I’m (Still) Alive and Kicking (Myself Mostly)
This is a partial reprint of what I wrote in January 2013, after I’d decided to pursue screenwriting and novel writing, with dystonia and whatever else life threw at me. With a few little changes, now that I have some small clue WTF I’m talking about.
And I’m only including the marketing parts, okay?
Over the past year, I’ve come to realize that many people think they’re alive, but they’re not. They’re simply going through the motions.
Until you can stand up and take responsibility for your feelings and your actions, you haven’t grown up.
We live in very interesting times [a link to a dead blog] now. Very scary times. People can use the Internet for all sorts of purposes. But the digital revolution didn’t start with the Kindle. Only authors and publishers would be foolish enough to think such a thing.
The digital revolution started with the blog. Blogging is a form of digital publishing, and years before authors figured out that we could use them to market to readers (poorly, I might add), freelance writers and so-called “mommy bloggers” were using them to make bucks, i.e., to start businesses, aka, be entrepreneurs. These guys were no dummies. They saw the writing on the wall long before all the authors and publishers, busy admiring ourselves and our fancy awards and talking to each other, like life was high school and we were finally the cool kids.
As a result, the indie author movement was perceived as a laughable cult movement by the old guard authors. The Kindle enabled authors (myself included) to distribute our work more easily, but this was nothing more than we could have done themselves ourselves, if we’d established our brand identities as authors on the Web through online marketing techniques. It’s just that authors (that especially includes ME) were too lazy, self-absorbed or scared to reach out to our readers and simply do what we must in order to establish our online identities, i.e., be the entrepreneurs and make the decisions that would make or break our careers and lives.
Thus, publishing as we know it is changing dramatically. I think there will always be a place for print books, but it seems they’ll be the exception in the future. (Maybe.) However, as long as there are those who still love print books, I’ll keep publishing them. This is the new reality we’ve created for ourselves.
As a result, many of my goals are changing and my website will be changing to reflect that. I’m not sure when, but it will happen. [It’s already happened, but I’m still losing money and trying to recover from the losses I incurred after I refused to be Amazon-exclusive.]
At this point, I’ve finished my young adult novel, The Invisible Girl Invisible Me. I’m preparing to reissue my first novel Identity Crisis under the Renegade Press imprint. And I’ve started working on my fourth Sam McRae novel, with the working title Deep Six.
*****
Okay, so from there, I went on to talk about my crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo to raise money to finance the publication of that book. (And I’ve written another that went on to be nominated for a Shamus award.) That was my first crowdfunding campaign, which did not go all that well from an audience-building perspective.
I’ve done one since then that did much, much better. But, still, it is a LOT of work. It also requires a good deal of planning.
It simply isn’t something you just whip up and put out there. Not if you want to succeed at it.
Oh, and incidentally, many of the authors who sneered at indies went on to self-publish their sometimes extensive backlists with KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing). Some of them even signed publishing contracts with … guess who? 🙂 Hint: Starts with A, ends with a river in South America.
And, by the way, I don’t think print books are going anywhere. I prefer them. I’m aware that some younger readers like them, too.
Besides, when the power goes out or the internet goes down, try accessing your book on an iPad, using the Kindle app. And good luck with that.
PS: Little did I know about … algorithms when I wrote this crap. 😦 Not to mention how Amazon constantly changes them. Along with their terms and conditions, etc., etc. 🙂
PPS: “It’s only three months, Debbi.” Direct quote from an indie author. Take three months and multiply that by … how many (tens of?) thousands of indie authors? And after that? What, another three months? And another? And yet another?
PPPS: For what it’s worth, I’ve learned so much from the authors who’ve been on my podcast! An amazing amount of stuff.
PPPPS: Have I mentioned that this book is coming out soon? 🙂 Again.
BONUS LINK: Late breaking news for your reading pleasure!
Right then! Everyone start making documentaries. Now! :)
Originally published at http://randomandsundrythings.wordpress.com on September 16, 2022.
