S.M. Butler's Blog, page 34

I don’t usually do resolutions. I don’t think that they are healthy. I set goals. Specific, measurable, mostly attainable goals. But this year, I considered that I want to change my behavior and that means setting some not so specific goals (i.e. resolutions).

But this year, J.A. Konrath did a blog post on all his resolutions since 2006. It’s interesting reading. i don’t normally read that blog because I don’t like his style and there are certain fundamental things that I don’t believe that he’s right in. But this particular post is smart and got me thinking. So with respect to Konrath, I’m going to borrow a couple of his resolutions this year, because i think by following them, I’ll become a better person as well.

Resolution #1: I Will Help Other Writers

I’ve made writing posts in the past about my process and how to do things. I always feel weird doing them because I still feel as if I’m learning myself. But I realize that as I learn things, I can share that with others. If I have success, what harm does it do for me to show others how to do it too? And if I fail, the least I can do is warn others.

Writing can be a very solitary endeavor, but it doens’t have to be. There’s nothing wrong with sharing sales numbers or how many books they’ve moved and what affected their sales. I will always opt to be transparent. While I might not share actual dollar amounts, I’m okay with sharing how many books I sell and why.

I like this quote from Konrath’s blog: Self-publishing is an open source project. Add to the database.

Resolution #2: I Will Experiment.

You have no idea how hard this is for me. I’m the control freak. I am the one that needs the sure thing. Experimenting will be super hard for me.

But at the same time I keep an open mind to new things. The goals I’m setting this year aren’t easy. I’m embarking on a journey about an industry that I’ve never seen the back rooms for. I’ve never toured the kitchen for this restaurant. But I have studied. I feel like I’m educationally ready to make this leap this year.

I will be the one this year that is actively trying new and different things.

But I’m still afraid.

Resolution #3: I Will Control My Fear

Experimentation is important. The thing I have to remember this year is that there will always be doubt and uncertainty. There will always be a little bit of luck to be successful.

I refuse to let my fear own me this year.

Honestly, this goes for more than just writing. It goes for my personal life as well. It goes for my graphic design business. It’s so easy for me to be frustration and envious. Jealousy rears its head so often. I’m happy for my friends yet I would love to have their success.

The thing about fear is that it’s so easy to succumb to it. Success is hard. Failure will happen. It’s part of the process. My dad always says that nothing worthwhile is ever easy. The difference between someone who is successful and someone who is not is that successful people persevere.

When the 15 minutes of fame is done…

Sales go down. That’s okay. Sales fluctuate. That’s just how the sales industry is, particularly the retail. Sure, the stores try to control it by introducing Black Friday or Cyber Monday. Here in Texas, we have a Tax Free Weekend, in which we don’t have to pay sales tax for three days on back to school items.

But what those businesses understand is that while they can stimulate when people shop, selling is a marathon. It’s not a sprint. As long as we write awesome books, we’ll find readers. We’re part of something big here.

So this comes back to controlling that fear. This will be the hardest thing I do all year. In writing, in my personal life, in my designs. The fear will always be there. I’m not going to let it rule me anymore.

To a fantastic 2013

2012 was kind of a bitch to me. It surpassed the crappy years I’ve had in a lot of ways. I’m pretty determined not to let that happen again.

This is the year I become independent and happy.

We’ve had a tough year folks. From the DOJ suing publishers, to publishers combining, to my first self-published book, to all kinds of horrible tragedies…. It’s been rough. But we got through it. That’s evident, because we’re here.

2012 saw me through a ton of shit. Most of which I never want to repeat again. But it also saw my first self-published title and the launch of my design business. I flailed a lot. I garnered 34 rejections from various digital first publishers. I wrote over 500,000 words on various works. I went to a Margie Lawson Immersion Class. I joined a local RWA chapter. So there’s some good. Some bad.

2013 is just down the tunnel…
Image from Cole Vassiliou on WANA Commons

But here I am, still standing, and I’m on the brink of the best year yet. I know, because it can’t get much worse for me. I’ve already hit the bottom and now I’m on my way back up the hill.

I’m going to think of 2012 as the foundation year, the year I dealt with all the crap so that I could go smooth into 2013 and beyond.

With the new year, I’m setting a new tone here. I’ll be having lots of new things going on. More books are on their way. I’m venturing into selfpublishing, but I’m not letting go of my e-publishing plans either. I have a couple things I want to submit to them and there’s some short stories I’d like to do as well.

2013 and Indie Publishing

2012 saw my first self-published title, but certainly not my last. I have goals to achieve and after a lot of flailing this year, I’m finally in the right place for me.

Indie publishing is sort of like the dot com boom. Everyone had their own dot com, wanted to make the money. And many failed.

Now we’ve got the explosion of the Indie publisher. In fact, it’s been going on for two years. Everyone is publishing. But like the dot coms, these publishers won’t stick it out. Publishing is not an easy business, which I’ve learned just doing ONE title. I have eight to do for 2013 and my eyes roll back into my head at the thought of all that work. Because it is work. A ton of it and it requires dedication and commitment.

I think Kristen Lamb said it best in her 2013 predictions post when she said “Gatekeepers exist for a reason, and throwing out a bunch of cheap books no longer works as well when everyone does it.”

Certain marketing ploys lose viability when it’s everywhere. On one of the indie loops I’m on, people were complaining that they didn’t see the Christmas bump anymore. Why is that? Because the market is glutted with FREE and $.99 books. Guess what all those new ereader owners are downloading? And who’s profiting? What’s the profit margin on FREE?

Yeah. That’s what I thought.

Indie publishers who embrace inexpensive but not cheap (read: FREE and $.99) ebooks will rise to the top in 2013. Mid-list authors will leave the NY publishers. Why should they stay when they aren’t making money?

With Success come Scams

Do your homework. With any new business model, people find ways to exploit other folks. Vet your editors, interview your cover artists. Ask for recommendations.

Caveat emptor.

With the next year, I think a lot of new scams are going to pop up. Be smart. Research.

What does my 2013 look like?

I kick off my Texas Highlanders Ice Hockey series in March with Off Her Game. And that title will be going to print as well so I’ll be able to hold my book in my hand. It’s exciting!

Then later this year, I’ll be jumping into a different genre with a fantasy trilogy and maybe a steampunk. It’s going to be a great time. For more detailed news and sneak peeks at upcoming books before anyone else, you can sign up to be a Fabulous Subscriber. In fact, I’ll have a little something in the January Newsletter from Off Her Game, which is going out in a couple days. But you have to be signed up to get it.

I hope everyone has a great New Year! I’m taking a couple days off and spending time with family and such before I kick the small humans back to school next week.

Happy New Year, folks!

For those that celebrate it, Merry Christmas!

Image Copyright Suzan Butler 2012

I haven’t been very good about blogging, but I had a book release this month, and holiday and family stuff, so it’s been super busy over here at the Butler household. But I want to close out the year strong so back to the blogging it is! And I’m doing it on Christmas Eve! Monday is normally my organizational, mommy day to blog, but I’m feeling the marketing aspect today.

Now that I’ve published a book on my own, I’m starting to analyze what I did or didn’t do marketing-wise and how those actions affected my sales. In some cases, I’m guessing, using common sense and such. In other cases, I didn’t have enough data and had to reach out to others who had done the things I’d done to see how it worked for them.

But I thought I could lay it out here, because oftentimes, blogging shakes things loose for me and allows me to come up with things I might not have. And since Off Her Game comes out in March, I’m looking hard at how to best get the word about it out.

 What I did for O Christmas Three

Booked a blog tour
Added the book to Goodreads
Scheduled at least one promo tweet a day to a buy link.
Schedule Facebook posts about the book.

That’s not much when you look at it.But man, was my month busy.

The blog tour

The blog tour took the most work, mainly because there were some communication issues.  I think in the future, it might be more beneficial for me to do the legwork and book my own blog tour instead of going through a company. That way I can target my specific demographic. So that’s one thing I’d change. But I’ll get to that in a minute.

Adding the book on Goodreads

This was the easiest. It took about five minutes and then I tweeted the link a few times. I decided against selling the book there because from what I’d heard, people were reporting about one book sold in months. Not worth the effort of maintaining it there. I do think I should have added it sooner, so it would be out there.

Scheduling promo tweets and Facebook updates

I really tried to strike a balance with this, because Twitter is filled with promotional garbage. Too much and you risk becoming white noise. Too little and you don’t get your message out. So I decided that I wouldn’t do more than three a day, and they would be spread out early morning, mid-morning, and evening. This would give me three different audiences on Twitter. You know, since not everyone is like me and is on Twitter all day long.

I also made sure to tweet the blog tour posts and schedule those also.

What did I learn from this?

There is a reason there are deadlines in publishing. It takes time to build up the buzz surrounding a book. It takes time to get that word out about it, especially for an author that isn’t well-known. And if I do all these marketing things at the end of the line, I can’t be as effective as I want to be.

What will I do differently?

The most important thing a publisher needs to understand is that marketing the book is the hardest part. So from now on, when I start writing a book, I will have a fully formed marketing plan already written and in place. Each book needs to have a marketing platform. They are all sub-platforms of our overall author platform. From the moment I start writing, i will be marketing the book. I could wait until I finish, but then I don’t have nearly as much time to build excitement for it.

It’s kind of like electricity. We could do things in series, where we finish one thing and start the next, but it’s not super effective and the task we do at the end of the line never has enough power (i.e. marketing). Running our business in parallel, that is doing things at the same time, will be far more effective at powering sales and we’ll ensure all components of a successful book launch have equal power.

Building my plan

I’m building my marketing plan for Off Her Game now, which is why this post was on my mind. I have to think about what my strengths and weaknesses are.

I’m good with graphic design.
I’m not so good with blog tours.

While I love blogging here, I’m not a fan of blogging for other people. I’m unsure if I’ll be doing a blog tour for Off Her Game. I have some other things, and I’m hoping that if I can build enough exposure between now and March, I might not need to do a blog tour.  The tour was good for exposure and reviews, but that was about it.

I’m still working out what might be effective for the book. That might be yet another blog post in the making for the future.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday! I’m taking the next few days off, but I’ll be back before the end of the year for the Obligatory End of Year Post and my Obligatory New Year’s Resolution Post.

So Saturday night, my kids, Sidney Bristol, and I all went out to tour a local neighborhood that has a Christmas lights competition every year.

I’m taking a blogging hiatus for a few days to be with family, but here’s some fun pictures from that, and one video of the creepiest inflated Santa ever.

And because this really creeped me out: The Creepy Santa that was Creepy.

Today kicks off my week long blog tour for O Christmas Three!

Come find me over at Roxanne’s Realm!

Check out each of these places during the week and say hi!

The Schedule
December 10
www.roxannesrealm.blogspot.com

December 11
www.creativelygreen.blogspot.com

December 12
www.christina-mcknight.blogspot.com

December 13
Fang-tastic Books
www.fang-tasticbooks.blogspot.com

December 13 promo
SMARTMOUTHTEXAN
www.smartmouthtexan.wordpress.com

December 14
Reginamayross’s Blog
http://reginamayross.blogspot.com

December 15
Erotica For All
http://eroticaforall.co.uk

December 15
Reviewing in Chaos
http://reviewinginchaos.blogspot.com

December 16
Words of Wisdom from The Scarf Princess
http://wowfromthescarfprincess.blogspot.com

December 16
Smitten with Reading
http://www.smittenwithreading.blogspot.com/

December 17
www.coffeeaddictedwriter.com

Hey, guys, I know I’ve been quiet this week. I’m almost done with Off Her Game revisions, so I’ve got my head down and typing furiously.

But… (isn’t there always a but?)

…for your reading pleasure, O Christmas Three is on sale at ARe!

If you haven’t picked up a copy, go now.

Offer ends just after Christmas. Buy it for a loved one.

 

So I missed last week’s ROW80 update completely. But that’s not to say that I haven’t been working.

Today’s update is going to be super quick because I do have a lot of work to do today, and I have yet to start. So let’s do lists!

Last time I updated was before Thanksgiving:

Write blog posts for the next week. (This will change to once a month hopefully in December. Good routines breed good habits, right?)
Write guest posts for other people. Blog tour is coming up in December for O Christmas Three. It promises to be lots of fun.
Write 15k on Off Her Game. Stay on Target and I aren’t speaking at the moment. I think the book is mad at me.
Organize desk area and surrounding book shelves.

How did I do?

I did end up writing blog posts for the week, but then I fell off and scrambled for the next week.
Still haven’t written guest posts but I’m not exactly sure yet how many I’m going to have.
I’m not sure how much I wrote on OHG. Maybe 10k? But I had to go back to the beginning to get the flow back so I did do some editing while I was there. And I finished the cover… Productive, yes?
I bought a shoe thingy for the back of my door. That cleared up some space. And I did organize paperwork that I’ve been putting off so the desk area is a little nicer, but far from done.

This week’s plan?

Finish Off Her Game. The plan is to be done by December 10th so I can do another editing pass and fix the new areas I added in the rewrite. I’m sending it to the distributor in January, along with another book that I’m going to revise next that I haven’t talked about. I will soon… I’m just not sure how that book is going to work out and I haven’t done a cover for it yet.

Get ready for the blog tour coming up this next week. I’m not sure if I’m going to do another blog tour through a company. This experience has been interesting, but I’m not positive that I really need blog tours. I kinda feel like if everyone is doing them, they aren’t going to be effective. But this is the first one I’ve done, so I’ll hang off until afterward to decide if it’s worth the effort or not.

That’s pretty much it for me. Oh, hey. I managed a goal post that was less than 1000 words… Sweeeeet.

How’s everyone else doing?

 

Anyone who knows me knows I’m not that much into planning my novel. Most of the time, I have a kernel of an idea and it grows while I write. But I’ve also been trying to teach myself to rely a little more on a plan. Plot isn’t a strong point of mine–I’m more character-driven–but I really wanted to improve that side of me. I think I have, but it’s taken a while.

So anyway… I’m working on planning a new story out. One I’ll be writing over the Christmas break, I think. So I’m kind of feeling this as I write this post. The first thing I have to figure out is my story’s core.

That entails three things:

Picking a Genre
Picking a Theme
Writing a Logline

Why these three? Because the rest of the story depends on the answers to the these questions. Internal conflicts don’t change much from genre to genre, but externals do. We need to be clear on what we want to write about and these three things will get us there.

Image provided by KristinNabor, WANA Commons

Picking a Genre

So this might seem like it’s a no brainer, but I’ve written a story where halfway through I realized it was an urban fantasy romance and not a contemporary. Seriously. So think about what the story is that you want to tell. Do you want to do a lot of world building? Do you want spaceships or dragons? Do you want magic fingertips or regular old manicures.

Picking a theme

I’m going to say right now, I hate themes. I hate picking them and I hate figuring out what my theme is. But they are necessary. It’s what your story is about. You can’t even decide on a conflict for your protagonist if you don’t know what the theme is. And plot needs to complement theme, add to it and flesh it out. So, let’s think about what we want our story to be about. Is it about a teenager learning independence for the first time, or maybe it’s an adult who just lost her mother and can’t come to terms with it. Maybe you’ve got a character who’s so self-involved, they’re in danger of missing love.

Theme is what we want to convey–the central idea of the story. In fact, our story may have more than one theme. That’s okay. The theme of a story is woven all the way through the story, and the characters’ actions, interactions, and motivations all reflect the story’s theme. We may have subplots that deal with an entirely different conflict than our main plot does.

Writing a Logline

We’ve got our theme. Now what? Now, we need to write a logline.

What’s a logline?

The logline is a very short summary of a story. It’s made to encompass the entire story into one very short sentence. It’s also great for pitching, but that’s an entirely different blog post.

Why do we do this? Why do we need a logline?

The reason for this is simple. FOCUS. In order to write at the speed I need to write, I have to know what my story is. If I can’t narrow it down into about…say…. 25 words or less, then I’ll have a tough time making sure my story sticks with my theme, and that will make readers’ attentions wander. It’s not to say we won’t adjust this line as we go along, but it helps to have it when you’re adding new scenes or deciding if you should keep old ones.

I’ve been doing a lot of practicing with this lately, trying to get it down. So, I’ve been reading a lot of logline posts and reading craft books and I’ve managed to figure out a template that has made this process much easier for me.

When [Bad Things Happen], a [flaw + protagonist] must [provide opposition to antagonist's goal] before [shit hits the fan].

Okay, so let’s look at that now. We need elements of our story to make this logline. We need something bad to happen to the protagonist, preferably something with two different outcomes depending on choices. Choice is very important, because if the protagonist doesn’t have a choice, then we don’t have conflict.

And speaking of our protagonist, they’ve got to have a flaw. Kind of like an Achilles heel.  (If you don’t know this yet, that’s okay. We’re going to talk about the protagonist in a later post.) We need to know the antagonist’s goal (we’re going to go over antagonists too!), and then we need a time limit. Our logline doesn’t have to be perfect now. It’s going to grow and change with our story. Especially if you’re a pantser like me. The story is organic, always changing until it’s finished and off to the printer.

But what makes a good logline?

So, what makes a good logline anyway? What is it about the logline that makes it such a great tool?

Short and sweet

That’s right, folks.  A good logline is short, sweet, and to the point. When I ask you what your book is about, you shouldn’t ramble on for the next ten minutes until I run screaming. One sentence. 90,000-100,000 words whittled into a sentence of 25 or less.

I know. Oy.

Emotionally intriguing

People should want to care about our story. When we say our logline, people should be able to see the entire story play out in our head.

It must be interesting

No one wants a boring story. In a logline, you should have a character we care about, goals for both the protagonist to achieve and the antagonist as well, and there should be a time limit. Why a time limit? Because would you sit on the edge of your seat if someone had all the time in the world to diffuse a bomb rather than thirty seconds? We also need to know what will happen if the protagonist doesn’t succeed. What are the stakes involved and what makes them important?

Writing Prompt

So this is a new thing on the blog. Each Saturday, I’m going to be talking writing, so I thought it might be a good idea to do something similar to what Writing Excuses does on their podcast. We’re going to do a writing prompt that is related to what we talked about in the post. You can post them here, if you want. You can just play along at home. Whatever you’re comfortable with.

So today’s writing prompt is to pick a theme for your story and write a logline for it. It can be for the story you’re writing now, one you just thought up, or it can be one that you’ve finished already. Your choice.

I kinda snuck incarnations of this cover on the site and have been tweaking it ever since. The Smart Thing would have been to probably hold off until I finished tweaking, but that’s never going to happen. I’ll always tweak. We talked about this, I think.

Anyway, I thought it might be fun to do a “Working Cover Reveal” instead of a final.

Here’s my original version:

It’s okay. It’s not spectacular to me, and the title kind of gets lost. That and you kinda can’t tell what that thing behind the title.

So I did another version.

So I made the hockey player in the background bigger. Played with opacity on the layers, fonts, and font color. I like this version, but the hockey player is still getting lost, and it looks kinda… dirty. At this point, I sent to Team Awesome, who pretty much said the same thing.

Next version.Changed the jersey color of the hockey player in the background. Made him smaller. Made the hockey stick and puck a little easier to see. Also took down the texture layer in opacity, which made it look cleaner. It was close. But then I realized that the title font was too big, it was touching the edge. And since this is going into print as well, that wasn’t going to work as a cover.

So back to Photoshop for another version. After some more tweaking, another round of critiques from Team Awesome, and a variety of putting things in and taking them out, here’s the final cover for the first book in my Texas Highlanders Hockey Team series, Off Her Game.

And when I say final, I mean until I tweak again.