You mean I have to SELL it as well as WRITE IT?
I had thought I would spend my Christmas catching up on reading. In my inbox I have about fifteen emails offering to tell me how I can make $1,000 a day etc – so, I figured that if I read all fifteen I would be making $15,000 a day and will have all the fast cars, big houses with pools, beautiful women etc. that they promised me, right? Ok, I guess that’s the mulled wine talking. Back to the real world.
Book marketing and ‘platform building’ has taken over my life. I live, eat, sleep, dream and hallucinate about facebook, twitter, pinterest, wattpad, goodreads, amazon, Smashwords – and probably more that I cannot remember at this very stressed time. Somewhere in the misty recesses of my mind I knew there was something else I should be doing but I was not sure what it was. Oh Yes, that was it. Writing!
On my fourth glass of red wine I realised what the answer was. I have to clone myself. It could not be that hard. If I could turn myself, in twelve months, from someone who did not even have a twitter account (yes, really) into someone who can say the words, ‘SEO’, ‘affiliate’, ‘blog’, ‘social network’ and ‘Indie’ without breaking into a nervous sweat, surely I could master something as simple as cloning myself. I sat down and worked out that I would need about twelve of me, at least that would make a start.
Something deep inside, was nagging at me and telling me that I ought to have a back-up plan, just in case for some unforeseeable reason my cloning plan failed.
Here is my back-up plan. One day a week will be devoted to writing – firstly re-editing my current book and working on the second – to be published around June. A lot of my social networking has to be handled more effectively and sensibly. No more checking facebook 378 times a day to see how many ‘likes’ I have! Everything I need to do is do-able, with planning and focus.
I have amassed an amazing amount of knowledge this year in three ways. Firstly, personal experience. I have been through the processes of writing, editing, publishing and marketing four books – totally without a safety net or a harness. Secondly, I have read a lot, and then read more. Some of our more successful colleague are generous in giving back a lot of their experience free of charge – and I have learned from them. I would like to especially thank (in no part order) Joanna Penn, Shelly Hitz, the ‘Duolit’ team, Mark Coker, and Kirsten Lamb. There are many more who have also contributed in many ways to my growing bank of knowledge and ideas. Finally, I have spoken with many authors far more successful (so far – watch this space) than myself and gained insights and inspiration – they include Nuri Vittachi, Philip Kim and Justin Hill.
I have decided that in 2013 the world will get more of Arthur Crandon whether it likes it or not. I will post at least two blogs each week. One will be of a technical/help nature, and over the 52 weeks of the year will build up into an impressive all encompassing guide discussing and explaining writing( structure, genres, motivation, editing, inspiration, work habits), Publishing (technical aspects, options, costs, results, trends) and Marketing (Social networking, author platforms, traditional ways).
Each blog will be for the aspiring author who wants to learn, and will be about 2,000 words at least. I will try to distil what knowledge I have gained into VERY simple Non-IT literate words. So that by the end of the year, if you cut and paste them you will have a useful reference tool.
The other blog I will do each week will comment on current trends, tell jokes, share sadnesses, recommend good stuff I have used or found, rave about Hong Kong, rave about my kids, rave about my girlfriend, rave about books, mine and others, rave about raving...... I think you get the idea. My final blog of 2012 will be predictions – Arthurdamus – I hope you will enjoy it. Please register – over there on the right – top make sure you receive it, and all my future blogs. Happy Christmas
Book marketing and ‘platform building’ has taken over my life. I live, eat, sleep, dream and hallucinate about facebook, twitter, pinterest, wattpad, goodreads, amazon, Smashwords – and probably more that I cannot remember at this very stressed time. Somewhere in the misty recesses of my mind I knew there was something else I should be doing but I was not sure what it was. Oh Yes, that was it. Writing!
On my fourth glass of red wine I realised what the answer was. I have to clone myself. It could not be that hard. If I could turn myself, in twelve months, from someone who did not even have a twitter account (yes, really) into someone who can say the words, ‘SEO’, ‘affiliate’, ‘blog’, ‘social network’ and ‘Indie’ without breaking into a nervous sweat, surely I could master something as simple as cloning myself. I sat down and worked out that I would need about twelve of me, at least that would make a start.
Something deep inside, was nagging at me and telling me that I ought to have a back-up plan, just in case for some unforeseeable reason my cloning plan failed.
Here is my back-up plan. One day a week will be devoted to writing – firstly re-editing my current book and working on the second – to be published around June. A lot of my social networking has to be handled more effectively and sensibly. No more checking facebook 378 times a day to see how many ‘likes’ I have! Everything I need to do is do-able, with planning and focus.
I have amassed an amazing amount of knowledge this year in three ways. Firstly, personal experience. I have been through the processes of writing, editing, publishing and marketing four books – totally without a safety net or a harness. Secondly, I have read a lot, and then read more. Some of our more successful colleague are generous in giving back a lot of their experience free of charge – and I have learned from them. I would like to especially thank (in no part order) Joanna Penn, Shelly Hitz, the ‘Duolit’ team, Mark Coker, and Kirsten Lamb. There are many more who have also contributed in many ways to my growing bank of knowledge and ideas. Finally, I have spoken with many authors far more successful (so far – watch this space) than myself and gained insights and inspiration – they include Nuri Vittachi, Philip Kim and Justin Hill.
I have decided that in 2013 the world will get more of Arthur Crandon whether it likes it or not. I will post at least two blogs each week. One will be of a technical/help nature, and over the 52 weeks of the year will build up into an impressive all encompassing guide discussing and explaining writing( structure, genres, motivation, editing, inspiration, work habits), Publishing (technical aspects, options, costs, results, trends) and Marketing (Social networking, author platforms, traditional ways).
Each blog will be for the aspiring author who wants to learn, and will be about 2,000 words at least. I will try to distil what knowledge I have gained into VERY simple Non-IT literate words. So that by the end of the year, if you cut and paste them you will have a useful reference tool.
The other blog I will do each week will comment on current trends, tell jokes, share sadnesses, recommend good stuff I have used or found, rave about Hong Kong, rave about my kids, rave about my girlfriend, rave about books, mine and others, rave about raving...... I think you get the idea. My final blog of 2012 will be predictions – Arthurdamus – I hope you will enjoy it. Please register – over there on the right – top make sure you receive it, and all my future blogs. Happy Christmas
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