Tag Archives: Publicity

Language

Ten steps to a more businesslike approach to writing #WritersBlock


Have been thinking about this a lot recently, and have come up with a simple ten step businesslike approach to writing;

1. Plan the narrative, set and use timelines
2. Write to the plan unless there’s a bloody sound reason
3. Set a schedule, hours, dates, times, which are given solely to producing ‘product’
4. Set hours, dates, times for getting the message ‘out there’
5. Set up a web linking strategy. Follow it.
6. Create useful resources for readers
7. Create interesting forums with anti-troll and spam defences. Be ruthless.
8. Stick with what you’re writing, don’t get distracted.
9. Don’t listen to too much advice
10. Proof read, spell check daily.

This is more for myself than for anyone else, as I tend to let myself get distracted and do anything but get on with it because I get stuck. I intend to set myself a target of 10,000 words per week minimum, with a set maximum of 3,000 words per day. If I’m going to try and make a success of something, the least I can do is do it in a disciplined, focused manner.

Technology

Hashtags and social media for promotion #SelfPublishing


While looking around at cross-platforming my latest eBook and getting it listed by as many distribution outlets as possible, I came across a number of articles on Twitter Hashtags. This morning one dropped into my inbox from my LinkedIn membership; “100 Hashtags every writer should know”, and a quick browse brought up “Why use Hashtags?”. Also worth a peruse is “Why Hashtags fail”.

In isolation no article tells the whole story, but put together they’ve filled in important gaps in my knowledge. I’ve previously said that I suck at social media, but maybe by following the guidelines, there is a chance of becoming less sucky than before.

Technology

Popping the Kobo question


I’ve just submitted a question to the Kobo guys regarding getting existing ePub formatted titles with existing ISBN’s listed on the Kobo marketplace. I’m sure it’s not as complicated as it looks. It’s Friday, and I’m not expecting any kind of reply until at least midweek next week. About the same time the proof paperback of Head of the Beast drops onto my doormat. Should Kobo work out that makes three large market places with product placement.

Note to self: must check out the listings to make sure sufficient excerpts and tasters are available to sufficiently whet reading appetites. As soon as proof is okayed and listed on Amazon, I’ll cut and paste a taster on the Amazon page.

Money is tight right at the moment, and I’ve no spare cash to spend on marketing. So it’s head down and keep on punching keys, preparing product for release into the public domain. Keep the day job and keep throwing things at the wall. Something is bound to stick sooner or later. Although I’d rather it was sooner.

Cerberus

Head of the Beast cover notes


I’ve been wondering about what wording I should use as cover blurb for Head of the Beast, first of the Paul Calvin Novels. After much spirited debate with my muse (Angie, my Wife), we agreed on the following:

“The living shouldn’t talk to the dead. We say too much and know too little.” Runs the gospel according to Nick Calvin, ex Uniform Police Inspector.

The problem is, Nick Calvin has been dead for over seven years. Killed in the line of duty.

The other problem is, his son Paul can now hear him quite clearly. Paul can also hear a lot of other dead people, as well as the thoughts of the living. Having your brain rebuilt by a genius in neural stem cell technology can do that to a man. Which should turn him into some kind of super hero. Only he’s neither super nor hero.

Yet his abilities push him into the very front line against an evil plot. One which threatens to spread mayhem and bloody destruction all through the streets of London. He is also now squarely in the sights of a ruthless Swiss consortium, with designs on the impossible to replicate technology between his ears.

With his wife about to divorce him, and professional disgrace in the offing, this is not how Paul saw his life as a career police officer turning out.

Head of the Beast is the first of the bleakly near – comic tales from the Cerberus Conspiracy series of science fantasy novels.

I think it’s got legs. I really do.

Technology

Master of my own domain


While the muse has deserted me, mid murder scene, I’m doing what I normally do in these circumstances, which is simply to find myself something non-keyboard related while my subconscious mulls things over. Today I am building Angie a wine rack and also have taken the step of registering my own domain name for this site and the ‘Martyn Jones’ brand name, martynkjones.com. There’s also a new Facebook page which is completely public without my youngest daughters weird and wonderful collection of pictures making an appearance. There are a few odd code glitches at the moment, like the ‘like’ button being inoperative, but I’ll fix that in the next few days or so.

Sites exclusively for the Stars trilogy and Paul Calvin novels will follow. As will a picture of the completed and filled wine rack.

Events

Surrey International Book Fair; Live blog


Okay, Kenn and I are here at Surrey International Book Fair 2012 with about eighty plus other hopefuls. There are a wide variety of authors present from childrens writers to travel and cookery writers. Next table but one has some serious looking bakery on the table, and I’m sitting here, pottering away on the old laptop, just drinking it all in. A couple of people are a massive draw and there are queues all round the room. The noise level is quite high, filled with bursts of happy, even excited sound as people wait to talk to their favourites.

I find I’m actually enjoying my own relative anonymity, blogging and peoplewatching. Kenn, my friend and neighbour is out walking and talking. Currently to a lady whose favourite has not arrived yet. We’ve all been assigned places, and after a little chicanery on my part, got myself moved to share a table with Kenn, who is a more experienced player at this event. Being a relative newbie at this game I’m a little nervous, but happy just to be here.

5:50pm One of the organisers has just come up to me and delivered the following message; “If someone comes up and asks you to sign something – sign it. It’s for the draw.” No idea what the ‘draw’ is all about, although I’m rather intrigued. Tell you the truth, I’d be too overwhelmed not to. Probably even ask them “Who do you want it dedicated to?”

6:00pm Kenn has given away all his promotional pamphlets, and I’m having to raise my voice to make myself heard to a couple of people who have taken pity upon me and come over to see what’s on display. I’ll talk to anyone right now. I wish I’d brought more promotional materials. I think for the next event I do I’ll get some bookmarks printed for giveaways.

6:30pm Have just run into Bennet R Coles, who has a volume out called ‘Virtues of War. Military Sci-Fi.

6:45pm Place is emptying out now. The big queues have shrunk, and the bakery guys two tables down have started to pack up, sorry, have packed up and gone. I think that the ‘Stars’ trilogy could do with its own web site, as part of a nested package of brands. Cerberus likewise. Some kind of direct ordering interface might be useful. The online presence definitely helps, because the real audience for science fiction is online or via the Sci-Fi Convention circuit. Kenn has been out walking and talking, selling himself for all he’s worth. I’ve had a few people coming up to admire my artwork, but no sales.

7:00pm Okay, that’s closing time. Time to pack up and head for the ferry. Its been an interesting day and worth it for the experience, but not the right marketplace. Too literary. Would I do it again? Maybe. When I’m a bit more of a name. Make it worth people’s while to come.

General musings

We have a Go


Surrey book fair is a ‘Go’ situation. Have just arranged ferries and who pays for what with neighbour and fellow writer Kenn Joubert. My name is on the book fairs web site, but there’s just one issue; very few books to sell. I have three copies of ‘Falling through the stars’ left as stock, and too little time to order new copies, postal delivery times being what they are this side of the Straits of Georgia. So if anyone has a copy of ‘Sky’ (I know this is highly unlikely, sales being what they have been) they’ll have to bring it along for signing.

I shall be at the book fair, on display, between 5:30pm and 7pm Saturday 20th October. Possibly writing, possibly using the hotels free Wi-Fi for e-mail or playing games. Who knows, I may even get to talk to someone about what I do. What is certain is that I won’t turn a profit on the day, but I’m not really bothered. As far as I’m concerned the whole event is a learning experience. It’s a day out.

Kenn tells me he was once on the 600 strong shortlist of potential Canadian Astronauts, and has his own ideas about what sort of science fiction should be on TV. Should prove an interesting day next Saturday.

Stars Trilogy

Video content now online


Well, for better or worse both video’s will be up very shortly on the ‘Video’ tab. I’ve disabled comments over at YouTube because I want anyone who wants to say anything come here and do so. It also saves me messing around with yet another login just to argue when I should be writing.

The first video is a very uncomfortable me doing a little reading off a cheat sheet, trying to explain in under four minutes what a three volume trilogy of 450,000 words is about. The second is another four minute vid of me talking about some of the ideas I got to play around with. Not quite so uncomfortable, but not as smoothly as I’d hoped.

If the Stars trilogy were a sandwich, it would be a club sandwich with a whole steer and half a hectare of vegetables, smothered in fifty gallons of mustard and mayonnaise, and not too much bread. Not to everyone’s taste, but if we all liked the same thing, what a dull world it would be.

Astronomy, Stars Trilogy

Video readings


I’m currently having a Henry Higgins “By George he’s got it” moment. My stammer is mostly absent, and I’m finally confident enough to sight read my own work to camera. The proof of the pudding came yesterday, when I settled down in front of my laptop camera and read the first eleven pages of ‘Sky full of stars’, hardly muffing a word. Well, apart from six occurrences that I noticed. Not bad for twenty-nine minutes without a break. I’m quite pleased.

Until I’ve sorted out some kind of video hosting, I think my best path is to post on Youtube and embed on this site on a specific page like on a Youtube channel. While I’m sure there will be some less than kind comments from the casually immature, I’m hoping that there will be more supportive responses. A couple of friends tell me that the best way to deal with negative people online is simply to delete their unpleasantness.

The current state of play with our local Weather is that we might get lucky with clearing skies to view a possible Aurora Borealis on Saturday night. SOHO has experienced considerable interference from heavy S1 level particle bombardment as reported on Spaceweather.com. I shall also be watching the CSSDP Real time Auroral data to see if anything in happening elsewhere.

Astronomy

Aurora prediction


According to Spaceweather.com we’re due another X Class solar flare on Friday. I’ll try another Aurora observation blog if conditions are good, but this time I’ll wrap up better against my little biting friends.

Work on ‘Darkness’ and the ‘Cerberus’ series is currently painfully slow. On the upside I’m currently in the process of writing to various convention holders about being a speaker on the topic of science fiction, albeit the slightly nerdy end of the spectrum. My 20-30 minute talk “The big what if” always seems to be well received by audiences, mainly because I avoid sight reading, and simply talk to people instead of ‘at’ them. Oddly enough my slight stammer seems to disappear when I get into a more relaxed stride.

General musings

Back from the printers


A day of errands today. A short hike down to the printers for some test posters this morning. They’ve come out better than expected. The artwork for giveaway bookmarks needs a little tweak, but definition and content are looking much better than I’d hoped. Just have to play with the wording on the reverse and they’ll be good to go.

Arranging a visit to the vets for my dog, Amos, who is looking a bit peaky, poor chap. Have tried changes to his diet and exercise, but nothing seems to make any difference. So off to Parksville we go. The Bellevue clinic has always been pretty good, so despite a 50km drive, I’m happy to take my poorly pup up there. I’m thinking bladder stones as he is over 12 years old, but the Vet will have a better idea. Hope it’s nothing too drastic. That pup has come a long way with us, across the Atlantic and trans Canada, and it puts a nasty prescient knot in my gut worrying that he might be seriously ill.

General musings

Listening to Seals dance

2 Comments

Last night as dusk closed in, I was sitting out on the deck with Angie.  Not talking, but just listening to the night sounds.  From down in the narrows came the splashing slapping sound I now understand to be a Seal mating display.  A male Seal, in order to attract a mate, dives deep, then rockets three quarters of its body length out of the water before falling back with flippers outstretched to bellyflop on the water.  Makes a heck of a racket.  The sound carries for miles.  There were three I was sure of coming from distinct locations.  One half way down Mudge Island.  One between Round Island and Cedar shore, and another further down towards Boat ramp.  All making a racket.  All clamouring for attention.  Splash-bang!  Splash-bang!  Me, me, me!

What with one thing and another I should have been doing something similar with regards to the Stars Trilogy and my other work.  The only problem is that I’ve been busy doing other things, or there have been too many distractions.  My writing has been effectively dead in the water for six months, and my self imposed deadline for completing “Darkness” has simply whooshed on by.  It has stalled.  I have a beginning and an end, but the middle, the meat in the sandwich, is sparse and unsatisfying.

My problem is that my work is viewed by my family as some kind of bizarre and unproductive hobby, and in some ways I suppose it is.  Yet every time I revisit the previous two volumes, the more they grow on me.  There is nothing wrong with the stories or the writing, apart from being just shy of 150,000 words apiece.  The mini universe my narrative inhabits does not fall into what I refer to as the ‘Unicorns and fairies’ stuff of hyperintelligent pan dimensional beings (Who all look surprisingly human), just an isolated and querulous humanity, wrapped up in their own agendas, and struggling to get by on their brave new worlds. 

Angie has been nudging me to do some more promotional events to publicise my works, but to be honest I haven’t a clue where to start.  Nor the funds.  I’m revisiting my artwork (Which still looks good, even in poster sizes) and have written to the organisers of next years Vancouver Science Fiction convention, asking how it works, and what an author has to do in order to make an appearance. Despite my occasional stammer, I’m a reasonable public speaker with, from my attempts at stand up comedy back in the 90’s, a decent sense of humour.  I can get a laugh out of a crowd, and if I can get ten words out, I can get a thousand or more, and make it entertaining to boot.  The issue is, finding the crowd.

The thought occurs that if a lonely seal needs to leap out of the water and slap down hard to get attention, perhaps I should follow his example.