ROBUST discussion

Kissing the Blarney is a triumph of a writer not working!

It is about writing a new edition of my bestselling handbook for other writers, WRITING A THRILLER, which in a blog of 166 posts to 5 May 2011 has not been mentioned once!

http://coolmainpress.com/ajwriting/

I'm circling in on it!

Scribbles & Tunes

That's my catch-all blog devoted mostly to my writing and my music. I also do a fair number of author interviews, as well as occasional comments on farming or baking pies. Yes, I bake pies. I baked 39 pies this morning.

Christopher wrote: "Scribbles & Tunes

That's my catch-all blog devoted mostly to my writing and my music. I also do a fair number of author interviews, as well as occasional comments on farming or baking pies. Yes, I..."

Thirty-nine pies is vey impressive considering how I struggle to make a decent crust for just one. Do you have an enormous kitchen with several ovens?

Commercial convection oven. It's pretty big (but I wish it was even bigger!). I can fit twelve 7 inch pies in at one go. My family has an organic farm and we grow a lot of fruit. We decided to bake pies as a value-added venture. Yesterday, I was in charge of the kitchen... It makes for a very early day.

I can hardly wait for the season to begin here when all the farmers' markets are open in the neighboring cities and villages.
I try to buy organic when I can. I wish more would do it so perhaps the prices would come down. To me the prices are well worth it.

Oh the prices are well worth the produce.

Nice. I bake pies, too. :) (Only form of cooking I actually do, oddly enough).

Claudine wrote: "Oh the prices are well worth the produce."

Agreed. My colleagues and I are remarking more and more often how the additives in our foods are changing how our children grow.

I have a personal blog where I wax philosophic about parenting and whatever else suits my mood.
Cookie's Chronicles:
http://cookieschronicles.blogspot.com

Likely of more interest to all of you, though I post to it significantly less frequently, is my book blog. Here I provide brief reviews of books that I have enjoyed along with interviews with the books' authors. I have also hosted the odd (meaning occasional and also quirky) guest blogger and hope to do more of this in the future.
Cookie's Book Club:
http://cookiesbookclub.blogspot.com

Edited to fix a typo. Sigh. Did I really type "what ever" as two words? Maybe it's my subconscious mind protesting the overuse of the word 'whatever' to replace, or perhaps just supplement, the annoying eye-roll.

And then edited again to changed a 'too' to a 'to'. Apparently I need my own editor!

I have two blogs: http://kates-scribbles.blogspot.com/
http://treespeaker.blogspot.com

The first is a more personal, general blog about writing, art and my life in general and the second gives background to my novel - a diary from the viewpoint of someone who visited my characters twenty years before the book.

I have a blog at:
http://anabarauthor.blogspot.com/
Right now, I use it to promote my book and talk about writing, but I really want to use it for a variety of things like my wood carving hobby, gardening, and other things in my life. I am also getting ready to start a website, which will be devoted to promoting and delivering information about my books. I am going to include maps. photographs, journal entries, diagrams, and other materials to go along with my books.

My blog is at:
http://librariansquest.blogspot.com
It is mostly book reviews for elementary and middle school students, staff and parents. I try to add new web 2.0 apps that my staff, students and parents can use in the classroom or just to have fun. If something comes along that excites me about books or reading I add that too. For my personal interests check out the next folder down.

I blog about writing, the digital revolution, and provide a step-by-step self-publishing guide at Let's Get Digital, Digital. I've even been known to inflict haikus on the unsuspecting.

I talk rubbish (book and writing related) at http://www.jameseverington.blogspot.com/

cheers
James

Will wrote: "I am also getting ready to start a website, which will be devoted to promoting and delivering information about my books. I am going to include maps. photographs, journal entries, diagrams, and other materials to go along with my books."

All my career I've tended to stick close to my typewriter and give a week, at most a fortnight, to promotion per book, after which point I took no further calls from anyone, and I would spend that week at the pressure points of the buyers for the biggest chains and doing television or national radio; I couldn't be bothered with signings and suchlike egotrips and makework for PR people, and as for touring, occasionally other writers would as me why they never saw me in the boonies, and I would say, "You saw my book standing in for me." So I haven't ever been been as close to my readers as since I started my indie experiment a week before Christmas last year. But one of the first things I discovered is that readers with common interests are also interested in the huge amount of information a writer gathers for a book that he doesn't use.

Last week was the first week I had a counter on my netsite. In the off-season for sled dog racing, my IDITAROD Value Added Page attracted 95 individuals. See it here: http://coolmainpress.com/iditarod1012...
Okay, compared to the 143,000 people who came on the novel's Facebook page
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Iditaro...
in the peak week during the race, that looks like nothing. Don't you believe it for a minute. 99.9% of writers will never in their entire lives expose their books to the 5000 specifically and actively interested readers every year that 95 per week grows into.

That's a smart idea you have there, Will. Nurture it.

Margie wrote: "My colleagues and I are remarking more and more often how the additives in our foods are changing how our children grow."

Are you serious? In Europe the additives are strictly controlled. But even in the States they're controlled, if more haphazardly and subject to political interference. In any event, the way we look is already largely down to science, and chemicals. It is widely thought that the widespread pasteurization of milk, for instance, put four or five inches on the height of Americans, and five inches around the thigh of an American woman.

(The wannabe anorexics should blame Jenner, not me! I'm just the messenger.)

And this is why I buy organic meat, organic veg and drink raw milk. :)

Will wrote: "I have a blog at:
http://anabarauthor.blogspot.com/
Right now, I use it to promote my book and talk about writing, but I really want to use it for a variety of things like my wood carving hobby,..."

I was thinking of doing something similar for my upcoming novel. Even including things like deleted scenes, characters who got cut, alternative endings - the kind of things people enjoy on a DVD.

Maybe even in-depth historical notes, a travel guide, that kind of thing to. A lot of it I have already, the rest I would have to evaluate if it was worth the time to produce it.

Andre,

I've always enjoyed books and series that created new worlds like the Lord of the Rings Series, and I have ideas for a different world for my series. One big difference is that my series doesn't include magic, but I'm trying to create a unique setting for my books.
I have about tow weeks left of teaching before Summer vacation, and then I can really get to work on this. I can hardly wait.

Hey, there. Here's my blog.
UNICORNS, TAMPONS AND OTHER GIRLY THINGS

This blog is mostly used for promoting my romance parody, ROMANCE NOVEL, my soon to be released short story, NAUGHTY LITTLE SCHNITZEL, and spewing inane nonsense...
http://pjjonesramblings.blogspot.com/?
zx=82c6baae7e27bb61

David,
I like your ideas of adding deleted scenes and alternative endings. There really is no limit to what we can do, and I think readers will enjoy this type of extra material. Who know- maybe it will become common for writers to include extra features with books.

Andre Jute wrote: "Will wrote: "I am also getting ready to start a website, which will be devoted to promoting and delivering information about my books. I am going to include maps. photographs, journal entries, diag..."

Hi Andre,

I now have my website up and running at: https://sites.google.com/site/anabars...

I would really like to hear what you think of it.

thanks,

Will

My blog is Jordan's Croft - http://jordanscroft.blogspot.com

I blog about writing, politics, and rant sometimes. Mostly I pass on information about the new 'Indie Publishing' business.

Will wrote: "Hi Andre,

I now have my website up and running at: https://sites.google.com/site/anabarsrun...

I would really like to hear what you think of it.

thanks,

Will "

You're trying to reinvent the wheel. You're wasting time on net design and doing it badly when you should be spending it on content creation. Here are some hints.

1. Go find a better template for your site, one with a proper designer's choice of typefaces already attached to it. You can't do better than they can. (I can do better but don't see the point of spending the time — an extremely competent design was free for taking, so I took it.) A blog is better than a netsite, because a blog comes with built-in promotion. My blog, which was started in January, attracts about 300 visitors a day compared to 100 for my personal netsite on my publisher's site.

2. Resist the temptation to use large blocks of italic font, especially for the extract from your book. It is hard to read.

3. Resist the temptation to use monospace fonts that look like typewriter face. This doesn't look writerly. At best it looks twee, at worst simply incompetent.

4. Learn to choose the styles that don't wreck your intention. Here I'm speaking about your contents list in the narrow lefthand sidebar, for which you've chosen a bullet point style which clearly is intended for a much wider measure.

5. We can't even discuss the content until you get the presentation right. Perhaps your fans will read what you offer, but I don't see how such offputting presentation will attract new readers to you.

6. My blog isn't an example to you. It is deliberately bare, even arid, because it is a word-intellectual's blog, intended to be forbidding to the soundbite minds, though those I'm aiming it at find it pretty amusing. I'm not selling anything to anyone but my peers; my popular books are sold by my readers, not by me.

7. Instead, look at the blogs of people on ROBUST who're writing to sell something or persuade someone to support quality literature. Margie and Sue and Kat and Kathleen have colorful, lively blogs. They were starting out just like you only months ago, and see how well they've done. (Well, admittedly, Kathleen is a professional designer, so you would expect her to start out well.) Note how they and I speak directly but differently to our intended audiences before we say a word, merely by the graphic (illustrative and typographic) appearance of our blogs.

8. Don't go away despondent. Graphic design is an iterative process, just like writing. You can bet your ass none of us got it right the first time, nor in five minutes. You might have to come back with several iterations before you have something that works for your readers.

9. Keep at it. It's just like learning a foreign language or learning to write, hard in the beginning, then progressively easier.

Good luck.

My blog: http://bookbrouhaha.blogspot.com/

My card: I tried stapling it to my computer screen only to realize no one will see it but me.

Andre,

Despondent? Pish posh! I'm a big boy, and I wouldn't have sent you the link if didn't want an honest assessment. Actually, I assumed you would be honest, and that is why I value your comments and suggestions.
While reading your post, I chuckled when I read, "You can bet your ass none of us got it right the first time, nor in five minutes," because that is what I have done so far with my site.
I can't thank you enough for your comments. I teach, and I only have three days left until I begin my summer, and then I plan to spend a large portion of it writing and working on my website and blog. I'll begin by using your post as a checklist to work on to make improvements. Margie from Robust has also been kind enough to offer me some suggestions, and I plan to work on her list as well.

Thanks very much!

Will

Andre

Congrats on the success of Robust!

Here's my blog:

Take No More

Best wishes

Seb

Alain wrote: "My card: I tried stapling it to my computer screen only to realize no one will see it but me."

You gotta staple it the wrong way round so it faces the pinhole for the camera in the monitor surround, then everyone can see it.

For really stupid people, who can't work out which way to point it, the latest iPad has a camera front and back.

Seb, I took another look at your blog. I like the ability to translate it into any language at the press of a flag.

However, you want to look into your code. You're not translating your own site but some jazz top 100 site. Interesting in Chinese, but not strictly pertinent!

Claudine wrote: "And this is why I buy organic meat, organic veg and drink raw milk. :)"

Sigh. My idiot country won't let you drink raw milk unless you own the cow. There are farms that allow you to buy "shares" of cows, and then pick up your milk as a way to get around the law, but it's a hassle no one should have to deal with.

David wrote: Even including things like deleted scenes, characters who got cut, alternative endings - the kind of things people enjoy on a DVD.

Maybe even in-depth historical notes, a travel guide, that kind of thing to. A lot of it I have already, the rest I would have to evaluate if it was worth the time to produce it.

I'm in the process of setting that up on my website. http://www.kerylraist.com.

When it's done it'll have original artwork, sneak peeks, deleted scenes, recipes, and links to anything real world (like music) mentioned in the books. If I get really frisky and learn some more web stuff, I'd like to have a discussion board and a fan fiction section as well.

One of these days, I'm determined to learn enough about how to do this whole multi-media thing to set up a book that has optional illustrations and a sound track as well. The kind of thing where you can read it straight, or like with a DVD, switch to the deluxe edition with all the bells and whistles. (Of course, that would be a lot easier if I could do my own illustrations and music... I have a feeling the Deluxe Edition will be a very expensive package.)

Keryl wrote: "One of these days, I'm determined to learn enough about how to do this whole multi-media thing to set up a book that has optional illustrations and a sound track as well."

Ha. I wrote the book in 1990 and put it aside until the electronic media should mature... and then forgot about it until I made my Kindle experiment and already had more projects on the go than is wise. It has short novel, a film script and a radio play meant to read interchangeably side by side, all done, but I haven't found time to do illustrations or music (or at least sound effects) or find someone to do illustrations and music.

Serious subject: who decided to give political power to the soundbite medium of television (which didn't want it), and why. Extremely surprising answers. You will love this one when I get around to it.

So, in a more direct response to the thread topic:

http://www.topublishornottopublish.bl... is my blog. I write about self-publishing, mostly reviews of self-publishing options, and I review other indie books.

Keryl wrote: "Claudine wrote: "And this is why I buy organic meat, organic veg and drink raw milk. :)"

Sigh. My idiot country won't let you drink raw milk unless you own the cow. There are farms that allow y..."

See this is an advantage in living in an African country! Your cow (or goat or duck) could be in your own back yard and no one cares ;)

I get organic meat and veg, but what's this with raw milk? The pasteurization of milk is responsible for you ladies having three inches around the upper thigh -- forgive the impertinence -- that your ancestors didn't have, and for your children being on average three inches taller. Not to mention life expectancy being increased, infant mortality being reduced, and so on.

By the way, where I live, it is not only organic meat, I can trace every animal I eat to its breeder, in advance if I care, in arrears via a certificate in my butcher's window in every case. I ride past a field of animals and greet them, "Hello, dinners."

Andre here, at Irene Dairy Farm the milk is pumped straight from the grassfed cows into a cooling plant which then is pumped straight into the storefront tank where it is sold direct to the public without going through the pasteurisation process first. It is sold as certified raw milk without the interference of the government, unlike the US and I think Australia, where you cannot really purchase it without very strict guidelines. It tastes completely different to store bought pasteurised milk and lasts far longer than store bought milk.

I buy meat from a butcher who is supplied by various farms, including free range Karoo lamb and is certified grain or grass fed etc. Else you are left with the meat instore which is shite beyond belief sometimes.

European Union food regulations, some of them clearly intended to keep out cheaper good food like New Zealand lamb, have increased the quality of produce, if from quality you exclude taste. I'm not joking, the regularization of tomatoes as to colour, size, shape, etc, have now brought the taste of tomatoes to such a homogenous zero that I eat cocktail tomatoes instead because they're still imported from places you can taste. A little punnet of cocktail tomatoes probably costs as much -- I don't ask for fear of throwing a thrombie -- as my mother paid for a side of beef or three or four lambs for the freezer.

New Zealand lamb, if I wasn't a staunch Springbok ;), tastes almost as good as Karoo lamb.

Don't get me started on the bland sameness of taste that many fruits and vegetables seem to blend into these days. And the cost! God don't get me started on the cost.

I won't tell you what food costs here. Ireland was said, a couple of years ago, to be the most expensive country in the world to live in.

So, the good thing about life in the US (foodwise) is that there's absolute piles of amazingly inexpensive food. It's often extremely tasty (in the sense of being high in fat, sugar, and salt) and very bad for you.

But (and here I'm not being sarcastic) there's also piles of good food that's not very expensive either. Sure, it's not free range or organic, but I can still get close to eight varieties of apples for less per pound than I'd pay for breakfast cereal. The food that's unprocessed is really not very expensive at all. I hear people complain about how they're too poor to eat well, and I wonder where they shop, because every one of the five different grocery stores around where I am offer fruit, veg, meat, cheese, milk, eggs, bread, grains, and flours for very low prices. (On a per pound basis. Cheese is the most expensive thing on that list.)

If you are willing to/have the time to cook for yourself, you can eat very well where I live for a very reasonable price.

As for the unpasteurized milk, it's supposed to contain some sorts of beneficial bacteria that some people want access to. Others just think it tastes better. Since I don't drink milk of any variety it's a moot point for me.

We have plenty of good tasty food from dozens of cultures; at every meal we eat dishes and ingredients that a generation ago were considered great luxuries. It's just expensive. The only difference is that, instead of buying it at a specialty store in the city, we now get it from the local supermarket within walking distance. The high cost of everything is a concomitant of a high wage/high service/high security/high tax economy.

Though you can hear all kinds of high-faluting BS from posturing pols, the European common market was founded specifically to make the most feared division of the French socio-economic whole, the small farmers, rich enough to buy the products of German car workers so that there would never be the need for another European war. In return the French farmers would undertake forever to feed the Germans so that they wouldn't need to invade anyone for lebensraum (tr. space to grow cabbages). In that the EU has been hugely successful. The EU is centered around this agricultural necessity, formally applied through the Common Agricultural Policy. Everything else (except sound money) is secondary to it. You won't hear the pols say the parenthetical bit in public: they pretend still to be socialists.

Ireland's Celtic Tiger was based on a generation of excess income from the CAP, the Common Agricultural Policy, fattened up through Keynesian multipliers. The same was true elsewhere.

In particular, two elements are essential to the survival of this high wire juggling act. Low paid and low-skilled manufactures must be exported to the East, at the same time as temporary immigrants (to whom our minimum wage are a fortune) compete to be allowed to do the menial work. And, most important of all, a very tight Chicago School monetarism (I knew one day I'd be back in fashion!) must be maintained so that inflation doesn't spin the whole magic wheelie out of control.

Super piece on "Success" on our Katie's blog:

http://kates-scribbles.blogspot.com/2...

"Our Katie" Andre? That sounds very north of England! ;)

Thanks for the plug!

What a lovely article, Kate!

Katie-
I agree with Sjm and Andre. The article is beautifully written with wisdom and truth.

Thanks, everyone!

My blog topics loosely relate to my novel's protagonist, Pepper Bibeau, so just about anything goes from Christmas in Honolulu to Sculpture in Chicago's Loop.

http://gail-baugniet.blogspot.com

Sjm wrote: "Apparently, I need my own editor."
Cookie's Chronicles:

I think you are your own editor, and quite good at it!

Thanks Gail!

SJM is also an editor for Andrew McCoy and Dakota Franklin. She's rather good at that too.

In fact, we have another editor of McCoy and Franklin books on ROBUST: Claudine. She's too is rather good at it.