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Post by heroicmuse on Jul 4, 2017 10:19:47 GMT -5
Welcome booksoapwriter81 ! Nice to meet a fellow writer.  Like UhSir , I have an orange tabby brat cat too. Mine likes to stick his head around the shower curtain while I'm using the shower. LOL . So what kind of stuff do you write? I see that you and Kpatch have your websites and author information published in your signatures. I'll update mine too so that you guys can check out my stuff if you want to. Right now, I'm working on putting the finishing touches on the new version of my third book. I'm hoping to have it out within the next two weeks, so I'll post a little preview of it for everyone in the product promotion section once it's ready to go. I write young adult fiction in addition to this huge fanfiction story that I've been posting here for about three years. I'm about halfway through the next draft of the novel I'm currently working on. Last year I went to the Writer's Digest Conference and pitched it to six agents who were all interested, but it needed major reworking first. I'm hoping to get a draft done this summer. |
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Post by booksoapwriter81 on Jul 4, 2017 11:39:02 GMT -5
. So what kind of stuff do you write? I see that you and Kpatch have your websites and author information published in your signatures. I'll update mine too so that you guys can check out my stuff if you want to. Right now, I'm working on putting the finishing touches on the new version of my third book. I'm hoping to have it out within the next two weeks, so I'll post a little preview of it for everyone in the product promotion section once it's ready to go. I write young adult fiction in addition to this huge fanfiction story that I've been posting here for about three years. I'm about halfway through the next draft of the novel I'm currently working on. Last year I went to the Writer's Digest Conference and pitched it to six agents who were all interested, but it needed major reworking first. I'm hoping to get a draft done this summer. Yeah, I've been to some writing workshops, and the authors who ran them said that they had to rewrite their novels several times before they got published. I decided to self-publish because I didn't want my books to become unrecognizable as my own because a publisher said they had to be a certain way to get out there. However, as I said earlier, I decided to rewrite my early stuff anyway. I started major rewriting projects last summer and accomplished two by the end of last year. Now I'm finishing up the third one and hoping to do two more before the year is out. I wish you luck with what you're doing. I'm in a writers group with a lady who has been trying to get an agent and trying to publish the traditional way, and it can be a very long road at times! |
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Post by heroicmuse on Jul 4, 2017 12:58:06 GMT -5
THanks booksoapwriter81. I tried the self-publishing route before but I didn't really know what I was doing so I didn't get terribly far. LOL. I'm determined to get my novel out there one way or the other but I've never tried the traditional route so I figured it was time to see how it would work for me. |
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Post by booksoapwriter81 on Jul 4, 2017 17:41:45 GMT -5
THanks booksoapwriter81 . I tried the self-publishing route before but I didn't really know what I was doing so I didn't get terribly far. LOL. I'm determined to get my novel out there one way or the other but I've never tried the traditional route so I figured it was time to see how it would work for me. I used www.createspace.com, heroicmuse. It is free to create an account. You upload your book and design a cover for it using either one of their templates or creating your own (I failed at this part, so I stick with templates). After twenty-four hours, they send you an electronic proof to peruse. If you okay it, then your book is available on amazon for others to buy within a week's time. You can get a copy for yourself for about six bucks from the createspace website. I have self-published several books this way and am happy with the results. They look just as professional as any other book you might see just as long as you take the time to format them correctly. You can also select to have them available in both paperback and kindle format. My biggest challenge is definitely marketing though since you have to do all your own marketing with self-publishing. That's part of why I have joined you guys here. I saw that there are other writers, and I know that you are all soap fans, so I figure that in addition to discussing Days with me, you might also enjoy my writing too since it is has those soapy types of storylines. |
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Post by Kpatch on Jul 4, 2017 17:47:55 GMT -5
heroicmuse and booksoapwriter81, I moved your posts about writing from the welcome thread to here. I'd like to weigh in also. I've done both — been professionally published and self-published. Used to think being published was the be-all-end-all and have learned it's not. I'd much rather retain creative control. With the publisher I've been working with, I ended up feeling like I worked for them, not the other way around, and their marketing efforts were meh. I had no say over the cover look either. I'm glad to be done with them.
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Post by heroicmuse on Jul 4, 2017 18:14:47 GMT -5
THanks booksoapwriter81 . I tried the self-publishing route before but I didn't really know what I was doing so I didn't get terribly far. LOL. I'm determined to get my novel out there one way or the other but I've never tried the traditional route so I figured it was time to see how it would work for me. My biggest challenge is definitely marketing though since you have to do all your own marketing with self-publishing. That's part of why I have joined you guys here. I saw that there are other writers, and I know that you are all soap fans, so I figure that in addition to discussing Days with me, you might also enjoy my writing too since it is has those soapy types of storylines. That was my problem too. I used createspace too and I think my content was really good, but I just couldn't seem to get sales. I feel like networking and marketing are the hardest part for me. That's one of the reasons I go to the Writer's Digest conference every year now, because networking with other writers and readers and learning more about marketing is vital. And, I think that'll be the case whether I go with self-publishing or the traditional route so I have to learn it... |
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Post by booksoapwriter81 on Jul 4, 2017 18:17:04 GMT -5
heroicmuse and booksoapwriter81 , I moved your posts about writing from the welcome thread to here. I'd like to weigh in also. I've done both — been professionally published and self-published. Used to think being published was the be-all-end-all and have learned it's not. I'd much rather retain creative control. With the publisher I've been working with, I ended up feeling like I worked for them, not the other way around, and their marketing efforts were meh. I had no say over the cover look either. I'm glad to be done with them. Maintaining control is exactly why I've decided to self-publish, KPatch. I work hard on my novels, and I don't want them to feel like they're not mine anymore by the time they hit the market. I've read many stories about artists (writers, singers, etc.) who let the companies who marketed their work have too much control. Most of them have regretted it because they don't feel that it reflects who they truly are in the end. When I went to the writing conferences that I mentioned to heroicmuse, both authors basically said that the companies are all about what sells, not necessarily about what makes a good story. When I heard that, I knew that traditional publishing wasn't the right choice for me. I just wish I was better at marketing. That's the part of this that I'm really struggling with. |
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Post by Kpatch on Jul 4, 2017 18:26:04 GMT -5
I think we all struggle with marketing. We're writers, not marketers. You, me and heroicmuse should team up and retweet/repost each other to help expand our reach. |
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Post by booksoapwriter81 on Jul 4, 2017 23:17:42 GMT -5
I think we all struggle with marketing. We're writers, not marketers. You, me and heroicmuse should team up and retweet/repost each other to help expand our reach. I'd be for that. Every little bit helps! I've been asking my facebook friends to share whenever I have something new for sale, but most of them just want to hit the like button instead. It drives me nuts! You are right about us being writers and not marketers. My dream is to someday have enough people knowing about my series that I won't have to seek out readers as much and can just concentrate on writing instead. I've been slowly working toward that since I discovered createspace and wix.com. Now that I have a publisher and a website, I have to really step up the marketing. So if you guys have any suggestions or stories about what you've done to get your stuff out there, I'd be interested to know. |
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Post by heroicmuse on Jul 5, 2017 12:59:40 GMT -5
booksoapwriter81 I have a Facebook fan page for my novel but I need to figure out what to put on it to get people interested. I haven't updated it in a long time. I've met a lot of writers on Twitter by joining in discussions about writing and often if I RT someone's news about their book they will return the favor.
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Post by booksoapwriter81 on Jul 5, 2017 16:17:46 GMT -5
booksoapwriter81 I have a Facebook fan page for my novel but I need to figure out what to put on it to get people interested. I haven't updated it in a long time. I've met a lot of writers on Twitter by joining in discussions about writing and often if I RT someone's news about their book they will return the favor. Yeah, I'm still working on the facebook page for my series, heroicmuse. I have to figure out a way to update it more often than just when I'm releasing another book. I get notifications from facebook reminding me that I haven't posted in a long time, and I know that that's not a good thing for trying to market my series. That's interesting to know about writers helping each other out by retweeting each other's work if someone does the favor for them. It's a marketing tactic I hadn't thought of until I came here. |
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