I write this thing everyday, and I wonder if anyone reads it. I mean, I know that a few people come to the site every day and click on the post, but I don't know if it's just my family or other people who actually want to read this thing. If it is just my family, HI! Love you guys!
Maybe I'm not too great at writing blogs and keeping people's attention like this. I'm better at telling long stories that have a lot of background and everything. Doing just a few paragraphs on a blog is hard for me. It's hard to convey something in just a few paragraphs. Especially when I'm not sure who reads this thing. Is it other writers? Readers? People who are curious?
This is my website. My presentation as a writer. Sometimes I want to make it professional and have everything to do with writing and books. Other times, I just want to be funny and have a few things that can make people smile and break the monotony just a little bit. Is that so bad?
So this one is going to be a bit short. Because I really want to ask the question, does anyone really read this? And if you do, who are you?
What makes you read my blog?
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog. Show all posts
Monday, February 17, 2014
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Why so serious?
I never really intended it to be, but this blog has become a serious blog about writing. Sure it's supposed to be about my books and my "career" as a writer. But I never expected it to be this serious. So I'm going to lighten things up just a little bit with this post. I'm going to give you some of my Top Tens.
My TOP TEN favorite television shows.
My TOP TEN favorite television shows.
- Sleepy Hollow
- Real Housewives of Atlanta
- Doctor Who
- Couples Therapy
- Mob Wives: New Blood
- Storage Wars
- Nancy Grace
- Supernatural
- Law and Order: SVU
- Law and Order: Criminal Intent
- The Lord of the Rings Trilogy
- The Harry Potter Saga
- Dodgeball
- The Longest Yard
- Grown Ups
- Fast Five
- Gone with the Wind
- The Avengers
- The Hangover
- The Silver Linings Playbook
- Paramore
- Skillet
- Muse
- Hurts
- 30 Seconds to Mars
- Breaking Benjamin
- Bon Jovi
- Halestorm
- Katy Perry
- Taylor Swift
Friday, December 27, 2013
Playing publicist
Multitasking is something that we have to do. Every single day, we have to do two or three things at a time just because there are so many things that need to be done and only a limited amount of time to do them in. I'm used to multitasking. Working two jobs at a time, teaching a class and running a church program all at once, I'm used to it. It's been useful when I started working as my own publicist.
Self-publishing is good to just get your book in print, but that doesn't mean that you'll sell a lot of books. There's some leg work involved. Lots of multitasking, long days, and late nights. Especially when you have another job or two to pay the bills. Multitasking and time management are two of the most important things--other than writing skill--that a self-published author can have. Because no one else is going to do the work for you, not unless you're willing to fork out a lot of money for a professional or semi-professional tour group or publicist to plan your blog tours and get your name out there.
Multitasking as a self-published author not only means writing and editing your own novel, but it means playing your own agent and fighting for your work. It means playing your own publicist. It means spending hours upon hours sending out emails to book bloggers, putting out feelers for book reviews or interest in participating in a blog tour. It means coming up with ideas for blog posts. It means spending a lot of your time doing things for yourself.
At least for me, writing isn't my method of income. Sure, I've made a little money with my writing. Not enough to keep my bills paid, so I have to work a day job. So I have to manage my time to make sure I get my day job done as well as take care of all the writing and promotional things I need to do. I spend at least four to five hours a day on my writing between blogging, writing, and working on promotional things. That's good on my days off or when I'm on holiday from work. Not so easily done when I have to work all day.
I'll never regret the decision to become a self-published author. But I know now that it takes more than writing a novel to really become one. There's so much more involved. You have to be your own publicist, your own agent, editor, and cheerleader.
You have to fight for yourself, because no one else is going to.
Self-publishing is good to just get your book in print, but that doesn't mean that you'll sell a lot of books. There's some leg work involved. Lots of multitasking, long days, and late nights. Especially when you have another job or two to pay the bills. Multitasking and time management are two of the most important things--other than writing skill--that a self-published author can have. Because no one else is going to do the work for you, not unless you're willing to fork out a lot of money for a professional or semi-professional tour group or publicist to plan your blog tours and get your name out there.
Multitasking as a self-published author not only means writing and editing your own novel, but it means playing your own agent and fighting for your work. It means playing your own publicist. It means spending hours upon hours sending out emails to book bloggers, putting out feelers for book reviews or interest in participating in a blog tour. It means coming up with ideas for blog posts. It means spending a lot of your time doing things for yourself.
At least for me, writing isn't my method of income. Sure, I've made a little money with my writing. Not enough to keep my bills paid, so I have to work a day job. So I have to manage my time to make sure I get my day job done as well as take care of all the writing and promotional things I need to do. I spend at least four to five hours a day on my writing between blogging, writing, and working on promotional things. That's good on my days off or when I'm on holiday from work. Not so easily done when I have to work all day.
I'll never regret the decision to become a self-published author. But I know now that it takes more than writing a novel to really become one. There's so much more involved. You have to be your own publicist, your own agent, editor, and cheerleader.
You have to fight for yourself, because no one else is going to.
Tuesday, December 10, 2013
New Blog Look and New Series Plan
If you haven't noticed, there's a new look to my blog. The amazing designer at Stephanie King Photography (and yes, she might be my sister) redesigned and recoded my lovely blog to look even more lovely than it did before. She listened to me complain and nit-pick for over an hour today until she got it just right. She's amazing. Go check her out at Stephanie King Photography. She's more a sports photographer, but she's awesome with the Photoshop too.
I've beaten the writer's block demon, at least for now, and I'm nearing the end of the first draft of The Fire's Princess. And while I still have a third novel in the trilogy to finish, I've also got ideas for another series to write. I think it's important to take a break every now and then to allow my creative juices to recharge. Especially when I start running out of ideas for a particular series. I know how I want The Elemental Royals to finish, but I'm at a loss right now for how it gets there. So going through and working on another story for a while will give me a bit of a break to figure out the thereto's and wherefore's of the final novel in the trilogy.
Plus, I've got A LOT of reading to do. I'm falling way behind on my reading skills. Usually I can finish a book in a couple days. I've been reading Marie Lu's Champion for a week now. That is an eternity for me. In the words of Ian Malcom, "Must go faster. Must go faster."
And it's "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" this week, which means that it's going to be a hard week for reading and writing. I'm going to be distracted by amazing movies.
Off the blog and back to the pages. Fire's Princess must be finished by the end of the month!
Happy reading, followers!
I've beaten the writer's block demon, at least for now, and I'm nearing the end of the first draft of The Fire's Princess. And while I still have a third novel in the trilogy to finish, I've also got ideas for another series to write. I think it's important to take a break every now and then to allow my creative juices to recharge. Especially when I start running out of ideas for a particular series. I know how I want The Elemental Royals to finish, but I'm at a loss right now for how it gets there. So going through and working on another story for a while will give me a bit of a break to figure out the thereto's and wherefore's of the final novel in the trilogy.
Plus, I've got A LOT of reading to do. I'm falling way behind on my reading skills. Usually I can finish a book in a couple days. I've been reading Marie Lu's Champion for a week now. That is an eternity for me. In the words of Ian Malcom, "Must go faster. Must go faster."
And it's "The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug" this week, which means that it's going to be a hard week for reading and writing. I'm going to be distracted by amazing movies.
Off the blog and back to the pages. Fire's Princess must be finished by the end of the month!
Happy reading, followers!
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