What is important before you start promoting your book?

However good you are at promotion, unless the following conditions are fulfilled, you may have many problems:

• Your book must be published at least on Amazon, it is even better if it also appears on Smashwords with the proviso that you let Smashwords distribute your book in all possible channels.
• The price of your book must not be too high. If you are not yet well known, I suggest you set the price between 0.99$ and 2.99$.
• The cover of your book must be interesting. There is no point in saving on covers. Hire an expert who will design an attractive cover for you. The costs range between 40$ and 100$.
• The text must be without grammatical errors. Again, it is not worth saving here. Find a good editor. The price is approximately 1700$ for 100,000 words. It is ideal if your editor reads the book at least twice.
• The book must be interesting and attractive.
• Before a large promotion, you must obtain the opinion of critics or at least beta readers. Beta readers are people who do not know you and who are ready to read your book and write their opinion.
• If your writing is not perfect, accept the criticism and correct the problems they tell you about. If you are not capable of accepting criticism, you are most probably destined to fail. Your vanity will cost you your career as a writer.
• You must have a static internet page like mine, for example: http://www.ianfox.si/. That is your personal ID.
• It is good if you also have a dynamic internet page, which means writing a blog. What you are reading now is an example
• The use of at least Twitter and FB is obligatory.
• Make sure that there are links at the end of all your books, as well as on your internet sites and all your social networks. An example: at the end of the books, there have to be links to your internet pages, blog, Twitter, FB and the rest. On FB and Twitter, there have to be links to all your other internet appearances.
• You must not give up and have to be persistent and stubborn. Sooner or later you will succeed.

Writing a blog aimed only at writers

Recently I decided that my blogs would be aimed mainly at writers. I would like to help all those who have found themselves in the mass of those offering all kinds of books and who don’t know how to proceed and how to promote them.

I would like to share my experience with you. And I will be very happy if you respond and add your own.

The competition in the field of publishing is huge. The internet has both advantages and disadvantages. One big advantage is that you can promote your books at practically no cost, all that is needed is a time investment. And the main disadvantage is that most writers get lost in the big crowd of other authors.

Even if you are offering a book for free, it does not mean that many people will wish to read it. The number of free books on offer is so high that even the readers of free books have become choosy.

But what is most important is that you do not give up. We are all sensitive and have different ways in coping with negative reviews and bad selling figures. Irrespective of this, you must believe in yourself and continue with your mission. Whatever happens, the cost involved is negligible.

Self-publishing in Slovenia

A few months after coming back from France, I hired someone to word process the whole of the story I had written on paper. Since then, I’ve been writing on a computer. When the whole of that first book was finished, I was faced with the problem of how to publish it. As the content was not arty enough, my application for a subsidy from the Ministry of Culture was rejected. Many publishers also rejected me, because according to them even the well established foreign writers were not selling well, let alone beginners. So my only option was to self-publish.

First I had to find a good proof reader. Then the Word file needed to be converted to PDF, but the guy who could do it was constantly busy. I was very impatient and lost many sleepless nights over this guy. It was because of him I later learnt how to use Adobe Designer and convert files from Word to PDF.

Only a few ideas – depressing

The number of ideas in my head is not unlimited. Or to put it differently, I have many average ideas but very few good ones. I try to get them from films I watch on television or from books I read.

A few years ago I was on holiday in Greece and I spent the whole week thinking about my next book, but with no success. And then, a few weeks later, I accidentally stumbled across the idea for the next book Promise Me Eternity. I’m especially proud of this one as the plot is so complex that I was quite surprised with myself at the end.

Summary:

Dr. Simon Patterson is a successful and well-respected neurosurgeon at Central Hospital in the town of Seattle. Married, though without children, he keeps himself so busy that one day is not much different from another. Until, that is, he saves the life of the powerful mobster Carlo Vucci.

At a dinner in honour of Dr. Patterson, Carlo Vucci introduces him to his alluring wife Christine. Simon is entranced by her beauty.

Three weeks later, Christine shows up at the hospital, complaining of terrible headaches. Dr. Patterson offers to help her, but Christine did not come to see him just because of her headaches. A series of shocking events follow that turn Dr. Patterson’s life into a nightmare. Among other things, he finds himself in court accused of murder in the first degree …

The tempo in the second half is particularly dynamic. Even I had problems whilst editing as I read the novel too quickly. The story pulled me in so much that I was unable to slow down.

Benefits of a scene-by-scene storyline

A scene-by-scene storyline must be well thought out and the timeline of events must be determined. It also has to contain descriptions of things and people.

An example: first we describe all the participating protagonists. Not just their appearance but also their character.

FRANZ HARTMAN        Maria’s father, 48 years old, imposing, demanding, fearless and
obsessed with antiques.
MARIA  HARTMAN    26 years old, currently unemployed, wavy, long red-brownish curls, warm brown eyes, slightly freckly skin. Very spoilt.
EDWIN WEBSTER         32 years old, fitter of air conditioning units, slim, light brown hair, high
forehead, likes to make fun of others, always the cleverest one around, doesn’t like losing. Brags all the time. A homophobe.
And so on.


And then the storyline.

1.    Two men arguing on a cliff. One of them falls into the abyss.
2.    Maria, aged 22, from Newcastle, (rather spoilt and insolent) inherits from the father she had hardly ever seen a castle cum hotel in Eisendorf, Austria. Her father died in an accident, fell down a steep cliff. Maria is told this news by the hotel manager.
3.    Monday – Everyone is shocked. The castle has been renovated and has approximately 40 rooms, plus another 20 that have not been furnished. The manager receives the guests in a friendly manner and explains to them that they can go hiking, that there’s a lake and a waterfall nearby or they can go and explore the nearby subterranean cave.
4.    The young people have a really good time, they swim in the lake and hike around the mountains nearby. They come across a forester who jokingly asks them if they have come to search for Count Wagner’s treasure. When they ask him about the count, he just smiles and tells them to enquire in the village.

In point three, it says Monday. You can also note the date, for example April 1. You note the names of days only if the whole story happens within one or two weeks, otherwise it’s better to write just the dates.

Scene-by-scene storyline

The scene-by-scene storyline has another very important function. Every new idea seems wonderful the first day, two days later it’s already less plausible and after a week it may seem very average. This is why I spend at least three months thinking about the scene-by-scene storyline because I want the story to seem as realistic as possible. Nothing must be left to coincidence.

I once talked to a writer who said that she sits down every day and begins to write. She never knows what will come out. Her system also works, but I think it allows for a lot of unplanned writing that can be superfluous. And some people find it very difficult to delete what they’ve written, which is a big mistake.

The length of sentences, paragraphs and chapters

You need to know how many sentences to use in a paragraph. And how many paragraphs in a chapter. This is something that’s almost impossible to learn from books. If you write too much, you’ll slow down the reading tempo. A novel can be very thrilling, but if there are too many unnecessary descriptions and superfluous sentences, readers will read more slowly or even put the book down from boredom.

Tempo is very important. In all my novels it increases in the second half so that the chapters get shorter and shorter. Only what is absolutely essential is told, without any unnecessary added extras.

I recommend all those who are still not sure how many words and sentences to use in one paragraph that you start reading out loud. Record a text you like and listen to it as much as possible. Sooner or later you’ll get the feel for it.

But the most important thing is that you start writing. Practice is the best teacher.

And the last important thing. When you’ve written your book, you must spend a few months reading and editing it. Let at least a month pass between two readings so that your brain clears and you’re able to experience the content of the book anew. During this time you can start writing a new book.

In connection with each sentence, paragraph or chapter you must ask yourself whether it’s necessary and whether it contributes to the book being interesting and thrilling. If it’s not, you must delete it without mercy. Don’t feel regret over the deleted sentences even if you have had to work really hard and got up very early in order to write them. The final result is all that matters and that must be perfect.

I often compare writing with the work of a sculptor, who first creates a rough version of a sculpture. This is followed by a phase of concentrating on every last detail until the sculpture is perfect.