For those of you who have never heard of FUD, it stands for “Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt” and has long been a tool used to sell things or coerce people into making a decision. In my case, the FUD factor is more about the upcoming launch of my debut novel, Mik Murdoch, Boy Superhero. Now that the book is done and totally out of my hands, those common doubts are surfacing: will people enjoy the story? will they even know the book exists? will it sell? I know of good, well-known authors who have done everything in their power to spread the word only to have their book fall flat sales-wise. It wasn’t a fault of the book, the cover or anything […]
Read moreCategory: Networking and Marketing
Learning a New Skill
One of the skills I haven’t had to learn quite yet is how to market my books. Yes, I’ve been working for a long time to make the right contacts and I’ve been learning everything I can about building my author’s platform, but it isn’t the same. Marketing Mik Murdock, Boy Superhero when it is available is going to be something completely new. I’m really grateful this isn’t my publisher’s first rodeo. That takes some of the pressure off. I know when I ask what I can do and who I need to talk to Lorina will have answers for me. But, what should I be doing now in preparation? That’s the question that keeps me up at night. Should […]
Read moreWhy Podcasting Your Work Can Be Good
I was thinking about my writing and my podcasting the other day and I came to realize how much benefit my writing actually gets from being podcast. It might stem from that advice you hear many professional authors give to “read your work out loud”, but there are definite positive outcomes to doing it: You end up with a much cleaner manuscript. That is a direct advantage to podcasting. I know, when I did GalaxyBillies, I would take a scene that I thought was pretty clean, especially the dialogue parts, and find little niggly errors that interupted the flow. I was able to clean up many of those problems during recording. Now that I’m preparing GalaxyBillies for submission, I’m amazed at […]
Read moreNetworking For The Win!
I’ve preached the networking mantra for quite some time now talking about how important it is for writers (well, anyone actually) to go forth and meet other people through whatever means possible. In the past few months I have seen just how fantastic good networking can be. Let me give you a brief rundown of some networking successes I’ve had lately: Twitter – I have met a huge number of very cool people on Twitter. Those contacts have resulted in friendships, interview guests for Get Published, collaboration projects, publishing opportunities. World Fantasy Convention – I met lots of great new people that meant more interview guests, publishing opportunities and yes, more and better friendships with previously virtual friends. Facebook – […]
Read more