Tag Archives: self publishing

Fake It Till You Make It

“It’s none of their business that you have to learn how to write.  Let them think you were born that way.”

– Ernest Hemingway

No commentary necessary.  This one speaks for itself.

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Asked and Anticipated Questions Re: One Post a Day Challenge

Blogger/Author Tommy Muncie posed this comment, so finely crafted, that I felt it merited an entire post:

Respect to you for doing this…I couldn’t write a short post if I tried (you’ve probably noticed) and trying one per day would probably give me an aneurysm. On that note, I reckon you’ll achieve the goal but I’m wondering how you’ll get past the day you get sick, as in the kind of sick where you’re bedridden and narcoleptic and running the kind of temperature the Sahara Dessert would be jealous of and thinking ‘Must…get…to….wordpress!’ and then your body knocks you out when you try. I read your random questions post tonight as well, so here’s a question: could you get past a day like that and still post?

– Tommy Muncie

ANSWER – I’ve been scheduling posts in advance, in the hopes of avoiding this very scenario.  However, should I fall violently ill, I will use my last bit of energy to make a post.  It won’t be anything fancy or spectacular, it will just be “post” or I’ll just bang on the keys and click “post” just to meet the once a day requirement.

Further, if, say, I am hit by a bus or otherwise left incapacitated, I have engaged a team of individuals to post in my stead, mimicking my subtle nuances and character, so that you will not even notice I am gone.

Actually, I haven’t done that, but now that I’m worried about illnesses and bus attacks on my person, I will have to do so.

Thanks a lot, Muncie!

Now that I’ve answered that question, here some others I anticipate you, my audience of three readers, may have:

QUESTION:  Suppose you are cornered by a team of robot ninjas who stand between you and your computer, preventing you from making a post?  Will you yield on your promise to us, the readers, to make one post a day?

ANSWER:  Absolutely not.  I scoff in the face of danger.  Few are aware of this, but I was trained in the martial arts by Chuck Norris.  I payed it forward by training Steven Seagal, teaching him all the moves he displayed in his movies from the 1980’s and 90’s, though I take no credit from his later films where he got fat and teamed up with Tom Arnold.

QUESTION:  An asteroid is careening towards Earth.  You have one minute to save the world and you have not yet posted on this particular day.  What do you do?

ANSWER:  I make a quick post, then I frighten the asteroid back into space with a glare so fearsome that it clearly communicates to the asteroid my disapproval of its tiresome behavior.

QUESTION:  A grizzly bear demands to fist fight you in a steel cage UFC championship bout.  The prize?  Your computer.  If you win, you get to post.  If you loose, the bear eats your computer.

ANSWER:  My post will be a selfie of me wearing the bear’s oily hide as a coat.

QUESTION:  Aliens invade.  They detonate an electromagnetic pulse that renders all electronic equipment useless.

ANSWER:  It’s fine.  I scheduled an advance post.

QUESTION:  You didn’t.  You were too busy watching Game of Thrones, that show that Tommy Muncie is not impressed with.  Blasphemy, I say.

ANSWER:  I did post.

QUESTION:  You didn’t.

ANSWER:  Well, if your computer is taken out too, then how can you be sure I didn’t?

QUESTION:  Well played, sir.  Well played.

QUESTION:  You are kidnapped by Russians, who want your blog down because it is too awesome.  They throw you, your computer, and a parachute out of a plane, but separately, not together.

ANSWER:  I dive myself to the computer, post, then put on the parachute.  Note that my first instinct was to post, not to save myself.

QUESTION:  Katy Perry and Katee Sackhoff, two of your favorite Katies in the entire world, barge into your domicile, each wearing their customary garb.  Perry is in her California Girls video costume, while Sackhoff is in her Battlestar Galactica pilot gear.  They offer to have their way with you, but the price?  You must not post for one day.

ANSWER:  Define “have their way with me.”  I understand the classical connotation, but it is an open ended term that can be taken a variety of ways.  Thus far, in my experience, a woman “having her way with me” means she sucks up all my money, provides me with a longwinded speech about how we should just be friends, and then said friendship inevitably requires that I console her while she, with a cat in one hand and a pint of ice cream in the other, whines to me about how the men she wants to be more than friends with aren’t nice to her.  I feel such a situation would not be worth sacrificing the respect of my three readers for.

QUESTION:  The classical connotation.

ANSWER:  Ah.  Wow.  That is a tough one.  They won’t even allow me to post just so I can brag about it?

QUESTION: No.

ANSWER:  Well, I made a promise to all three of my fans, so I would invite the Katies in for a rousing game of Parcheesi, perhaps build a few jigsaw puzzles with them, then send them on their way in time to make a post.  That’s just what a selfless man who has made a commitment does.

QUESTION:  Would you resent us forever for it?

ANSWER:  Yes.

Do you have questions about what I would do in a potential scenario that would make it difficult for me to post?  Ask away in the comments.

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365 Days. 365 Posts. 1 Nerd.

If you have the time, you can check and see that every day in the month of January 2015, I made at least one post per day.  I’ve been thinking about challenging myself to making one post per day on this blog in 2015, but wanted to get through one month before committing to the idea.

So, consider me committed.  And frankly, for agreeing to do this, I should be committed.

My theory:  Daily posts = more readers = more site traffic = an overall stronger platform.

Your theory probably = do less posts, idiot, and the posts you do, make them quality.  Quality is better than quantity!

And it is!  I’m not disagreeing.  A great feature of Word Press is that you are allowed to schedule posts in advance.  Many of my short posts are written and scheduled to appear on different days.  I write a bunch in one sitting when I have that most precious of commodities: free time.

MY SELF-IMPOSED RULES

1) 1 post every day now until Jan 1 2016.

2)  These posts do not have to have any level of awesomeness.  In fact, I’m fairly certain there will be busy times where I will simply post something like “I like waffles!”  or “How’s everyone doing today?”

3)  I will try my best not to allow quantity to override quality.  These short posts can be rattle off quickly, so hopefully I’ll make time to post more in-depth material.  This might even lead to more than one post a day, though only one post a day is required.

SUBSIDIARY GOALS

One post per day on this blog for the whole year is all I need to consider myself a success.  However, here are some other goals I’d like to accomplish this year:

1)  Comment on at least one other WordPress blogger’s blog per day.

2)  Tweet one tweet per day.

3)  Said tweets or comments do not have to be Shakespeare but can be short and sweet as time allows.

PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS – GOALS BASED ON THE NUMBERS

Based on figures from last year, I have noticed that when I don’t post for long periods of time, the best I can hope for is around 10 visitors (average) a day.

Last year, during my Halloween daily post-a-thon for the last half of October, I noticed a spike in visitors to around 35-40 (average) daily.  This is when it first popped into my mind to do a 2015 year long post-a-thon.

At the time of this writing, I’m averaging 35-40 site visitors per day.  I believe this is due to daily postings.

I’m also seeing an increase in blog followers.  I had 400 at the start of the year, and about 450 now.

I had 2000 twitter followers at the start of the year, I’m at around 2500 now.

I’m not sure if there is anyway to guarantee this, in fact I’m certain there isn’t – but here is what I am hoping for:

By the end of 2015 – to have 1000 blog followers (i.e. people who click that little follow button on my wordpress blog) and 5000 twitter followers.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q – Could this all blow up in your face?

A – Yes.  Yes it could.

Q – Are you setting yourself up for disappointment?

A – Yes.  Yes I am.

Q-  I can see it now.  You post 364 out of 365 days then on Dec 31, 2015 you get hit by a bus.

A – That bus better have Wi-Fi.

Q –  Shouldn’t it be about quality over quantity?

A-  Yes.

Q – Then why this quest for quantity?

A – Because as wannabe writers, we are all basically pouring our drops into the same water bucket.  There are so many of us and blog readers and twitter followers only have so much time.  If you don’t catch them at the time they’re checking their feeds, then chances are, you won’t catch them.  More content = more chances to attract readers.

Q – That’s rather Machiavellian.

A – (turns around in my swivel chair, petting a white cat) Muah ha ha!  MUAH HA HA!

Q – Who is asking you these questions?

A-  I am.

Q – You’re interviewing yourself?

A-  Yes.

Q-  Takes a big ego do to that, doesn’t it?

A – It does.

Keep me honest folks!  If you see a day where I don’t post, call me out on the carpet and pelt me with verbal tomatoes!

365 Days.  365 Posts.  1 Nerd.  The Bookshelf Battle 2015 All-Year Post-a-thon is officially announced!

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Meg Rosoff on “Your Writing Voice

Your writing voice is the deepest possible reflection of who you are. The job of your voice is not to seduce or flatter or make well-shaped sentences. In your voice, your readers should be able to hear the contents of your mind, your heart, your soul.
 – Meg Rosoff, Novelist, Author of How I Live Now

True or false?  Discuss.

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Tomorrow on Bookshelf Battle…

I’m going to have a special announcement.

Will it be…

a)  So big that it will take people’s attention away from the big sporting contest I hear will be taking place?

b)   that all of my readers will get free Kindle fires?  Even my Aunt Gertie?

c)  that the dawning of the Age of Aquarius is finally here?

d) that I have acquired a guest spot on Game of Thrones, in which I inspire everyone with my near victory, only to be murdered in a gruesome and unexpected manner?

e)  None of the above?

Whoa nelly, such suspense!  Stop by tomorrow to find out!

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Blog Contests

Has anyone ever run a blog contest before?

Something like, oh I don’t know, the next twenty people who subscribe to bookshelfbattle.com have the chance to win a prize?

I don’t know what the prize would be. A book? A toaster? A date with Charlize Theron?

Yeah like I’d give that away.

I’m just curious – if anyone out there has run a successful blog contest, how do you do it?

Comment away if you have advice.

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Apple Spellchecker

Apple has the most ridiculously aggressive spellchecker in the world, to the point where I feel like it is the equivalent of an eighty-year old nun whacking my knuckles with a ruler every time I intentionally write a misspelled or made up word – which, as an aspiring sci-fi author, I NEED TO DO!

Anyone ever experience this?  Any advice?

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A Hypothetical…

You get a month off.  No one will bother you.  Everyone you care about has expressed support…nay, demanded that you do nothing but write and all will be fine without you until you return.  You have a cabin in the woods, or a beach house, or a hotel in Hawaii…ok wherever you want.  And all you have to do for the next month is write.

In fact, let’s up the ante.  You are locked in the room.  You have all the food, sustenance, drinks, water, bathroom, really all the things you need in life.  And there’s no distractions.  You get like one hour a day for a TV watching break.  After that, the TV magically stops until the next day’s one hour break.

Also, you only get to use the Internet in so far as you are conducting novel research.  Once you start looking up youtube videos about cats engaging in hilarious activities, the Internet shuts down until you conduct serious research again.

You’re free of all distractions.  You have all that you need.

QUESTION – Given this situation, what would you write?

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Google +

Bookshelf Battle is now on Google +

Check it out.

There’s a lot of cool stuff going on there, a bit overwhelming when you’re first getting into it, but I do enjoy the writer, blogger, self-publishing communities, etc.

Oh, and as always, you can follow me on twitter @bookshelfbattle

Thanks for stopping by.  You keep reading, I’ll keep writing.

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Book Subscription Services

The Economist just published an article – “Spotify for Books.”  Naturally, it got me thinking about one of my favorite topics – self-publishing.

Netflix provides all the movies you can watch for a flat fee per month.  Hulu does the same thing for the latest TV shows.

Pandora provides streaming music.  If you’re willing to listen to a commercial after a few songs, you can listen for free!

Will subscription services take over books?  And if they do, what will it mean for authors?

As I read the myriad of self-publishing advice info out there, there seems to be a consistent strategy for success:  Write a lot.  Promote a lot.  Every additional book you put out, every blog post, every tweet, every thing is just one more “net” you’re putting out into the ocean of the Internet in the hopes of catching a “fish” i.e. another loyal reader.

Sorry readers, I didn’t mean to call you fish.  I meant it in the nicest possible way.

And usually, indie authors end up giving their work away for free or close to free just to promote themselves and attract readers.

So, won’t subscription services just steal those profits away?

Or, if the author gets a certain amount per download (usually if the reader reads a certain amount of the book), will that provide more exposure to the author?  The reader may not have been willing to pay for an unknown indie author’s work, but might read the work if it is available through a subscription…and then if they like it, maybe they’ll be willing to buy the author’s next book.

I don’t know.  It seems hard enough for new authors to make money that I worry about the growing subscription trend.  But then again, I suppose we’re in a world where we follow consumer demands.

What say you?  If you’re an Indie Author, will you put your work on subscription services?

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