slipping into it.

I find that often if I'm not sure where things are going I'll let myself be really sloppy just to keep the writing going (on those days when you literally have no idea what the next sentence should be). It does take some of the pressure off and helps me get through rough points. Sometimes I get too caught up in details (What colour should that dress be? Obviously the story can't move on without knowing the MC's shoe size, etc. ).

Usually during editing I look out for is/was, excessive pronouns and words describing emotions (if you have the word count for it these usually benefit from being converted into "observations" vs. statements), words like saw, felt, sensed, thought verbs (http://litreactor.com/essays/chuck-palahniuk/nuts-and-bolts-“thought”-verbs) and so on.

 

[joanna]

I love the cover.

Thank you

@COSenior Feel free to goof around as much as you like Also to be honest, with your fast output you're likely to see success sooner. I should probably add that I'm a lot less fussed about my writing when it comes to the erotica stuff that's done for fun-and-money. But with the dragons - I weigh every word Well, dragons and other JCH stuff.

 

[COSenior]

Ah, but I'm cheating...finalized my deal to take over an established pen name and someone else will be doing what I consider the drudge work of marketing, etc.

I can't wait to read your dragon books; trying to discipline myself to read and review what I've already bought before I get more. Vampires, not so much, but I love dragon lore.

 

[joanna]

I know what you mean about reading time and discipline... Must... not... add... more... books... to reading list. I'm definitely not into sparkling vampires either. Made mine with sci-fi lore. Dragon lore - well I've got plenty of lore, though it's taking a while to put it all on paper without infodumping a reader to death. One of the reviewers called me out on being Lost-like with the open threads

Oh, I've got a question about the marketing then. Did you hire a company, a freelancer, or did that come with the penname deal? I'd like to have someone else deal with marketing, but not sure I could afford it.

 

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[joanna]

Update time. Last week finished the ghostwriting project, did edits for it this week. I think that drained me a bit, since I did no other writing last week. Though I did manage to take a first stab at plotting a new story. Also did a similar mind map outline for a non-fiction book I'm looking to maybe co-author with my sis.

I need to finish the stories that I've started though, especially The Hunt, and I seem to be stuck on it for some reason. Trying to do some idea brainstorming to get back on track with it.

Looks like the anthology won't be released as soon as I thought. Slightly disappointed as I did want to get that story published soon(ish).

Otherwise I spent a lot of the week getting up to speed with nodeJS since I will slowly be moving my main income project to that, as well as seriously starting work on PlotInMotion this year (writer/publisher tools).

Observations:
One thing about the ghostwriting that was an interesting experience, was writing to a more detailed plot. I'm wondering if my clinging to pantser ways is more of a psychological thing about wanting the books to still be considered "art" and about the idealistic notions about what a writer does versus reality. Reality which I'm fully aware of, but maybe a bit in denial as my silly mind keeps going back to the craft vs. art debate.

 

[COSenior]

I'm wondering if my clinging to pantser ways is more of a psychological thing about wanting the books to still be considered "art" and about the idealistic notions about what a writer does versus reality. Reality which I'm fully aware of, but maybe a bit in denial as my silly mind keeps going back to the craft vs. art debate.

Nothing wrong with that. Some of us here made a considered decision that self-publishing was a viable road to financial freedom, never having considered writing as a career before. Others, myself included, always dreamed of writing, but didn't see a pathway to success until self-publishing became a phenomenon. Even though I want my writing to be commercial and to sell well, somewhere in the back of my mind I wonder if I could ever write a literary novel that would be critically acclaimed. In my opinion, it isn't as much about whether you plot it carefully or write it organically, it's about the heart you put into it, and the desire to keep writing until the literary jewel reveals itself.

 

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[COSenior]

Design:
Spurred by a few comments on FB I finally got my **** together and put up the first of the cover design templates. I've been sitting on these materials for a while and kept finding excuses not to put them up - not good enough, not pretty enough, no sales copy, no this no that... First the starter cover template, and in the coming weeks looking to package the themed templates and a few other bits and bobs.
* Starter Cover Template *
Need to work more on my sales copy. Any tips would be much appreciated.

Cool! Wish I'd had this when I started. I seem to have no time for anything besides writing these days, but if I ever do go back to designing my own covers, it would sure come in handy.

Some of your copy uses industry jargon that not everyone would understand, though I think I could make guesses from context. Maybe you should offer a guide with it, or if you already send instructions (maybe that'd what the BONUS is?) it would be helpful to know in the sales copy. Why keep it a secret?

Also, are there different fonts included? I'd be interested to know that before buying, too.

Finally, it looks like there's information in the image, but I can't read it, even when I increase the screen font size.

Oops, one more thing. Will the license spell out whether people can use your templates commercially, i.e., can they create covers to sell, either pre-made or custom?

That's all I've got...hope it helps.

 

[joanna]

Thanks for all the comment COSenior!

I re-wrote some of the copy. Tried to put benefit over feature (being a developer I really suck at that ) and pushed most of the jargon into "side notes" for those who care. Sometimes it's hard to spot what is and what isn't jargon when you talk shop all day

Made the bonus clear, guess I was trying to be clever there with some mystery Well, that backfired.

The legal note for the product among other things reads:

"Reproduction of any elements of this pack without permission is prohibited. You are granted permission to use this pack for both commercial and personal purposes; however this does not include resale right to any elements of the pack."

My intention is to grant the right to create both personal and commercial covers, but not white label rights to the template as such. Any advise on the wording?

No fonts That's part of the design. But one of the planned upgrades to this product will be a mini font guide - as in where to get them and what licences to look out for. All part of a bigger DIY covers book/guide I've been working/procrastinating on for months now

 

[joanna]

Update time!

OK, maybe there should be a bit less excitement there

*Designy stuff*

https://new.livestream.com/accounts/7886146

Trying to get over my fear of public speaking and doing videos I started to do the pre-mades live. I've planned to do one a week for months, but there was always something popping up. So I decided to get some accountability in place. Even if no one comes, the event is set and I have to get that cover done, no excuses.

*Writing*

Finally got some writing done on The Hunt. Added about 2-3k (haven't been tracking this well).

Doing quite a bit of editing/ghostwriting - that kept me busy. Got an offer to possibly become a co-author of some of the ghostwriting stuff, so still have to make a decision on that.

*Publishing*

I have my first author for the publishing company (who is not me that is ) so it's an interesting journey getting all that ready for publication. Considering maybe getting more authors via outsourcing, but the costs are a bit prohibitive.

Trying to be extra productive this week. So maybe will have some progress to report on Monday.

 

[COSenior]

There seems to be a benefit to releasing on a short cycle. So I thought two pen name might be more manageable in terms of that cycle than three. How many pen names do you guys have and how often do you release under each? Or do you use one, do a series, and then move to another pen name with a new niche?

Thought I'd answer this question, then move on to some observations. Since you've said you're writing in erotica, I'll echo what HfR and others have said, and what my experience has borne out. With a small catalog, your sales drop off significantly in a short period of time, so yes, a short publication schedule is probably a good idea at least until you have significant numbers of titles up. I'm thinking at least 20. I'm now trying to publish a 20k+ novella every two to three weeks. I have a similar time crunch to yours because I write for a client 20 hours a week right now, soon to be 30. At the moment, I have one pen name. If and when I add another will depend on the agreements that I reach with my client in the future for more work. I had two in mind, but recent developments may mean I take on a third and set my original one on the back burner for a while.

Now, for writing speed. I know you have seen me state my production rate, but let me say that it has been only recently that it has taken off like that. I probably did about the same as you when I started. Part of what has increased it is the increased typing speed and accuracy gained from practice, and part I attribute to the fact that I now do a detailed scene map, using the word count from a beat sheet as targets. I no longer have to stop typing to visualize the next scene...I just check the scene map. So, don't worry. As Santa has said, that's good production, and based on my experience, I'll bet it gets even better.

 

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[COSenior]

Have been toying with an idea to maybe do an autoresponder sequence with things like free wallpapers, shorts, etc. Any other ideas what you could give away to your fans?

I see a lot of indie romance writers ordering tiny, charm-sized replicas of their book covers, and making bookmarks with them. Not only a cool piece of swag for the fan, but the fact that the author actually made it with her own hands I'm sure would be something they'd value. On the other hand, that's not writing, which is why I haven't done it yet. I like the other ideas you've been given, but cheapskate that I am, I'd go with the things you can make quickly on your own, like the wallpaper or other graphics, and free short stories on a regular basis. I've also seen people offer deleted scenes, sneak peeks at works in progress, early cover reveals and other things that let fans feel like INSIDERS without costing much. Another idea I saw was to do character development on Pinterest and invite fans to follow you there. Understand, I haven't implemented ANY of this yet. Would be eager to hear what you find is well-received.

 

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[joanna]

Update time. Well, not much to report on. Feel like such a flake. Final numbers for my fake NaNoWriMo experiment. http://www.dreamdevourer.com/blog/fanowrimo-update-5/

If the last week of November was bad, then first week of December is going even worse. Focusing on the ghostwriting and a few covers for clients, but time has somehow slipped through my fingers. It doesn't help that while trying to experiment with alternative sleeping patterns I flipped my waking time. Feels weird to sleep at night again. Somehow I'm really unproductive during the day.

On a more positive note looks like the illustrator will soon start on the first of my covers (having the fantasy ones redone). Still not sure what to do with the newsletter so sitting on that till I have a bit more time / actual stuff to update on.

 

[COSenior]

Your point in the blog post about 'losing' words in replies and time in reading is something I've thought about. It seems I can't prevent myself from weighing in on any subject that catches my interest. Never thought of tracking that writing, though. Don't beat yourself up too badly; it seems to me that you're doing very well production-wise considering you put your clients first. Get enough sleep, whatever you do and whenever you get it--sleep deprivation causes all sorts of problems that no one needs.

 

[COSenior]

So, this leads to my question for today. How do people come up with good titles? And do you do it before or after you write your story (or in the middle)?

Great question, and I'll be watching for the answers. I usually have a working title that describes the theme of the story, but they're seldom catchy. Most of the time, I come up with the final title after the story is finished, but I have no idea whether my titles are good or not. Not enough sales to make a judgment on whether it's the covers or the titles that's holding me back. One thing I have done, though, is take note of the trends in titles in my genre. Right now, there are a lot of gerunds being thrown around. "Falling Into" and "Crashing Into" seem to be the most common. The question is, have the authors piggybacked on success, or branded themselves as copycats? Inquiring minds want to know.