Prepping MileHiCon and Books!

It’s MileHiCon this weekend! They gave me an unprecedented five panels this year, though I had to drop one so I could take the larger, mobile one to the 20-lb Critter Crunch. I may have already told you guys this. There’s been a lot going on lately.

(The Amazon issues are mostly fixed, except reviews still aren’t showing up, alas.)

The ones I still have on my docket are:

• Welcome to Night Vale Reader’s Theater
• Flash Fiction Chopped
• Seelie, Unseelie, and Beyond
• Beyond the 3 Laws of Robotics

Once again, kind of a random selection of topics (and no moderation of any editing panels, if there are any). The Night Vale one is especially random, especially because it’s about four hours after the time limit I gave on panels, but I’m going to do it anyway because I love Night Vale and I also love doing Reader’s Theater.

I’m going to have to look at the panel descriptions and do some research on the rest, which is par for the course at this point. At least I am familiar with flash fiction, fae, and the 3 Laws of Robotics (I read a LOT of Asimov as a kid), so anything will be better than the memory one I was on last year where I had no business being.

I’m pondering doing either excerpts or bookmarks for the con, but seeing how we’re three days out, excerpts are looking a little better. Thinking about printing them out with a QR code on the back that links to the Hallowed Hill sales page. Also need to set up a Venmo account. But I did already send in my sales permits and order books, so I suspect I’m ahead of where I normally am.

Speaking of which:

Books!

The color’s a little off in the pictures, but I got my copies of Hallowed Hill to sell at the con, and they are gorgeous. This is definitely the prettiest of my books.

I’m excited for the Con! I always have a nice time catching up (both with friends and on work that it’s hard to focus on around day-to-day responsibilities–for example, I outlined a ghost story weeks ago that I’ve yet to get around to writing), and it’s relaxing to have the weekend to myself to occasionally sell things or do panels but otherwise just chill and take everything in.

Fingers crossed that everything gets done! It normally does, albeit somewhat last minute. I should be back on Thursday or Friday pre-con, though, so I’ll see you then, squiders!

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T -10 Days

Well, squiders, we’re about 10 days out from Hallowed Hill‘s release.

And I am EXHAUSTED.

There’s been so much to do. So much to coordinate. So much to check.

So far I’ve:

• Finalized the book draft
• Done all necessary book formats (this is fun, I love book formatting)
• Made various versions of the cover (including a wraparound for print form)
• Gotten the ebook pre-order live on all platforms
• Updated aspects of my website
• Chosen an excerpt and had it put up on the Turtleduck Press website
• Fought with Goodreads (I’m not the default Kit Campbell so all my books always go on the other profile)
• (I asked if I could be the default since the other Kit Campbell hasn’t published in over a decade and I have new stuff come out fairly regularly, and the answer was no)
• Emailed a couple dozen reviewers (and have been sending out review copies as they get back to me)
• Set up some email newsletters
• Set up some promotions
• Sent announcements to various groups

I still have some promotions I need to do, and I need to finalize some print stuff (Amazon is putting in random blank pages, so I need to go poke that a bit), and a couple more things for release day.

Ye gods.

I think it’s going pretty well, though! Things are in good shape, and the book’s rankings are already looking pretty decent. (Last I checked, it was #25 in Teen & Young Adult Ghost Stories.)

But I’m definitely starting to feel a little burnt out.

The last few days, I tried to record my SkillShare class, as a break from marketing and release work, but Tuesday my computer super crashed, and yesterday no matter what microphone I used, I got a low hum that I couldn’t get rid of. So in the end that was more stress instead of being a respite. Yay.

On top of the release stuff, all the MileHiCon stuff came out this week–panel assignments, programming, signing tables, etc. I love MileHiCon! But having all that in the middle of the release stuff has been really overwhelming. And they put me on FIVE PANELS this year. I’m normally on 2 or 3. And unfortunately I can’t do one of them because it overlaps the Critter Crunch and the bigger, mobile one isn’t allowed to be on his own for another year. (It was about DINOSAURS. I am distraught.)

Still, it’s only another week and a half, and then things will calm down a bit, I think. Or at least be less stress, fingers crossed.

I really appreciate your guys’ support through this.

I’m starting to think about what to do after the book is out. Take a week off and play video games, maybe. Except I’ll need to get going on MileHiCon stuff–prep for panels, make sure I have books to sell, get a new card reader that actually works, etc. And I’ll need to probably do some class work, assuming I can ever get that hum to go away.

But, maybe, I can finally get back to Book 1. That would be amazing. Especially if we start getting somewhere, since all the momentum we had got eaten when I had to shift gears for the novella.

Right now, though, I mostly just want to sleep.

How are you, squiders? How are you destressing these days?

Midjourney and a Giveaway

Good afternoon, squiders,

If you’ve been about the Internet lately, you’ve probably seen something about AI-generated images. I came across Midjourney on one of my writing Discords and have been playing with it in conjunction with my Gothic horror novella which is being released on Oct 1.

It’s interesting, because it’s so hit or miss on whether or not it generates anything useful off your prompts. Like, I got a haunted mansion surrounded by trees that I liked almost immediately, but getting a floating ghost girl has been quite hard, despite trying several iterations.

This is the best I’ve gotten:

Not quite what I’m going for, and this is several iterations and takes on trying to get the appropriate image. Ah well.

It is creepy, though. I like creepy.

I haven’t spent too much time playing with it, because it is a distraction, and there are other things to be done to get the book ready for launch. Like writing my book description, which continues to go poorly. I finally scraped together a version that I felt was worth getting feedback on, and everyone hated it, so there we are.

Also, I forgot that age ranges were a thing. Someone asked if the story was middle grade or young adult, and I’ve just been operating under Gothic Horror, but I suppose it could be considered young adult based on the age of the protagonist, so now it’s back to market research to see if YA Gothic Horror is a thing and, if so, how people are marketing for it.

Yay.

Anyway, have you played with Midjourney or other AI-image generators, and did you like them, or have any tips for getting the images you want?

In other news, Hidden Worlds is including in Prolific Works’ Doorway and Portals bundle, which means you can get a free copy starting tomorrow (Aug 17th) through Sept 7th. Which you should totally do.

See you on Thursday!

WriYe and Social Media

Catching up, catching up, lalalalala, where is the month going?

Do you use social media for your writing life?

No.

I mean, I do vaguely. When I blog, it copies the link to my Twitter and my Tumblr. But that’s literally about it. I don’t Facebook, I don’t Instagram, I don’t actually interact with anyone. Social media is one of those things that the marketing books say you should be doing, but I find it really unnatural.

I did try to do it more, back in the day–schedule posts, keep up with mentions, etc. Used HootSuite, which is a nice program. But there’s only so many hours in the day, and I don’t have enough or enough brain power to care most of the time.

Are you happy with the way you’re using social media in regards to your writing?

Hm. Part of me wants to say no–that I know I’m not utilizing social media like I’m supposed to, that perhaps all that’s standing in the way of me and breakout success is the number of times I post on Twitter.

But I really don’t care. Did using social media more (and correctly, as per the marketing gurus) help? I mean, yeah, a bit, in terms of followers and networking. But did it ever really connect to book sales? I wouldn’t say so.

A lot of the networking opportunities I have gotten have come through the blog, actually–people seeing my writing here and reaching out for one thing or another. Maybe they saw my post initially on social media, but maybe not. I don’t know.

So, while I guess I’m not “happy” about the way I’m using social media, I’m also not upset about it.

Why or why not?

Oh. Reading the whole post is important, people.

Here’s the deal. For two or three years, I did social media as I was supposed to. I reposted things I thought would be of interest to my ideal reader. I posted several times a day, and I responded quickly when someone mentioned me or responded to something I had posted. I discussed news items in the SFF world, talked about movies and books I liked, reached out to similar authors and collaborated where I could.

Did I get some success from it? Sure. Some. Not a lot. Not enough to justify the amount of time I was spending on it.

Cuz, at the end of the day, while your social media presence can help (or hurt, if you’re a jerk), if you don’t have the books to back up what you’re doing, you’re not going to get anywhere. I don’t put out multiple books a year, and thus far I have no series. It’s hard for me to attract and keep readers. And the way to fix that is to focus more on writing, and worry more about marketing when I have things to market.

Anyway, squiders, hopefully that doesn’t come off as too bitter! Bottom line is that the social media stuff didn’t work for me because I didn’t have anything to link it to–but it might work better in the future when I have other things out.

Any thoughts on social media, squiders?

Playing With Covers

Howdy, squiders, how’s it hanging?

I’ve been fairly productive, all things considered, mostly on the nonfiction front. I have my second SkillShare class ready for filming (yes, even the PowerPoint slides part), and I spent some time today doing research on nonfiction book covers (specifically writing how to books) and then making some.

I’d thought I’d show you guys the covers and see which ones you like (if any) or what elements are working. The idea is that I’d use the same template for the entire series, switching out titles, subtitles, and images as appropriate. Oh, and colors.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

Anyway, what do you guys think? My spacial acuity isn’t the best, so I need all the feedback I can get.

How are you guys doing? Any big news on your end?

Happy Tenth to GoddessFish Promotions!

GoddessFish is celebrating their tenth anniversary this month with a blog tour. Siri and I used them for our City of Hope and Ruin blog tours when that book came out and were generally pleased with the experience, so if you’d like to do a book blast or a blog tour (including reviews), take a look at GoddessFish.

Welcome to the Goddess Fish Promotions Tenth Anniversary Month Long Celebration!

Who is Goddess Fish Promotions? And what do we do? We’re glad you asked!

We didn’t want your visit here to be dry and boring, so we decided to have a poetry competition and put what we do into verse. Here are the initial entries:

Marianne:

Roses are Red.
Violets are Blue.
I’m awful at poetry.
Coffee.

Judy:

Twitter and Facebook got you down?
Come see us, we’re the best around.
We’ll get your book out so people can see
What a wonderful author you happen to be.

Yeah, for some reason, Judy won!

Even better, her poem is correct. We DO offer twitter and Facebook promotions as one of our services!

Check out our testimonials here.

We hope you enjoyed getting to know us a little (more information is below) and we’d like to do the same. We’d LOVE to see a little poem that tells us a bit about you in the comments. We’ll be awarding random book giveaways and $5 Amazon GCs to some of the best poetry we find. It might not be at every stop, but when something really makes us smile, we’ll reward it! Come on, be daring…

And now, more about us:

About Goddess Fish Promotions

Goddess Fish Promotions was established October 14, 2008. Why? Well, when Marianne became a published author and got her the first taste of trying to promote a book on a budget, there was only one other virtual book tour company in place at the time, and their fees were simply too high for a small press author. After coordinating and running her own tour, she knew other authors could use the same service for a reasonable price. Thus, Goddess Fish Promotions was born.

Because both Judy and Marianne were authors and editors prior to running Goddess Fish Promotions, they approach the business with a unique point of view, and treat their clients how they would expect to be treated.

The people behind the fish

 

Judy Thomas — The Goddess

Judy has a college degree in English and she’s worked in retail, education, at her local library as well as an editor for a small press and for the now defunct ShadowKeep Ezine. She’s also a published author so can see things from both sides of the fence. In 2013, she “retired” and now spends her days helping authors make their dream come true—as well as working as much as she can with her local theater group.

Marianne Arkins – Fish

Grammar freak and coffee lover, Marianne wrote her first novel at ten years old, built her first commercial website in 2000, and published for the first time in 2006. She worked as a professional editor for just over a year, and knows what it’s like to write, edit and promote a book on a budget.

One of our interviews during the tour explains our nicknames … keep visiting daily to find out!

http://www.goddessfish.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoddessFishPromotions
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GoddessFish
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/goddessfish/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariannejudy/
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+Goddessfish

Now, the goodies … want to win stuff? Here are the rafflecopters:

Readers:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Authors:
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Patreon Research

Well, squiders, I wrote most of a blog post yesterday, and it just wasn’t gelling. The longer it went on, the less sense I felt it was making. And then I got distracted by things and I never posted it, and, believe me, that is for the best.

Yes, yes, it is.

Anyway, what I got distracted by is actually a better post topic, so let’s do that instead.

I’ve had a Patreon for…oh, who knows. Two years, maybe? Three? It is something I set up and then have never quite figured out how to work with it, so mostly I stare at it out of the corner of my eye in the hopes that I will magically figure out what I’m supposed to be doing with it.

And every now and then I poke at it, tweaking things here and there, which doesn’t especially help but feels somewhat productive.

Patreon helpfully sends out a newsletter with tips on attracting patrons and growing your audience and tools to use and whatnot, though they seemed to be mostly geared toward people who work in podcasts, music, or video (probably because these seem to be the most success categories on the site). They recently sent out an email about a section of their app that allows creators to easily take video of their process which got me thinking about my poor, mostly abandoned Patreon again.

(Also I checked out the app, but apparently they recently changed it and everyone hates everything about it, so I’m going to leave that alone for now.)

So I spent some time yesterday looking specifically at other SFF writers on Patreon who seem to be doing decently, to see what they’re doing.

These people fell into two categories:

1. Larger name authors who are probably leveraging an existing fanbase (including award-winning authors like Kameron Hurley and self-pub gold standard Lindsay Buroker). I kind of looked at these but I figure that what’s working for them is probably out of my reach at this moment.
2. Authors I hadn’t heard of

So I poked through category 2. And here are the trends I noticed:

• Most people had “per item” payment tiers rather than monthly tiers. So every time they finished a short story or a chapter or whatever, their patrons would be charged.
• The people with the most patrons were extremely productive. One was writing 50-60K words a month on a regular basis, and most of the other ones were putting out at least 2-3 novels a year.
• A lot of Patreons (especially ones with monthly tiers) were focused on a certain project, like a series of novels or shorts related to a series. Very few were “support me on everything I write.”

I have a video intro because that was highly recommended when I set up the account–not a single one of the others I looked at yesterday had one. I guess that makes sense. If you’re working in visual media like most people on the site, why wouldn’t you do a video? But for a writer, where the story is going to be most important, hooray, it looks like one isn’t necessary. Which is fantastic, because I’m going to take my down. When I get around to it.

So, I’m wondering, if I want a specific project Patreon where I can generate a lot of content and potentially build on something that already has fans, maybe I should modify mine to be specifically about the City of Hope and Ruin sequel. The book has had decent buzz and Siri and I have had people asking about a sequel since immediately after it came out. Or maybe I can make a separate page that both Siri and I can have access to? Not sure about that–it might be one page per account (in which case maybe Siri wants to make one?).

I’ll have to ask her about it.

Does anyone have any experience with Patreon, as a creator or as a patron? What has worked for you, or what do the creators that you follow do that you like?

Common Writing Mistakes: Wrong Audience

Good morning/afternoon cusp, squiders! I think this will be the last post in this series, and I’ll save the rest for the book. Also, it is cold and I forgot to put a coat on like an idiot.

Today we’re going to talk about audience. A story’s audience is the type of person that is likely to read a particular story.

This is more of a marketing issue. It can be hard to match the creative flow and inspiration necessary to make it through writing/editing a story to the marketing box a writer is trying to fit into. Most don’t try, figuring they’ll write the story as it needs to go and the marketing aspect can come later.

It can be a writer’s first instinct to say “My story is amazing and it will appeal to everyone!” but this is patently untrue. People like different things. I’ve certainly read bestselling books that I thought were horrifically bad, and I’ve read books I loved that seemingly everyone else hated.

It’s part of the reason genres exist. People experiment, discover what sort of stories they like, and then they look for more stories like that.

Some people recommend inventing a “reader”–a fictional person who would fall into the prime audience for a story to use as a stand-in for the entire audience so they can personalize things for marketing purposes.

But during the writing process, do you really need to worry about your audience? The answer is: to some extent. Some genres have strict conventions that you’re going to run into issues with if you circumvent them. For example, it’s really hard to get romance readers to buy into a story that doesn’t end with a happily ever after, or a happily for now. Most romance readers are looking for an escape; if you provide a story that doesn’t match what a reader is expecting, you’ll run into readers not finishing the story or leaving bad reviews. Mystery readers expect a murder in almost all cases; thriller readers expect twists and turns at regular intervals. It is possible to successfully break a genre convention, but you’d better know what you’re doing.

But in a lot of cases, as long as you’re not wildly outside of what’s acceptable for your chosen genre, your audience can be mostly forgotten while writing.

Revision is where your audience starts to become more of a focus. There’s a saying that the first draft is for the writer, and the revision is for the reader. Things that might be confusing need to be clarified, plot or character issues will need to be fixed, and if something has been consistently pointed out by your beta readers/critiquers (who hopefully are regular readers of your particular genre in most cases), it will need to be looked at.

And if you’re planning to sell or publish a story, you will need to be able to choose a marketing category for it, which tends to include age ranges (children’s, middle grade, young adult, adult) and genre. A story that is not easily classifiable might be a hard sell.

Have anything else to add about audience, squiders? Examples of stories that went horribly awry on estimating who their audience was?

Getting Ready for MileHiCon

Killing two birds with one stone, Squiders. (I did not get my outlining done. I did, however, finally vacuum the basement. Nonfiction next week for sure, though.)

I’m so not stressed about the con this year, which feels lovely. I kind of feel like I should be, since, you know, public speaking and all, but I’m going to get to see friends and see all the cool con stuff and hopefully make new friends, so I’m mostly excited. (Though I have discovered that I am the only woman on a panel of men for the Trek panel, which could be fine, or could be terrible. Time will tell! The only other person on the Doctor Who panel doesn’t have a bio on the website, so they remain a mystery. I’m hoping they know what they’re doing though, because I don’t.)

Anyway! Things to be done before the convention:

• PACK YOUR BUSINESS CARDS, KIT, WHY ARE YOU SO BAD AT THIS (seriously, I have hundreds and yet I always forget them)
• Check books for signing/selling Saturday morning. I should be good to go because they’re still packed from the library local author showcase, but I might stick some anthologies in there too if I still have any floating around.
• Likewise, pack credit card reader/money box (and probably go to bank and get change).
• Figure out if I need permits for the signing/selling table and get them ready if necessary.
• Find and read cliff notes version of the last season of Doctor Who so I can effectively pretend I know what I’m talking about tomorrow.
• Pack bag:
  • Laptop or notebook for writing (the wifi has historically been spotty, so it basically depends on what I want to drag around with me)
  • Snacks
  • BUSINESS CARDS
  • Water bottle
  • Bookmarks? (I still have some from Shards floating around somewhere, though I think I’m out of the rest)
  • I feel like I’m forgetting something, so this spot is for when I remember later

I think that’s it. I hope that’s it. Squiders, if you see something I’m obviously forgetting, please let me know! Or if you have tips for being a panelist, I’d love to hear them!

Otherwise, I’ll see you guys next week!

MileHiCon, Next Nonfiction Topic, Et al.

Can you believe October is almost over, Squiders? I’m not ready! It seems like it just started, all full of promise and hope, but now the leaves have fallen off the trees and the gloom of winter is descending.

It’s MileHiCon this weekend. I’ve talked about it before, but for those of you who are new, it’s a literary-minded scifi/fantasy convention in Denver, Colorado. This will be my third year attending in an authorial capacity. In previous years I’ve run a table in the Authors’ Alley, which is where indie authors and small presses can set up shop for the weekend, sell books, talk to readers, etc.

In theory, the Authors’ Alley is a wonderful idea. In actuality, it varies based on where you are in the alley and how tired potential readers are by the time they get to you. My first year (2014) was pretty decent. Last year was miserable. And it didn’t help that I had to man my table by myself (I was running one for Turtleduck Press and the other authors couldn’t make it either time) and was essentially stuck there all weekend. TRAPPED.

(On the other hand, sometimes it can be somewhat beneficial. I’ve edited chapters, written short stories, drawn landsquid pictures for the blog, etc., all while trapped at my Authors’ Alley table.)

So this year, I’ve got a 2-hour slot at what they call the Authors’ Co-op table. Same thing as Authors’ Alley, where you can set up shop, sell books, do autographs, etc., but 1) it’s free and 2) it’s for a limited time period and then you’re freeeeeeeee, free, thank the Lord.

In addition to this, I have finally figured out how to get on panels. Last year, I think, oh, two weeks out from the convention, I emailed the panel coordinator and told her that if she still needed people, I was ready and available, and she very gently told me that I was several months too late and helped me so I didn’t mess up again this year.

I’m hoping the panel + limited table stuckage will result in a more enjoyable convention, and one that’s more beneficial to me as an author in both a networking and a marketing manner. I’ll let you know next week.

So, according to the poll, it looks like people want to do common writing problems as our next nonfiction topic. I hope to outline the book tomorrow but it may take me a few days to get everything in order since I need to figure out what the most common writing problems are (with a focus on fiction, since that is my specialty). If I get everything ready by Thursday we’ll start this week, but with the con looming I make no guarantees.

(If you have a problem you’d like to seen covered, let me know!)

My drawing class is going well, though it’s not quite what I wanted. I finished my project yet we still have one more week, so not sure what I’m going to do. Draw landsquid and alpaca, I suppose.

How are you, Squiders? Advice on being on a Doctor Who panel when I haven’t seen most of the last season and seemingly have no way to do so before the convention starts (I have been on the hold list for the library copy forever)?