This is going to be an unusual blogpost, in that it’s not specifically a story update. (By the way, //019 is now available.) It’s about the process of organizing and planning my writing.
As noted in the last post, I’m trying to think more about how I promote my work and how I present it to the world. So, I started a thread on a YA authors Reddit asking for assistance. The feedback’s been good so far, and rather than just make notes to myself, I thought I’d summarize it here as well as my response to each item… and throw it open to the floor. I’d love to hear your thoughts; you’re part of this process, too!
Free “lite” versions of the ebooks, at least the first ones. – OKAY!
The way my writing works, I already do this; if you go to the site you can read MOST of the book for free. But for users finding me exclusively through Amazon, they don’t even know the site exists. One thing I’ve been toying with is an eBook release of just the free chapters, for free, as a promotional tool. It’s a low-effort way to get out in front of new readers. (Of course I still have the problem that searching for “City of Angles” makes Amazon go “Oh, did you mean City of ANGELS?” and changes your search. Bleh.)
Clarify that UE and Sailor Nothing are not fanfic. – YEAH, OKAY.
This has plagued me for some time. Because of their colorful anime art style and the word ‘Sailor’ everybody assumes these are fanfic. Ugh. I can’t do much about it but I can slap a more explicit “No, it’s not” on the stories.
On the store page, cut the technical description and put in a plot summary instead. Similarly for the descriptions on Amazon include more about the characters. – CAN DO!
Originally I was ranting about how the books are 6″x9″ and the ebook is DRM free etc. etc. because I wanted to make sure people knew what they were buying into. But, these days, it’s kinda standard to expect that buying a book = getting a book, so I can push the actual plot details instead.
Covers for anachronauts are too serious, CoA are too kiddie. – WHOOPS? OH WELL.
I’m not keen on changing the cover art now, not this late in the game. I can see where this is coming from, but anachronauts IS meant to be science fiction so more serious covers matter. Maybe too serious? I don’t know. As for CoA, yeah, I’ve gotten complaints about Allison’s artwork. I like it, personally, and I think it suits, but it DOES earmark the books as adorable storytime for children due to America’s fixation that any hand-drawn characters are Spongebob Squarepants. For my next book I’ll definitely aim for a midpoint.
Blog more about writing or other people’s books, not just weekly project updates; blog posts can go into the ‘inspirations’ behind chapters. – OKAY!
You’re reading one right now. I want to do more with the blog, more than just “Hey it’s Saturday here’s more story.” I’m presuming you guys wouldn’t mind reading more, too. Get more engaged, dig in a bit deeper. I used to use this blog for all manner of things, before I focused my personal blogging on Twitter. I can do more.
Prizes and contests; signed books as rewards. – MAYBE?
Now that I’m done using Kickstarter (it was a noble experiment that mostly worked but I think it’s too much of a hassle) I can offer autographed copies directly, or for community events. Not sure yet how best to do this, or if I will. Would you guys be interested? Got any suggestions?
Little photo ads and resources folks can use on tumblr, twitter, FB, etc. Media kit for fans to use to spread the word. – MAYBE?
I’m a big advocate of ‘street teams,’ sending your fans out to spread the gospel. Not sure how useful this would be, but if you have an interest, let me know.
Buy google adwords for ‘new releases ebooks’ or ‘ya fiction.’ – MAYBE?
I’ve earmarked some of the Kickstarter budget for advertising, and am working on how best to spend that. This is a possibility but I have my doubts that SEO and Google focus would help. Do people really google “NEW BUUKS” when they want something to read? It’s not like buying a vacuum cleaner.
Wattpad free ebook version – TRYING!
Wattpad kinda sucks. I’ve been trying to upload City of Angles but it keeps claiming it’s “Rated R” and rejects it every time, without saying why. Their interface is poops. But if I can make this work, I will.
Write more fanfic. – NO.
I’m outta that game, baby. I don’t need to write about how Naruto can beat up Dragonball Z in order to grow an audience. Don’t get me wrong, fanfic is fun and I encourage more of it and it IS a good launching pad, but… I’ve launched, and I get way more satisfaction from original writing now.
So, that’s everything so far. If you’ve got any more ideas, post below!
I think something about how your own experience in cinema classes in college is shaping the current CoA chapter would be interesting…
It’s not really. The classes I took were in film ANALYSIS, not CREATION. Essentially they were english literature classes that used films instead of books as a subject of study. Different language — shot composition as metaphor, etc — but the same concept. Also the first time I ever really UNDERSTOOD that a text can have underlying meaning; before then it always felt like subext was some kind of scam. Srsly.
Left you a few words in your e-mail box regarding lite eBooks. Lemme know when you can.
I never thought the anachronauts book covers as looking “serious” per se. Normally “serious” book covers are in the vein of:
BOOK TITLE IN GIANT, POSSIBLY SERIF LETTERS
maybe a small icon, emblem, or image situated between book title and author
AUTHOR NAME IN SAME FONT, SLIGHTLY LARGER OR SMALLER THAN BOOK TITLE DEPENDING ON AUTHOR’S REPUTATION
Anachronauts books look fantastic, and the covers (particularly a01 and SF) do a fantastic job setting the tone for the world (or its undoing, in SF’s case).
As for City of Angles, while Alison’s artwork does seem cartoony, I’d say it’s offset by 1) the worried looks on everyone’s faces and general body language–most things designed for pre-teens have more dynamic poses that scream “action!”, and 2) the color design–you use primary colors, but they’re not bold and in-your-face, nor are they gender-coded (thankfully), which are things they use to try to appeal to kids. Plus, they feel right for the individual chapters; I can’t fault the same style being on the cover.
You remember Karen Healey (Phoebe from IFF)? Have a look at her tumblr/LJ. The former seems to be a lot of personal interest stuff with the occasional author thing in there, and the latter is the inverse. It’s a pretty good mix and a good way of showing how to fine tune specific social media sites for the audience of those sites (short of posting exclusively in Russian on LJ, I guess). I don’t know how she does it–I’m pretty sure she’s juggling a few other jobs on the side–but she’s good at it.
Yeah, personally I disagree with the assessment of the anachronauts covers. I purposefully wanted a more serious scifi-ish cover; heck, my original idea for it was to make it look like a beat-up oldschool 60s scifi book cover. So, I think it gets the job done. Probably the guy making that call thought because it’s quasi-YA, it shouldn’t look serious.
As for CoA, it’s not QUITE where I want it since it’s being misinterpreted, but I do like the art style and I prefer consistent branding. Once you have an art style, stick with it, basically. So it’s going to stand as-is and I’ll just carry the lesson forward. And honestly it’s not THAT bad, for reasons you cite.
Blog more about writing or other people’s books — yeah, I can see you posting lots of interesting things in this vein… and a lot of it can loop back around to your own creative process. Like say, things you notice about how tropes are used well, or not, in some recent media you’ve viewed. How film studies or sociology classes keep coming back to you now. Things like that.