Anything is Possible
By Jerry D. Simmons | May 21st, 2010 | 1 Comment » (Click to add yours!)
There is no easy road to becoming a successful author. Successful is defined as the ability of one to make a living writing. Anything beyond that takes talent, a lot of luck, timing and following the proper steps to publishing success. Paying tens of thousands of dollars to have an aggressive promoter provide you with a special “success package” that includes seminars, workshops, personal coaching and messages from bestselling authors will only drain your pocketbook and not get you closer to publishing success.
There are no secrets and never any shortcuts! Having spent more than two decades in the New York publishing world I can honestly say that many great writers with terrific books never achieved publishing success even though their publisher spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and let out all the stops to try. It’s neither easy nor quick to become a successful author and sitting down in front of a large crowd of people who all paid a lot of money to listen to how anyone can become a bestselling author is totally bogus.
Anything is possible, if a writer will practice their craft by writing lots and lots of material. Hire a professional editor to help them become a better writer. Focus on becoming the best writer you can be. Don’t fall for get rich quick schemes and never let your dream die. Publishing is a highly competitive business and there are over one million new titles published each year. If you do the right things including reading and researching competitive titles and authors, you have as good a chance as any to be the one who becomes the next big bestselling author.
Editorial Critique
By Jerry D. Simmons | May 20th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Once you have finished writing, the manuscript is not quite complete. Before you make decisions on the next step, it is very important to get an editorial critique. There are a variety of ways to publish and the best course is following your heart and make every attempt at achieving your goal. Don’t let friends or fellow writers discourage you from your dream. However, you should submit your writing to an objective professional who can give you honest feedback on the strengths and weaknesses of your manuscript.
Searching for an agent with a weak manuscript will be wasted time and energy. The manuscript is not complete until you have a professional editor read for feedback and critique your writing. Once the critique is complete you can self-edit to the best of your ability before attempting that next step in the publishing process. If your choice is to publish on your own, then spending money on production and marketing with a less than stellar manuscript will result in bad word of mouth which can be disastrous for sales.
Every publisher worries about content and whether they have packaged and priced the product correctly followed by a focused marketing campaign. But all is for naught if the writing is poor, the story doesn’t flow, dialogue is shoddy and the characters are not fully developed. Publishing companies cannot sell a poorly written book anymore than they can sell great literary writing; it has to be a good story or message written in a manner that is pleasing to the consumer. Who better to help make that decision that an objective professional editor. Consider a critique; it’s the next logical step after you have finished your writing.
Hopes, Dreams & Reality
By Jerry D. Simmons | May 10th, 2010 | 1 Comment » (Click to add yours!)
Anything is possible in publishing, dream big but follow a few simple rules. First: write your own story and never worry about a potentially hot category or bestselling style of another writer. Second: seek professional editorial help, someone you are comfortable with who can challenge you to be a better writer. Third: follow your publishing dreams and find a way to make it happen. There are no secrets, it takes hard work, lots of time and don’t give up attitude.
If you dream of being a bestselling author then recognize the fact that talent is required. Believe in yourself and your writing but don’t spend foolishly, you cannot buy your way to a bestseller list, there are entirely too many people that will take advantage of you if you let them. There are never any guarantees in publishing so don’t listen to the sales pitch and never invest money in marketing unless you completely and totally understand how what you are getting makes a positive difference in the market. If all else fails seek professional guidance from someone with experience that can answer your questions.
Publishing is an extremely competitive business and selling books successfully is difficult. If you follow the rules, make smart decisions about how you publish and spend on marketing then you have as much a chance of realizing your dreams as anyone. Mistakes could ruin your chances as well as cause you to spend money unnecessarily. Consider investing in a publishing expert for guidance. You are only a first time author once and you only launch a new title one time. Make the most of your opportunity and who knows what might happen?
Write Your Own Story
By Jerry D. Simmons | April 9th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Many times I attend writer’s conferences and am asked about the market for a specific genre or sub-genre, as though current sales would be reason enough to invest time in writing for that category. This is the wrong approach, writers must write their own story in their own words. The background, experience and life history of each writer is what brings that uniqueness to their work and separates them from all other writers.
Writers should not try and emulate another writer’s style, chapter length, or characterization. Writers need to write their own story and not worry about the market, sales potential or whether their characters fit the times. These are questions for your editor and every writer, regardless of their success level must utilize the skills of an editor.
Rarely can any writer copy the exact style of a bestselling author and their attempt is highlighted by their inadequate storyline which often times makes the work not publishable. Writers should be inspired by the craft and encouraged by their ability to tell a story or share a message. Publishing is not about great writing, it’s about good storytelling.
Book Marketing
By Jerry D. Simmons | April 8th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Marketing your printed or digital book is not easy; in fact it is hard work and takes lots of time. The one thing about independent publishing that disturbs me is the large number of people who claim to be experts and sell marketing products and services that are worthless in the real world of book publishing.
The latest are these companies that offer quick and easy marketing plans with “stellar guaranteed results,” which is not possible and in the end you would be sorely disappointed in the results. These plans will not get you the audience or sales that you pay for. In fact, you could design a marketing plan yourself if you read and do your homework. There is plenty of material at this web site to get your started.
After investing countless hours writing your manuscript don’t cut corners on editorial, production or marketing. Not if you hope to become successful and sell copies of your book. If you do not have faith in the quality of your work then don’t publish. If you are not willing to utilize the skills of professionals to help you achieve some level of success then keep writing and delay publishing. We need to separate the dedicated, quality writers of independent titles from everyone else.
Decide what you hope to achieve as an author and then follow the rules to quality book publishing. By the way, successful book marketing takes time!
Book Expo America
By Jerry D. Simmons | April 5th, 2010 | 1 Comment » (Click to add yours!)
Soon the largest book showcase in the world will take place, Book Expo America, also referred to as BEA. For anyone planning to attend, let me provide you with some ideas on how to maximize your time and experience. Two years ago I was interviewed about Book Expo and the entire text is below.
1) For those who are reading this who don’t know what BEA is, can you explain what it is?
Book Expo America is the annual showcase for the largest publishers in the world. It’s a place where companies rent booth space to display their goods and services. The convention hall includes publishers and related businesses both large and small that offer products and services to industry professionals directly or indirectly related to the industry.
2) Someone reading this might wonder? Why would I attend BEA? Do you think it benefits anyone in publishing to go to an event like this and if so, why?
If you’ve never attended it is fun to attend at least once just to get a feel for what the bigger world of publishing is all about. Depending on your particular situation either as an author or business person, it is the one place where all related companies gather to display their offerings so if you want to see what the industry is all about and how you or your business might fit, it’s worth the visit. Book Expo can be as much or as little as you want out of it, but if you derive your revenue from books, publishing, or anything related, you should attend at least once.
3) Can you explain the set up of BEA? It seems that the big 6 New York publishers are always taking center stage of this event, is that true? Is it a case of “whoever can throw the most money at this event gets the biggest booth”? Or is BEA generally a primary focus of corporate publishing?
BEA is focused around the six big publishers, no doubt, without them the BEA would hold little relevance to the general public. As it stands today, the media is interested simply because of the celebrity authors and future bestsellers that are on display. Each of these big companies may spend well in excess of $1 million on this show so it is a big deal for them and they spend a lot of time in New York preparing.
Booth placement is key for this show and the sponsors do the best they can to make everyone happy. Size of the booth is indicative of how much money the sponsors are receiving from the big publishers. Having attended more than 20 I would have to say that the BEA as it now stands is as much representative of corporate publishing as anything else.
4) So, let’s say I’m a small publisher looking for more exposure for my books. How would I strategize BEA to my best advantage?
For small publishers BEA becomes a necessity to attract the kind of attention it takes to build your business and sell books. If you are small and do not attend, then industry wide you are not seen as a “player” in the publishing business. The best way to strategize if you are a small publisher is to make sure your booth reflects who you are or who you want to be as a publisher. You have to promote your company to the industry, such as agents, authors, and other publishers. It’s important for you to put forth the perception that you publish quality product and are serious about your own development as a company. The BEA is the place where you have an opportunity to capture the attention of the bigger players regardless of their area of expertise. This is especially true if your books rarely get reviewed in the traditional media and if you are not based in Manhattan.
5) As a small publisher, what’s my best plan of attack? How should I prepare for this event?
The first thing you have to do is make sure you have developed an image you want to portray to the industry. If your focus is quality fiction then you need to have large images of your covers, with free and review copies available, and complete marketing plans, including promotion, publicity and advertising. You have to mimic what the big publishers are doing which gives the impression you can compete even if you are on a smaller scale.
6) If I’m a vendor, looking to acquire more business. Let’s say I’m a publicist or marketing person…why would I want to go to this event and how could it benefit me?
The first thing I would do is walk the halls and get the lay of the land, in other words, where are the big publishers located and what are all the other booths about. It’s one thing to read the BEA catalog or read Publishers Weekly for the convention layout, it’s quite another to walk the hall to see for yourself what each of these businesses are all about. The employees of all the big companies constantly walk the halls looking at their competition, and not just the big publisher booths, but the entire hall.
As a vendor trying to acquire more business, I’d gather as much free information in the form of handouts as you can possible carry, including catalogs from everyone. I would also gather as many business cards as you can and shake hands and speak with as many people as you can meet. Then at night in your hotel pour over all of this information looking for opportunities. I’d pick up as much competitive information as possible and then use this information in acquiring more business.
7) As an author, how could BEA impact my career? How could BEA help me?
Depending on where you are in your writing career attending a BEA for the first time should open your eyes to the possibilities. The books you see from the biggest publishers could easily have been written by you, it‘s all about understanding the market, positioning your manuscript, having knowledge of what the big guys are looking for, how they purchase rights to publish books, and then knowing how to market yourself as an author. As you walk the hall you will get a sense of just how big the industry, how serious you need to approach your writing, and how extremely important it is to know how the business operates. The books you see in the catalogs of the big publishes are no more talented than you, but they know something about the business and how to market themselves and their writing. If you’re serious about a career as a writer, you can learn what you need to know to be successful by keeping your eyes open and developing your plan.
Eight) As someone who’s attended many of these events, what are some insider tips you can share about event networking and attracting new business at an event of this magnatitude?
The idea that you can walk into any booth and make a cold call on an editor, publisher or any business and accomplish something is the easiest way to be seen as an amateur. When that happens no one will take you seriously. The BEA is not the place to try and transact business, it’s the place to meet people that will hopefully allow you to transact business in the future. The only way for anything to get accomplished at BEA is to have established some contact prior to the show and then set an appointment to meet during the show. That is the only way. Dropping in on people and sticking your hand out with a business card is the quickest way to ruin what reputation you might have established.
9) Many people say that “deals are made at Book Expo” but is that true, are there deals made on the event floor?
The biggest deals the largest publishers make is international rights transactions. I can’t say that deals are never done on the floor, but if there are, then BEA is the end point, not the beginning. Discussions are held that lead to business being conducted, but rarely do agents and authors, service and product vendors initiate contact at BEA that result in business being conducted at that moment. The atmosphere is more festive and most executives hate to have serious discussions on the floor. BEA is the place for introductions, exchanging of information, but not serious business.
10) As an service prodivor, publisher, or author – what are some things to look for in book placement, catalog placement, or promotional piece that might clue me into new trends, or vendors one might want to connect with…
First of all depending on the product or service you provide, you need to scope out the competition. Who else is offering the same and how are they presenting themselves to the public. This is very important. If you are looking for opportunities from publishers catalogs, look for books that are similar to ones you have worked on in the past. Particularly check out the marketing of these titles and make a mental note on those which you have something to offer that is new and exciting for the publisher.
If you are a small publisher again, take note of the competition. Publishing is about perception, compare your presentation to your competitive publishers. Does your catalog compare? What about your marketing plans? Prices? Page counts? What are they doing different? The goal is to figure out how to compete effectively.
As an author, there are tons of free and review copies available on the floor of the big publishers at all times, these are the titles they are heavily promoting. Pick them up and read them, this is what is selling today, compare the story, not the writing and pay attention to what publishers are doing to promote their books. Regardless of how you publish, there are plenty of marketing ideas floating around, right in front of your eyes, pay attention because chances are you can take those ideas back home and use them.
11) What type of information gathering do you recommend someone do prior to the event? What’s the best way to prepare for Book Expo?
Remember, the BEA is not the place to transact business, it’s the place to meet people who you can eventually do business with. It’s okay to have a plan on how you want to tour the hall, especially if your time is limited. But the best preparation is hunting and gathering as I’ve discussed before. The BEA has plenty of information to share, take advantage of the free offering in one location, and it happens only once per year.
The best way to prepare for a BEA is REST! Attending a BEA can be exhausting, go in with your eyes open and don’t let the show overwhelm you. It can be daunting to walk in and see all the huge displays and walk away feeling like your lost. This is the place to see what’s going on in the world of publishing. I tell my clients that the bookstore is their laboratory, where they can find out what’s being published and how books are being marketed. If the bookstore is your lab, the BEA is the PhD program for students of the business. There is a lot to learn and much you can gather at a BEA.
As a final note, let me share with you what the Independent Bookstores around the country are looking for when they attend BEA. There are searching for non-book product that is compatible with their store and shows promise of selling. They are not looking for books. Yes of course they drop by the big publishers booths and visit but they rarely make appointments. If they do, they typically are promoting their stores to the publicity department asking for more author events. For those book professionals BEA is not all about the books, but the industry as a whole.
If you have questions about any of the answers please send an email Jerry@WritersReaders.com.
Writing and Editing
By Jerry D. Simmons | April 2nd, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Have you ever wondered why we write? I’ve never considered myself a writer, but I do get enjoyment out of putting words on paper. I’ve written one book with plans for updating and revising, and am penning a new one. The work is daunting and I struggle with words. Thankfully I have a friend who helps with my editing.
I’ve spent my entire working life in publishing and it wasn’t until I started writing that I realized the importance of a good editor. I’m fortunate in that I have worked with many great editors in New York. But I never quite realized how important they were to the success of publishing in general. I hate to say that they were often taken for granted.
Without editors and their objective yet caring and professional set of eyes, I’m afraid many words and sentences just wouldn’t be as clear as they become after the work of a great editor. I’m partial to editors, because their skills and ability clear up my own words. If you have a good editor, then thank them, if you don’t, then find one. Writing and editing go hand-in-hand. For those who believe editors change the meaning of your writing, then all I can say is, you aren’t working with the right editor.
Could Ernie Pyle’s work fly on the Internet by Dave Lieber
By Jerry D. Simmons | April 1st, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
you, the columnist
Could Ernie Pyle’s work fly on the Internet?
By Dave Lieber
Dave Lieber
A little disgusted is how I feel when I read these words from Time magazine book reviewer Lev Grossman about how writers are going to have to write differently for people who read their work on cell phones or who can’t focus too long on one subject:
“You’re going to want to have blood on the wall by the end of the second paragraph. And I think that’s something writers are going to have to adapt to, and the challenge will be to use this powerfully narrative form, this pulpy kind of mode, to say important things.”
(Thanks to Lynn Neary of NPR.org for that quote, and for Jerry Simmons of www.WritersReaders.com for reprinting.)
But how much do we have to change our writing?
I’m hoping the answer is not all that much. Many newspaper columnists already try to write like that. Not blood on wall, necessarily, but some kind of question posed or mystery offered that makes the reader want to get to the third paragraph. And on and on. We call it the dramatic arch.
I wonder how Ernie Pyle would have handled this dilemma.
This April 18, 2010 marks the 15th anniversary of a proclamation by the National Society of Newspaper Columnists establishing the date as National Columnists Day. That’s the day our patron saint, Ernie Pyle, was killed in a foxhole by a Japanese sniper.
As the young pup who helped then-NSNC President Bill Tammeus pick that date, it holds something special in my heart. Ernie was the greatest columnist of the 20th century, maybe ever.
But he didn’t go for blood on the wall in the second graph.
My favorite Pyle column is not so well known. It was his public announcement of the death of his mother and the circumstances surrounding it. He didn’t hammer it home by the second graph. As my National Columnists Day psyche-up gift to you, here are excerpts:
One drear evening in London a friend and I started out to dinner. We had gone about two blocks when we heard hurrying footsteps behind us. We turned and saw that it was a little bellboy from my hotel. The lad’s name was Tom Donovan, and he was the one who had showed me my room on that first strange night months before when I arrived in London.
“This telegram just came for you, sir,” he said. “I thought maybe I could catch you.” I thanked him and he started on back.
I stepped over to the curb, out of people’s way, while I tore open the telegram and read it,
“What is it?” my friend asked. “More good news from home?”
“Read it,” I said, and went on ahead. When he caught up he said, “I’m sorry,” and we walked toward Leicester Square as though nothing had happened.
It was the cablegram that told me that my mother, far away in Indiana, had come to the end of her life.
That night in London, back in my room, it seemed to me that living is futile, and death the final indignity. I turned off the lights and pulled the blackout curtains and went to bed.
The pictures of my mother raced across the darkness before my eyes. Pictures of nearly a lifetime. Pictures of her at neighborhood square dances long, long ago, when she was young and I was a child. Pictures of her playing the violin. Pictures of her doctoring sick horses; of her carrying newborn lambs into the house on raw spring days. I could see her that far day in the past when she drove our first auto – all decorated and bespangled – in the Fourth of July parade. She was dressed up in frills and won first prize in the parade and was awfully proud….
I could see her as she stood on the front porch, crying bravely, on that morning in 1918 when I, being youthful, said a tearless good-by and climbed into the neighbor’s waiting buggy that was to take me out of her life.
The pictures grew older. Gradually, she became stooped, and toil-worn, and finally white and wracked with age – but always spirited, always sharp.
On the afternoon that I was leaving London I called little Tom Donovan, the bellboy, to my room. One by one the floor servants had come in, and I had given them farewell tips. But because I liked him, and more than anything else, I suppose, because he had shared with me the message of finality, I wanted to do something more for Tom than for the others. And so, in the gentlest way I could, I started to give him a pound note.
But a look of distress came into his face, and he blurted out, “Oh no, Mr. Pyle, I couldn’t.” And then he stood there so straight in his little English uniform and suddenly tears came in his eyes, and they rolled down his cheeks, and then he turned and ran through the door. I never saw him again.
On that first night I had felt in a sort of detached bitterness that, because my mother’s life was hard, it was also empty. But how wrong I was. For you need only have seen little Tom Donovan in faraway London, wretched at her passing, or the loneliness of Snooks [her little dog] after she had gone, or the great truckloads of flowers they say came from all over the continent, or the scores of Indiana youngsters who journeyed to her both in life and in death because they loved her, to know that she had given a full life. And received one, in return.
To me, this is perfect writing. Everything works. The man knew his readers, and he knew his heart.
Do you believe that writing can no longer be presented like that to readers?
I don’t. Well crafted words will always strike a chord, awaken curiosity, around passions.
Those universal truths about our audiences shouldn’t change because of our audience’s shortened attention span due to all the electronic toys that, for the time being, are more fun than we are.
***
Do you know the secret size cup of coffee at Starbucks? No? Then you better watch Fort Worth Star-Telegram columnist Dave Lieber’s video at: http://bit.ly/starbucks-secret
Editing For Success! by Lynnette Baum
By Jerry D. Simmons | March 30th, 2010 | No Comments » (Click to add yours!)
Whether you are content editing or line editing, editing is the key to a polished manuscript. Content editing means reading for flow, evaluating the placement of ideas or events and ensuring that point of view is consistent, throughout. Action, stories and events should follow a logical order, where stories flow easily and plot points appear on cue. Line editing is reading for grammatical accuracy. This means that your basic grammar is correct, that repetitive or redundant phrases are eliminated, and that adjectives/modifiers are used appropriately and only when necessary.
Most of us love specific words, and use them over and over in our prose. Sharpening our awareness of such a habit is the first step to refining editorial skills. As part of polishing your manuscript through content editing, identify over used words or phrases and eliminate them. For example, one popular writer (with several fine books to his credit) repeated the same word, again and again, throughout his novels. The word was “smirk.” Every other page, some character smirked. The hero smirked. The villain smirked. The sidekick smirked. He must have used at least 500 smirks in a single book. Obviously, the author was unaware of this redundancy. Unfortunately, these “smirks” made it past his editor and onto the shelf.
Line editing is wonderful for removing pointless thats, ands, buts or other meaningless words. When done correctly, it’s like pressing your manuscript through a sieve. Everything extraneous or redundant is sifted away. What remains is a literary gem, a story faceted with creative phrases and memorable metaphors.
Need I say, dump your clichés? A cliché is a phrase that’s been so overused it has no meaning. The online dictionary defines it as “a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase…that has lost originality, ingenuity and impact by long overuse…” Phrases like “mad as a hatter” or “monkey brained” are clichés. Our bodies are only as healthy as their individual cells. Similarly, our manuscripts are only as interesting as our individual words and phrases.
Finally, stellar writing requires a stellar vocabulary. Nothing makes a manuscript stand out like brilliant verbiage. This doesn’t mean each sentence should be packed with four and five syllable words. Sometimes we get the biggest emotional punch from short, sharp words that pop. Mastering writing requires an intimate knowledge of language. Pursue your love of words by studying them. Don’t be afraid to use a thesaurus. Find one you like and make it your counselor.
Editing is the last step for a good writer. Clarity, fluency and polish depend on editing skills. As an editor, your best education is to read, read, read. The more you read, the more you hone an intuitive sense for structure and flow. Years ago, I bought a book about Robert Frost, my favorite poet. In this book, they showed a first draft of his poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay. I was shocked. It was mediocre writing. But, after editing, it became one of his most powerful poems. Remember, quality editing makes good writing great!
Lynnette Baum – President/SCWA
TheRightWriter Creative Communications
17595 Harvard, Suite C-144
Irvine, CA 92614
www.the-right-writer.com
949.654.3891 – 949.725.7849
The Internet and the Wired Author – by John Wolf
By Jerry D. Simmons | March 25th, 2010 | 2 Comments » (Click to add yours!)
1. What is a wired author?
If you tend to have writer’s cramp from busting No. 2 pencils on a yellow legal pad or have had it with white-out and working the fingers to the bone on an old Olympus typewriter, you are a prime candidate to become a wired author.
It starts innocently enough with a laptop computer, lounging around a Starbucks tapping out short stories. Then email and Facebook accounts becomes an essential part of your day. You miss appointments and forget to pick up kids at soccer practice, because you can’t stop typing a new chapter on a third manuscript that’s only half developed. Then the worst thing happens—you actually have a published book. You realize you need to get wired for the Internet age, to float a boat onto the current stream of electronic messaging, build video for YouTube, but most of all, convince yourself you have to have an Internet presence. You have to get connected, uploaded, create product branding, and networked. If this was the 19th Century it would be like owning a horse.
You’re doomed if you own a Blackberry, iPhone, or carry a laptop into the bathroom. You’re begging to be wired and don’t know it.
2. So what, you say?
In the world of academics there is an old saying that goes like this, “Publish or Perish.” There are rules, man. Pay the piper, the writing’s on the wall, all those euphuisms that if gone unnoticed will lead you to an open manhole. Unless you are already famous and a household name among those that buy books, you have to reach out to the world somehow, and the Internet is the most efficient way to do that, not to mention it supports all the other ways to do it. You simply have no choice if you want to stay alive in today’s competitive book market.
There are other wired establishments to be switched on to, like radio and television, both of which are very electronic intensive industries. If you only knew how to record your voice to promote your book or even a home video to plug your latest literary success, or knew what format a studio needs to accepts copies, where to drop them off, who to contact to get anything done, then you would be wired. Do you know how to do these things sitting in front of your computer in the comfort of your own home?
You need to know how and to whom to electronically register your books to be included on the sales shelves of the Big Box Book stores, or to be included in the buying lists for Libraries, and a dozen other valued places. It is now standard to register for copyright electronically. The new paradigm for an author is, “Get wired or be ignored.”
If you register for a sales permit, which you should, you have to learn how to file your taxes and California now only allows that this be done electronically. You have been slammed against the wall by a wide screened, ten foot tall computer mouse and he’s got his nose against yours and his pulling on your collar. If you are fear driven, think of the Geek Squad as the Sopranos and you just cheated a guy named Vinnie. You can’t ignore the 500 pound gorilla in the room any longer standing there looking like a banana. You reached the end of your bit stream and don’t have any place to go.
3. So How Much of this Techno Jazz do I have to know?
What are you doing for the rest of your life is more like it? You probably thought that if I write a book, they will buy it. Wrong. When you wrote that book, it is more like having your love child. You brought this thing into the world, now you have to nurture it, take care of it, to ever see it grow. You become author-incorporated, editor, marketing, distribution manager, and now, techno geek all wrapped into one or the world will never notice you’re stomping and waving a book in one hand at the side of the road. You stand at the curb awash in last night’s rain water, splashed in your face by the fast moving traffic of life zooming past.
4. So how hard is it to become techno savvy?
If you can get your manuscript styled in Microsoft Word ready for your publisher, you have more than what’s needed to move down the path toward enlightenment. If you own a converter program to make Word files into PDF file, you are involved, your hands are dirty. The biggest step is the first one. You have to conclude you need to do this. If you can commit that much desire, you can fall into the rest of it. It is important not to waste time and energy going about it in the wrong manner or resisting the inevitable. It’s harder to unlearn it than to be patient and learn it the right way in a progressive approach that builds your skills.
5. Okay—don’t hit me. How do I get started?
Actually, there is more lecturing and browbeating before we can be properly aligned to drop you into the groove. But in general, I’m referring to support groups, writing clubs, writers’ conferences, and networking with other authors. We are heavily influenced by what others think and what they are doing. Don’t be surprise to find answers in unexpected places, like user group meetings, book clubs meeting in libraries, adult education classes, book stores offering lectures, giving lectures yourself—say on a cruise ship for a free ticket. To disembark on that sojourn, you need to be techno savvy to even run the slide show.
The best way to learn a subject is teach it. One way to learn to teach is learn how to talk in front of a crowd. Join Toastmasters for a year and go through the boot camp of presenting in front of people. After that, it will be hard to shut you up.
6. What are some wired activities I should participate in?
We all know about websites, blogs, social networking, but how about building your own network by meeting other authors and forming bonds. How do book clubs, writing groups, or even libraries find out about you and your books? That’s why some sort of Internet marker needs to be established. In general, this is called branding not like in a hot iron applied to your backside, but like product branding. I’m sorry it has come to this, but you are nothing more than a product to the commercial world. If you have a pretty face, it doesn’t hurt. If ugly as a can of mud, you may need a skilled publicist.
All forms of publicity are good, but many of these Internet activities are marginal. Let’s agree it is important to have a residence, an address, a place people can find you fast and check up on what’s going on in your career, buy a book, or contact you. That would be the proverbial website.
Blogs are not very effective unless you can establish a following, which probably means you have to sell your soul to radical themes or repulsive opinions. Avoid that. But it is a good idea to go to busy blog sites that are relevant to your books and make comments that include a trail of crumbs back to your website. Okay that’s two reasons to have a website.
Social networks are fine to pass messages to friends and colleges about planned events, successes, schedules to see you at book signings, etc., but don’t make this your residence on the Internet unless you are a teenager and want the world to think of you as such. I’m really pointing a finger at MySpace. Facebook is similar but all the rage now. What if it all shifts to a new site called BackSide tomorrow? All the verbage invested in Facebook will fall into the bit bucket.
There are dozens of sights to join where you can have a presence without cost. Many of these are designed to have you pay a fee to upgrade their willingness to promote you in some fashion. But you can fly under the radar by being there where you can be seen for free. Then if a book of yours takes off, up the campaign, pay the fee, and let them promote you all they can. Jerry Simmons’ NothingBinding.com is a place to build relations with other people that have a common interest in writing and are free. Find time to participate.
The best way to spend time pointing people to your website is to get others to link to it, and you to them. It’s not called a web for nothing. Go spin some silk. The search engines love this stuff. Go to Google.com and check out all the advice and services that are begging to tell you about themselves. One you might not have thought of is a site map (assuming you have a site). If you do, Google will provide you with a search widget to put on your site, which can be cool and you don’t have to pay your provider for such a feature. The reason Google is being so nice is they want you to upload a configuration file they use to verify your site. This is a good thing, because you site shows up on page one and has a nice intelligent presentation for searcher to gaze at.
7. Being wired also includes other disciplines that use technology you need to try to master.
How do you record your voice so you can create a podcast to place on your website so joggers can download it and listen to it while blowing out their knees running around a park?
How do you turn a video you took with a camcorder into a YouTube entry or place it on a webpage?
How do I create an ebook upload to Kindle, Nook, or a Sony electronic reader?
I’ll get to this in a minute. Remind me of the term Smashwords.
8. Some of the simple things may save your techno life.
If you’re going to work with a computer, use it to communicate, write your books, and develop Internet presence, don’t be a dope and forget to protect it with an antivirus program. A dead computer won’t do you any good.
If you are a naturally messy organizer, slap yourself in the face and get your act together. Working on a computer effectively demands you stay organized with where things are placed, how they are grouped, and how the files are named or you’re just going to drive yourself crazy and end up sticking you tongue in a live light socket in frustration.
Don’t search for things that don’t need to be searched for. Place a shortcut icon on the desktop to get to the programs you use everyday. Place a shortcut to the MyDocuments folder on the desktop—duh. Don’t place a bunch of random files there. Put them in folders inside the MyDocuments folder. Don’t create a substitute folder to avoid using the MyDocuments folder, because there are a lot of programs that expect to go to that folder as a default path to do their thing. You just make your organization issues harder by trying to trick you computer—dumb. No, the computer is dumb. It’s easy to fool it. Then it acts like any fool and does stupid things like crash and you blame it. No, it’s your fault for tricking it. You don’t get a nervous man to do a tight rope act by screaming at him.
Change the icon names for all these apps that have huge dragged out names like Abode Flash CS4 Professional. Just rename it Flash. Then they all sit in a nice tight group and all the names can be read without having to interpret ellipsis or have to mouse-over to know what it is.
Inside the MyDocuments folder, create a folder for every major category you use the computer for. Rule one—no dangling participles—don’t have a loose file or ten sitting there at the bottom. It will just confuse you. Why is that file sitting there and has no home? If it is so useless—delete it. This computer is your working environment. It’s all about workflow.
Once you’re inside a category folder, change the icons to a cool image for major areas like short stories, manuscripts, agent’s letters, etc. You do this by right clicking on the folder, go to “properties”, then select the “customize” tab at the bottom and click “change icon.” Select one you like and click on it. Set “apply” and you’re done. Now these folders stand out.
Another way to make folders stand out in the MyDocuments folder is to boldface some of the names like PHOTOSHOP, WEBSITE, EMAIL ARCHIVE. All of this is so you can navigate to where you want to be fast. If you do these things, then the computer has been tamed. It’s easy to keep your workflow up and the hair on the back of your neck down. You’ll find you stop gritting you teeth while sleeping.
9. Learn the lingo
As you progress to where you are now able to produce a website, link it to others, add a PayPal button to sell your books, add hypertext to click and play a MP3 audio of your last radio interview, and place a book trailer video on the home page, then you gain a real sense of accomplishment and you are now a member of the tech savvy wired generation and may even survive the next ice age.
10. Go Slow, Go Steady
Becoming a savvy author on technical matters is just one of the duties the modern literary conscript has to face. The marketing pressures to present yourself in public need attention as well. Toastmasters is a great training ground. You may even need a stylist and media coach to make you presentable on video and during interviews. Experience is the best teacher. Is this starting to sound like a political career? Yes. It is nearly the same thing. Your goal is to create fame one book signing, one interview, and one YouTube book trailer at a time, and all along, have a central focal point of a website to ground all this activity.
I’ll see you on the Internet. – John Wolf
JohnWolfBooks.com
FoxandQuill.com
GeneralSpecifics.blogspot.com
