I hate the star system. Why? Because it forces me to look at a number instead of the content of the review. Someone can say something was really good about my book but if I see three stars or less, I'll think, "It all sucked. Everything in my book just sucked." The problem is that when someone states something they didn't like about my book, they will often include something they did. But it's human nature to focus on the negative, and the stars only exacerbate that for me. Anyway, I wish we could get rid of stars and numbers as a rating method altogether and just focus on the content of the review.

And there should be guidelines when people write reviews. Don't just say the book sucked. Say something positive for every negative. Not in a sarcastic way of course. For example, I don't think this is appropriate: "This book totally bombed. But it made a great toilet for my dog." There is always something good someone can say about something, regardless of how bad it may seem.

I'm not specifically talking about reviews I've been getting. So far I haven't gotten a "I better find a hole and hide" emotional reaction from a review someone did on my book. It's just that when I went to Good Reads to select three books I plan to read next month (all non-fiction--how ironic is that?), I saw that some people were talking about and rating one of my books. I really don't want to know what people are saying or thinking about my stuff because in the back of my mind, I think, "I'm not as good as I'd like to be." Despite how I may present myself, I do have doubts. I just write the stuff that interests me in a way that I'd like to read it. Then I put it out there because I think maybe there's one other person who might enjoy it. If nothing else, it's nice to get away from the daily stresses of life.

What I really enjoy about being an author is meeting and getting to know my readers. That means a lot more to me than the reviews. I know four and five star reviews are good, but it's at the point where they don't mean as much to me as the personal correspondence from readers who have become friends or vice versa. Because after awhile, I get to know some of my readers and then the book isn't something I simply write; it's now something I share. I guess that is what it all boils down to. I don't want to sell a book. I want to share a story. (And this is why I never make money at this gig.)

Find Your Focus

Whether you want to self-publish or traditionally publish, you are going to need an author’s platform if you hope to spread the word about your book. The key to your platform is to answer this simple question: how is your book different from all the others out there? What makes your book unique enough that someone will want to read it?

When you start your platform, it’s best to be focused. Once you establish your readership, you can broaden out. I’ll use myself as an example on how I started out on the wrong path. About two years ago, I began to build my platform. I started with a Myspace account and a website. I had no idea what I was doing, and I did start broad. I had all of my self-published books up there. Considering that I had written science fiction, fantasy, young adult suspense, and romance, I didn’t have a focus. This made my attempts to reach readers haphazard.

When I decided that I wanted to concentrate on romance, I took off all my books that are not romance. I admit that I have just discovered what my focus is (and that was a short while ago). I wish I had known to be focused in the beginning because it would have helped me find my target audience quicker too. The way I got my readers was to set my stories up for free as ebooks. I found one blog that a friend used, and after my books were up there, I got contacted by three other people who had their own free ebook blogs. This process took about ten months since it takes awhile for word to spread and to find places to extend your marketing efforts.

The free ebooks has been helpful in finding readers, and some of those readers are asking me about the other genres I have written since they find those books on Amazon when they do a name search on me. This tells me that I can start expanding my focus. As I write this, I am working on a science fiction (possibly with a fantasy twist) 15,000 word story that I will end up submitting to a small traditional publisher. Yes, just when I found my focus, I also learned that I have moved beyond it. I did things backwards. The reason I give my experience as an example is because the sooner you find your focus, the easier time you’ll have of narrowing in your marketing efforts, but even if you start late or out of order, it’s okay. We’re all human.

So back to the platform. An editor at a small publishing company said that he fears that a big publisher may do the same type of book, and since a small publisher can’t compete with a big publisher, this is an even bigger reason for the prospective author to have a focused platform. If the author has a unique message or way of looking at a particular topic, then they will give the small publisher an edge over the big publisher. This is why it helps if you can answer the question, "How is your book unique?"

So how do you find your focus? One way is to find out how others think of you right now. Even if you haven’t published yet, ask people two questions: how they see you as a person and how they see you as a writer. You may find that you’ll get two different responses, which is fine. But it gives you an idea of how you portray yourself on a personal and a professional level. The way people see you as a writer can help you figure out what your platform should be. However, if you’re not getting answers that you want because the people’s vision of you as an author is not what you like, then who do you want to be known as a year from now? What kind of writer do you want to be? That is what you should aim for as you work on your platform.

The question is probably going to come up as to what exactly “first pages” means. Well, at the HACWN conference, anyone who wanted to submit the first page of their manuscript could do so, and the best part was that it was anonymous so only the person who wrote the page knew it was their work that was being judged. All people attending the conference could sit and listen in on this one hour event, which is what I did.

There was one agent, two editors, and an author representing a publishing press who judged whether or not they would keep reading an author’s submission based on the first page’s contents. A person read each page and then the panel up front would give their feedback on it. In a way, it was painful because they were blunt. They didn’t hold anything back. But in another way, it gave me some neat insight into what they are thinking as they sort through submissions.

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*BTW, this cover is to my revised version of An Unlikely Place for Love. Many thanks to amsaph for creating it for me! I love it. :-)

I found this on Twitter by onbloggingwell and thought others might find this useful. Marketing starts before you have a book out in print. :-)

http://www.copyblogger.com/harsh-social-media-marketing/

From last Thursday to Saturday evening, I attended an awesome writer’s conference called the Heart of America Christian Writer’s Network Fall Conference (HACWN). I had a great time and learned a lot. I have roughly 40 pages worth of notes and seven CDs that I haven’t listened to yet, so my total pages of notes will likely be a little over 100 pages. I plan to share the information I have gathered from the workshops I attended and things I learned from speaking to agents and editors personally. I did not actually have a “pitch my book” meeting with an agent or editor, but my friend went to four of them. Two were paid for ahead of time, and two were freebies. The paid ones lasted 20 minutes each while the freebies lasted 10 minutes each and were on a first come, first serve basis. I am in the process of interviewing her so that she can give us her perspective of what it was like to meet agents/editors and pitch her book and article.

I’m going to be writing posts over the next month or two explaining what I learned. I am also going to be putting this into a book I am compiling on the subject of writing, publishing, and book promotion. I am taking what I’ve been posting and will eventually publish it into the same book. I plan to make this available for free as an ebook too. I love learning this stuff, and I want to share it with anyone who’s interested. What’s great about this conference is that I got a chance to get my information directly from agents and editors. I was impressed with them. Among this conference were the following agents/editors. Feel free to check them out on your own in case you want to learn more about them or to verify that I am offering valid sources.

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I have just switched computers with my husband.  Why?  He has bought the Windows 7 version and decided he hated it.  This is not unusual for him since he hates almost anything he's not familiar with.  I had Windows XP and decided to switch our laptops.  I heard the newer version of Windows Movie Maker is better because it has more options and am eager to test this out.  I'm pretty simple to please.  If I can keep working with Word 2007 and make pdf files to upload to CreateSpace and work with my book cover software program, I'm happy.  My entire laptop life revolves around what I can do with my books.

I thought I'd have to go back and work through reuploading all of my free ebooks back to my website because I was coverting to a new laptop, but it looks like everything is popping up as it should, so that is good.  It means less work for me.  I am not computer savvy, so you're probably laughing that I even worried about that. 

Anyway, this computer is physically bigger than my old one.  This monitor is 15.6 inches.  My old one was 14.1 inches.  The keyboard is also bigger (naturally).  It's going to take some getting used to.  My fingers aren't used to this, so I keep hitting the wrong keys.  I expect that to get better with time.

Let's see.... What else?  I have not done much in regards to writing The Wrong Husband, though I have made decent progress in Restoring Hope.  At this point, I am 2000 words away in Restoring Hope to reaching the same word count that is currently in The Wrong Husband (that is 16,000 words ).  I'm only at 11,000 words (11,005 to be exact--Wahoo!) into NaNo.  This means when I get back this Saturday evening from Kansas City, I am going to have to bust my little tush to make the goal of 50,000 words.  But if I don't make it, that will be fine.  It's for fun.  What I should do is start writing at least 500 words a day for The Wrong Husband.  The method is working for Restoring Hope, and I need to do something to get going on The Wrong Husband again.

Okay.  I'm going to check out Windows Movie Maker.  This is playtime for us artistic types.  :-)

Well, I finally finished with the three books I was revising.  Yay!  Of course, this cut into my NaNo time.  I think I might actually hit the 10,000 word mark today.  Woohoo. (sarcastically stated)  The other people who are doing it are at 15,000 to 30,000 words.  I kid you not.  One has hit 30,000 words already.  I wonder if she does anything else besides write.  It must be nice to have that kind of time.  I may be able to write a book in 1.5 - 2 months (totaling about 70,000 words), but I can't imagine 30,000 words in 1.5 weeks.  More power to her.  :-)

Anyway, I'm stalling on The Wrong Husband.  I guess it's because I'm hitting a scene that is going to be necessary for later but is not that exciting.  I know I need to get through it.

But I am having more success on my other story, Restoring Hope, which is probably going to turn into a novel, so I might as well start putting it in italics.  I have found two great sources on the Mandan Indians, and I even found a small dictionary so I can put in some actual words they spoke.  One book has a slightly different spelling than the other one.  I decided to go with the older book.  Maybe it's false thinking, but I assume the older book will be more in line with how they actually spoke since there were more Mandan Indians living in 1905 who still knew the language than the book written in the '60s. 

I already have a couple of readers (who are really more like friends at this point and they are just a few) who are excited to read about Indian culture.  Now I'm worried I won't get it right.  The pressure is on.  :-)  I don't know how to explain it, but ever since I've become aware that people are interested in reading my future stories, I've had to tackle the feeling of "Will I do as good a job on this book as the last one?"  Most of the time, I do improve with each book.  I know that my writing itself improves each time, but will the story be as interesting as the last one?  With this particular story, the question is, "Will I get an authentic and accurate feel for the Mandan Indians?" Now, I do plan to write another book that introduces the Indian culture in the next two years, so I am going to make a bet that the second book will be more authentic and accurate than the first. 

That's the whole process of writing.  We improve each time we write something new.  Thankfully, a couple of readers have already given me information that they already know.  I do think it's fun when the readers are a part of the writing process.  This is why I think of them more as friends than as just "readers".  In return, I mention them in the dedication and give them a free copy of the paperback when it's out.  I think for this one, I'll have one of my readers read the book before I make it available to validate what I write about the Mandan culture.

A reader's input is important to an author.  But you see, readers are going to have differing opinions, and the author can't please every reader.  It's impossible.  So what the author finally has to do is ask him/herself, "How do I want the story to play out?" And that is ultimately the thing that has to be done. 

It's not that the author is saying, "Screw you.  I'm doing it my way, regardless of what you think."  Believe me, authors (for the most part) do not write a story in a way that they hope will piss off their readers because that is equivalent to shooting themselves in the foot.  For without the reader, where would the author be? 

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Why does editing a book take so long?

And why can't I get more motivated to do it?

*sigh*

That is if editing can be called work.  I don't get paid to do this.  When you self-publish, you often pay for the ability to work.  Haha.

So I made the announcement that I wasn't going to proceed with the revised editions of the three books I had already published (An Inconvenient Marriage, The Cold Wife, and An Unlikely Place for Love).  To my surprise, I got a couple of emails from readers who told me they would like the R rated version of those books (which is the thing that was going to be different, besides the minor errors I made like calling "reigns" "reins"--yeah, I know; all the horse people are ready to pounce on me for that one).  Anyway, since I got emails asking for those revised versions, I have decided to go ahead and put the revised editions out there.  So this upcoming week, while I am in the middle of NaNo, I hope to get the two books read and edited.  I have The Cold Wife completed.  So it is An Inconvenient Marriage and An Unlikely Place for Love that need a read-through.  The books are pretty much polished up as they are, but another look won't hurt.

And November is already coming up here this weekend.  Where did the beginning of this year go?  I blinked and suddenly, we're close to Christmas.  I already have my story planned out for National Novel Writing Month.  Is anyone else taking NaNo this year?  This will be my second time doing this.  I actually have some writing buddies who want to participate this year instead of just saying they're participating, so I expect to have more fun this time.  I am actually going to be working on two stories.

One will be the one I'm doing for my 500 words a day challenge on my wordpress blog.  It's called "Restoring Hope", and I am not sure if this will be a novella or a full-length novel.  It can go in either direction.  Unlike my romances, this one is more of historical fiction and features a Native American woman who has to flee from her tribe.  I started the story with her on the run.  No, I don't know why she's running.  I have possibilities, but I am still trying to figure out which one works best.  I do plan to use more points of view than the traditional hero and heroine only viewpoints I usually do.  The bad guy is going to have his point of view for the sole purpose of alerting the reader that he is still tracking her down. 

The second one is The Wrong Husband.  This was last year's NaNo novel, and I only got two chapters into it.  Currently, I'm in chapter five.  It's a romantic comedy that takes place in the same "world" that Eye of the Beholder and His Redeeming Bride do, which means that some of the same characters pop up that were in the other two books.  So Mary (the heroine in Eye of the Beholder) plays a role in The Wrong Husband since she is Jenny's best friend, and Jenny is the heroine in this book.  I've found that I really enjoy bringing back some characters, just in different ways.  I don't care to write a series though.  I admire people who can prolong a plotline to make a series of it, but I know that is not my strength.

http://www.geocities.com/hlquiz/index.htm

What breed of horse are you?

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I've decided to start at the beginning of Woape's story.  It's be a flight scene.  She's on the run.  The question is why, and I won't answer that question right away.  Hey, you got to hook the reader in, right?  ;-)

I am not sure how long this story will be, but I'm going to be writing it in 500-1000 word segments a day on my wordpress blog.  I did have a cover picked out but that was when I thought I'd start in the middle of the story.  Now that I'm going back, I have to change that.  My problem, or rather big gripe, is that this is a Native American story, though Woape does have interaction with white people.  Still, I was looking for one of those beautfiul Native American pictures I see on some sites, and I'm not finding any that are royalty free.  Royatly free image is the key here. 

So I'm going to have to find something else.  I was thinking of a flower.  A sunrise might be appropriate too.  What I need is a pictorial representation of looking into the future with a sense of optimism or hope.  But the title still needs to be changed.  Maybe "Restoring Hope".  That might work since she eventually gets restored to her former self...only she's stronger for the struggles she's gone through.  I kind of like that.  "Restoring Hope."  It's not going to be a romance like I usually do, though romance is a strong sub-plot, and like I mentioned in another post, there are two men in this woman's life.  I kill one off to make room for the other.  I know.  I feel so bad for this poor guy that I'm going to off.  I already know who's going to do it, why and when.  It's spooky to have this guy's death planned out in such detail.  He's also going to hide her so she sees the whole thing, and she'll be pregnant with his child when this happens.  It's going to be one of those scenes that will make me cry.  I already tear up thinking about it.  Part of me thinks, "I can keep the guy alive and just separate them," but the second part of her book has to be the resolution with her childhood sweetheart and how the tribe is going to accept a child that is half-white.  From a book I read, I learned there was an issue with that in the past and thought it would be an interesting subject to tackle.

Anyway, I am thinking of changing the title too.  I was going to do "Waiting for Hope" but that was when it was primarily from the second man's point of view.  Now that the story has shifted to her, I have to figure out something related to her.  This is going to be women's historical fiction with a Christian slant.  It might just turn into Christian historical fiction when I'm done.  I have to see how the story goes.  Some of my stories lean more in that direction than others, but I can't predict whether or not this will happen when I start it.  I pretty much let the characters direct that, just as they direct everything else for me.  :-)

Okay.  So we'll see what happens with that.

In the meantime, I realized I'll have to put The Wrong Husband on hold while I finish up my edits.  I have to put many things on my plate and that's not good.  So last night I made up a short-term list of things to go through and will systematically work through it.

No.  It should be voluntary.  And my husband volunteered into the armed forces, so this isn't a "I don't want my family in the military" kind of answer.  I believe people should have the freedom to choose whether or not to do this.

In August, I started a blog http://ruthannnordin.wordpress.com/ dedicated to the goal of 500 Words a Day challenge I heard about on a podcast from authors who said if you are having trouble writing and completing a project, do this goal and before the year is up, you can finish a book.  Well, my problem was writing the shorter stories I have in my head because my novels are always more intriguing to me.  So I thought this would be something to try.  Okay.  I gave myself a good week off since I just finished "A Bride for Tom".  The first story I did was "A Chance In Time", and in that novella (20,100 words or so), I introduced a character that caught my attention so much that I want to write her story.

Her name is Woape, and she's an Indian from the Mandan tribe in North Dakota.  Her name means "Hope", and I picked it to represent what she needed because in "A Chance In Time", she is running from someone and she's 16 and pregnant.  There is a ton of backstory but I couldn't go into that in "A Chance In Time" because it didn't coincide with the plot. 

  Well, I don't by here too much because I think no one wants to hear me go on and on about what I'm working on, but then I realized that it means I'm never here because, sadly, my life is all wrapped up in writing.  I do think of my family once in awhile.  I mean, they are somewhat important.  :-)  So, okay.  If my posts are boring, just skim by them.  I won't take offense.  I just feel like I need to do a better job of logging in here to see what my LJ friends are up to.

( cut to spare people from the covers which take up space on the page )

This morning I woke up feeling like someone was taking a jackhammer to my brain.  I still feel that way, and it's worse when the kids or my husband scream.  Maybe this is what a hangover feels like.  I've never had a hangover, so I can only guess.  I'm hoping to slip into bed for a nap later today.  I know this is a head cold, so I'm not concerned.  It's just annoying because I have so many ideas swimming through my head. 

I am going to start The Wrong Husband up again today.  I have two chapters written but I'll have rewrite them because my writing style has changed over the year.  I did the book trailer and made the cover.  I notice that I'm starting to fall into a pattern as I work through the process of making a book.  When I looked at traditional publication, I just wrote the manuscript and that was it.

Now that I am strictly in the business of independent publishing, the way I do things have changed, and I'm beginning to understand the routine I am gonig through in this.

1.  Make the book cover.  This is only if I have the title already in mind.  The Wrong Husband came to me pretty much right away so that one was easy.

2.  Start compiling a playlist to go with the book.  Music is one of the greatest sources of inspiration for me.

3.  Make a book trailer.  This is only if I have the book cover.

4.  Start in on writing the book.

5.  Discuss the book in the blogs and post a sample scene online.

6.  Finish book and submit for publication.

7.  Start in on next book/project.

I have found that when I did this for Loving Eliza, it generated some interest from people that surprised me.  You see, I hadn't bothered to make a cover and book trailer first until I was writing that book.  I was surprised that I got a couple of emails from readers who said they were looking forward to Loving Eliza.  Now I understand why tradtiional publishers want the author to start building up interest in their book before they query them for publication.  It makes their job of selling the book that much easier. 

Oh, and I did read somewhere yesterday that publishers don't necessarily look for books that are good.  They are looking for books that they believe will sell.  So quality is not as important to them as marketability.  I thought that was an interesting tidbit.

Anyway, even though I am about to start The Wrong Husband, my mind is already on possible titles for my future books because if I can get the book title set before I start the thing, I can generate interest in the book sooner.

The big question is, which story idea is next?

Here's a list of things on my mind as possibilities:

1.  the story where the author and her friend get stuck in her book on the computer's harddrive

2.  Emily's story (Emily is the girl in His Redeeming Bride); this is probably a comedy and Emily is one of those competitive women who is always trying to win one up on her male friends (she'll even disguise herself as a man to prove a point but the details are fuzzy)

3.  I was thinking of the son that Eliza had but had to give up for adoption in Loving Eliza.  I wondered, "What if he found out he was adopted?  What if he searched for his real mother?" So last night that idea came to me.

4.  Shotgun Wedding or Groom; comedy which was a novellette but might be better as a novel; we'll see though; it may turn into a novella instead

5.  Joel (Dave's youngest brother in Eye of the Beholder) is going to have his romance too. 

So, over the next two months, I'll be debating which one to write.  Maybe I'll toss these ideas into a hat and just pick one out. 

For the sake of my sanity because doing this on every single blog can be a time consuming and irritating event, I have decided to link this interview.  It's a great one.  Lots of people ask me about self-publishing, and Dan Fitzpatrick shares his experience in this area.  Now here is something unique to him: he had an old version of his book, Vision: Evan's Book, which he took down from the publishing company he had gone through, he revised it, and then he published the new version through CreateSpace.  I asked him about that process.

So for anyone who is thinking of taking a book from one company (say Outskirts Press or iUniverse) and republishing the same book onto CreateSpace, this can tell you what to expect.  Great stuff!  There are other self-publishing issues covered but this one was the most unique regarding his situation.

Here's the link and he is offering his book for free so the details on that is given at the end of the interview:

http://ruthannerussell.blogspot.com/2009/10/dan-fitzpatrick-speaks-on-self.html

My mind has been blank.  I'm waiting to get inspired enough to post.  But I do have a pretty cool link about what literary agents to.  This is from a literary agent too.  And who better than a literary agent would know what they do?

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2009/09/what-do-literary-agents-do.html