As of October 1st, 2021, my first book “Climbing The Walls” is LIVE on the Saga app — exclusively (e-version).
That’s right. I hit “Unpublish” on Amazon. That’s a HUGE step for any writer, but I did it.
I took a leap of faith in a new start-up company run by young book lovers. Saga Fiction is India’s foremost mobile fiction app, which handpicks the best of feel-good stories and contemporary fiction, bringing to you an undeniable reading experience with serialized fiction, mini novellas, and page-turning novels.
“Climbing The Walls” was converted into 58 “episodes” (each around 1000-3000 words, depending on how chapters/breaks fell) and 10 seasons with 5-7 episodes each. Episodes will be releasing daily over the next 2+ months, so you can enjoy it in “bite-sized” chunks!
The Episodic Edit
As part of this process, I did a huge edit yet AGAIN to crunch my book down, and I think it’s much better for it.
I’ve had this book around since I was a teenager myself… 15+ years ago was its first iteration, so you can imagine! Obviously my writing has matured since then, and I’ve needed some distance to *really* be able to edit it, and of course the loving hands of the Saga team to guide me as to what could and should be cut.
This version may be the first that many readers see, as I’ve been terrible at marketing it so my books haven’t had a huge audience just yet. Not totally a bad thing though… I’m glad this refined version is the one that many will first read!
I’ve also been really excited to dive into the Saga marketing strategies — from video trailers to introduce my characters to “What Would You Do?” scenarios, to my own Insta stories (which I hope I’ll find time to post)! I’ve also done interviews with the Saga team on “The Publishing Dialogue” and will soon do “The Author Tells” segment where I’ll finally get to talk about my characters! Haha!
My Saga experience
I’m loving my Saga experience thus far. I can’t speak to the financial side just yet, but it’s been a pleasure to work with people who love your book babies and treat them with care!
Far too many companies that allow readers to contribute stories have zero to little support for their authors and barely have a hand in the content it spins around, but I’ve had quite a deep dive into my books so that what I release is something I’m proud of — and something I can take away at the end of the experience, so for me the risk is worth it.
My main goal is for my books to get a wider audience, and I’m thrilled to introduce my characters to the world because they SO deserve it!
If you are interested in becoming a writer for Saga, be sure to check out their website and see what it takes!
AND of course you should download the app ASAP so you can start reading my book baby “Climbing The Walls” and much more!
Well, I got tired of keeping that secret… for a few of my stories, at least!
I’m thrilled to announce the upcoming launch of my very first SHORT STORY COLLECTION!
I’ve partnered with the Saga mobile app (where my Hart & Cole series will soon find a new home) to also release some of the short stories that I’ve written over the past 15+ years. They desperately needed a home and a wider audience than just me! 🙂
I never really know what to do with short stories… they’re these little fissures of INK (usually tinged with darkness) that slip through unbidden, and after they pour out in their insular perfection, then what?
…What do I do with them?
I’d shared a few with my Writer’s Guild, futilely entered a couple in competitions, or sometimes sent to a friend, but mostly they just sat there on my laptop, unloved.
Thanks to the Saga mobile app, I finally have an avenue to share them with others, all prettily packaged and thematically preserved for posterity!
The first “pretty package” (because I have more planned!) comes in the form of “Amalgamated Darkness“, a compilation of 8 short stories that sketch human nature at its darkest hour.
“Amalgamated Darkness” – what’s it about?
Here’s the blurb:
A girl becomes a woman – with another’s blood on her hands.
An athlete is propelled by bloodlust to a senseless act.
A boy becomes the custodian of his mother’s madness.
A young woman chooses a path to self-destruction in her partner.
A village enacts its own justice system.
A man fixates on a mysterious young girl.
A misfit evolves from observer to admirer to aggressor.
An act of youthful folly consumes a woman’s sanity.
Thought-provoking and evocative, these tales take power in their universality: they could happen anywhere, at any time, to anyone. From virtuous innocence to tainted experience with a sprinkle of the supernatural, these eight captivating short stories take you on a journey to the darkness that fuels the often ordinary lives of people that inhabit the world around us.
“Amalgamated Darkness” will be exclusively available on the Saga mobile fiction app. Coming soon!
Writing a book is like starting a business. (And I’ve done both.)
Particularly when it comes to support from your network.
Or who you “think” is your network, anyway.
You know… your friends, your family, your coworkers or colleagues, and the like.
Almost everyone who’s aware of your writing “hobby” (because that’s the box they’ve put it into, in their minds) will have genuine words of support while your work is in progress, and maybe even when it’s out there.
But for many… once the time is upon us to actually support beyond saying “Congrats”… it’s crickets.
The Business of Support
Recently, a friend of mine opened a business. I stopped in, bought something, took photos, and posted it on social media.
Now, whenever I spot a post from this friend about the business, I’ll share and add a line or two encouraging my friends/followers to check it out.
And every chance I get, if I think someone’s even remotely interested, I’ll mention in a word-of-mouth convo: “Oh, if you’re looking for X, I know this place…”
Mind you, I’m not even that close to this guy. And this guy is BELOVED. He has hundreds, maybe even thousands, of friends. People know he’s talented.
But when he took this talent to create something bigger, I was in the tiny percentile that gave a rat’s ass.
Still, when any already-famous celebrity does the slightest thing, the average Joe or Josephina jumps on top of it to support.
…To yell “me too!” into a cacophony of noise that won’t make the slightest difference to its producer.
The (Writer) Cheese Stands Alone
Fortunately for me, I didn’t expect too much from my immediate real-life network in terms of writing.
I never have, if we’re being entirely honest here.
I’ve been writing FOREVER, and as a child I was lucky to have parents who would share my stories and novels and accomplishments with their colleagues, whether or not they read it themselves — just because they were proud I was writing.
But apart from those who brought you into this world… (and in some cases, not even them!)… I wouldn’t recommend counting on anyone else’s lifelong support for your accomplishments.
Even at university, when I was President of the Writers’ Guild at one point, I knew that this world — writers — would always be separate from my friends who I’d go out and party with.
I’m not saying that writers can’t party. Oh, we can, and we did, and we do!
But (almost) anyone you meet outside of that safe space of “Hey, we are both writers” will NEVER understand the struggle.
They’ll never know how much their support means, or maybe even how to support you. And that’s if they even want to!
Solitude & Sacrilege
I’m three years into my published writing journey so far, and I can count maybe 10-15 friends that have done even one of the following: (1) bought the book (2) downloaded a free copy when prompted (3) left a review (4) told their friends (5) done literally anything beyond say “Congrats”.
It’s not that my friends suck. I love my friends.
…But my friends aren’t writers.
They don’t live with fully-fleshed characters in their heads for 15-20 years.
They don’t spend countless hours trying to fix a scene to make it “just right”.
They don’t spend entire chunks of their day hopping from author Facebook group to promo Facebook group and back again, or literally years just browsing the internet trying to learn the marketing side of this craft.
They don’t understand that your writing, your fictional world, and your characters are sacred… and their blatant disregard or flippant remark may be hurtful.
They’re sweet, and maybe they mean well… but they don’t get it. They simply can’t.
Even if they try to (and most don’t), the reality is that everyone else is living their lives while you’re writing yours away.
Or, quite simply: they aren’t your target market.
But somewhere out there is someone who will support you in the ways you need. That person, that reader, that fan… for whom your story will change their life.
…It’s just really, really unlikely that that person will ALSO be your friend.
Education & Understanding
So if this post seemed bitter from the jump, I hope it’s not coming off like that now.
It’s not about writers screaming “buy my book” until their network is tired of hearing it, and it’s not about friends being unsupportive.
It’s about education and understanding. As writers, it’s our job to educate our network — tell others what we want, when we want it, and how much we would appreciate it.
As I posted recently to one of those bajillion author groups I now belong to:
You don’t often get things you don’t ask for.
So writers… (and I’ve seen the bitter posts on many author groups!)… ASK. Just ASK. Don’t be ashamed to flaunt your writer wares to your loved ones and explicitly outline: “This is how I would like you to help me, even if you have zero intention of ever buying or reading my book.”
We live in a shareable world driven by social media influencers, and amidst the cacophony of noise, any little nudge will help.
I recently signed an exclusive contract with Saga, an Indian publishing company, for my entire series to be converted into an episodic format for their upcoming mobile fiction app.
That’s right… you heard me… exclusive. That means *GULP* taking it off of Amazon, for a specific period. (I’ll let you know how that goes!)
But this entire transition onto the app meant that the Saga folks did a deep-dive into my series and gave some good suggestions (mainly — to chop out some bits) so I took it to heart and did a significant overhaul.
Mind you, I’m an awesome editor in my own right… I do, after all, make a living at this… but you can’t, you just CAN’T edit yourself!
The Art of the Edit
In the case of “Climbing The Walls“, it meant entire flashback scenes and minor plot points disappeared entirely, a few scenes were rewritten to cover up those gaps, and then minor snipping to cut every stray word.
Sounds crazy that I still had so much to cut, but it was a cathartic process to get the book down to a now much less unwieldy tome. At around 110,000 words, it’s definitely — and finally — in its right word count bracket.
Litrejections say 80,000-110,000 and JerichoWriters say 75,000-110,000 for women’s fiction, Reedsy suggests 80,000-110,000 for commercial and literary fiction, so I’m just squeezing in under the limit there!
My first draft of this novel was over 15 years ago, so it’s understandable that I’ve grown a lot as a writer since. The problem is that I was stuck in my head with who my characters were, and tried to get it all in. With considerable distance, and fresh editorial eyes on this masterpiece of mine, it’s finally where it should be.
A Fresh New Look… coming soon
Another piece of good news (to me) is that my entire series will get new covers.
Not much of a big change between my two versions!
I love my covers, but I have to admit that they may not be on-genre. Purple and black suggest erotica (apparently) as I learnt! And while there are sexy elements to my stories, that’s not the main theme.
I have no idea what the new covers will all look like, but I’m looking forward to a change.
The first one is done and it is a distinct shift from the past!
Just like the words themselves, I’m stuck in my own head with the cover. Even when I updated the cover of Book 1, it looked similar!
I have to let go and let someone else make some decisions, for a change.
I love the new Saga cover, which has a very different look and feel to my own versions!
The inner writer-girl control freak
I’m excited about my new partnership, as I know it’ll reach markets I have no hope of reaching on my own with my limited finances.
But I’m also scared of giving up control.
Being a writer is about playing God with a universe you create.
Tacking on a publishing house’s name to my own production company is, in a word… frightening!
So screaming my book from the mountaintops… yeah, I just don’t have the energy or time to do it anymore. I need to let someone else take the reins — at least, for a little bit, while I focus on the financial stuff through other means. Hopefully I can use some of that to feed back into my own promotions eventually, but for now I’m willing to just sit and wait and see how things go with Saga.
I just wrote two short stories — after not writing any for over a decade.
My two new short stories are amazing. At least, I think so. (I may be biased.)
But, here’s the thing… what do I do with them now?
One of the Anthologies I contributed stories to, from my undergrad university – click to purchase! (I have no idea who makes money from this purchase btw…)
For the past decade, I’ve been focusing on my Hart & Cole novel series, which takes a LOT out of me, so my short-story fuse tapered out.
I used to write a lot of them while I was doing my undergraduate degree and I belonged to (and at one point presided over) my university’s Writers’ Guild.
Guild was a place to bring them, to discuss them, to get feedback, to tweak them, and the like. Every year we also published an Anthology. So there was an audience, and an eventual route of publication if so desired.
But now that I’ve written new stories, I have no idea what to do with them.
Firstly, do I even want to “sell” them? Because, well… they’re loosely inspired by my experiences of early parenting during a pandemic.
I’m pretty sure my partner would be alarmed if he read them, but as I’ve said before, fortunately he’s not a reader so the likelihood of this is slim to none.
While they’re somewhat personal to me, they are fiction and will amuse and entertain readers.
So… right, if I do decide I’m comfortable with putting them out there, where do I begin?
What do you do, with a random story?
Though I think they’re amazing, I also don’t really think they’re competition-worthy, as I’d hate to adjust them in even the slightest way to fit into any competition’s guidelines.
I can just publish them, of course… but I’d need to flesh out a full collection, to be able to cobble something together for purposes of a sale.
And though they can stand on their own if I release them individually on one of the modern “bite-sized” platforms, I’d really like to create a whole thematic collection so they can be read as a group rather than on their own.
That means I need to write several more, say anywhere from 3-8 more, so I can call this “Pandemic Perusings” a collection.
…While those two stories linger, already written… hanging on, unseen. Until the muse strikes for their compatriots to come along for the ride.
It’s like hanging on to an amazing secret, with no knowledge of when you can tell the world.
As writers, we are all secret-keepers of something amazing. And as short story writers, we really are the best secret-keepers. I also have novels burning a hole in my soul, because I know what’ll happen and can’t just tell everyone — I have to F**KING write the damn novel!
But back to my short stories…
Deciding the path for your big book babies is one thing… but it’s quite another for your mini-babies!
Yeah, I know that having stories is the LAST thing a writer should complain about, but I’m in a quandary at the moment — not having the wherewithal to create a collection, while also not wanting to do my amazing stories a disservice by rushing them out there with little context, nor do I want to hold them back when they deserve to meet the world.
I got hacked. During my book tour. Yeah. It sucked.
I’m a web designer and I love dabbling in code, but I’m far from a developer. In the past, I’ve managed to avoid any serious web security issues… and then my last week hit me like a train.
It started on a website I recently rebuilt. I breathed life back into this passion project, so when I had to write a bio, I thought I’d link to it.
That was the first time I realised there was a malicious redirect on the domain.
Okay, fine. I’m not really *using* the site, so I reported it and went about my business.
A screenshot from my hacked site
I’ve had experiences in the past when I get something similar, report it to the host, they recommend a security firm, I ignore it, they send me the list of infected files, and I put aside some time to do cleanup, get my site back online, and move on with my life.
But after the hack on a “passion project” site that I didn’t see as urgent, it soon cross-contaminated all the other sites on my hosting account… 7 of them, in total. Didn’t know that could happen? Well, it could. It did.
…Including this site, my beloved, beautiful author website that is the central hub of my writing life.
The cost of doing business
A screenshot from my hacked site
I started cleanup… and spent at least 4 days trying my best, but it was too much. I eventually called it quits and threw in the towel. After 10 years of avoiding it… I rolled over and said “OK” to the security company. I chalked it up to the cost of doing business.
So now I’m roped in forever and ever, amen.
Side note: I’m pretty sure the security company has an entire department dedicated to destroying sites so that they can then swoop in and be the saviour… but anyway, the fact is: I got hacked.
So after handing over the funds, I spent the next 24 hours on pins and needles, contacting customer support for both my host and the security partner at least 20-30 times in total via phone, email and online chat systems.
After the scan and repair were complete, the security company reported that over 20,000 files across all my sites were infected.
Probably for the best that I didn’t do a manual clean myself… I would have no hair left!
So after I ponied up the dough, my sites were back up within a day. Phew. And then… it happened again — the very next day!!! What??? Apparently this particular hack has a high reinfection rate.
I’m still waiting on them to tie up some loose ends and install some firewalls, but at least — at long last, all my sites are back up for the moment.
The problem?
It happened at the worst time possible. My book was on tour.
The Nature of the Hack
For my book tour, I had loads of promo posts linking to my website… a website that, when loaded during the malware hack, redirected about 10 times to weird URLS, threw up robot images, and then flung out code saying “winner!” with javascript pop-ups. Good Lord. It was a throwback to the 90s era of websites. It was… horrendous.
But the fact is, because I had been cheap for 10+ years, a hack crushed my book tour, not to mention my soul.
A screenshot from my hacked site
I admit my websites haven’t really made me a lot of money, but they are still valuable to me. And this hack happened at a point in time when it was VERY valuable to me!
I don’t know what it is about the naive mindset of someone who “just puts up a website” or has “hobby” sites online.
We assume that we are “small fries” that no one would target, but just like any other malicious person whether in real life or online: all they need is the opportunity.
Your site could be worth nothing to anyone, but once there is a vulnerability, it can be exploited. Just for fun. People really are THAT evil.
Gotta “Burn to Learn”?
I should mention that in 2009, during the last week of my Master’s dissertation while my computer never turned off as I raced to the finish line of the deadline, my Mac finally called it quits. I wept and fell to my knees over a project I had bled for. Thankfully I still pulled off a good grade, but oh… the HORROR!
A screenshot from my hacked site
I should also mention that in 2018, it also took me another severe laptop crash and losing a huge chunk of files, for me to agree to the monthly iCloud charge I still pay that I literally don’t feel — it’s a few bucks. If I don’t look at my credit card bill, I forget I even pay it.
Yeah. I’m that person. Gotta burn to learn!
It doesn’t hurt you, until it happens to you.
As an author, I certainly learnt it with all my work-in-progress files… I have a zillion emails of files I’ve emailed to myself, just to make sure there is always a copy!
I’ve learnt my lesson, trust me.
As much as I hate being held hostage by the security company, it is worth it, to have the peace of mind.
And to all my fellow writers out there, working on your book babies or managing your online sites… please, please, please learn from my mistakes and just spend the damn money upfront!
Not 1, not 2, not 3, not 4, not 5… but at least 20 – that’s right: TWENTY — “Bookstagram Reviewers” have reached out to me on Instagram since the year began (and we’ve barely made it to February!)…
Them: “I’ll read and review your book, and post it on my feed.”
Me: “Oh, nice, thanks!”
Them: “Here are my prices…”
Me: “Wait, what?”
They wouldn’t dare approach a big-time author asking to be paid to review and promote their book, but indie/self-published authors like me are fair game.
Book Promotion vs. Bookstagrammer
First, a disclaimer:
There was once a point in my author journey where I balked at even having to give my books away for free.
Now, 2 and a half years wiser, I have seen the benefit of running free promotions to promote sell-through of your other books (which I documented here).
Apart from giving away almost 4000 books for free via KDP & other promos, I’ve also shopped my book around to book clubs and to book/blog tours where they handle the service of generating some buzz and inviting reviewers, but it’s voluntary with no guarantees of even a single review.
…But paying someone DIRECTLY to review your book is quite another matter.
Paying for Reviews vs. Exposure
It’s pretty clear that Amazon frowns on paid reviews, but it’s a little sketchy when it comes to the arena of book promotion.
Bookstagram reviewers are a middle ground: they usually offer package deals with promotion and author interviews, with reviews included.
It’s not a bad way to make money, if you’re a voracious reader. And I’m sure a lot of them have been responsible for a huge uptick in sales for some authors.
But there’s not a lot of tracking provided. Some may share some statistics via screenshots of past authors happy with the service, or their activity on a post, etc… but these are not verifiable (anyone can mock up something in Photoshop, and bots can generate likes), and most only expect you to make a decision based on the amount of followers they have — whether or not their followers are even your target market (chances are, they’re not).
Furthermore, they can’t promise you any amount of sales (or even “likes” on the post) and there’s a big chance you can throw money at it and get exactly zero back in return.
That’s the same that could be said for most types of marketing, sure, but Instagram has given a whole new realm of possibility for all the “entrepreneurs” out there… and that’s the problem.
But the worst — the absolute worst of it, is that if you actually read through some of these Bookstagram “reviews”, it gets glaringly evident that in many cases THEY HAVE NOT READ THE F**KING BOOK. They’ve checked the blurb, skimmed some reviews, maybe read the first few pages, and then threw together a generic paragraph or two that is just a slap in the face to any author who has actually poured his or her soul into their work.
And THAT is my biggest problem of all.
P.S.A. to Bookstagram Reviewers: Best Practices
Don’t solicit authors. Just don’t. (Particularly 10 seconds after a follow, when you haven’t even given a proper look at their feed or read a thing about their books. Just saying.)
Unless you see an author post about “Looking to promote my books, please DM me with your prices”. If they say that openly, then by all means: COME THROUGH!
If you do want to make a business of this bookish life, create a website with all your packages and then point to that link in your profile. That leaves it up to the author to seek you out.
If you’re hungry for work, perhaps post in your feed or story “Authors – special reduced rates for packages” and see what bites you get.
You can also be kind and offer a range of services that includes free options, e.g. partnership “If I write you a review, please post about me and get others to follow”.
A little love goes a long way, and if you build up that love and trust among authors, they might be the ones begging you to promote them and eager to pay.
Why I Won’t Pay for a Bookstagram Review
I’m not saying Bookstagram reviewers won’t get you more exposure or more sales. Not at all. Some are valid, and many are excellent at what they do.
Me personally… I’m hanging onto those purse strings. My reasons:
1. Firstly, I want someone to be ORGANICALLY drawn to my book, not just looking at it as a means to make some cash.
Every time someone reaches out (before they mention the price list) it’s always about flattery: “your books look great, I would love to promote you” etc. etc. — but if it’s a paid promotion, flattery immediately becomes disingenuous.
It is hard to say that someone is GENUINELY interested in my book, if they are only going to read and review it if I pay them.
I just don’t need that kind of convoluted energy in a potential reviewer.
2. Secondly, having an entire business around getting payment for reviews is always going to make me uncomfortable.
I love getting reviews. You can check out some of my faves here:
I do not charge writers to review their books. You can see my Review Policyhere.
Reviews are important. Hella important. But they should always be voluntary. And free.
3. Finally, I personally am not always moved to write a review. I question those who are.
I think that those who claim to be “voracious readers” who “love to support writers” are missing the big elephant in the room:
If you love reading and you love writers, buy their books.
(And if you’re a writer that wants reviews, sure — send over a free copy and hope you get a review.)
BUT don’t randomly solicit a writer to send you their book for free, and THEN pay you to write a review!
Unless you’re able to guarantee that this writer is definitely going to get AT LEAST the investment they put into you, in sales… you’re not helping. The fact remains:
If you truly are a voracious reader, and you come across a book you like, you’ll buy it.
I love reading and reviewing, and I’m happy to help others.
I’ve been terrible at it for the last couple of years (pregnancy, early mamahood, COVID!) but this year I am determined to DO BETTER!
So I’ve spent the last few weeks working on committing myself to doing Book Reviews for indies. I researched book bloggers’ websites and took notes.
Here are the 5 things I recently implemented myself.
1. I became an Amazon Associate
Do you review other indie authors on your personal blog or website? If so, this is easy to do. You can get started here:https://affiliate-program.amazon.com
Once you are set up, it just involves putting some code in the body of the review so someone can go grab the book. I have no idea how much this makes, if anything.
But it’s an important step to set yourself up so you can drive traffic to the Amazon purchase pages for other authors, and I’m happy to do it. If Amazon tosses me a couple of cents next millennium, that’d be great too.
2. I set up a Kofi page
A lot of book bloggers and other creatives have this button on their website: “Buy me a coffee“. This is an easy way to quasi-monetise a blog via donations. Think of it as crowdfunding for creatives. If someone wants to throw you a few bucks or “buy you a coffee” they can, but there is no need or no pressure.
I really liked this idea. If I do someday make anything from this, I would like to keep the proceeds in the “writer help” framework and pay it back — have a giveaway, do a promotion of an author, or so on.
I haven’t fully fleshed out the idea yet, but I’ll see how best to do this once I have some funds, if any do come in.
If you like my writing or my reviews, you can donate here:
3. I joined an Online Book Club
I saw another author post about her Book Club on a Facebook group, and I checked it out. The premise is simple: there are a few ways to participate, some are paid and some are entirely FREE. The option I chose is:
You review a book, and in turn your own book gets added to the program.
The more you review, the more time your own book(s) can stay in the program. It’s been awesome so far, and it is actually how I came across one of my new faves “Everything That Came Before Grace“.
If you are interested, please contact meand I’ll be happy to point you to the founder so you can liaise directly and get all the info you need.
4. I joined an ARC program
An ARC is an Advanced Reader Copy. Authors send these out before they publish a book, in the hope that once readers grab a free copy, they will voluntarily leave a review in the first week it launches.
This is turn boosts visibility and sales for the author, so it’s a good investment. In fact, it can make or break your book.
There are loads of these programs out there. I’ve joined many for individual authors or a group of authors, but this was the first time I have joined a large, popular service serving hundreds of authors. This program is how I came across “When Robins Appear“, a book I recently reviewed and enjoyed a lot.
If you’d like to become an ARC reviewer, feel free to contact meto point you to a few good options depending on the type of program you specifically prefer.
5. I created a Review Request form
Finally, one of the biggest things I did for my own website was to add a “Review Request” form, which I then put on my Instagram link so that authors can find me and ask for their books to be reviewed. This is very important. I repeat: VERY important.
It lets authors ask for help without the awkward: “Hey, I just met you online two seconds ago, but can you be my author friend and read and review my book?”
I included specific questions that would help me streamline my responses, namely:
How many reviews do you already have?
What was your driving force to write this book?
Would you also be interested in participating in a book club?
That way, I get a pretty good idea of the author’s profile without needing to know too much, and can decide which books I want to prioritise to read first. AND I can also support another fellow indie author by getting other authors to join her program!
So I repeat, VERY IMPORTANT! For both sides of the coin, this form can save a lot of time and energy. If you’re an indie author and need reviews, check it out:
So these are 5 things you can do to show your support for fellow indie authors. I hope these 5 concrete tips can point you in the right direction, if you’re looking to help other indies.
And of course, there are three other simple things: BUY THEIR BOOKS! REVIEW THEIR BOOKS! SHARE THEIR BOOKS! 🙂
I’ve seen it many times on writer groups, the wail: “My husband/wife has never even read my book!”
And almost everyone responds: “Ah well, that’s for the best, probably not your target reader anyway.”
…But is that even the point?
I myself have some author friends whose books I haven’t read, but I’m not talking about the regular friends/acquaintances. I’m not even talking about your “circle”, the adult people in your life directly around you, i.e. parents, siblings, best friends.
I’m talking about the person you share a bed and a life with, and with whom you’ve perhaps even meshed DNA in the form of offspring. That’s right: your significant other.
Now, if my significant other wrote a book, of course I’ll read it. I’m a writer, and I’m a reader, so that’s easy to commit to long before he pens a single word. (And, in my case, he’ll probably rely on my help to write it.)
But many people just aren’t readers, so that is the excuse: “I don’t really read” or “I don’t read your genre” or something to that effect. And as writers we feel a twinge of hurt, but we let it go.
Recently, an author friend told me she was so pissed off with the fact that the collective “WE” as authors just “lets it go”. She said:
In this day and age with so many opportunities to read on the go, unless you’re actually insanely busy running an entire country, or perhaps intellectuallychallenged or f*ing illiterate, there is no excuse to NOT read my book.
I’m not sure I agree with her 100%, but for the sake of argument, let’s discuss.
Fiction & the Festering Brain
Firstly, let’s stick to fiction. Of course there are excellent non-fiction books out there, but that genre gets sticky when you consider the nuances.
For example: sure, I’d read my SO’s self-help book. But if he penned a History textbook, or a Math text? Er, well… um, probably not.
On the flipside, the argument may be:
“Well, my History/Math textbook may help someone; your fiction book won’t.”
But… won’t it?
I write fiction that goes deep, as just about any one of my reviews will say. People may at times dislike my characters, but they appreciate what I put into them. They appreciate the story, and in many cases the story stays with them and even influences how they see the world around them.
Even if there is no lesson to be learnt, a fiction book can still move you and brighten your day, or change your outlook, or provoke you to think about something that wouldn’t have tickled your fancy otherwise. Or it could even be just mindless entertainment, if that’s what you’re looking for. The point is: fiction is still important.
So, assuming you’ve written a fictional book that you poured your heart into, and the love of your life still has exactly zero interest in it…?
As my author friend ranted to her poor husband:
Do you even really know me, if you haven’t read my book?
Romance, Sex & Hiding your True Self
What I love about the genre I write in (women’s fiction/romance) is that there are mostly women writers, and women have their ways of expressing themselves in their writing that they may not be able to in real life.
Of course this is a very broad statement and there are many exceptions, but statistics indicate that men are more visual, and need actual porn; whereas a woman can pick up a romance novel (not even erotica!) and have the same experience of mental and physical stimulation.
When we as women write, we can let our juices flow — creative and otherwise. Our swashbuckling heroes are the best characteristics of men we hope to one day meet (or in very RARE cases, are lucky to actually have), our heroines are girls we admire and one day hope to be. And usually, somewhere along the way, we slip in experiences from past or even current lovers.
But here’s the thing… I’m sure he’ll never read it.
…Which is probably why I wrote it in, in the first place.
So, back to my friend ranting about her literate-but-lazy hubby who can’t be arsed to read her book:
Honey, are you sure you really WANT him to read your book?
The Safe Place of Anonymity
Being a writer, there is a “safe place” with our books where any random person can assume or guess at what parts are fact or fiction.
But if that person who knows you best (or is supposed to) actually picks up your book you’ve been screaming at them to read… what might they find?
It may not even be the biggest part of your plot that he/she focuses on. It’ll likely be some throwaway element you didn’t even consider while you were writing… a reference to one of your characters doing that thing he does that you hate with a passion. Or a description of something in your past that he didn’t realise until reading your book.
One of the common threads of any book or TV show that features a writer is that the connections to reality are always there. Sure, “Friends” with Phoebe’s loose characterisation was hilarious, but it was on point. And, remember “Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life” with Lorelai’s recount of hers and Rory’s life that Rory preferred be kept private? Or how about “Private Practice” and Violet’s page-turner that upset every single one of her friends?
…Yeah. It happens.
Even if your intentions are good, or you think you’ve written something STARKLY different from real life, there’s usually something there, a kernel of truth that no one may pick up on — EXCEPT your closest loved one.
So… as I told my writer friend: whether he’s your target reader or not, perhaps it’s still best he hasn’t read your book. Trust me, darling.
Your book is the rawest piece of your soul. And sometimes, you need to keep that shroud of anonymity for your own relationship’s survival!
I could tell you any and everything about my characters.
Who they are, why they do what they do, what makes them tick. They’ve been with me for the better part of the last two decades, and I know them so intimately.
But if you ask me about myself, I hesitate.
A post I read today on a fellow writer’s blog mentioned that she has a tendency to shrink into the shadows rather than promote herself. She just wants to focus on the books.
“What does it matter who wrote them?” she asks. “Once you enjoy them, why care about me?”
And to a point, I agree with her. I myself tend to push my books out ahead, and hide behind them. I don’t really want to answer too many questions about myself. Let the readers assume, right?
But on the other hand, for the last few books I read that I REALLY enjoyed, I must admit that I sought out who the writers were. I stalked them on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. I checked out their websites. I subscribed to whatever there was to subscribe to. I became an online fan.
All this to say, I’m being a little hypocritical by hiding myself.
You have to be vulnerable to connect with others.
So I thought, for a change, I would write a blog post about myself.
Here are 5 (somewhat) random facts about me:
1. I’m from Trinidad and Tobago in the Caribbean.
I state this with some irony because it’s my go-to fact, despite the fact that sometimes I feel very un-Trini. Of course there is no one thing that represents Trinidad, but what we showcase to the world is along the lines of: beautiful Carnival, great beaches, vibrant music, and an island paradise — with some politics, corruption and crime thrown in, of course.
I’ve never felt connected to many “staples” of my country. Sure, I love a good pot of Trini food (and I will likely die without my doubles) but beyond that, I can live on the outside. I have, before, and perhaps someday will again. I want to travel and see the world, and I intend to!
Still, there’s something about belonging, that no one can take away from you. A sigh of relief, a release of breath as the plane touches the runway: HOME.
There’s just something intangible about knowing you are owed some respect and resources just for being born somewhere. No matter where I go, no one can take that from me.
2. I am a recovering perfectionist.
I don’t know how else to be. As a child, at school, I always had to do the best. I was top of the class. I got skipped. I was Headgirl. I was President of things, Chairperson of things, blah blah. I was Supergirl, academically. But it takes a mental toll.
I was a national scholarship winner, and while I was studying I was so stressed and obsessed with doing the best at everything that I didn’t fully enjoy the amazing opportunity I had to study abroad. I drove myself to the brink of physical and mental illness, and that level of stress never really goes away, even as an adult. I still struggle today, because back then I simply did not enjoy life and take advantage of the full experience.
It is my greatest regret — not enjoying life a bit more, in my youth.
Not living in the moment. Not understanding the importance of stopping to treasure those little moments. Life is about so much more than just book smarts. Now that I’m a mom, I plan to make sure my son has a good balance of both.
3. I became a web designer by accident.
I chose an optional course in web journalism, and fell for web development. I fell hard.
Websites are the perfect mix of creativity (design and layout), writing (content creation) and the simplicity of perfection.
Code languages have to be precise. A single dot can throw everything off. A pixel can make a difference.
I loved it, loved it, loved it. I still do. I’m not formally trained as a web developer (maybe someday I will be), but in the meanwhile I’m enjoying fiddling with code, and I get excited whenever I troubleshoot and figure out something myself. That’s a special kind of joy that can’t be put into words.
4. I can’t stand character descriptions that are really, really unnecessary at the time.
For example, “The bomb exploded. Her red, pouty lips fell open and her green steely eyes narrowed as she flipped her blond hair back.”
Come on. Just… come on. Surely there was another moment in time to describe the character! Who cares about what she looks like, post-bomb? Seriously! Seriously!
My own practice is to slip it in casually while describing something else, and to make the sentence about much, much more than just the description itself.
Here are two examples with my own practice of “world-building with description”:
“She’s a Daddy’s girl, although she has my eyes, my nose, my smile, my wild hair of curls and my complexion with the same chaotic blend of races in her cherubic little face.” (Climbing The Walls)
“While our dad and our older brother Stefan sport the visibly darker skin tone, dark eyes and black hair of the Latin ancestors linked to our surname Galeota; Lee and I both take after our mom with slightly paler skin and lighter hair – a dull, dark-blondish-brown blend of colour that I usually toss some highlights into every few months.” (Pandora’s Poison).
5. I see spelling and grammar errors… everywhere.
Mind you, I’m sure I make mistakes myself, and every single time I re-read my books I find something to change, some typo, a misplaced comma, SOMETHING.
But I’m appalled at the sheer AMOUNT of errors that exist in the world around me.
I am annoyed when people consistently don’t re-read their emails and frequently have terrible errors in them.
What drives me the most crazy though, are errors on signs of any kind, but most specifically billboards. Anywhere where there are literally less than 50 words, and someone didn’t care enough to spellcheck!
Yeah, I’m that girl. I wish I wasn’t, but I can’t help it.
I’m passionate about words! But I guess that’s a good thing for a writer, right?
So those are 5 things you now know about me. If you’re reading this, feel free to share something about yourself in the comments!
I just ordered the proof copy of my revised version of “Climbing The Walls”.
There’s something about that sentence that has a huge sigh of relief accompanying it. It’s a big step. Something’s happening.
Well, in my personal life, not a lot has been happening, as my health issues have taken priority.
But I’m recuperating… just in some pain, with very little movement, and far too much time to reflect.
I’ll be off work for a few weeks. I’ll be off “super-mommy duty” for a few weeks.
I can’t hold my baby. That’s a sobering thought.
But there is a good side to all of this, and I will emerge from this “downtime” better for it.
I should use this time for something positive. I should use this time to RESET.
Gearing up for relaunching Book 1
Book 1’s revamp has me in that “reset” mode, and I’m trying my best to hit that “reset” button soon.
Over the past month, I’ve made some pretty big steps, even though they may not have felt like it at the time.
Here are a few worth mentioning:
I got my new ISBN for my revised edition of Book 1 for “Climbing The Walls”.
I got my beautiful new cover done! It looks very similar — I didn’t want to go TOO far away from my original vision — but now there’s more of a story to the imagery, and the style with the background images now matches the other two books much better than the old cover.
I bought a new domain, www.sfortuneauthor.com… it was time I took the dive and stopped “tagging on” my author life to my main domain. It needed its own entity.
After an entire day of misadventures with tech support, I finally figured out (on my own!) how to get all the “sachafortune.com/author” in every URL to automatically update to “sfortuneauthor.com“
I updated the URLs for the blog feeds on my Goodreads account and my Amazon Author account, and my bios on a bunch of sites to the new domain. I still have a few dozen more to do, but it’s a start.
I cleaned up the manuscript for the print version of my revised Book 1 edition. I now have much more white space between chapters. Not an easy feat, mind you. Editing is massacre!
I created some key pieces of marketing for the launch — images and a promo video using the new cover.
And finally, today… I ordered the first proof of my revised manuscript.
The Road to Relaunch
Now, that isn’t nearly everything that’s needed for a launch. It’s just a few tiny steps towards that day. But I’m taking it one thing at a time.
I gave myself a nice long lead time because I know it’s a zillion small things, and it’s just little old me.
Some writers — even the self-published ones like me — have an entire team to do all this small stuff.
Some do it on their own, but badly.
I’m trying to do it all, and trying to do it all WELL.
I’m cheap, so by default I need to be up to the task of those “extras”!
What’s next?
Well, once I review the proof copy of the print version, I still have to take my time and create the e-version.
It’s always better to tackle that AFTER the print version is as clean as possible. I learnt this the hard way — when I used to fix every typo multiple times in many versions!
Once the e-version is ready, I can upload that to Amazon KDP, publish them both, and then market the hell out of it.
There are so many ways to throw money behind your book, if you have the budget and the time.
I’ll book a bunch of newsletters, flash it around every Facebook reader group I can find, run some promos, shout it from the rooftops.
Maybe I’ll try to get onto another podcast, like the one with Ella “Author Like a Boss”. Or another book review tour.
I’m exhausted just thinking about all of it.
I love the writing process, but the publishing process can be traumatising to your spirit.
And this time around, I have to remember my Author Footprint and revisit everywhere I’ve been to “update” it with my new version.
Why do it, then?
For the love of it.
Because I owe it to myself to have the story out there, the way I want it to be.
And because I’m ready to move on from Book 1, my first book baby, which took the most out of me.
I’m ready to evolve as a writer, to “republish” that new version that pained me to create. To grow up and realise that every book is its own entity, but sometimes you need to take a hit to your writer ego for the greater good.
Because here’s the thing… once I’m done with my revised Book 1, once that is out of the way, I can turn my attention on the unfinished stories in my head.
The unfinished characters, just waiting for me to revisit them.
Despite the physical pain and the emotional upheaval I’m going through now as my body and brain go through this much-needed process of healing, I know I need this “downtime” to refocus.
Of course, that’s not exactly how it happened — or rather, it is, but it’s not a cause-and-effect type of sentence but just a factual one.
It’s been a whole lot of crazy in my head, and I’ve abandoned social media for the most part of the last few months. Well, the last year or so, if we’re being brutally honest — save for a few posts scattered here and there.
I’ve never been the overly outgoing type, but pregnancy and the early trenches of motherhood drove me into a deep funk of silence. Then, just when I was ready to emerge… coronavirus knocked me back into my hole.
Now, to be fair, no time is a good time for a pandemic, but still… yowza!
Nowadays is already history
I never thought I would live through a moment in history like I am now. I’ve always been aware of critical global events with a kind of fascinated detachment:
Interested enough, affected somehow, but not viscerally touched.
While I’ve been largely privileged to not have this pandemic devastate my entire world, there were some harsh realities that it brought into focus as it mercilessly touched others around me and altered the course of my life plans for the short-term and long-term.
So that’s the real world, and then there’s the fantasy world of my books.
Being a writer can sometimes be a wonderful way to escape reality and live in “book world” with your characters, getting away from it all as you occupy your mind with the innermost needs of the nonexistent.
And, here’s the problem: I haven’t been writing.
Hello Silence, my old friend
Part of it is that as a new mom, I’ve been struggling to get time to do the basic human tasks like eating, sleeping, and showering (exercising is a bonus!) and then to combine it all with working from home with a baby.
But the even bigger part of is, if I’m being brutally honest with myself, is that I’m afraid to write.
When the world is spinning crazily on its axis into God alone knows, and the future looks scary at best, I don’t trust the noise in my head to be productive.
Instead, I add to it even more noise — engaging in endless discourse and speculation with anyone who will listen, and staying up late interminably scrolling through Facebook, halfway teetering to news-heavy threads to stay informed and then careening into the peak of silliness with the black hole that is memes, viral videos and animal gifs.
…Gotta keep that noggin busy, so it doesn’t focus on the financial instability of my little family, the crushing fears of the future — not to mention the ever-present, incessant paranoia of doing everything wrong as a new mama.
Writing the noise away…
It’s not a comfortable head space to be in. No one’s is, these days, I’m sure. I’m privy to the problems of friends around the world with whom I check in, as the days crawl by — everything from sudden joblessness, home-schooling horrors, high-risk paranoia, lockdown discomfort and boredom, and general unease.
I know I’m fortunate, I know the entire world is suffering and most of them are far worse off than me. It doesn’t stop the noise in my own head, though.
Usually, writing helps clear that noise — but getting to that space where I’m comfortable enough to write again seems insurmountable, at times.
Writing can break your spirit. Certainly, the post-writing process is agonising at best. I’ve been largely distant from it lately, and every so often I check in and I’m surprised to see that little bump of page reads or sales: the waxing and waning of that yellow bar of validity.
It’s heartening to know my books are out there, and devastating to worry if I will ever finish any more books. My characters’ stories aren’t finished. I owe them so much, and I’ve failed them.
But writing has saved me before, and I have faith it will again.
I just have to hang in there and wait for its magic to find me.
Okay, so I probably need to back up a bit. There’s been a long, long silence here… and for good reason.
At the start of the year, I welcomed my son into the world. My new year’s baby. My miracle baby.
…And yes, I was pretty quiet about it until after the fact. Which is rare, when you’re striving to be a successful writer and maintain a prominent social media presence.
‘Work-in-progress’ woes
Quite simply, I wanted to keep that precious part of my life away from social media.
…Though, to be honest, I was fairly “mum” (pun intended) on the topic in my personal life as well. It wasn’t until late in the pregnancy that my work colleagues and some friends found out, and many only found out when I sent a photo of him from my hospital bed! (Not to mention those who STILL haven’t gotten the memo!)
When something is so precious to me, silence is my only recourse.
In the same way that I am reluctant to share a really rough “work-in-progress” of my writing, I didn’t want to share my newest “work-in-progress” blooming from within.
I needed to work in silence, putting up a barrier to protect myself from the public eye so I could focus on the important task at hand.
You see, there’s always going to be someone in your audience who may not have your best interests at heart. Or the well-intentioned ones that just rub you the wrong way (conflicting or needless advice, birth horror stories, and the like!).
Once you put something out there, you don’t know the kind of energy you invite.
The energy to create life
…And speaking of energy, that was the other reason for my silence: I simply wasn’t writing.
I wasn’t on my website or my social media channels. I wasn’t running promotions. I wasn’t religiously logging in to my sales dashboard to see if I made a few pennies that day.
Suddenly, being a mommy was way more critical than being a writer… just as I suspected it would be, which is why I pushed myself to finish the first three books in my Hart & Cole series before I headed down the motherhood path.
I had to “birth” my books before I could birth anything else.
Being a published writer was a lifelong goal since I was a tot myself, and I didn’t want to be one of those writers who let circumstances derail me from that goal.
At the same time, I totally understand those who struggle to balance family life with writing demands.
Creating and nurturing life is tiring and requires an enormous amount of energy, and it bodes the same for breathing life into the stories you create.
It’s only been a month for me, and I can tell you: parenthood is no joke. It’s hard work and it’s not always glorious or cute. And no one wants to be so tired from life that writing feels like a chore!
Book Baby vs. Real Baby
I’ve always known that writing is a hectic stress on my body and brain, as I’ve written about on my blog earlier. So last year, once I knew my baby was on the way, I made a decision and took a break from my book babies.
Thank God I did — I couldn’t deal with preggy pains and hormones on top of the rollercoaster of writer emotions… (to the mamas that do, you’re my heroines!)
I also needed to preserve all that crazy writer energy and stamina — you know, the adrenaline that keeps you up at night on a million websites researching how best to market your masterpiece!
I now had to turn to my new obsession: building a baby.
My paranoia drove me to the height of late-night panic sessions about whether I was doing everything right for my little one. I learnt far more than I ever thought I would about the process of childbearing and childbirth — far more that I (or any sane person) would ever need to know, and thankfully most of it wasn’t necessary: in the end I held a healthy, beautiful baby boy in my arms.
So now that I’ve birthed THIS baby, I’m hoping I can soon go back to my book babies that I abandoned last year. I’m hoping they forgive me and welcome me back with open arms, because I have so much more to write. I’ve missed my characters. I’ve missed my writer self. I’ve missed that crazy high of being possessed by a scene, emotionally wrought by my own words!
Now, I just hope THIS baby can make room to allow me to work on my book babies again!
This past year has been a wild ride with a lot of ups and downs, but thankfully no regrets.
I’ve learnt so much since I first published, and grown so much as a writer AND as a person. I’ve learnt to rejoice in the triumphs of praise, and also to take criticism to heart to improve my craft.
In fact,I’d hoped to launch the revised, slimmer version of this book today, but that self-imposed deadline had to be pushed back. I’m not going to stress about it, though. I’ve got some personal battles going on lately, and right now I need to put “Sacha-the-person” ahead of “Sacha-the-writer”… and that’s okay.
I know that once I’m back to full steam, I’ll write something AMAZING again. Until then, I’m satisfied with what I’ve accomplished so far.
3 books in 8 months was a huge feat, and I’m thrilled to have actually made money from my writing… and so humbled that I have fans that appreciate my books, and are looking forward to reading more.
And this book is where it all started. So I’m SUPER proud of this first book baby.
Lately I’ve been feeling like I don’t want to write — which reminded me of earlier times in my youth where, as I shared on Instagram:
“I’ve been silent because I was afraid of what I would write if I did write.”
But writing has helped, and I know it’s saved me in the past and will again if I let it.
That said, listening to my interview was surprisingly uplifting.
As it was recorded a few months ago, it captured a different phase in my life just before my recent funk, and hearing my positive thoughts and these deep-set beliefs about the writing and publishing process was like… wow.
An interview captures a moment in time, a snapshot of your brain… and reviewing that at a different time can be enlightening.
And I do genuinely believe that every day I get to keep calling myself a writer, that’s a success.
I do genuinely believe that you have to set realistic, measurable goals and climb that mountain slowly and steadily to make sure you get there, and not just run up and tumble down in early defeat.
I do genuinely believe in that “reader high” I’ve left readers/fans with, and want to keep doing that. Which means I’ve got to keep writing.
One of the most pertinent things I said in the interview was about putting your plans one step at a time, rather than trying to see the whole picture all at once.
Get your blinkers on and put one task in front of you, and focus on that.
It’s a timely reminder for myself, because I need to do just that. I have a whole heap of tasks to do in terms of my writer life so I’m going to take my own advice and just tackle one thing at a time.
I’m getting out of my funk and putting my writer’s cap back on — and again thanks so much to Ella Barnard for my first podcast interview, which you can listen to here:
I’m barely two weeks back from vacation and my world is still coming back into focus.
And, well… I’m a little ashamed to say that my favourite part of my vacation was the DISTANCE from my books.
Writer burnout is real. Your books consume you.
My book babies have possessed me almost constantly since I first released Book 1on July 28, 2018.
From there I dived head-first into the downward spiral of a newbie indie self-published writer, and pushed myself to releaseBook 2 (January 22nd, 2019), shortly followed byBook 3(March 31st, 2019).
I love writing, I love my books, I love my characters… but all of this took an inevitable toll on my physical and emotional health.
By April (while I was packing for my vacation) in the aftermath of Book 3, I felt like I’d been ripped apart by my characters…
Real-life emotional toll
I guess part of the issue is that I get very, very, very deep with my characters.
It’s real-life romance, baby… and though it’s fiction, it takes a real-life-sized dollop of energy, heart and soul to breathe life into my characters.
I’ve spent so much time living with this story, with these characters, that it’s hard to LET GO. I need to write for other characters, but I’m haunted by the highlights of the characters fully fleshed.
It’s hard to write a sweet scene when I’ve got Darren’s and Luisa’s nasty fight on replay in my head — “YOU THINK YOU ARE SO F**KING LOYAL…” (Book 3)
I’m trying to write something fun for my remaining characters — who SO deserve something fun — but all I can see is Nicole’s dark eyes, her desperation and damage begging — “TOUCH ME, TASTE ME…” (Book 3)
Oh, dear. I’ve made my characters so real for readers — but a little *too* real, for ME!
I needed a break. Thankfully, my vacation — a 3.5-week-long country-hopping cruise/hotel combo — came just in time. And for almost a month, I didn’t do much writer-y stuff. At all.
Writer on vacay (sorta)…
Well, I do need to mention a couple of significant “writer” updates that happened while I was on vacation.
Before I went off on vacation, I was in two minds about it, as I shared on my blog here. I strongly believe that books shouldn’t be republished and updated constantly, but with some distance, I was able to come to terms with my own feelings of self-doubt and failure as a writer, and I finally decided to take the plunge and cut it down for the greater good.
I worked on it throughout my vacation, and came down to 415 pages (from 555 pages) which is awesome. I’m still hoping to get it under 400 but that would be *really* pushing it, considering how much I’ve already cut. I’ve given myself until the anniversary of Book 1’s launch (July 28th) to produce the slimmer version… so watch this space!
I got an award as a first-time author in my country.
My award from NALIS in recognition of publishing my first novel
In honour of World Book & Copyright Day, Trinidad & Tobago’s National Library and Information System Authority (NALIS) held a celebration for all first-time authors.
It was unfortunate that I missed the ceremony as I was out of the country at the time, but I sent a representative to collect this fabulous little plaque and pin on my behalf (pictured).
There were a few dozen fellow first-time authors altogether, with a range of different types of books under their belts — self-help, medical, and all types of fiction. Any form of creation takes an amazing amount of courage, and I salute all the others who shared this honour with me.
There was once a time I doubted that I would ever publish anything, so I’m thrilled to say it’s great to now be part of my country’s history!
Next Steps…
So, I’ve got the revised slimmer version of Book 1 due soon… and then what?
Well, I still have the pesky Book 4 and Book 5 to complete. The stories are half-assed and all over the place in my head, so I need to seriously sit with myself and get my head back into it.
You see… my book babies did me in. My characters dug their claws in, and hung on tight… for months. I had to let them go, finally, to get to some level of sanity.
And now that I need them to come back, I don’t trust myself (or them) to maintain a safe distance, and at the same time I need them to cross that “safe” barrier so that they can inspire me to write them.
Oh, dear. You’ve ruined me, my darlings. And now what? How do I top that? How do I fall into another character the way you’ve taken me hostage?
It won’t be easy, I know, and I also don’t want to fall into that downward writer spiral again. There is a delicate balance as a writer that you have to tread, so you don’t cross into that danger zone!
I’m happy that I got the break I did, and now at long last I’m ready to take the next step, whatever it may bring.
I need 20 more lifetimes to ever get around to half of these that I already have.
…And I get 20+ emails per day offering even more freebies. I don’t even remember signing up to half of these newsletter subscriber sites. So… yeah.
Honestly, I’m not surprised authors are complaining about “no/low sales”.
We’re not “part of” the problem. We ARE the problem.
The Path to Freebie Addiction
First of all, I should probably mention how I became the not-so-proud owner of this RIDICULOUS amount of freebies.
Less than a year ago, I had literally zero idea that free ebooks could come to you almost automatically. I either bought books I wanted in a bookshop, or online… simple as that.
Then in July 2018, I decided to finally push the button and become a published author. Once I did that, I realised I was way behind in understanding the indie author life, so I joined a bunch of author groups and Googled the hell out of everything I could devour online in terms of resources.
POST-publishing my own book was the first time I even heard about the term “reader magnet”.
I used to think if it was free, it was a pirated copy. I had no idea you could even give your book away freely in any way, shape or form. Legitimately. Like, on an Amazon page where “$0.00” shows up and you just click on it and BOOM! Free book on your Kindle, like magic.
I repeat… NO IDEA.
But once I heard about it, I figured everyone’s doing it… so I tried it myself. So far, I’ve given away 3315 copies of Book 1 of my series through two freebie promos (the first, more successful promo is documented here: I hit #1-#3 in my categories, and #87 overall on the Free Kindle list).
Despite those great results, I’m pretty sure only one of my reviews came from this freebie promotion. And *maybe* a handful of sales, if I’m lucky.
And my book (Book 1, that is) was well received, with mostly stellar reviews. So I figure — okay, surely if someone reads and loves Book 1, they’ll rush for Book 2.
…Nope.
That’s just not how it works, you see…
The Magnet vs. The Fickle Reader
I took a step back and decided to look at it from my own viewpoint as a reader.
In the writing community, there’s this notion of “the ideal reader” who will lap up everything you produce on the spot, with no question. An ideal reader who will BUY your books.
And here’s the thing: I am no one’s ideal reader.
I love reading, but I read a lot. I’m not genre-monogamous, so I also hop around a lot, and I generally don’t read the same “type” of book continuously. In the past month alone, I’ve read 20+ authors from at least 5 genres — as you’ll note from my Book Reviews Reader Blog.
I should mention — I’m also a foodie who loves a little of everything and gets excited by new restaurants, tastes and fusions. And I’m also a traveller, who prefers to go to a new place rather than back to the same spots all the time.
So, yep, you’ve guessed it… I love — love — love VARIETY. That’s just who I am as a PERSON. So as a reader, yep… the same applies.
I’ve signed up to newsletters for at least 20 individual authors, and I still open their emails, and I don’t unsubscribe (that’s just rude). I love hearing what they’re up to, and getting those lovely sneak previews and behind-the-scenes moments. But at the same time, I’m fickle.
Even if I enjoy a freebie, I may still hesitate to click “purchase” on another book, the moment I’m done. I’m in the mood for a different flavour, so I may wait awhile before I go back to that author. And, sometimes by that time I’m “in the mood”, I might have forgotten how to find them or their books! (This is actually why I started following some authors… so I could “bookmark” them for later!!!)
So, as a reader… I’ve gotten something for free (the magnet), and I’m unlikely to ever be in a position to always be giving something back (actually sticking onto the damn fridge).
“Tough Sell” or “Grazing Consumer Culture”?
Now, I’m a tough sell, because I read a lot. And I’m a super-picky reader. The amazing books ARE out there. I know they are. I’ve found some of them!
And I HAVE purchased books that rocked my world, after reading the author’s freebie first. It just doesn’t happen often enough.
Sometimes, part of my hesitation is that I’m actually afraid it WON’T be as awesome. I’m scared to risk NOT getting that “reader high” again. I’m wary that it might have been a fluke, and I’ll be crushed. (*Sigh* I’ve been burnt by this before.)
But usually it’s a much more basic reason: I’ll be hovering over the “Buy” button, knowing the book will probably be just as awesome, and then remember — oh F##!@#!@K! Do I really NEED this book? What about the others I still have to read???!!!!!
Sigh. It’s a bleak outlook, but there you have it.
This is me as a reader. And I know I’m not alone in this.
We’ve cultivated a culture of “grazing” that celebrates low attention spans. And cheapness. Nope. Scratch that. FREENESS.
In my non-writer life, as a marketing professional, we’re encouraged to “get our message” across in the first 5-10 seconds of video content. Our applications are chock full of ads that we mindlessly close off, to get to the free stuff.
Netflix throws the entire world of entertainment at you, and the abundance of choice can be crippling. Flick, flick, flick… nothing to watch!
And, in the book world, there’s Kindle Unlimited, where the “pagereads” concept expects you to never have to necessarily finish a book. And the scary part is that unlike Netflix, you don’t even need a Kindle Unlimited subscription to get “free” books!
Authors throw them at you. All the time. We even PAY to GIVE AWAY our books. Yes. That is crazy. The even sadder part… is that it’s also NECESSARY.
Volume vs. Validity of Work
So if I’m a fickle reader, what about the flipside?
As I writer, I don’t write nearly fast enough, I barely market myself, and I work a full-time job on top of my sideline writing “hobby”. So…
How can I expect my “ideal reader” to be patiently waiting on me?
No wonder authors are pumping books out like it’s going out of style!
The indie author life is a numbers game… the more you have, the more money you make, even if you hardly sell anything.
The trick is VOLUME. After all, if you have 20 kids, you have a higher probability that ONE of them will do something important with its life, right? That’s how authors seem to be operating. More books, more writing… if you want even a trickle of money.
And I’m not saying that having a huge backlist necessarily means the writing is bad. (This is a HUGE point of contention on a well-known Facebook author group that has almost 30,000 members to date, and even holds writing conventions and everything. I repeat: a HUGE point of contention! So I’m not going to touch that one with a ten-foot pole!)
There are AWESOME writers with FABULOUS books, and LOTS of them. They’re just doing it wayyyyyyy faster than I am, or ever could!
I can put my best foot forward, with each book… but I just can’t compete, volume-wise. At least not anytime soon.
Many authors can afford to give away one or two “freebie” magnet book babies, with 10-100+ other book babies to pick up the slack. What about those that only have a few… or maybe even just one?
It’s an uphill battle.
Notably, I recently made a concerted effort to:
BUY BOOKS FOR MYSELF
BUY BOOKS FOR OTHERS
TELL FRIENDS & FAMILY TO GIFT ME BOOKS
So I’m trying to be a little less fickle.
But these days, “freeness” is so easy to come by, that I myself am always going to be WAY more of a “consumer” than I am an actual “buyer”. So, like I mentioned earlier:
I am no one’s “ideal reader”.
…What if I’m also no reader’s “ideal author”?
Fellow authors, feel free to share your thoughts in the comments!
So I’m six months into this writer journey, with two books under my belt, and had a recent experience I thought worth sharing.
My friend agreed to let me share this once she read it first and once I kept her nameless, so here goes:
Confession: “I didn’t plan to read your book”
“So… this is really awkward, but I just read your book (the first one)… and I think I owe you an apology.”
Huh?
(I was lost.)
“I know you’ve been talking about this book and this writer thing for months now…”
Yeah, I’ve been a bit of a pain, I know — but as an indie author, if we don’t shout about our books, no one will read them…
“Right. So like, when you first published, I told you congrats…”
Yeah, I remember. Thanks, I appreciate your support!
“And I told you I’d buy it, which I did…”
Oh, great. Thanks again…
“But at the time I figured: okay it’s a few bucks, what the hell… though I didn’t really plan to read it.”
Ah, okay…
(Now I get the “awkward” part)
“I do read, but not that much, and I’m busy with work and my kids…”
Sure, I get it. Totally understand…
“And then, the other day, I was in a waiting room at the hospital for about six hours.”
(*We chatted for a bit on her personal family matter – this part I won’t share*)
“So I had my phone, and literally nothing to do for a long time, and I saw someone reading a book next to me, and I remembered I had downloaded your book months ago, so I hunted on my phone to see if I still had it… I don’t really understand this app thing, not sure if it disappears after awhile…”
Okay…
(This is getting to be the weirdest “apology” and most awkward long-winded convo ever)
“So yeah… I started reading it…”
Oh, great. Let me know how it turns out. Hope you like it.
“…And I finished reading it that same day.”
Bless your soul. Amazon says it takes 14+ hours on average…
“Yeah, that sounds about right. The six hours in the waiting room… then another hour on my journey home… then four more hours… took a break to organise my kids for bed and to get ready for school the next day… then the remainder of it I read well into the early hours of the morning… and I had work the next day!”
Oh, dear.
“In fact, I think I might have given myself a bladder infection coming down to the end, because I put off STOPPING for quite awhile.”
YIKES! Okay… ah, sorry?
“So… right. The apology part. Well… like, I always knew you were into writing, but somehow it just… wasn’t what I expected.”
What did you expect…?
“Honestly, I don’t know. Maybe that it was going to be too ‘high-brow’ for me to ‘get’ (like I said, I don’t read a lot) since I know you’re like, smart and stuff… or maybe that it was going to be bad or just kind of ‘meh’ and I didn’t want to feel awkward talking to you if I didn’t like it…”
Ah, okay…
“I just didn’t expect it to be like… like… I don’t know. You know when you binge-watch shows you stream because you just can’t stop? I’m not a big reader, and I just never felt that way from a BOOK.”
Ah, okay…
“Like I could PICTURE all these characters, Like I could FEEL everything. Like I wanted to BAWL and SCREAM and fling the book when I got to Chapter…”
(*spoiler – not sharing that part*)
(And now, I’m laughing — and noting who to keep in touch with, to one day help me write my Netflix pitch!)
“So… yeah. I just wanted to say — I’m so sorry I took so long to read it. And so sorry I didn’t even originally plan to read it. I promise I will now, for anything else you write.”
Thanks, I appreciate it. I really do.
Why are “friends” the last to believe?
So that conversation led me to think a lot about how isolating it can be as an author, particularly an independent/self-published or “indie” author.
I just did my first couple of “Author Takeovers” recently, where you “take over” a Facebook group and chat with its members for awhile in real-time. (To get an idea of what this entails, read this post.)
It was AWESOME to know that people tuned in just to say hi and that they appreciated your book.
And here’s the thing I realised, while doing it:
My biggest fans are people I’ve never met, and likely never will.
Ironically, “supportive” friends can sometimes be the last to appreciate your work.
In many cases, it goes a little something like this:
They’ll say “congrats” a million times and tell everyone you’re awesome… but never buy the book
They’ll share your post and/or tell others you wrote a book, and pretend they’ve read it
They’ll browse reviews and then tell you they’ve read the book, when you absolutely 100% know they haven’t
They’ll buy the book with no intention of ever reading it, and tell you “I’m supporting you with a sale”
…Yeah. And this is the supportive friend, which many authors are not even lucky enough to have!
Somewhat salty support…?
Nothing against these types of friends, by the way. ANY tiny nudge of support is appreciated! As an indie author, we take EVERYTHING we can get!
…And I’m not saying my book is the best thing ever, or that it will change your life.
Some people loved it, and they GOT it. Others… simply… won’t.
So, I reiterate: I’m not screaming “READ MY BOOK” to everyone. Obviously, it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea!
But I’d much rather you pass along the info to someone you know who DOES read and might actually buy it AND read it.
It’s a little insulting to tell a writer “I’m supporting you with a sale” (woo-hoo! I get a buck and some cents), with absolutely ZERO intention of ever reading it.
While a sale is always nice, I’m not in dire need of the pennies. I’m writing to share a story, not to make a mint off of my closest friends!
So I’m not baring my soul in my writing just for empty admiration.
If you DON’T plan to read it, be upfront about that, and find other ways to support!
If you DO plan to read it, then give your friend the benefit of the doubt, and go in blindly with the faith that there’s something of merit in their work.
And remember, there are several ways you can support your writer friend — even if you don’t read, or don’t read their genre.
We live in a shareable world driven by social media influencers, and amidst the cacophony of noise, any little nudge will help.
Or, if you’re not on social media, no prob… you can do the old-school version of this. Drop it into a convo: “Hey, so my friend published a novel…” Yeah, it’s that simple.
Like I said, there are LOADS of ways to support your writer friends, without giving an empty promise about reading/buying their books. If you want to help but don’t know how, just ask!
I gave out ARCs (Advanced Reader Copies), and a user took both Books 1 & 2 — then sent me a message saying she preferred not to review.
…Not that she didn’t like my writing. She was explicit about this. But it seems she didn’t want the book on her record of having reviewed on her accounts, since it contains a particular scene that she wasn’t 100% comfortable with.
I respect her decision, and thanked her for letting me know.
But now I’m wondering — should I have had a trigger warning? Or any “warning” at all?
Setting expectations for the reader
I’ve seen loads of writers literally stating in the blurb:
“This has a brutal rape with a minor“
“This has a graphic suicide“
“This has a sexual scene with dubious consent“
There’s also the other side of the spectrum, where the blurb gives a reassurance:
“This has no cheating!”
“Guaranteed HEA!” (Happily Ever After)
…So other writers are doing it.
This is a totally brand new concept to the world of self-publishing and online sales.
To date, to my knowledge at least (fellow writers & readers, correct me if I’m wrong), I’ve never picked up a traditionally published book that gives a massive warning like that right on the cover.
And I understand that some readers prefer not to read certain things.
But I think I’ve been fair in creating the final book product. I’ve selected 18+ (mature audiences only), in the Amazon KDP back-end settings.
And I think I’ve been fair in packaging my series — the covers are NOT happy-go-lucky. It’s clearly NOT a romantic comedy. I’ve used grayscale for a reason.
“…a dangerous attraction for a less complicated man than the granite bastard she married” and “the question faced in one’s darkest hour: Can you trust yourself?”
Not to mention the overall series statement:
“A marriage is not a happy ending; it’s a beginning of so much more to come.”
And, within the first few pages (which can be read via the “Look Inside” preview on Amazon for “Climbing The Walls“), there’s sex and cursing. Enough sex and cursing to make the reader think — “Okay, maybe this isn’t for me…” and move on, if necessary.
So it’s clear (at least to me), with all of THAT I outlined, that this is the darker side of “romance”, and as a reader I would bear all of this in mind before I click to purchase.
Should a writer spoil the shock?
I did think about the “trigger warning” issue, and I did shop around for examples on writer groups before making my decision to NOT use any… so I did do my homework.
You see, the whole point of my entire Hart & Cole series is to get 100% invested in the characters, to LIVE their lives as if it’s happening to you.
That’s my writing style. It’s the FUNDAMENTAL part of my writing style.
Some readers have appreciated it. REALLY appreciated it.
It isn’t a storybook; it is a real life book where no matter what you have experienced in your life, you can actually feel the emotions seeping in, and that is what I’ve come to realize with this author.
When I pick her books up, I need to be prepared to face reality and feel the emotions because that’s what she gives me.
So when something shocking happens in the plot, I want the reader to be JUST as shocked as the character was.
For that to happen… I can’t have a trigger warning. I just can’t.
My muse doesn’t come with a trigger warning…
I’m sorry that my reviewer didn’t have a warning, and I appreciate that she shared her reasons with me instead of giving me a terrible review, or explicitly detailing the “shock” moment in the review and spoiling it for other readers.
That was AWESOME of her, and I do appreciate that.
And please note, I do carefully consider the plots of my novels, as I write.
My characters are not performing anything “shocking” for gratuitous purposes. It’s all essential to the plot, and even so I’m still ensuring that anything “shocking” has consequences.
I’ve read a LOT of books where there’s ZERO warning and ZERO retribution for deplorable acts.
I’ve had my own personal experiences, so now as a writer, I am as careful as I can be, about the “shock value” moments.
…But they still exist.
That’s the whole point.
You see… my muse doesn’t come with a trigger warning.
The “shock” moment, in my mind, was just as painful for me to write as it was for the reader to read.
And, as that conduit… as that middle-man between the story and the reader… I’m sorry. I just can’t censor my characters. I’ve made it clear to expect adult content, but readers… I just can’t give you a giant, neon-sign heads-up as to the details on this content.
There’s less than a week to go for Book 2 of my series, so I’m doing a million things at once. So please forgive the mini-rant!
I took some time to reflect on parts of the journey that have been the hugest learning curve for me.
Super-solid Photoshop skills
I appreciate that my Photoshop skills have definitely improved over the past six months!
This certainly wouldn’t have happened if I had loads of money to spend on graphic design for teasers and promos, so this journey has been well worth the ride!
Some things I figured out on my own, others I YouTube’d to learn how to do!
So now I feel like I can easily slap together a teaser, or create the book jacket, without panicking! Woop!
Algorithm Appreciation
Yeah. I still don’t understand algorithms. Like, at all.
I do, however, appreciate that it’s a numbers game — the more freebies you give away, the more people see your book and then may purchase or read on Kindle Unlimited beyond the promo.
The more reviews you have, the more people may be seeing your book (I think).
Not sure how this entire tangle of algorithm mess actually works, but I appreciate that any tips fellow authors offer may be valuable. WORSHIP the algorithms!
Patience & Know-How
I have gotten more organised. Thank God. I needed to.
I now have three book file folders. In each of them there’s:
The raw master Word file
The PDF export of that Word file
A raw master Pages document [I no longer use Kindle Create; I had those files earlier before I moved to Pages because Kindle Create was awful!]
The EPUB export of that Pages document
The MOBI version from that EPUB file (I use Calibre for the conversion)
Then I have:
The book cover for the print version
The book cover for the ebook version
The book jacket (PSD editable file)
The book jacket (PDF file ready for upload)
The book cover with the 3D mockup
Smaller version of the book cover (for web use)
Then there are the “preview/sample” files :
A raw Pages document of the Chapter 1 & 2 excerpt with cover
The PDF & EPUB & MOBI files for this (for my Prolific Works giveaways)
Another version with no cover (for use on my website) and its corresponding PDF & EPUB & MOBI files
PHEW.
That’s for EACH BOOK. AND I HAVE THREE! So, every time I find a typo, it’s like F@$#$@#$#$#$#@$#@$##$@!K — because I have to update things 20 times!
Yeah. Being a self-published author is AWESOME on some days, and on other days, a TYPO can ruin your life!
To all the fellow folks out there proud to be a self-published author, hang in there! I feel your pain, and you’re not alone.
Anyone else want to share their major learning curve items, feel free to do so in the comments! I’m sure #3 resonates with us all! ?????
One of my goals for 2019 is to read more. And review more — especially indie authors!
After all, it’s not fair to be begging for reviews when you’re not passing it forward yourself.
So over the last couple of weeks, I’ve given myself a huge kick in the pants to get this goal underway…
Hunting for Freebie Gems
I downloaded at least 50 books running free promos (to add to the at least 30 “TBR” pile already on my Kindle).
My strategy to stick to the freebies is a situational thing. I’m poor, but if I love the first one I get for free, I’ll happily shell out the dough to get the next one! So I figured: there are loads of worthwhile freebies out there.
After all, my own book (which I think is pretty good — I may be biased, but hey!) was offered as a freebie in December to promote sell-through of the rest of the series, and I’ll soon be running another free promo again from January 22-24, 2019.
So if mine is a worthwhile freebie-starter, there MUST be others like it: freebie gems.
So, 80+ books, yay me! Goals! And I settled in to tackle some reading.
Just one problem.
I just realised I am a picky reader.
Like, super-picky. Super, super picky.
Sorry, but out of 80 I didn’t make it past 10% for more than 8!
Raving, Resplendent Review Requirements
The thing is, I don’t want to write half-assed reviews.
I need to feel MOVED to spend time banging out a review.
Like writing a novel, I need to put my soul into it!
And I haven’t been MOVED since last September, which is when I wrote the review for Mercedes Siler’s “Easy” — which I’ve also promo’d across my website, blog, social media accounts etc. without her even asking me to!
Mercedes loved the review I wrote, and I loved writing it. I love writing reviews for books that blow me away.
…Because you see, when I love a book, I LOVE a book.
I’ll scream it from the mountaintops.
And I WANT to love all these books I’ve downloaded.
I want to make a fellow author weep or jump for joy the way I do when I get a great review.
I want to make someone’s day.
But authors, you need to write me something to take me there.
Something that, when I close the book (or swipe the final screen), my heart’s straining out of my chest and my entire soul is pouring into the review.
…Something that ticks all the boxes.
Here’s what I’m looking for:
A believable storyline.
Drama that pulls you in without rushing things.
Writing that has an element of artistry to it.
Description that assaults your senses.
Diverse [and aptly described!] characters.
Main characters that you both love & hate.
Supporting characters NOT just for comic relief.
A steamy scene that isn’t laughable or gross.
An element of surprise.
Something symbolic.
Something sweet.
Something shocking.
Something raw.
Something emotional.
A story that comes full circle.
Yep. I’m a picky reader! I think my Hart & Cole series has all of these. I worked hard to bring all of these elements together to create my own story.
My own story may not be everyone’s cup of tea, and maybe it’s not what everyone’s looking for — but I can go through that list and find moments that connect with each and every point. There’s a lot to unpack there.
Now, I’m looking for something similar in books I read.
…And I’m just not seeing enough of those elements from other writers I have read recently.
The market is oversaturated with “tropes” and just plain annoying one-dimensional characters. Girls that show up on page 1 wet and ready, and alpha guys that are growling and broody for no reason at all. Books that are about literally nothing — just a dollop of angst and hormones.
Writers writing to make money rather than to actually move the reader.
Do better. Please, please, DO BETTER, writers.
I want to write rave reviews. As a writer, when I read, it’s tough for me to write bad reviews, and I WANT to write those reviews that make the author’s heart sing.
I need to get out of this reading slump. If you write in these genres, and you think you’ve got one of those books that ticks all my boxes, let me know in the comments or via my Contact page!
Never mind the fact that you’re still at the point where you’re jumping for joy when you see even ONE sale pop up on your dashboard.
Never mind the fact that one measly sale only makes you like US$1-2, if you’re lucky.
None of that matters.
If you want to get your name out there (and I do)… if you want the world to meet your characters (and I do)… you have to bite the bullet and start flinging your goodies — for FREE! — at the universe.
KDP & Newbie Authors
First, a little about me.
I’m a newbie self-published author, with my first book “Climbing The Walls (Hart & Cole Book 1)” being on the market for about five months now (published July 28th, 2018).
So far, it’s gotten great reviews (5 & 4 star only) from anyone who made it through (check the Book 1 reviews here).
If you use ‘KDP Select”, you are exclusive to Amazon
I must thank every single reader who read and reviewed, because I know that picking up a book by a new author (especially one 500+ pages) can be a bit daunting!
My book has always been in KDP Select / Kindle Unlimited — which allows users who pay a subscription to read all eligible books year-round at no extra cost.
One of the benefits of having your book in KDP Select is that you get to list your book for free, for up to 5 days within your 3-month KDP Select period.
KDP Select simply means you’re selling on Amazon only. It’s not for everyone, and some authors have good reasons not to do it.
I’m not a full-time writer, I’m new to the game, and I would hate to have to maintain multiple copies of my manuscript at different retailers (I don’t even know the number of times I’ve re-uploaded after noticing a typo!).
Also, I’m not looking to become a millionaire overnight, and just having my book published is huge for me!
So, all in all… KDP works for me.
And the “free” days are a nice bonus, but only really worthwhile if you’re writing a series.
My book pre-promo: some background
My book was promoted for two days Dec 22-23, 2018
First of all, I should mention I’m not “killing it” by any means. A few sales here and there, and I’m a happy camper.
The most I’ve sold so far in one day was 6 books. Many days are 0. I’m cool with that.
It doesn’t upset me, because literally every single sale means that my cover design, my blurb, my writing (the Amazon “Look Inside” excerpt) are on point — and a few hard-earned dollars were spent by someone!
To my best knowledge (as I don’t religiously check this every day), for the Paid lists, my best stats have been in the top 1,000 in my three main categories (Romance, Family Life, Literary Fiction) and in the top 100,000 overall.
So like I said — not “killing it” by any means!
My book is a super-full-length 555-page 200,000+ word opus of a woman’s fiction/romance novel, the first in a series.
I added an excerpt and a pre-order link for Book 2 at the end of it, to promote sell-through if readers want more.
Book 2 “Pandora’s Poison” launches a month from my free promo (Jan 22, 2019). So, there you go — that was my purpose for making it free!
Preparing for KDP free days: Promotion stacking
In late November and early December, I scheduled my free promo through KDP on Dec 22-23, and then got cracking on the marketing strategy.
There’s no point in making a book free if no one knows to go get it!
I made teasers to be used on social media. Here are some samples:
Now, onto the websites/newsletters to mention the freebie!
First things first, I applied to Bookbub. I was declined. No surprise there. (It’s normal to be denied for a Bookbub deal – especially as a newbie!)
I wasn’t daunted, however. Onto other sites!
I put the promo up on BookSprout, which resulted in 43 opens and 14 clicks — not bad, considering this didn’t cost me anything.
Then, I did some research to find out which sites let you announce your freebie for free.
This. Takes. Time. Lots. Of. Time. Loads. Of. Time. It. Is. The. Most. Tedious. Thing. Ever.
Of these, less than 10 posted my book (that I’m aware of, because they emailed me. There is a chance it was posted elsewhere but no one told me!)
Of the ones that DID post it, it was often buried at the bottom of the page/newsletter.
One site had a great post for the book, but the “Buy” button didn’t work! I reported it, but by the time they got it fixed, half the day was gone, so I’m sure I missed out on some sales.
…So, yeah. You get what you pay for!
Then, I booked a couple of paid promotions.
Now, I’m super cheap, and it physically hurts to PAY to give away your own book, so this was VERY minimal.
There are loads of newsletter options that have a small cover charge.
The thing is, if you want to crack the Bestseller lists, you need to stack your promos and run several at a time.
The BookRaid newsletter
Unfortunately, that approach means that I have zero idea which ones paid off in the end between the free ones and the (cheap) paid ones.
Their customer service is good, and you only pay per click — $0.05 per click, up to a max. of $20 for free books.
(For paid books, it’s $0.08 — and I’ve used them before, and only paid like $2. So, not bad!)
They also have a dashboard, so you know how many clicks you got — for this promo, I got 794 (about 720 of this came during the promo, others trickled in slowly after — as the book is offered via Kindle Unlimited, this extra amount may still count as readers).
As the book is free, and the blurb is in the newsletter, I’d like to assume that most of those clicks turned into purchases!
Plus – it’s purple.
And yeah, I’m into purple (in case you couldn’t tell).
…But that’s not a helpful measure of success! 🙂
Anyway, I digress…
The Big Day – FREE promo begins!
Okay, so December 22nd reached, it was 12:00 a.m. — then 1:00 a.m. (I catered for the time difference between USA/Caribbean) — and my book WASN’T free on Amazon. I panicked.
A couple of sites were already advertising it, and it wasn’t free! OMG!
I contacted Amazon support but the KDP team wasn’t available. I emailed some of the sites to tell them to hold off, and I thought the end of the world was coming.
Nothing else could be done.
I went to bed and when I woke up, my book was free… and had already sold over 100 copies.
Because here’s the thing — the promo is in PST. Pacific Time. As in, four hours behind my own time. Yep. I felt like a nincompoop.
Anyway, I posted on Instagram, Twitter, and multiple Facebook groups. I have no idea how effective these were, but they can’t hurt!
A huge THANK YOU to any and everyone who saw my post and downloaded the book!!!
Results – Short Term Ranking Boosts
At any given time, there are hundred of authors running their own KDP free days, and I’m sure at least half of them know MUCH more than I do, and can spend WAY more money than I can to push their book.
So I’m super-thrilled with my results.
I’m also happy that I was able to hit the top 3 in my categories — and the top 100 overall — three days before Christmas with a book that ISN’T Christmas-themed. I was worried. I needn’t have been.
I stayed at #1 in my two main categories for most of the 22nd. Not bad at all. Romance was a tougher nut to crack. Romance is a TOUGH category to crack the top 3! And then I sat in the top 100 overall (#87) for a few hours, which is AWESOME!
So overall, I’ve had almost 2300 downloads with minimal investment — at least 8-10 sites/newsletters/social feeds posted my promo for free, and I forked out the cash to be in a couple of (very cheap) newsletters.
I also sent out my own newsletter to subscribers — my list is tiny, under 200 — with the simple tagline “Here’s your free copy of Climbing The Walls“.
I got my best success rate yet, 41.5% opens and 27.7% clicks. (People seem to like the word ‘free’!)
I also spammed what seemed like a zillion Facebook groups. I doubt that did much. If I got one ‘like’ or comment on a post, that was a lot. But again, it can’t hurt.
Synopsis of my KDP free experiment
I don’t know how the Amazon algorithms work, but putting your book free helps it to get sold!
I’ve climbed the charts in the Paid listing (I’m in top 50,000 overall as I write this, and top 500-1000 in my main categories). It won’t last, but still… it’s the highest my book has ever been!
I also saw a couple sales come in, the day after the promo. Woohoo!
AND I’ve also seen a trickle of newsletter sign-ups and Bookbub & Goodreads followers. Nice! Be a dear and follow:
If I had to do it again (and I will sometime soon), I’ll connect with other writers to help push my book in their newsletters, groups and social media. That’s the only thing I didn’t really focus on this time, because I wanted to see how well I could do on my own.
If any other writers are reading this, feel free to reach out to drop me a line and see how we can connect to help each other out!
A lot of TIME, EFFORT and ENERGY go into giving away your book!
It seems counterproductive that you end up paying people to buy your book, but that’s the life of a newbie indie writer.
I’m thrilled with the results. I was hoping to get around 500! At almost 2300, I’m hoping at least 5%-10% of that turns into a review of Book 1, a sale of Book 2, or both.
And now, almost 2300 people have the chance to meet my characters!
Of course, free books often end up sitting around on your e-reader for some time, since it costs you nothing to download it and you can download loads at a time.
BUT I have faith that the book cover will lure you in, while you swipe past others. I have faith that the first few lines will hook you. I have faith that by the end of Chapter 1 or 2, you’ll be invested in my characters.
Most of all, I have faith that if anyone makes it through my book and liked it, they’ll want to buy Book 2! And they should, because Book 2 is going to be SOOOOO much better.
Now, it’s just to sit back… and wait!
Feel free to grab up Book 1 (back to its regular $3.99 price now, BUT it’s still available on Kindle Unlimited), and to pre-order Book 2 – coming January 22, 2019!
Today we are officially 6 weeks away from the launch of Book 2 of my Hart & Cole series!
I wish I could release it NOW, but I know I need to be thorough with my editing — plus, I also need to be patient and have an actual marketing plan this time around! LOL.
First on this plan is putting it up for pre-order, which I just did today.
It’s a little scary to commit to a date when you know you’re still FRICKING EDITING THE DAMN THING, but I did it!
Jan 22nd is my birthday — so publishing Book 2 will be my birthday gift to myself.
I started writing Darren’s and Luisa’s story (Book 2 & Book 3) at least 12 or 13 years ago, and finally finished writing the first draft in 2016 after my beta reader friend read the first half and SCREAMED at me to finish it!
…And I have just been sitting on the damn thing ever since.
Now, it’s almost time to release it to the world.
I’ve spent the last 5-6 months learning from my own mistakes, learning from others, and absorbing all the info I possibly can from the amazing network of fellow Indie writers.
And I’m ready this time. I’m ready for Darren & Luisa to meet you all. ??
“I am not typically a fan of first person viewpoint writing but for this book, it works very well. The author managed to create two individual people within the story and tell a first person view from each of them and they did not get lost in each other, nor did one overpower the other.” (Red – see full review here.)
This is perhaps one of the best compliments I’ve gotten so far on my debut published novel Climbing The Walls (Hart & Cole Book 1) – one I didn’t even think of, when writing.
Because, of COURSE my characters don’t get lost in each other – to me, they never will; they never can. They are each so individual, so unique, to me… so I’m thrilled my readers are also able to GET that.
Because here’s the thing:
Kris and Nicole – they’re both fully (and individually!) formed in my head. I’ve only just barely edited them.
Plotter vs. Pantser
In writers’ circles you have to be one or the other – either you have a plan and you outline everything, or you just write and see where it takes you. So, which am I?
I revealed my own secret through the character of Nicole, a part-time writer:
That’s rule number one about writing a novel. Never tell your agent, publisher, husband, or anyone even remotely involved with your book that you don’t know jack shit about what your book’s gonna be like.
Have faith that if you start somewhere, one night the words will grip you and you’ll be typing like a possessed creature and you’ll fall asleep slumped over the computer and wake up in the morning to discover what you’ve written.
It’s rare that ideas are going to come if you sit calmly day after day in front the machine with slotted times to work on the book. It’s whenever you’re haunted, whenever you want to get away from your own life, whenever you’re possessed. That’s when the inspiration hits. That’s when you grin on the inside and think, JACKPOT.
Writing’s a lot like sex –– when you’re not getting any it can be the worst thing in the world, but then when it comes and it’s good it’s great and worth all the nights you weren’t getting any.
Yep, that was my cheeky nod to the writing process.
If you’ve got a keen eye for detail, you’d have noticed that Nicole’s writer’s block happens on Chapter 6 of her novel (and it happens in Chapter 6 of mine!).
“Chapter 6”
In law, in business, “Chapter 11” connotes bankruptcy. For me, Chapter 6 is the tipping point – just past the halfway mark between throwing in the towel and deciding to make it work.
Kris and Nicole have been married for 6 years before all hell breaks loose – beginning with the aftermath of their nasty fight that opens Chapter 1.
6 is the magic number here.
Chapter 6 of Nicole’s novel is the point when she decides to scrap everything and start over. It was also my point when the story fully took hold – when Nicole grabbed ahold of me and didn’t let go.
Hopefully Chapter 6 of their marriage is Nicole’s and Kris’ turning point, as well. God, I hope so. I hope I ended on a positive note, despite the journey getting there, despite the journey Nicole took me on.
Yes… Nicole. Sure Kris, was there too, but he was along for the ride.
Nicole was the one that pushed me, scrabbling at my brain and speeding those possessed fingers over the keyboard in the wee hours of the morning.
You see, Nicole is NOT necessarily a protagonist. You’re not supposed to love her.
Yes, I had trouble connecting with her at first. (And readers have said the same.) Everyone loves Kris – he’s easy to love.
He’s railing against himself to fight off the forces struggling to bury him… and he succeeds for a moment, only to plunge right afterward – self-destructing, seeking salvation, and susceptible; for the first time: susceptible.
But even in his darkest, weakest moment when he ultimately completely sh*ts the bed, you still feel sorry for him; you feel disappointed, sure, but you still feel compassion.
Nicole… not so much.
Zero to a Hundred
…But from Chapter 6, she was under my skin. She scraps her novel, and starts writing a story based on a memory of her childhood – and that’s when she became fully real to me.
The memory is about sex, which has always been easy for her to give away. Sex is easy. Everything else is the problem.
But you don’t – you can’t – “become” Nicole overnight… so how did she get there?
Where does she come from; what does she come from; who does she come from?
How does a girl turn into this monster bitch that can’t stop herself from making the wrong decisions?
How does a girl turn into a woman that goes from zero to a hundred – lashing out, vicious sexual seduction, profound intimacy – in a split second?
She’s scraped a piece of herself into everything she’s written. She’s all over the place. She was broken from the jump. That’s how.
She’s NOT a protagonist. Hell, I hated her, half the time. But that didn’t mean I had permission to stop telling her story. She wouldn’t let me stop telling it.
I’m working on Book 4 now, and I’m not even remotely done with her yet.
She’s already had her moments with Darren – coming up in Book 2&Book 3 [and OH MY GOD, I LOVE WRITING SCENES FOR THOSE TWO!…] and still, for the life of me… I can’t stop.
She’s flowing out of me, this mongrel-mulatto journalist/writer b*tch.
I’m a pantser, oh baby I’m such a pantser, but only because she’s already been hard at work, plotting.
She’s eating me alive… she’s devouring all the other imaginary friends in my head, pushing ahead of everyone else to stamp her way through everything.
…And for the life of me… for the life of Nicole, God help me… I can’t stop.
For any business — and, make no joke about it, being an author (particularly a self-published one) is a BUSINESS! — you need to have a website.
Don’t be at the mercy of other platforms
The poster’s logic was that — “Well, I have a Bookbub profile, a Goodreads profile, a Facebook page, an Instagram account… just so many things to manage! And I’m so not techy…”
Yeah, honey, I hear you… but you need to buckle up and get techy, and fast — or pay someone to do it for you.
Another argument from other posters was: “Well, I’VE never sought out an author website, not even for my favourite authors. Who goes to these things anymore, when there’s social media?”
But, even if you yourself don’t visit author websites, how do you know readers don’t? What about reviewers, filmmakers, a magazine writer looking for new talent, or even other bloggers that may be interested in linking to your site?
Sure, you have an ideal “reader” in mind, but you’re only limiting yourself.
You can’t just only put yourself where you THINK people will be. You need to put yourself in a good position for them to find you, whichever way they want to.
Ask yourself this: if Facebook or Instagram were to go belly-up tomorrow, what would happen to the following you’ve built up there?
Or, even more common lately: what if they change their algorithm (a seemingly daily habit by Facebook) and your fans can’t see your posts anymore?
Yep. A very scary, and very real possibility.
When you leave your following at the mercy of a company that has no interest in your personal success, anything can happen.
A website is your soapbox, your foundation
A website should be your key point of reference as a professional of any kind.
As a writer, a website should be your home on the web where your online presence can shine. It is the first assurance to your reader or possible reviewer that your work is of a high quality.
Think of your website like the foundation to a house.
It’s where all roads should lead back to, regardless of the digital footprints you’ve stamped around all over the internet.
When you post a blog to your website, you can share that on your Facebook or Instagram page. When you add a chapter excerpt, you can send your fans there to collect it.
When you publish your book, a new reader that stumbled upon your website should be able to hop across to yourpurchase page on Amazon.
When you want to share your frustration, or give out advice to other aspiring writers, you can write something on your website and then drop a link to it on LinkedIn or your other social media sites.
A website is the one place you won’t have to categorise your book and choose where it should go.
It’s your soapbox. It’s where you stand and tell the world who you are, what you write, and why they should buy your book.
It’s the one place you get to tell your FULL story, with no limitations, the way you want it to be told.
Writers just want to write…
Okay, so now that we’ve established you DO need to have a website, it’s important to note that, as pointed out by this fellow blogger:
An author website has a lofty goal: it needs to not just be, but also needs to perform and respond.
It can feel like a HUGE time-suck to build all the content across a myriad of platforms, but if there’s one thing you shouldn’t sacrifice, it’s your author website.
Of course, writers just want to write.
But in today’s world, you can’t just write and put work out and hope someone buys it. You need to hone your craft — and a key part of honing your craft is ORGANISING the honing of your craft.
That’s what an author website does.
Since authors spend most of their time fine-tuning their masterpieces, they may not always put a lot of thought into their websites, which is a shame.
A website needs to fulfill your needs as a writer… you can’t just throw anything up there and hope it sticks!
Maximise your website potential
Outline what your goals are for your site. A few key goals for authors should be:
Newsletter sign-ups — I can’t stress this enough. If you launched a book to people who’ve already shown interest in your writing, your chance of them buying it will be much higher.
Reader magnet — this can be tied into your newsletter. Basically, when the visitor signs up, they automatically receive a free book, short story, or chapter excerpt. By giving them a reason to sign up, you’ve hooked them with a freebie and also shown them a taste of your writing so they know what to expect.
Author Blog — you don’t need to write an opus every day, but a few hundred words on a weekly or biweekly basis just to let people know what you’re up to and keep you top of mind. If you can’t think of anything to write yourself, here’s a handy list of ideas.
Work In Progress plugs — set up a page and start talking about your Work in Progress — even if it’s light years away from completion. Start talking about it from now! (I’ve been telling y’all about my Book 2,Book 3and Book 4, even before I published Book 1!)
Character Platforms — these are especially useful if you have a series. Let readers know who your characters are. (You can check out all my Hart & Cole characters here.)
Author Interviews — useful no matter what you’ve written. Answer some FAQs and let readers know your thoughts on the book you’ve written. Why did you write it? What’s it about? (You can check out my Hart & Cole interview here.)
Contact info — make yourself available to your readers. Add links or buttons to any social media sites or sites where you have an author profile. Let them know you want reviews, input, discussion, comments, anything. Just ask! (Here’s mine – feel free to connect!)
Your personality — who are you? You need to show yourself a bit, whether through your “About Me” or the voice of your blog. Readers want to connect with you, and establish trust before they click on “Buy”.
Tell Your Story — before you Sell Your Story.
Finally… the best part of your website is that you get to track its success.
Pop some analytics code on it, and see what pages your visitors are flocking to. Are they interested in chapter excerpts, newsletter sign-ups, video trailers?
They’re your readers. They’re your future fans.
A website lets you find out what they want — and give it to them. So, get cracking!
…And if you do need some techy help to crank out your website, just drop me a line here.
But if you’re a traveller, you have to bear with the means of transport to get there. Yep… airplanes.
I began writing this post while on an airplane kicking off my mega-vacation — Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, U.S.A. and my old stomping ground of London, England. 4 flights and 3 weeks later, I’m now back home — and yep, I’m still not a fan of flying!
I could tell you a zillion things I don’t like about flying. Off the top of my head:
Getting to the airport early and waiting forever
Getting to the airport late (or being in the wrong place in the airport) and dashing to get to where you need to go
Uncertainty about if you’ll end up with the worst seat-mate ever, on a long flight
Cramped spaces — I’ve never flown first/business class; maybe one day!
Loss of control — having to leave your safety completely in the hands of a stranger you haven’t met and perhaps haven’t even seen when you boarded
Turbulence — that moment when you are 100% positive you ARE going to die!
Packing — I usually start too early, and I always always overpack
Repacking on the way back and going crazy trying to make everything fit
Airplane bathrooms. Nothing further needed.
Airport bathrooms. Yep. Same here.
That moment when the customs agent is scoping you out, and you and all start wondering if you’re a criminal!
So yeah… not a fan of flying!
But once you get land, once you get there… there’s relief.
Taking Flight with Writing
I guess that’s what the writing process is, sometimes.
Just like with flying, I could name more than a zillion things I don’t like about the post-publication phase of being a writer.
Chilling with my book in Wandsworth Common, London
I’m not a fan of marketing myself. Everything seems to be stacking up against me as I swim in this vacuum of knowledge I didn’t realise I didn’t have, until it’s called for and I realise I don’t!
Actually getting your name out there takes hard work and a LOT of legwork.
You’re trying to be friendly and approachable [social media], not offend anyone [author groups], be a technical wizard [the bajillion websites to sign up and social media specs to follow], a marketing guru and queen of promotion [Amazon/Facebook ads] — all while shopping your soul around to strangers!
I’ve been stomping around in cyberspace for about two months now, accumulating quite the Digital Author footprinton what seems like a zillion sites.
I’ve been creating content like a mofo, spending far too long debating what to post and what not to post and what to reveal and what to hold back.
I’ve been cross-pollinating my social media and wondering — would I be pissed off if I followed someone on three forums who posted the same thing I’m tired of seeing?
So… yeah… make no joke, being a self-published writer is EXHAUSTING.
…BUT, I’m loving it.
Gimme more of that Author Crack!
Just like travelling, I can’t get enough of this writing journey, this author crack that I’ve been bingeing on for the past 2 months.
Just like travelling, I have to bear with the “flying” part and the “fear” part, to get to the good stuff.
Because despite the *awful* moments of self-doubt that are almost as bad as airplane toilets and turbulence, there’s also the great moments…
When you finally DO publish (a huge, HUGE accomplishment! — don’t let anyone dampen your spirits as to how HUGE this is!)
When you finally DO sell some books (even just a trickle — every one counts!)
Making awesome writer friends and knowing you’re not alone
When a new reader reaches out saying he/she can’t get enough of my characters!
Day 7 and final day of the #BAWritingLife challenge is to say who you follow for Book recommendations.
Day 7 also falls on a timely moment — my “Climbing The Walls” ebookwent live on July 28th, closely followed by thepaperback version on July 29th — so today marks my 6-week anniversary as a newly published author!
Honestly, I’m still a newbie to Instagram, having been here just a little over a month! So I am still getting the hang of it and discovering AWESOME people to follow every day, one of them being Bethany Atazadeh who posted this challenge!
I have been following mostly Indie Authors, at all ends of the spectrum between super-successful with a full-time career (for inspiration) as well as newbie just-published or about-to-publish authors (so I know I’m not alone)!
There is so much awesome talent out there just waiting to be discovered by readers *eh-erhm, myself included!*
A few I’ve liked in terms of book recommendations so far:
I’m a culture/race/music mongrel [I listen to EVERYTHING!] but when I’m actively plotting my scenes to write Contemporary Romance, a few songs are WIP-Worthy…
1. One Republic: “Let’s Hurt Tonight” ???
My Hart & Cole “Darren & Luisa” song from their most climactic moment, when all the relationship trauma rises up as they finally TALK to each other.
Fave lyric: ? Tell me all of the things that you couldn’t before / They say love is pain, well darling, let’s hurt tonight! ?
2. X-Ambassadors: “Unsteady” ??
Possibly the best “relationship crisis” song ever. I love their video where it juxtaposes how the woman’s mouth changes from words of love to words of hatred.
Fave lyric: ? I know you’re trying to fight when you feel like flying / If you love me, don’t let go! ?
3. Kaleo: “Way Down We Go” – ?
Such a powerfully-sung song, and the graphic backdrop always gets me.
Fave lyric: ? Do you dare to look him right in the eyes? ?
4. Metallica: “Nothing Else Matters” – ??
One of the best love songs ever, PERIOD. I’ve said before that ‘Everyone’s story is not the same’ & this displays that perfectly.
Fave lyric: ? Forever trusting who we are, and nothing else matters ?
5. Childish Gambino: “Redbone” – ???
One of the sexiest songs ever, and it helps that the girl in the (Erica Reign – popular, fanmade) video reminds me of my character “Nicole”– mixed race, long curly hair & with the flower! Fave lyric: ? My peanut butter chocolate cake with Kool-Aid ?
…So that’s my top 5 on repeat to get into Work In Progress mode. What about you guys?
Day 4 of the #BAWritingLife challenge by Bethany Atazadeh is to say what rituals/habits get you “In The Zone” or the mood to write.
An important part of my journey to writing — especially in the end stages towards the PUBLISH button — was to set the lock screen & background on my phone to the book cover. I did it with Book 1 (left) and recently changed it to Book 2 (right)! So now I’ve got my book boyfriend to look at all day! ?
I look at my phone constantly — and every time I see it, I am reminded to WRITE! ?
To get me in the mood to write, I also try to get in the heads of my characters. I’ve created a Hart & Cole board on IStock, where I save photos that *could* be my characters (the way I picture them). This helps me with descriptions.
It works both ways — sometimes I have an idea of my character and then spot the person who matches it, or sometimes I use the person I find to create or elaborate on the character I’m describing. Sometimes I also search through to find random photos I can use to inspire a scene!
So that’s a little bit of my behind-the-scenes process to get “In The Zone”! What about you guys?
Mainly I write in my bedroom, sometimes I’ll jot some notes down in an app on my phone when I’m out and about, and sometimes I write on my front porch (though I do have to put up with some SERIOUS *cattitude*! — pictured above!).
Yes, like many other writers (or so it seems from Instagram!), I have some feline help from time to time!
A lady doesn’t reveal her age, but let’s just say this cat, Samba, has been around almost as long as my characters! And I already shared yesterday how long these characters have been with me… so yeah! ?
I have oldddddd photos of her draped over my computer when I had one of those HUGE big-back monitors!… so this little *young* lady has been around a while! ?
Samba was one of my first writing companions [Mauby was THE first – RIP Maubs!] and beta readers for my Hart & Cole Romance series!
I’ve lived in the UK, travelled throughout Europe and the Caribbean (with SO many locations on my “to go” list!), and now operate my business (Writing, Editing, Print & Web Design Services) for both local and international clients.
Beyond my professional skills, I WRITE. IT’S WHAT I DO.
For me, writing is an identity. A writer is just as distinct as a sexuality; a gender; a religion; a nationality. Writing is a state of being.
My first published novel “Climbing The Walls” is part 1 of my Hart & Cole Book series — Parts 2 & 3 are already written, I’m halfway through Part 4, and Part 5 has its seeds in my mind already! So WATCH THIS SPACE.
For me, writing is my journey into myself, to pull something out — something I’ve created; something no one else can create, ever. If it one day it becomes a key source of income, I’ll be thrilled — but not just for the money; but because it means I’ve shared my characters with a wide audience.
Now that I can say I’ve finally, at long last, published a novel, my thoughts circled back to this TED talk by Chimamanda Adichie, one of my favourite pieces on writing.
While her focus is on the danger of the “single story”, the part that resonated with me most was at the beginning — the conundrum of writing and representation.
I experienced a similar childhood to this prolific Nigerian writer.
My father loves literature, and he would give me books by Trinidadian V.S. Naipaul… but for the most part, the books I was reading were by authors like Enid Blyton (UK) and Judy Blume (US).
In them, there was no abuse; no abject poverty; no cringing shame of one’s existence beyond tepid teenage angst.
It was a nicer world than what Trinidadian and Caribbean literature had to offer me.
Write what you like to read…?
And so, when I wrote (and I wrote a LOT as a child), I wrote for a US/UK audience. I wrote things I liked to read.
US/UK influences more dominant in high/secondary school texts
Teachers were thrilled I wrote; many children struggle to string a sentence together. So they didn’t care what I wrote…
The cultural references were rich; but notably, one key theme was the American influence on the country’s geography and economy, and on the main characters.
It felt familiar, but still foreign enough.
Now as an adult, I have a much greater appreciation for Annie John.
Exquisitely “local”
I also still love A Brighter Sun along with another popular Sam Selvon one: The Lonely Londoners (about the Windrush generation settling in the UK), which also had a theme that straddled that fine balance between “familiar” and “foreign”.
This is not to say I don’t like books that feel completely local — one of my faves of all time is Roslyn Carrington’s A Thirst For Rain, and I also loved most of the collected short stories in Trinidad Noir.
So… I enjoy reading both local and foreign texts. There’s that.
The problem is, I’m not just a reader; I’m a writer.
Write where you come from?
As a writer, your personal preferences and tastes are called into question. In my case, the foreign education that seeped into my local experience resulted in a displacement of self.
I’m also of the generation whereby the Internet and mass media suddenly heaved a heap of influence onto youth at the most critical time of their personal development.
In my house, local and foreign influences lived side by side; and as a young adult I’ve also lived abroad.
So, all in all, I’m not sure if I’ve had the “typical” Trinidadian experience to be able to comfortably, naturally, unthinkingly write something similar to the “local” or “regional” books I do happen to enjoy.
Diaspora writers; local meets foreign
Does that make me less of a “Trinidadian” writer (as I’ve stated in my official bio on my first published novel, on my website, and just about everywhere?)…
Despite being part of the burgeoning diaspora, she managed to produce a novel that straddled the divide so well, that Canadian, UK, and Caribbean schools used it for the school curriculum! Wow!
…But then, this was in 1988. It’s now 30 years later.
How likely would this feat be now, in today’s world?
If they, too, identify with that internal war, what does the future hold for generations to come, with even more and more foreign media influences?
I, myself, struggle to begin to write a “Trinidadian” or “Caribbean” novel.
I have managed to write some short stories and poetry/prose like this one, once: Big Tune.
Local writers; international audience
Even then, I wanted to call it “Big Chune” (local parlance)… but I stopped myself.
That’s the other worry — the more “local” I make it, the less it would appeal to (or be understood by!) an international audience.
That’s essentially what happened when foreign reviewers came across Robert Antoni’s “How To Make Photocopies in the Trinidad & Tobago National Archives” (included in Trinidad Noir).
I absolutely LOVED this short story.
However, if I wasn’t born and bred in T&T, well God help me!… there’s very little chance I would have understood more than a few words!
Representation & Placelessness
Is a local author obligated to “write” local?
Generally, I don’t “place” my stories. My first published novelleft out “place” entirely…
But now that I am older, and even more so now that I’ve decided to publish my writing, it is no longer good enough just that I write, but now it’s become an issue of what I write.
American and British writers can claim their heritage openly without hesitation, and can write (more or less) anything they please about any part of the world… and no one questions it.
But when you’re from a small part of the world that hardly anyone knows about… well, you’re expected to write about your unique experience of this small part of the world, right?
I have to represent Trinidad; I have to represent the Caribbean; I have to represent the developing world. I mean… shouldn’t I?
