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It's Quiet In Here...
Dwayne wrote: "Too quiet..."Lol. Here in upstate NY, it's too frigid, and the mounds of snow are too high to do anything except write!!!
Dwayne wrote: "Too quiet. Are you guys okay? Do I need to send help?..."Awe, how caring of you Dwayne. I think many of us are suffering the January doldrums and some of us are being doused by feet of snowfall! Hugs!
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It was 1F today in Cleveburg when Mrs. Rock took the dog for a walk. Sun's out now and it's up to a balmy 16F. I've been trying to concentrate on writing, too, but getting a little frustrated with the research. It'll pass. Progress will happen!
Dwayne - I have a daughter, SIL and three grands in Dubuque. Can't believe sometimes when I check the weather there. WOW THAT'S COLD! is our typical reaction.
I noticed it was quiet too. Glad to see a few peops are still alive in here :) I'd like to say I've been busy writing, but actually, I've been more busy with everything else for a while. I do hope to get back to the writing this weekend though :)Weather-wise, it's chilly here in England, and very windy as a storm blows through, but nothing like the mess of weather I hear is hitting the east coast of the US - that looks scary!
I went camping with Boy Scouts. I woke up to 10 degree F weather, with frozen toothpaste. I did have cell reception, but few thoughts beyond staying warm.
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I'm in Cedar Rapids, so maybe an hour from Dubuque. I love Dubuque!
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I did that once when I was in Scouts. It was unseasonably warm the day we set up camp, then dropped to an ungodly low over night and we woke up to ice on everything.
Dwayne wrote: "Too quiet.It's been a week since anyone posted anything here.
Are you guys okay? Do I need to send help?
Maybe everyone is just too busy writing. Or, more likely, you're all out spending the th..."
Could it be a case of mass writer's block?
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I think it's the winter - too busy shovelling :(
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I am editing. A totally demoralizing task that reduces the desire to do anything else except get out and enjoy the summer :-)
Ian wrote: "I am editing. A totally demoralizing task that reduces the desire to do anything else except get out and enjoy the summer :-)"Sorry, Ian, just had to chuckle in agreement with that:)
I'm editing. Doing the first run through on a really, really, really rough draft so it's taking time---a lot of time. If my spouse doesn't give him his flu, I'll be out sanding down the rest of the walls on my office so I can paint them. I'd love to get it done so I can use it.I'm just glad I'm not camping here as it's been down in the teens. I'd rather have snow than just plain cold. My first trip through AZ I woke up on Apr 2, 2016 with 2 inches of snow on my tent and trike. That snow was a good thing. It's how my met my significant other. You all can send some snow to us. We need it here in N. AZ.
B.A. wrote: "I'm editing. Doing the first run through on a really, really, really rough draft so it's taking time---a lot of time. If my spouse doesn't give him his flu, I'll be out sanding down the rest of the..."We have a six-foot pile next to our driveway I'd be more than happy to give you:)
Gail wrote: "We have a six-foot pile next to our driveway I'd be more than happy to give you:)..."We have several piles ourselves, as we got 3 feet dumped on us yesterday. Somewhere in the driveway under a white giant mound is our car!
It's beautiful, sunny, 69 degrees here. I'm looking for a cover for a sequel, but not looking too hard cuz the weather is too nice! :) Good day for the beach!
The East Coast is in the 30’s and 20’s in the USA. January didn’t go so well but February, well let’s say, already started back writing today.
Gail wrote: "B.A. wrote: "I'm editing. Doing the first run through on a really, really, really rough draft so it's taking time---a lot of time. If my spouse doesn't give him his flu, I'll be out sanding down th..."We would love it. Arizona is still in a drought. Our last monsoon was actually one major storm that flooded the area instead of several smaller storms. So far, we've only had about 2 inches of snow which isn't nearly enough moisture for this area.
Sam (Rescue Dog Mom, Writer, Hugger) wrote: "Gail wrote: "We have a six-foot pile next to our driveway I'd be more than happy to give you:)..."We have several piles ourselves, as we got 3 feet dumped on us yesterday. Somewhere in the drivew..."
You mound pulled me back to living in Wisconsin. One winter I went to work and a blizzard moved in. I was there for 3 days. When the storm stopped the only way you knew there were cars in the parking lot was the CB whip on my car. That was how the guy plowing the lot could tell where to plow. You didn't see mounds--just a solid field of snow that covered all the trucks and cars in the lot.
I shoveled out of 18 inches of snow. Now I'm busy writing the first draft of the fourth book in the Charm Wars series. It's also 25 degrees outside--almost beach weather. :-)
Got over my research-induced analysis paralysis. Close enough should really be close enough, Looks like an ugly three days ahead in Northern Ohio...rain Wednesday then ice then maybe a foot of snow. Oh, and then single digits to low teens (F) for the weekend.
On the other hand, good weather for writing ISC Fleet #5...that is...in between snowblower excursions, of course.
I'm taking a break from writing - self publishing has got too much for me and I've stopped enjoying writing. Hoping a total change in direction will help and I'll get back to writing eventually. Hope things are going ok for the rest of you though x
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Sorry to hear that L.K. But totally understandable. This self pub business is hard on all of us. Be well.
Still tinkering with Amazon Ads here in UK. Been running them since Sept and so far I'm £20 in profit, with a trend that shows gradual improvement. Otherwise I'm about to begin ch 22 of my seagoing memoir. Sometimes a burst of poetry overwhelmes, and affects my prose.
It's very hard to have people read. I've had friends to whom I've given my books away free to, and never hear boo. I don't know if they've even read them. I think our ideas about a reading public are flawed. I have many friends who admit to not being interested in reading.So, please don't lament. Write what inspires you and attempt to be happy with those who took the time to listen to you through your characters.
So true. I understand that peoples time is very limited. So those who don't know you are less likely to pick a book by an unknown author. But I think that the people that know you see you as what you are to them, a family member, coworker ect. I never understood why the world sees the things that you do to keep food on the table and the bills paid as who you are. Only a small percentage of writers are able to support themselves on what they write alone. But for me writing is the only thing that I get any sort of satisfaction out of. If I did not have that than existence a harsh thing for sure. I do find most of my best feedback is from those who do not know me but still took a chance and read my work. To those brave souls that take a chance I salute you.
Harry - I started ads in the UK back in March and by June they were making money. At this point about 90% of my readership is in the UK. I'm still not sure what's up with my US market, but I'm grateful for the business. L.K. - I totally understand the need for a break. I hope you'll come back to, as JAKe said, what inspires you, and continue to grow as a writer. If it helps, just write for yourself for a while. The dam may break and something wonderful come pouring out.
L.K. wrote: "I'm taking a break from writing - self publishing has got too much for me and I've stopped enjoying writing. Hoping a total change in direction will help and I'll get back to writing eventually. Ho..."Good luck, L. K.! You're one of the most successful authors I've seen, sales, BB feature, reviews. Well done. Everyone needs a break. Come back refreshed. And share your advice and experience. We all need it. Take care.
T. wrote: "So true. I understand that peoples time is very limited. So those who don't know you are less likely to pick a book by an unknown author. But I think that the people that know you see you as what y..."Yes, writing is the only thing I get any satisfaction out of so I must do it. I process my life experiences through writing.
I'm busy writing. I was forced to take a hiatus in late 2021 because my husband had brain surgery, and he's finally recovered enough for me to resume having a life outside of the day job, home care, and caregiving. So naturally, I dove in two days after Christmas and have been happily engaged in my writing ever since! I have three works in progress, and am trying to get back into freelancing.
It sounds like a lot of writing is getting done. I finished my ProWriting Aid round of editing on one of two WIPs I have just moments ago.
Sherri wrote: "I'm busy writing. I was forced to take a hiatus in late 2021 because my husband had brain surgery, and he's finally recovered enough for me to resume having a life outside of the day job, home care..."That's great, Sherri! I hope your husband is doing well!!!!
Sherri wrote: "I'm busy writing. I was forced to take a hiatus in late 2021 because my husband had brain surgery, and he's finally recovered enough for me to resume having a life outside of the day job, home care..."That's wonderful news, Sherri! Very best wishes for his continued recovery and a great new year ahead!
M.L. wrote: "Good luck, L. K.! You're one of the most successful authors I've seen, sales, BB feature, reviews. Well done. Everyone needs a break."Thank you M.L. Things have changed a lot over the years and I found it hard to continue previous marketing and advertising successes with the book I released in 2021, which hit me hard because things changed once I started relying on writing as a source of additional income and it was really stressful trying to create with financial pressure. In the end it just all got too much and I had to have a career change to move away from writing. I don't like being negative though and don't want to bring anyone else down, but for me it just wasn't working any more.
Sherri wrote: "I'm busy writing. I was forced to take a hiatus in late 2021 because my husband had brain surgery, and he's finally recovered enough for me to resume having a life outside of the day job, home care..."Good to hear he is doing better. Take care.
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I managed to surprise myself today with two chapters edited (though, apart from the first scene, they were surface edits) and three new scenes written. A good day, I'd say. I should have some writing time on Thursday and Friday, and today made me feel like I could actually have this block edited by the end of the week.
Tomas wrote: "I finally managed to get some time for writing today. First time after some two weeks. I admit I was holding it off because the block I'm editing now is quite a compact set of 5 chapters (I guess a..."Well done, Tomas! :) It's amazing how getting a little bit done really gives you a boost to do a lot more, isn't it? Best of luck with getting the rest of your writing and editing done later in the week. I'm sure you can do it :) Now, excuse me while I go and work on the next chapter of my own WIP - you've quite inspired me! :)
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That said, another block of edits done today, yay!
L.K. wrote: "I'm taking a break from writing - self publishing has got too much for me and I've stopped enjoying writing. Hoping a total change in direction will help and I'll get back to writing eventually. Ho..."Sorry to hear that.
I have just started last year and naively hoped that everything would work out, but of course not. So I'm crawling out of my comfort zone trying to market myself but to be honest, I am still as clueless as ever. To be honest, I'm not even sure how to exist in Goodreads so please bear with me.
I hope you get your passion back one day. I have worked on fields that I love and I ended up not loving them anymore, so I want to say I understand how you feel.
I think that quote 'Do what you'll love, and you'll never work another day in your life' is broken.
Wish you the best for the other direction you are taking.
JAKe wrote: "It's very hard to have people read. I've had friends to whom I've given my books away free to, and never hear boo. I don't know if they've even read them. I think our ideas about a reading public a..."Agreed. Besides my family and friends not reading much, my book is also not 'suitable' for them, in terms of language and content, so I didn't even try to introduce them to my book.
T. wrote: "So true. I understand that peoples time is very limited. So those who don't know you are less likely to pick a book by an unknown author. But I think that the people that know you see you as what y..."
This brings me to this, Strangely, I find it really hard to let people that I know about my book. It makes me feel exposed and I'm more comfortable with strangers, and people who don't identify you with anything specific will more likely be objective. Hope that makes sense.
As a new writer who has discovered late on that self-publishing also means self-marketing I have to own up and say I've been struggling with numerous ideas including blogs, a website an email distribution list and so on.Luckily for me, I do not need to make an income from my books, but I would of course like to find as many readers who enjoy them as I can. As I have a large extended family and a fairly wide circle of friends, a lot of whom are readers, I'm hoping to get the word about my new book out that way and build organically.
I do know a fair bit about computers, having been there when they were introduced to offices back in the early 1980s, but I haven't kept up-to-date with new developments - social media wasn't something I felt I wanted to be involved in.
I feel a bit like Grand Pa who has woken up and come downstairs to see what all the fuss over the new pop music is. :-)
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You're not alone there Nick :)
Nick: my brother from another mother.I also came to all this very late - after retirement when I was out of excuses for not writing - and marketing is far and away the hardest part. Plot, I can do. Characters, sure: I've known enough brainiacs and knuckleheads in my life to draw on.
But blowing my own horn, writing hype about my books, that's really hard.
And, yes, I once spent almost $10,000 on a 16 Mhz 80386 with 4 Mb of RAM and two 40 Mb drives. Wrote a whole departmental system on that sucker, too. I also have a crashed CDC 50 Mb disk on my wall, from a drive the size of a washing machine. (Back when CDC meant Control Data Corporation, not that weird infectious place down in Atlanta. )
Those were the days!
Rock wrote: "Nick: my brother from another mother.I also came to all this very late - after retirement when I was out of excuses for not writing - and marketing is far and away the hardest part. Plot, I can d..."
Hi Rock,
Sounds like we have a lot in common.
I started writing two years ago at the start of the lock-down when I couldn't find any more fantasy books I wanted to read. At the time I had no thought of publishing, so it's been an odd journey.
My first Office computer set-up centred on an IBM PC AT with a 20MB hard drive as the file server running Novell Netware :-) We thought we were the dog's whatsits at the time.
All the best
Nick
PS Names are similar too, but yours is more solid!
I feel like the grandmother right now since I've been writing and have published a couple of books. First of all, if you've been writing for less than five years, you don't know what you don't know. There are tons of things I had to learn the hard way. The major one is that first book really sucks big time. The second wasn't much better and the third is getting there. So I decided to take a hiatus from publishing to learn how to edit my book.
Learning to edit took me on this journey where I finally understood that I really didn't know how to write a good book. I thought they were good, but they weren't. As I said above, you don't know what you don't know.
Don't worry about marketing and all of that until you learn how to write that book. That means to start back at the beginning and learn how to edit that awful draft by learning what you need and making sure it is there and in the right places. Then you work your way down to the scenes, lines and words. I'd almost bet that your book has holes or doesn't hit all the plot points or characters are an issues or the dialogue isn't all that great.
The other thing, family and friends are not good choices to read your book unless they read in that genre and are willing to harsh with their criticism. (most aren't. They don't want to hurt your feelings)
What you can do for marketing is start an email list. Send a newsletter as often as your comfortable doing so. When it comes to social media, use only what you like. You don't need to be on any if you don't want to be. The email list is yours. It is more valuable than 100,000K followers on any social media since the email list should be your fans.
I've discovered that a few ads and word of mouth are the best methods of selling any book along with the email list.
Hope that helps some. The other thing is, keep a positive attitude. Enjoy the journey, even when it is difficult. I've been writing for seven years and I'm still learning and having fun.
It's been a week since anyone posted anything here.
Are you guys okay? Do I need to send help?
Maybe everyone is just too busy writing. Or, more likely, you're all out spending the thousands of dollars rolling in daily from your novels.
Yep. That's gotta be it.