Writing Books

I read other books. I'm currently learning Arabic and doing a course on advanced nursing and I still find time to read fiction and write what I laughingly call stories.

I do like a good book on writing though. You will remember my recent obsession with plotting. I am reading Writing the Breakout Novel: Winning Advice from a Top Agent and His Best-selling Client

and also Self-Editing for Fiction Writers, Second Edition: How to Edit Yourself Into Print

I found these from Plot and Structure: Techniques and Exercises for Crafting a Plot that Grips Readers from Start to Finish (Write Great Fiction)

I like the self editing book. But it's focused on 'wordsmithery' not plotting. Is this a bad thing? No. Good.

I always liked the wordsmithery aspect of writing, having read too many literary novels that went on about nothing much but were written like a dream. I was an aspiring poet once, let's not forget. But, when I check which books are outselling mine on Amazon, in the same categories (yes there are some), I find that within the first paragraph they have committed cardinal sins against wordsmithery - beginning with three paragraphs of narrative exposition for example. And they still outsell! The reason they outsell, IMHO, is that they are good stories. They may be poorly edited and have a multitude of other failings, but if they have a good story, people can't put them down.

That don't mean I'm going to give up trying to write nice tho.

A Difficult Start

So, I've sold 78 books so far this month and we have about half of it left. That's good. As for free downloads they are in the 100s. I read +Joe Konrath 's blog and it is inspirational.

But chicken and egg. If people haven't heard from you it's difficult to connect with them - or make them want to connect with you. And without that base of people who are interested, how do you get the word out in the first place?

Seems the answer is slow. I was reading in +Brenna Aubrey  's blog that she gave out lots of Advance Reader Copies before publication and this worked so well that she sold 9,129 books in December. That's the sort of figure to knock your block off.

How's that done? Probably by writing something pretty good that people want to read and then knowing how to market it. I have nothing wise to say about this, except that it feels a long way off.

Reader Set Price

Ok, this is a cool feature of the Smashwords Store - the Reader Sets Price.

It's pretty much the same as a free promotion - the books fly out and most people set the price as 'free'. Who knew?  But some kind souls, or people who value what you wrote, don't set it as free!

This is my excitement for the day. Now back to writing.