Post: #76

(07-13-2013 04:01 AM)pitt Wrote:  

(07-13-2013 03:25 AM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  For those awaiting a next post, my book pretty much dropped off completely on sales since my last. Not a big concern with me as I'm still sold on the method of just writing a ton of books and working towards the tipping point. About 10,000 words into my newest novel right now and have another short story that just needs a cover before it goes live.

Just wondering, how many words have you written for your short story that is about to go live?

Not sure but I think it's about 8000.

I think short stories are a good way to both test your ideas and attract people to your novels.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #77

(07-13-2013 04:02 AM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

(07-13-2013 04:01 AM)pitt Wrote:  

(07-13-2013 03:25 AM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  For those awaiting a next post, my book pretty much dropped off completely on sales since my last. Not a big concern with me as I'm still sold on the method of just writing a ton of books and working towards the tipping point. About 10,000 words into my newest novel right now and have another short story that just needs a cover before it goes live.

Just wondering, how many words have you written for your short story that is about to go live?

Not sure but I think it's about 8000.

I think short stories are a good way to both test your ideas and attract people to your novels.

A year ago I was trying to come up with a "formula" for online stories and I settled on around 7000 words, give or take a couple thousand. That idea sort of evolved into the "ideal" chapter length for me.

One of the things I was trying to break down was the length of popular writers books/chapters and when I looked at James Patterson's books his chapters are so brief, two or three pages, and they move along at a quick pace. I don't like his books, not that he even writes them anymore, but he does have a wildly successful formula.

His early Alex Cross books never did anything for me, good page turners that were always a let down because it was always the same story: the cop did it, or the FBI agent, or the state trooper or the secret service agent and everything in the story is just a false lead until he reveals the bad guy. I'd finish reading and be like, what garbage, it doesn't even hold up thinking back on it. But he sells millions of books and now all he does is slap his name on top of someone else who copies his style.

It just goes to show that if you have a formula and a framework you can sell tons of books.

Post: #78

I spoke earlier in this thread about manipulating the media to publicise your book.

Well - to me the following fake marriage rejection - is an example of this. I bet he set this whole thing up so as to give legs to his future media campaign for his documentary:

http://themovieblog.com/2013/unhung-hero...reception/

Post: #79

By the way, since this thread happened to pop back up, I've got a short story on Amazon I'm giving away as a free promo at the moment. If anyone wants to check it out, I could use a few more reviews. It's an extremely quick read and most people have found it really moving.

Drop me a pm if you've at least got some rep points on here and want to check it out.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #80

The book that you first made was great man.

To anybody who didn't read it, go get it. And if you read it, read it some more.

That's all folks.

Post: #81

(07-26-2013 08:24 PM)Rosca Wrote:  The book that you first made was great man.

To anybody who didn't read it, go get it. And if you read it, read it some more.

That's all folks.

Thanks, Rosca - just caught this. Glad you liked it, Man, and thanks a lot for giving it the time. If you get a sec, it would be cool if you could pop into Amazon and drop me a review. Let me know if you need a link and I'll pm you.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #82

I need a link.

Post: #83

(08-19-2013 11:18 AM)Rosca Wrote:  I need a link.

I'll drop you a pm.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #84

LOL at you guys moving this thread again.

EDIT: And again....

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #85

Another short story published. Going to scratch out another and bundle the four shorties into a boxed set.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #86

How are the sales going, BB?

Post: #87

(08-28-2013 06:45 AM)Architekt Wrote:  How are the sales going, BB?

Nothing major. Only had 8 purchases of the novel this month (I think was around the same last month) and a few of each of the short stories. I'm not the least bit concerned though as it's about what I expected in the beginning. I've got some very good reviews and I plan to just keep writing until something gets a good response and then focus more energy on that genre.

Also, after I finish my current novel, I will put more energy into analyzing what the market wants before I even start the next work. All my current stuff was written without taking the markets into consideration at all.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #88

You still looking for readers BB?

Post: #89

(06-16-2013 07:01 PM)cardguy Wrote:  The media is dumb these days. It is getting easier and easier to create a shitstorm that people write about.

I first realised this when reading this book by the guy who did PR for American Apparel and Tucker Max:

http://www.ryanholiday.net/welcome-to-tr...nipulator/

If I was writing a book I would follow the examples given in the Ryan Holiday book above.

Come up with some silly story to do with your book. And then get some small site - or small local newspaper to write about it.

Once you have a small fish biting on your bait. You forward the story to a slightly bigger newspaper - pretending to be a reader who is wondering why the newspaper isn't covering this.

Rinse and repeat.

Eventually - you will have the big papers/magazines/sites covering the story that started out as a stunt to get in the local press.

You just keep playing the story up the media chain. Moving up to bigger and bigger media platforms.

I could think of some examples of this - but in fact a link I was going to pass along gives a perfect example of this anyway:

http://www.salon.com/2013/03/15/hey_amaz..._my_money/

This guy ended up with a best seller on Amazon. And all because the cover of his book was a rip off of the design of a Jack Daniels bottle. Which resulted in Jack Daniels sending him an incredibly polite 'cease and desist' order.

The fact that the letter was so polite (despite it being from corporate lawyers) made the situation novel enough to get other sites/newspapers to write about it. Since it was unusual to see such politeness in the type of letter which is usually quite threatening.

As such - the story went 'viral' for a few days - before the media moved on to the next 'viral' story. The thing is that there are hundreds of 'viral' stories each year - providing exposure to alot of things which would otherwise be overlooked. And in alot of cases those 'viral' stories are carefully prepared by the people involved.

Most of the stories in the Daily Mail seem to fit this bill. And to give an example from the Ryan Holiday book above. When marketing the Max Tucker books - he defaced a billboard hoarding advertising the book. He did it himself - and spray painted something like 'Tucker Max is a cheating bastard!' over the poster. This was particularly powerful since the Tucker Max book was a memoir of his drunken antics which often involved screwing lots of women.

He then forwarded the photo (pretending to be a member of the public) to a few sites/local newspapers.

And once the locals started to write about this funny story - the regional papers became interested. And within a few days - the national papers were writing about it.

It seems that the media are only prepared to talk about it - if those around them (or on the rung below them) are talking about it. Indeed - most journalists at the big papers only cover stories which catch their eyes from the local papers and from sites like Jezabel.com

As such - if I was writing a book - I would think about some creative ways to get the media interested in it. With the newspapers, blogs and websites looking for new content 24/7 - they will definitely run with whatever you give them. But only if it ticks the boxes of what they feel their readers might be interested in.

Hell - even '50 Shades Of Grey' benefited from this. A big part of its early success - was the fact that the book was filthy and written by a middle aged English housewife.

That disparity alone provided an angle for writers as they wondered if this revealed something, as yet unsuspected, about the average housewife.

Of course - it soon went through the stratosphere. But that was because everybody started buying and talking about the book - to see why everyone else was buying and talking about the book. That is the pinnacle of successful hype. But - you only get to that kind of level when your success starts to feed back on itself.

The internet is a powerful tool. And anyone can leverage it to create a bigger splash than you could ever imagine. You just have to give yourself permission to start thinking creatively (and a little cynically).

This is probably a silly example. But I was thinking about reading 'Enjoy The Decline' by Aaron Clarey. So - if I was looking for a way to market that book - I would say that any profit from the book will be donated to the US government in order to pay off the national debt.

It is the type of media fodder which would get gobbled up. And the publicity you get from such a stunt would be worth it as opposed to having a book sell in small numbers and be forgotten about.

To finish. Nicholson Baker is a great writer. But even he only became famous when it was reported that his novel 'Vox' had being given as a gift from Bill Clinton to Monica Lewinsky.

It is all about creating a wave of interest and surfing it to the shore. And I never realised this until reading the Ryan Holiday book mentioned above.

Indeed - if I was writing a book. These days I would figure out the marketing strategy first. And them makes sure the book I am going to write would work well for such a strategy. The importance of a good 'angle' is so important that it needs to become a part of your thinking when deciding what book to write in the first place.

I find the above an interesting topic. So for the rest of you who do as well - the following is a perfect example of the sort of fake story which gets planted in the media to promote a product:

http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/07/even-mis...nline.html

It is actually different to the DIY approach outlined above. But I just wanted to pass it along as an example of how many fake stories are planted by companies to help promote/re-brand their products.

Post: #90

(10-12-2013 01:01 PM)cardguy Wrote:  I find the above an interesting topic. So for the rest of you who do as well - the following is a perfect example of the sort of fake story which gets planted in the media to promote a product:

http://nymag.com/thecut/2013/07/even-mis...nline.html

It is actually different to the DIY approach outlined above. But I just wanted to pass it along as an example of how many fake stories are planted by companies to help promote/re-brand their products.

Relevant to the forum:

Quote:By connecting users through Facebook — and only allowing people who have expressed mutual interest to send private messages — Tinder preserves a degree of authenticity and privacy, so even a former Miss USA can survey the merchandise without worrying about a flood of unsolicited dick pics.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #91

(08-28-2013 07:13 AM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

(08-28-2013 06:45 AM)Architekt Wrote:  How are the sales going, BB?

Nothing major. Only had 8 purchases of the novel this month (I think was around the same last month) and a few of each of the short stories. I'm not the least bit concerned though as it's about what I expected in the beginning. I've got some very good reviews and I plan to just keep writing until something gets a good response and then focus more energy on that genre.

Also, after I finish my current novel, I will put more energy into analyzing what the market wants before I even start the next work. All my current stuff was written without taking the markets into consideration at all.

Great job man, keep it up.
Those overnight successes are rare and random, most published authors write volumes and volumes of unpublishable material before they write that one winner. After which, anything thats average or above sells.

I've been writing privately for about 10 years now exploring themes, subcultures and different styles of writing while I get financially independent. Not brave enough to jump into the publishing world directly, but huge respect that you've already started monetizing on that.

Good luck with your future books.

Post: #92

(10-13-2013 08:11 AM)Sharkie Wrote:  I've been writing privately for about 10 years now exploring themes, subcultures and different styles of writing while I get financially independent. Not brave enough to jump into the publishing world directly, but huge respect that you've already started monetizing on that.

Hit up Kindle Direct Publishing. It's free. You get your book to the public, and you can publish under a pen name - no one will ever know who you are (unless you want them too, of course). If you have a wide variety of stuff, that's great, you could draw in fans from areas that may have otherwise missed out on your work

Post: #93

(10-13-2013 09:09 AM)Architekt Wrote:  Hit up Kindle Direct Publishing. It's free. You get your book to the public, and you can publish under a pen name - no one will ever know who you are (unless you want them too, of course). If you have a wide variety of stuff, that's great, you could draw in fans from areas that may have otherwise missed out on your work

Thanks Architekt, that's awesome.

I write as an escape, and tend to go into a narcissistic circle once other people read my stuff, dropping everything else on hand..hence shelves full of unread books.

Do you write too?

Post: #94

(10-13-2013 09:25 AM)Sharkie Wrote:  Do you write too?

I used to write a lot of lyrics, but recently I've started gravitating towards longer forms. At the moment I'm looking to write a bunch of short stories and something halfway between a short story and a novella

Post: #95

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...thors.html

Quote:A quarter of the top 100 Kindle books sold by Amazon.com are written by self-published 'go it alone' authors, it has been revealed.

Although the figures are for the online retailer's U.S. website, experts said the same is likely to be repeated in Britain over time.

The statistics, released at a trade show, have been dubbed a victory for start-up authors who have traditionally struggled to get their work published.

Post: #96

This has been an interesting thread. And during it I have spoken a little about PR stunts and how to make things go 'viral'.

Well - we can watch an experiment in this in real time.

This is from Scott Adams' latest blog post.

Quote:Do you know any artists who might be interested in watching cartoonist Stephan Pastis (Pearls Before Swine) and me competing to see who can draw a comic strip fastest? (Spoiler: I use some cool new technology.)

Here's the short video clip.

You will have some questions after viewing it. Here are your answers.

Yes, I do know I am a terrible actor.
It was filmed at my house.
No one was paid (except the film crew).
The 3-way product placement in the clip is the reason it exists.
We had a script but didn't stick to it.
The architectural element on the outside of my house at the start of the clip was designed to look like Dilbert's head. It is not visible from the street.

We designed the clip to have viral qualities (humor, surprise, relevance). I'll know if it worked by the end of today. If you have ever grappled with the question of how to make content viral, you'll see a lot of the science incorporated in the clip. I'll blog about some of the technique behind it in coming days.

http://www.dilbert.com/blog/entry/cartoo...t_on_film/

Here is the wannabe viral(?) video. It has just come out and is currently on 2,584 views.





It will be interesting seeing how successful Scott Adams is over the next few days. He is a smart guy who is always looking to try something different.

Either way - in his upcoming blog posts he will have some interesting analysis about how he tried to create a viral marketing campaign.

Cardguy

PS Scott Adams is an excellent blogger. He is always 'thinking outside the box' in terms of his approach to any subject. Plus he is a multi-millionaire. So he has an impressive track record to back up his thoughts on strategy and creativity.

Post: #97

Follow up post from Scott Adams about the lessons he learned in his (unsuccessful) attempt to create a viral video.

http://www.dilbert.com/blog/entry/making..._go_viral/

Still - Scott has tweaked the description of his video (using some of the principles he has picked up) in the hope that this will provide the spark to make his video go viral.

So the real-time experiment continues...