Quote: (06-24-2013 10:30 AM)Architekt Wrote:
So how'd the post-release go? I think I might try finish a short story tonight and release it in the next few hours or something
Hey Man - sorry, I haven't been in here. I'll probably be in here a lot less as I want to focus on getting as much work done as possible right now.
Things are going okay. I don't think the giveaway had much of an effect. I'm not seeing any reviews from the hundreds that downloaded it and the rankings seemed to drop as soon as the giveaway was over. My guess is a lot of people just grab up freebies because they're free and don't get around to reading them. At one point, I was very high up in the literary fiction category. I don't remember the number exactly.
Anyways, I am still getting sales every day - just a couple, but I think as long as response to the book is good that should pick up later on after I add more books. I have three books up now - my novel and two short stories. I have two more short stories and a novel in the works. I think one of the short stories should be done within the week.
So just moving forward as planned and am not concerning myself with any big marketing efforts other than interlinking my books and seeding Amazon with more work.
I've also started reading short stories again to recapture the feel for writing that I used to have and wrap my head around what makes a short story really good. I used to read a lot of fiction, especially short fiction, but that was ages ago. I really do feel like the two most important things to do if you want to be a great writer is read and write a lot.
If you're just starting out, I'd even venture that reading a lot is more important than writing.
Ah, one more thing. Painter mentioned checking out "On Writing" by Stephen King and I went and grabbed it up; it's a fantastic book that I've read before, and I really agreed that it's what I need right now. I've already dug through the majority of it.
But now I'm also reading a lot of short fiction by King - he's the best at this form, in my opinion, always has been - and I'm finding that he goes against his own "rules" A LOT. I mean, I suspected and knew that he broke them
sometimes, but it turns out he breaks them RELIGIOUSLY - especially in his old work, which was what originally made him famous. I imagine if I were to go dig up criticisms of the work this has probably been pointed out quite a bit already.
Examples of what I'm talking about include passive writing ("hads and was's, etc), adverbs (like surprisingly or quickly or slowly), and doctoring up dialogue so that you say things like "he mused" or "she hissed" instead of "he said" every time (King stresses sticking to the latter).
I love Stephen King's work and even though a lot of people shy away from him because they don't like the horror genre, I feel he's one of the best out there - if he wasn't, he wouldn't be so successful.
But while "On Writing" is solid, I must say that he's a total hypocrite in that book; I suppose he had to say
something about writing in that book though. lol I say read it but take it all with a huge grain of salt.
You can learn a lot more by reading his fiction than you can by reading how he advises writing fiction - and indeed that's probably true for just about any author. And the guy is a genius in my book, so if you plan on writing in any genre, I say definitely follow his work.
In the end, I've always found good writing to be a very intuitive thing. You just have to get a lot of exposure to it and it becomes very natural, though I've lost a lot of that over the years because I don't read and write fiction as much as I did when I was younger. With that changing now, I'm finding it's already coming back to me.
I've always found writing workshops to be mental masturbation for this reason - you can get a lot further by getting out there and just doing it and evolving as you go.
Cheers!
EDIT: By the way, that's great you're releasing a short story. Let me know if you need an early reader.
EDIT 2: I also raised all my prices tonight - fuck competing on price. I'm asking $2.99 for short stories and $4.99 for my novel. Most online marketers getting into this business charge $0.99 and $2.99, respectively. We'll see what kind of effect this change has.
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
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