The first ebook in my series is available on Amazon for free this weekend, for Memorial Day. (I suppose that aligning these free days with American holidays is a bit strange, since it's available in every Amazon Kindle store worldwide, but it just seemed most convenient.) I'm happy that I've seen a lot of downloads for it. :)
A link, if you're interested: http://www.amazon.com/Never-Always-Unbroken-Book-ebook/dp/B00CS5G4NC/ref=la_B00CS8Q7RW_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369493808&sr=1-1
I've put up a poll, and it seems that the preference is for me to work on the next book in that series instead of working on something wholly original - yet, anyway. I think that once I figure out how that new idea will go, I might work on both, but I'll focus more on All the Stars Afire.
Happy Memorial Day weekend, regardless! :)
Saturday, May 25, 2013
Tuesday, May 21, 2013
May 21, 2013
I was asked on a survey last week whether I'm a published author, and I replied with "No."
Technically, in the weakest possible sense, I'm not. I'm writing under a pen name. Very few people I see in my daily life know that I've made ebooks available. For 95% of them, if I even identify myself as a writer (which does occasionally happen), when asked what I write, I respond with "Not very well." Oddly enough, in my public persona, the person who would be most closely identified as "me" to anyone else, I imagine that "I" would write terrible dramatic poetry, and the rare short-short story, in awful purple prose.
I have written a grand total of probably ten poems since I clawed my way out of my teenage angst phase, and I love to focus on form instead of content. I wrote a sonnet last year because I could, and published it in a small magazine; note I didn't even say "submitted it to," because there was very little in the way of a submission process. I handed it to the editors and said "If you don't want to take it, that's okay."
I seem to have developed some sort of preemptory knee-jerk reflex to dismiss my own writing as awful. I don't know when this began, and I think maybe I need to work on that. I'll put on an outfit that I like and not give a damn what anyone else thinks of it, as long as I like it. I'll refer to watching something on Lifetime Movie Network without a qualm. And yet, when it comes to my writing, when I allow people to see it, I end up apologizing before they read the first word: "I'm sorry, it's really not very good." I suppose I'm waiting for them to say, "You're right—it isn't."
Half the time I believe that apology is a lie. Half the time I think, "No, I'm very proud of what you're about to read. It represents a lot of time and energy I spent, and even if it isn't to your personal taste, I hope you enjoy it in some way."
The other half of the time, I think, "This is me being Ed Wood. This is totally me being Ed Wood. Anyone who has ever said anything nice about anything I've written was just trying to save my feelings. Secretly they all hate it. Why am I trying? Virtually any author is so much better."
But I don't honestly believe that every single positive review and piece of feedback I've received was just a total lie. Not honestly. So this is, at its heart, a self-esteem issue.
I'm supposed to be a cheerleader for my books. If I (electronically) hand a book to someone I've never met with an apology in my voice and a cringe on my face, that isn't going to sell anyone anything. "Well, if you have no faith in this, why should I bother even giving it a chance?" they might think. "I have a thousand other things I could be doing."
Would that there were some pill I could take that would temporarily give me self-confidence—without inebriation, anyway. I'd need a clear head for this, after all.
This makes me think that—right now, anyway—I'm not the best person to be writing the product description for my books. I only know what made me write it, and that was because I had these people running around in my head, or a vision of a green sash in moonlight and fingertips drifting along a rough stone wall, and I felt compelled to write it down, and then share it with the internet at large. When I read back over the stories, I see those things again, and a part of me wonders what the stories do to other people. Why are they appealing? What makes you go back and read it again, and if you wanted to convince someone else to read it, what would you say?
Hmm. All good things to consider while I'm on vacation.
Technically, in the weakest possible sense, I'm not. I'm writing under a pen name. Very few people I see in my daily life know that I've made ebooks available. For 95% of them, if I even identify myself as a writer (which does occasionally happen), when asked what I write, I respond with "Not very well." Oddly enough, in my public persona, the person who would be most closely identified as "me" to anyone else, I imagine that "I" would write terrible dramatic poetry, and the rare short-short story, in awful purple prose.
I have written a grand total of probably ten poems since I clawed my way out of my teenage angst phase, and I love to focus on form instead of content. I wrote a sonnet last year because I could, and published it in a small magazine; note I didn't even say "submitted it to," because there was very little in the way of a submission process. I handed it to the editors and said "If you don't want to take it, that's okay."
I seem to have developed some sort of preemptory knee-jerk reflex to dismiss my own writing as awful. I don't know when this began, and I think maybe I need to work on that. I'll put on an outfit that I like and not give a damn what anyone else thinks of it, as long as I like it. I'll refer to watching something on Lifetime Movie Network without a qualm. And yet, when it comes to my writing, when I allow people to see it, I end up apologizing before they read the first word: "I'm sorry, it's really not very good." I suppose I'm waiting for them to say, "You're right—it isn't."
Half the time I believe that apology is a lie. Half the time I think, "No, I'm very proud of what you're about to read. It represents a lot of time and energy I spent, and even if it isn't to your personal taste, I hope you enjoy it in some way."
The other half of the time, I think, "This is me being Ed Wood. This is totally me being Ed Wood. Anyone who has ever said anything nice about anything I've written was just trying to save my feelings. Secretly they all hate it. Why am I trying? Virtually any author is so much better."
But I don't honestly believe that every single positive review and piece of feedback I've received was just a total lie. Not honestly. So this is, at its heart, a self-esteem issue.
I'm supposed to be a cheerleader for my books. If I (electronically) hand a book to someone I've never met with an apology in my voice and a cringe on my face, that isn't going to sell anyone anything. "Well, if you have no faith in this, why should I bother even giving it a chance?" they might think. "I have a thousand other things I could be doing."
Would that there were some pill I could take that would temporarily give me self-confidence—without inebriation, anyway. I'd need a clear head for this, after all.
This makes me think that—right now, anyway—I'm not the best person to be writing the product description for my books. I only know what made me write it, and that was because I had these people running around in my head, or a vision of a green sash in moonlight and fingertips drifting along a rough stone wall, and I felt compelled to write it down, and then share it with the internet at large. When I read back over the stories, I see those things again, and a part of me wonders what the stories do to other people. Why are they appealing? What makes you go back and read it again, and if you wanted to convince someone else to read it, what would you say?
Hmm. All good things to consider while I'm on vacation.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
(self-)promotion
Here's the thing - I'm divided.
On the one hand, I have zero advertising budget, and I'm not convinced that advertising really works when it comes to ebooks. I am far more convinced to buy a book via personal recommendation or testimony. If someone whose opinion I trust recommends a book, I become interested in it. I feel like there's something inherently disingenuous in asking bloggers to read my work just looking for a recommendation or review.
On the other hand, I'm more accustomed to fanfic, and it's easier to find stories in that format. Want a Chuck/Sarah story? Look in the Chuck fandom section, find something tagged with the Chuck/Sarah relationship, read the description and see if you're interested. The important thing is finding a large archive with plenty of stories. Then you're good. What about original fiction? There's so much of it out there. How do I reach my audience? I just want to announce to the world: "Hey, I've written a book. If you're interested, check it out. If not, that's cool too." I think awareness is really the important thing, maybe even above recommendations. Recommendations don't matter if the possible audience never sees them.
The tips I'm reading say that I need to picture the ideal audience for my work, but I don't have an ideal audience in mind. Just "a person mature enough to read adult material who understands English." I don't think I'm writing genre fiction, but then maybe I am. Maybe the story I've published is definitely just romance-genre, even though it feels like more than that to me.
It feels very hard to step away from what I'm writing and evaluate it with any objectivity whatsoever. I'm reminded, again, of the Ed Wood parallel. I love writing, maybe with the same zeal Ed Wood did. I've never been convinced that that passion is related whatsoever to actual ability.
I suppose this is why authors generally need agents and publishers. I'm interested in the writing side of things. I'm fine with putting it out there into the world and making it available for other people to read. Connecting the audience to the work, however, seems to be beyond me. I've let the people who know me as ndnickerson know I'm publishing. The rest of it - why would I want to waste time updating a Twitter feed or Facebook page when I could be writing instead?
Maybe I'm being naive. That's okay. I think I'm allowed to be naive, at first anyway.
On the one hand, I have zero advertising budget, and I'm not convinced that advertising really works when it comes to ebooks. I am far more convinced to buy a book via personal recommendation or testimony. If someone whose opinion I trust recommends a book, I become interested in it. I feel like there's something inherently disingenuous in asking bloggers to read my work just looking for a recommendation or review.
On the other hand, I'm more accustomed to fanfic, and it's easier to find stories in that format. Want a Chuck/Sarah story? Look in the Chuck fandom section, find something tagged with the Chuck/Sarah relationship, read the description and see if you're interested. The important thing is finding a large archive with plenty of stories. Then you're good. What about original fiction? There's so much of it out there. How do I reach my audience? I just want to announce to the world: "Hey, I've written a book. If you're interested, check it out. If not, that's cool too." I think awareness is really the important thing, maybe even above recommendations. Recommendations don't matter if the possible audience never sees them.
The tips I'm reading say that I need to picture the ideal audience for my work, but I don't have an ideal audience in mind. Just "a person mature enough to read adult material who understands English." I don't think I'm writing genre fiction, but then maybe I am. Maybe the story I've published is definitely just romance-genre, even though it feels like more than that to me.
It feels very hard to step away from what I'm writing and evaluate it with any objectivity whatsoever. I'm reminded, again, of the Ed Wood parallel. I love writing, maybe with the same zeal Ed Wood did. I've never been convinced that that passion is related whatsoever to actual ability.
I suppose this is why authors generally need agents and publishers. I'm interested in the writing side of things. I'm fine with putting it out there into the world and making it available for other people to read. Connecting the audience to the work, however, seems to be beyond me. I've let the people who know me as ndnickerson know I'm publishing. The rest of it - why would I want to waste time updating a Twitter feed or Facebook page when I could be writing instead?
Maybe I'm being naive. That's okay. I think I'm allowed to be naive, at first anyway.
Friday, May 17, 2013
Hooray!
People have bought my books! This makes me very happy. :)
It's kind of interesting, though, that I feel the same happiness I do when I see sales, as when someone leaves feedback on one of my free (fanfic) stories. I think it's because I still feel like I'm testing here. My first series was to see if I could do it.
Now, though... now I want to post more books. I'm only going to do one other originally-fanfic story, though. After that, it will be new stuff. I think I'm ready for that.
It's scary, honestly. I feel incredibly out of my depth when it comes to publicity and promotion, although I did decide to make the first book of my series free on Amazon over Memorial Day weekend, just to see what happens. Much like I felt the first time I posted a story online and a reader took the time to comment on it, I just feel amazed. I'm not sure what made anyone read my stories before, but I'm grateful to those who have, and I hope they got something positive out of them as a result.
It's kind of interesting, though, that I feel the same happiness I do when I see sales, as when someone leaves feedback on one of my free (fanfic) stories. I think it's because I still feel like I'm testing here. My first series was to see if I could do it.
Now, though... now I want to post more books. I'm only going to do one other originally-fanfic story, though. After that, it will be new stuff. I think I'm ready for that.
It's scary, honestly. I feel incredibly out of my depth when it comes to publicity and promotion, although I did decide to make the first book of my series free on Amazon over Memorial Day weekend, just to see what happens. Much like I felt the first time I posted a story online and a reader took the time to comment on it, I just feel amazed. I'm not sure what made anyone read my stories before, but I'm grateful to those who have, and I hope they got something positive out of them as a result.
Wednesday, May 15, 2013
May 15, 2013
I'm fighting the urge to refresh every page I have open about once every 12 seconds. I'll be happy when I've burned all this nervous energy off. More caffeine would probably be a bad idea, right?
Pshhh. Live dangerously!
On a positive note, it looks like the books are available for sale with no problems! :)
Pshhh. Live dangerously!
On a positive note, it looks like the books are available for sale with no problems! :)
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
Collection post
My Amazon Author Central page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00CS8Q7RW
My Facebook like-able Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Olivia-M-Kelley/548805201832025
I would get a Twitter, but it's all I can do to post to the blasted thing now, and I'll keep my tumblr as it is.
(The books are still being processed, which is great because it means I'm burning off all this nervous energy.)
My Facebook like-able Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Olivia-M-Kelley/548805201832025
I would get a Twitter, but it's all I can do to post to the blasted thing now, and I'll keep my tumblr as it is.
(The books are still being processed, which is great because it means I'm burning off all this nervous energy.)
Monday, May 13, 2013
May 13, 2013
I'm uploading my books onto my Amazon KDP bookshelf right now.
And freaking out.
Things I've discovered:
-Just exporting from Pages into .doc format sucks and doesn't come up right once Amazon translates it. I have to open it in Word once I've exported it, and then save it in .htm format. Even then, Word does a few other minor bizarre things to it. (Maybe I should upgrade my version of Pages; apparently the newer one will export as epub. Mine doesn't.)
-I have always thought a 0.5" indent is too much. It doesn't seem to affect the Kindle preview, but I hate it on the Kindle Fire preview, so I made it 0.25".
-The Kindle Preview app freaks out on my computer and wants to install X11 and all other sorts of fun things happen.
I'm second-guessing everything. Pricing. Covers. My entire life thus far. I'm tempted to ask someone else to push the button for me on it. I finished putting everything in, and at the bottom of the screen I saw a "Save & Publish" button, and... oh God. Oh God.
I'm doing this. I'm going to do this. Yes. I am.
Oh God.
(ETA: I pressed the button. I PRESSED IT. Now I should probably go to sleep... or work on another story.)
(ETA2: Twelve hours after pressing the button, now the status is "Publishing"... which apparently takes another twelve hours. So they might be available for purchase around 1 a.m. Eastern time on May 15.)
And freaking out.
Things I've discovered:
-Just exporting from Pages into .doc format sucks and doesn't come up right once Amazon translates it. I have to open it in Word once I've exported it, and then save it in .htm format. Even then, Word does a few other minor bizarre things to it. (Maybe I should upgrade my version of Pages; apparently the newer one will export as epub. Mine doesn't.)
-I have always thought a 0.5" indent is too much. It doesn't seem to affect the Kindle preview, but I hate it on the Kindle Fire preview, so I made it 0.25".
-The Kindle Preview app freaks out on my computer and wants to install X11 and all other sorts of fun things happen.
I'm second-guessing everything. Pricing. Covers. My entire life thus far. I'm tempted to ask someone else to push the button for me on it. I finished putting everything in, and at the bottom of the screen I saw a "Save & Publish" button, and... oh God. Oh God.
I'm doing this. I'm going to do this. Yes. I am.
Oh God.
(ETA: I pressed the button. I PRESSED IT. Now I should probably go to sleep... or work on another story.)
(ETA2: Twelve hours after pressing the button, now the status is "Publishing"... which apparently takes another twelve hours. So they might be available for purchase around 1 a.m. Eastern time on May 15.)
Sunday, May 12, 2013
covers!
I've been working on covers... and I'd like some feedback. The text is a bit bigger on these than I would design it on a print book, because it still needs to be readable when the cover is a thumbnail. Makes sense. (I went ahead and threw together the cover for the sixth book as well, although I'm still in the process of writing it.) They're in series order.
So... yes? No? Start over with something else? (ETA: I replaced the From This Day On cover; the original was a bedsheet.)
So... yes? No? Start over with something else? (ETA: I replaced the From This Day On cover; the original was a bedsheet.)
Friday, May 3, 2013
settings
I used to write in Palatino, 12 point, 1.5 spacing, 0.2" first-line indent. I used Microsoft Word 5.0 on a Mac Plus, then ClarisWorks on an SE/30, then AppleWorks on the Quadra.
Now I write in Georgia, 12 point, single spacing, 0.25" first-line indent. I use Pages, despite its hilarious lack of html conversion capability. If I'm unable to use my home computer, I write in some equivalent of Notepad or Wordpad, and use as many of the settings above as I can.
When I open a fresh document, I have to change the settings to match my preferred style, or I feel like I can't write. It's weird.
I also continually edit while I'm writing, which means sometimes when I write the last sentence, it's done; sometimes I go over the whole thing and find a paragraph or two I need to redo, or a few sentences that need to be tweaked. If it's not flowing, though, I'll often delete the entire scene or whatever I need to, to get back to where it was good and build from there.
I write on the couch in my living room, often with my dog snoring beside me, as I'm doing right now; I write until I'm aware that my thoughts are no longer coherent, and then I go to bed. Or I drink some more caffeine and power through it.
Tonight, though, I have to get to bed. Work tomorrow.
Now I write in Georgia, 12 point, single spacing, 0.25" first-line indent. I use Pages, despite its hilarious lack of html conversion capability. If I'm unable to use my home computer, I write in some equivalent of Notepad or Wordpad, and use as many of the settings above as I can.
When I open a fresh document, I have to change the settings to match my preferred style, or I feel like I can't write. It's weird.
I also continually edit while I'm writing, which means sometimes when I write the last sentence, it's done; sometimes I go over the whole thing and find a paragraph or two I need to redo, or a few sentences that need to be tweaked. If it's not flowing, though, I'll often delete the entire scene or whatever I need to, to get back to where it was good and build from there.
I write on the couch in my living room, often with my dog snoring beside me, as I'm doing right now; I write until I'm aware that my thoughts are no longer coherent, and then I go to bed. Or I drink some more caffeine and power through it.
Tonight, though, I have to get to bed. Work tomorrow.
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