I'd like to welcome guest blogger Marijke Westhoek (her English name is Morgan Silver) to the site. She's recently finished her first novel, The Chess Club, about a chess club that solves crimes, for which she's currently seeking an agent.
Writers
are a special kind of breed. They observe the world and its
inhabitants, they notice things normal people don’t and they explore
worlds that normal people wouldn’t even think of. They don’t miss
anything, in fact, they see more than there is to see. Normal people
will never understand them and the writer does not mind. The writer
pities the normal person for not seeing the array of colours they get to
see, which are far more than the colours of the rainbow.
I'd like to welcome guest blogger T. Michelle Nelson to the site. She's the author of the Lily Drake vampire series and her first two books in her series, Life and Death of Lily Drake and 'Til
Death Do Us Part, are currently available for sale. Read on and
learn what she thinks is the hardest part of writing a book and then
getting it published. It's a fun read and I couldn't agree with her
more!
There isn’t a set
answer that every author will tell you. Many might say writer’s block,
marketing their book, editing or publicity. As a newly published author,
I was shocked to find out all of the work that went into getting my
novel out there and being able to sell books. Fortunately, I really
enjoy most of the background work. Most of my life I’ve been employed in
sales, human resources, customer service fields, etc. I like working
with people. I also love to learn every aspect of an industry, and the
publishing industry is like no other. It has been interesting, fun and
rewarding. And yes, at times exhausting. So to answer the question,
“what is the hardest part of getting a book published?” - You may laugh.
To me the most difficult part of the process is writing the dreaded
query letter.
I know that there are many
fellow indie writers out there who are in a similar situation that I
once was back in 2010 so I wanted to share my publishing journey along
with sales figures (August 2011 - May 2013). Yes, you have heard of
Amanda Hocking's story and of John Locke's, but what about the other
thousands of indie writers out there who decided to write books and put
them up on Amazon? After several years of work, I have data to share
with you.
Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here
I
will be up front and as transparent as I possibly can. The
self-publishing industry is volatile, difficult to predict and more time
consuming than I ever anticipated. But, fear not, it's not without
hope. What is truly important is to have realistic expectations. If
you're looking to make it rich fast, then, yes, abandon hope. If you
understand that you'll be putting in years of work and that you'll need
to build your platform and brand over several years writing at least
three books, then you're in the realm of reality.
Back in November 2011, I participated in the Indie Book Collective's
Blog Tour de Troops promotion that consisted of several dozen writers
who gave Smashwords coupons for a free ebook version of your book to
readers who left comments on our blogs in support of U.S. troops. I had
stumbled across a tweet advertising that the IBC promotion would be
starting in a few weeks and I decided to sign up. The $25 entry fee
would be put toward a Kindle that would be given away in a drawing to
one random reader who had signed up for the IBC newsletter during the
promotion or left a comment on one of the participating author blogs.
What is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics
is a free website analytics tool that Google offers to anyone who has a
Google account. When the Google Analytics script is running on your
website, you’ll be able to find out how many unique users are coming to
your site and which pages are the most visited. Over time, the data that
you accumulate will help see which pages are more popular than others
and what search terms people are using in Google’s search engine to find
your site. There are many other detailed uses of Google Analytics, but
this simple tutorial will get you started.
My 6th grade English teacher assigned our class a book report
assignment and I remember fondly the book that I chose. I don’t remember
my teacher’s name, but I remember the book. Our teacher said that we
could pick any book we wanted to read and I thought I’d be smart and
pick Tolkien’s The Hobbit because I had already read it. I zipped through the book and then learned from a friend that Tolkien had also written The Lord of the Rings
trilogy. That was more than 32 years ago and I fell in love with
Tolkien’s books, but, more importantly, I fell head over heels in love
with reading.
