No Such Thing...

“There is no such thing as bad publicity.”  How many times have we all heard this? I used to think it was… well not true. Recent events have made me rethink my stance.

When I think of that phrase many stars (and former stars) come to mind. Like Lindsay Lohan, Mel Gibson, Charlie Sheen. It seems to be that authors are now taking this outlook. 

Several authors (I will not give names as I do not want to promote their conduct) are behaving badly. They are arguing with readers, posting to their blogs attacking individuals who review their books, some are even making false claims about being attacked on the very forums that embraced them. 

You would think that behaving this way would cause people to not buy their books.  Unfortunately, it appears to show the first sentence true. I am sure that it turns some readers off and they refuse to read or buy that book. However the numbers don’t lie. Many see their numbers lower on Amazon as their number of sales rise.

All I can hope for is that their marketing ploys, bad attitudes, and false publicity end up being their down fall. That those who maintain our composure and heed our mothers warning, “If you don’t have anything nice to say…” when out in the end.

How Many Blogs?

Everywhere I go I see links to blogs and announcements for new ones.  All of the blogs are by the same author.  I find myself wondering, why and how?

I realize that there are many different hosting sites out there. There may be a chance that you can find some new readers by visiting the different sites.  What I guess I don't understand, is why do you start another blog through that hosting site.  I believe you may have to sign up, but is it a requirement to start and entirely new blog?

The how is simply a time management issue.  I can understand having one or two blog without any problems.  I have seen some individuals who have three (a little shaky), four (okay starting to freak out a little), and even five or more (I have gone completely insane and no longer have a life).  They don't simply copy and paste between their blogs either.  Each is an independent posting.  I have trouble keeping up with one blog and networking sites. 

So I ask, how many blogs are to many to keep up with and still maintain your sanity?

Writing is the easy part...

Ok, as you all know I completed my first novel, Immortal back in May. Yeah :) I never thought that would be the easy part.  It took me nearly a year and a half to complete and I ended up with five major revisions as I went through. The final book showed little if any resemblance to the final product. 

It took the next month and revised and edited to get it ready to send out to agents and took about a week to write a query letter. From what I have read and looked into a week on a query letter isn't nearly enough. Most it would seem to take an average of 3 months to get their letter in order.

Flash forward- After two months of sending out letters and getting the dreaded thanks but no thanks, I stumbled on an article about Amanda Hocking on Writer's Digest. She self-published earlier this year and has done quite well. It was an idea to tempting not to look into.

Flash-forward two weeks. After much research I decided to follow her example and e-publish.
It took me several days of extensive formatting to get it ready for upload and another few days to find and format the cover (by far my favorite part of the process). I have since placed made my novel available on Smashwords and Kindle and this weekend managed to get it up on Lulu.com in paperback.

Considering all the time, effort and energy this process took it is nothing compared with marketing.  Let's face it that is what every author, writer, blogger, and YouTube addict is doing and dreaming about. Getting those clicks and viewers to their site.  How do we do this? There are books, sites, and videos about how to do all this. In the end though it takes time time and more time. Finding the right sites to post on, networking with those you want to reach, and most of all luck.