Category Archives: Writing

non-fiction, Writing

2012 Writing Plans: Non-fiction for the Christian Market

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[Because of a stupid document switch by my computer, and a stupid click by me, I was more or less finished with this post but failed to save it. Here it is the second time around, which is never as good as the first.]

Previously I wrote about my writing plans for 2012 for fiction, non-fiction articles, and non-fiction books. One area I haven’t covered yet is non-fiction works for the Christian market. This is an important part of my writing, so I’ve formulated some plans.

I have two main interests currently in the Christian non-fiction market. The first is Bible studies for Life Groups (a.k.a. adult Sunday school). As I’ve mentioned before on the blog, I have developed and taught several of these. Here they are.

  • Sacred Moments: a study of the sacraments and other sacred times
  • Life on a Yo Yo: Learning from Peter’s Ups and Downs
  • The Dynamic Duo: Lessons from the Lives of Elijah and Elisha
  • Isaiah (a 20 week study)
  • What One Thing is Strongest (a 5-week study based on 1 Esdras from the Apocrypha)
  • Lesser-Known People of the Bible
  • Good King, Bad King

These are in various states of completion for student materials and teacher materials. Some are more in outline form with my teaching notes, but no student papers and the teaching notes not in a form that another teacher could use. Others are close to finished, with snazzy student papers and good teaching notes. All of them will require some work to be in publishable shape.

For publishing, I’m thinking of PDF format and sales from my web site for a nominal fee. This is not a money-making proposition, though I’d like to get a little something for my trouble. I’m not sure how it would work. Clearly a manual system, where they e-mail me or fill out a contact form, would be easy. An automated system would be a lot harder and possibly expensive. We’ll see.

The second area of interest and activity for me is the writings of John Wesley. Last year I began an earnest study of these, and developed some ideas for publications. I actually started some essays based on his writings, though I’m not far along with this. I have begun to gather Wesley’s political writers with the aim to publish them as a compilation with a little commentary. This is a manageable task for this year. Beyond that, I’m not sure I have anything beyond the brainstorming stage.

So what to plan for in 2012? Given that I’m not real sure about the amount of time I’ll be able to spend on writing as a whole, and how much of that I can set aside for this sector. I’ll keep my plans modest. By the end of the year, I plan to have one Bible study in finished form and available for purchase through my website. Perhaps I can do more. Perhaps even this limited plan is a stretch. But it’s now in writing, and I’ll work toward it.

Writing

Thinking About Promotion

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Sales of Documenting America have stalled. In 2011 I sold 26 copies. In 2012 I’ve sold 1.

But I’ve done no promotion of it in 2012. I joined a Facebook group called Christian Authors’ Book Marketing, and have posted a link to it on a thread on that group’s FB page. That was a day or two ago, and since that time at least ten others have posted links to that thread, bumping it out of sight. At some point I’ll start a thread about DA.

But either though the CABM or elsewhere I came across two interesting Internet posts about marketing. One is The Book Marketing Snowball, a blog post by Terry Cordingley. Terry appears to be a marketing person. This is the first time I’ve come across his site, and will have to look at it some more. The post is a reminder that, since e-books are on the shelf forever, writers have no need to make a concentrated promotional push when published. In fact, he suggests this is counter-productive in the Internet era. Rather, start small and slowly with marketing efforts, like the proverbial snowball rolling downhill. Eventually, if the book is any good, the size and speed of promotion will increase without any real effort of the author. Intuitively, this is correct. Kind of hard though, with a single sale a month.

The other is Top Ten Reasons Why Your Book Marketing Strategy Is Not Working, by Deborah H. Bateman. Deborah is an author I’ve never heard of before. She writes for the Christian market, and doesn’t appear to have many titles in either print or e-book. She might be much like me, just starting out on the self-publishing route. Her ten reasons, which came from a man named Don E. McCauley, focus on visibility of the project and the author. He mentions that your book web page needs to appear in the first three pages of search engine results or else no one will find it. So he puts great emphasis on search engine optimization (despite the fact that SEO, in my opinion, was turned on its head with the two major Google algorithm changes in 2011). The author must have a brand. The author must have reasonable expectations.

Of such web sites and such advice there seems to be no end. I’m almost tired of them, and am seriously thinking of not following links to them any more. The snowball analogy seems valid, however. So I have only a sale or two per month for a while. So in all of 2011 my two titles combined had an average of about 3.33 sales per month, or 1.65 sales per title. That’s not bad. If I can add my five titles targeted for 2012, and keep my sales at that rate, for a reasonably spread out schedule for the new titles, I could easily sell 100 copies combined of all titles in 2012. Those aren’t best seller numbers, but I think I would rejoice at those many sales. If, as the eSP pundits suggest, more  published works feed sales to each other, those sales could easily go up to 200 for the year. I could live with that.

So what is my marketing plan right now? First is to keep writing and keep publishing. Second is to work slowly to find more blogs and web sites that will interview me and promote my work. At present, there is no third. This weekend is a local, real life meeting of an on-line political group I’m in. I plan on attending, and I believe they will give me a couple of minutes to tell about Documenting America. I have nine paperbacks left in inventory, and would hope to sell a few there. One other marketing item coming up is the profile on me that’s coming in the next University of Rhode Island alumni magazine, probably in March.

So I guess I have to get busy. Tonight will be tied up with church and calculations to decide on the PPO or HSA health insurance, a decision I will have to make by Friday. That might leave me a little time for editing or reading. Not sure when marketing will earn a chunk of my time again.

non-fiction, Writing

2012 Plans: Non-fiction articles

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As 2012 begins, I have three non-fiction article writing gigs in hands. One is for real money; one is for almost no money; one is for unknown money.

The no-money one of these is Suite101.com. This was starting to be an earner for me, until Google made major changes in their search algorithyms and ruined access to the site. I wrote 127 articles there on a variety of topics that interested me. I figure these articles amount to about 101,000 words. Back in January-February 2011, it looked like all the work was beginning to pay off, as ad-share revenue was finally amounting to something. Then Google screwed us, and did so again in August. Ad revenues are down to less than $5.00 per month average, maybe closer to $3.00 per month.

I haven’t written an article there since last February, though I remain a member in good standing, and could write there any time I want. The site is soon to go through a major re-vamp. I’m waiting to see what they do, and if anything I want to write on will still be suitable. I don’t expect to dedicate a lot of time to this site in 2012, though that could change as site changes unfold.

The one for decent money is Buildipedia.com. I’ve been writing there since about August 2010, a variety of engineering and construction article. Right now I’m writing a twice a month column on construction administration, something I’ve done a lot of in my career. I’m paid $100 for these 500-600 word articles, which take not too much time to plan, research, and write. I have one due Monday, and another two weeks later. It looks as if I’ll get contracts monthly so long as they like the results.

I could also pitch feature articles to Buildipedia. I wrote about 15 for them in 2010-11. The previous editor was starting to reject most of my feature article ideas, but I should pitch some to the new editor and see where they go.

The third gig is a site named Decoded Science. The owner/editor invited me to join and submit articles. I have one written, but have not yet taken time to complete all my paperwork. Their article submittal process is quite different than for the other two sites, and I suppose I’m holding off because I don’t want to learn a new system. But I will write for them, at least a few articles, and see how the ad-share revenue is. I’m thinking of writing some articles on low impact development, something I’m learning that is all the rage in site design right now.

Apart from these, I have no plans to plan, pitch, or write freelance articles this year. The one experience I had in 2009 with an article for Internet Genealogy was not fun. If all print mags are similar, I’m good writing for the Internet for less money. Actually, at Buildipedia it’s a lot more money per word, and I don’t have to beg them to pay me.

Church History Novels, Danny Tompkins Short Stories, Doctor Luke's Assistant, fiction, Fifty Thousand Screaming People, Short Stories, Writing

2012 Writing Plan: Fiction

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Now, on Jan 4, 2012, looking ahead to what I plan to accomplish this year with my fiction, here’s what the year will look like.

  1. Publish my second short story, titled “Too Old To Play”. The story is written. I’ve  edited it for typos, plot, language usage, etc. It’s ready to publish, in my view. I e-mailed it to my critique group mailing list and to another trusted reviewer, so far with no response. I’m not really worried about  receiving critiques. If I get some, I’ll see what I need to do. If I don’t get any, I’ll publish as is. My schedule is to eSP this in January. Since it’s a sequel to my previously published short story, “Mom’s Letter”, I hope they will feed sales to each other. I’ve already “commissioned” creation of the cover.
  2. Publish my novel Doctor Luke’s Assistant. I finished what I consider the last round of edits a month or so ago. Publishers have told me it’s a good idea, but they won’t publish such a long work in a difficult genre from an unknown author. I figure it won’t have great sales, but what’s the downside in self-publishing it? Only the cost of a cover (already commissioned). If it doesn’t sell much, then the editors will be proved right in their judgment of it. If I make anything on it, that’s more than my prospects through commercial publishers. Right now I’m planning for an e-book. It’s so long I’m afraid a POD print book will be too expensive. I’m targeting this for February, which is very do-able
  3. Publish my novel In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. The book is written, and partially edited. I sent it out to about twelve beta readers in October, and have heard back from three. The copy they read had many typos, as I had not proof-read it. I have a few plot issues to address, and must make a judgment on the amount of dialog vs. narrative. I think I can have all this done by the end of February, making production of an e-book in March fairly firm.
  4. Publish another short story in the Danny Tompkins series. I hadn’t thought of adding another story to this series until recently. Heck, the second one didn’t even come to me until three months ago. I haven’t seen myself as a short story writer. So I’m still testing the waters. A plot for another one (actually two) has run through my mind, so I might as well schedule it to be written and published. I’m guessing this will be somewhere around June, but I’m still in the early stages of this.
  5. Begin work on my third novel. I could go several ways with this. I could work on a sequel to In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. I hadn’t planned on that, but my friend Gary pointed out to me how the things I left hanging at the end of the book could segue very well into a sequel. I’m thinking my espionage book, China Tour, is most likely to be next, since it has had the longest gestation period. But a series of cozy mysteries has been brewing, and the first of those might be next. Given the uncertainty of what I’ll be working on, I’d say completion of the next novel in 2012 is unlikely, and I’m not putting completion in my plan.

So, there are my fiction writing plans for 2012. In a vacuum (i.e. with no non-fiction), it would be an easy schedule. Covers may be the hold up for maintaining my publication schedule.

Church History Novels, Doctor Luke's Assistant, fiction, Fifty Thousand Screaming People, Writing

2011 Writing in Review: Fiction

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In 2011 I spent a lot of time on my fiction. At the beginning of the year I polished and published a short story, “Mom’s Letter”. I wrote this somewhere around 2005-06, first for a contest and then expanded and reworked. I published that at Kindle in February, at Smashwords in July. Sales are brisk, with a total of 9 copies sold (No; that’s not a typo).

When I attended the Write-to-Publish Conference in June, I pitched my second novel, In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People, and an agent was interested. I hadn’t looked at it for a couple of years, and was surprised to see, when I prepared to submit the partial manuscript after the conference, that I had less than 15,000 words written. I thought I was over 20,000.

So I got busy. From mid-July to early October I completed the novel, ending at about 87,000 words. I sent it out to beta readers in October, and have received a trickle of comments back.

At that point in time, after a brief break, I read my first novel, Doctor Luke’s Assistant, which as been “in the drawer” for about three years, looking for “about 60 typos” a beta reader said I had but didn’t identify, and fixing a few minor plot problems or references. My goal is to e-self-publish it around February 2012. I made the typos and think it’s ready to go, cover permitting.

I then decided to work on another short story, to help me get another book on my self-publishing bookshelf. So I dashed off a sequel to “Mom’s Letter”, titled “Too Old To Play”. I’ve distributed that by e-mail to my critique group, but so far have had no responses. In my mind it’s ready to upload to Kindle, though I’m open to edits.

Beyond this, I dreamed a lot. I know which novel I’ll work on after that. I have at three series identified and at least five novels in each (by title). I have only outlined, at least in part, one. So this is work for the rest of my life.

 

Fifty Thousand Screaming People, miscellaneous, Writing

Writing and Christmas

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My writing work continues, though slower than I’d like it to. Last night was a good example. This was my last night before having to devote all my efforts to the Christmas trip we will take. Yet, preparations for that trip were already necessary: making three batches of Chex Mix. This is a task that has lots of down time. Mix the mix, put it in the over, stir it every fifteen minutes, done after an hour. In an hour and ten minutes you have about 55 minutes to do other things. So in three and a half hours that would be 2 hours 45 minutes of “other things” time.

What other things could I do for writing? My novel In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People is begging me to edit it. I’m hoping to e-self-publish it in March, cover permitting. The two items I’m eSP-ing before that are ready to go, waiting only on covers. So I can spend time on FTSP, and have let it sit enough time since writing it to have some fresh eyes on it. This seemed as if it would be the best thing.

I could also have taken a little time to make some minor edits to this website. Several things are needed, some of which I can do myself, some of which I’ll need help with. The things I can do myself I should get going on.

I also have a few publicity/promotion things to do for Documenting America. I’ve let those go this month, doing a little research into places where I want to promote it, but not near enough to decide what to do. I could do that in 15 minute chunks.

But what I decided to do instead was something I wanted to do for some time: try to figure out these indecipherable explanation of benefits forms from Blue Cross/Blue Shield. From the couple of procedures I had from the ehrlichiosis and the rheumatoid outbreak that followed, I have a bunch of medical bills. It seemed like way too many. But I was dreading doing it.

But I used those fifteen minute chunks to do that. I gathered all my EOB statements (well, I might be missing one or two from early in the year) and put them in order. I found the group health insurance policy and any amendments that have been issued since the policy was. I began going through the two. The policy was, as expected, more indecipherable than the EOBs. I think, however, I finally figured out the EOBs, and understand what the policy covers, where the deductibles apply, etc. Looks like I have a bunch of money to pay out.

Over the Christmas holiday we will be with our son in Chicago. He’s going to help me with website corrections, and hopefully we’ll have some time to discuss covers and even for him to do some work on them. Hopefully I’ll have a few hours to edit FTSP. And to read for enjoyment as well as for writing craft. I’m looking forward to it, even to the long drive.

book reviews, Writing

Creating Unforgettable Characters

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At some point in time, I think at a writers conference in Kansas City in 2007, I picked up a used copy of Creating Unforgettable Characters by Linda Seger [Henry Holt, 1990]. I figured it would be an easy read at 221 pages. But it just bubbled up to the top of my reading pile in early December.

Actually, it wasn’t on my reading pile. That is a mixture of fiction and non-fiction for pleasure reading or self-improvement/education about things other than writing. I have a separate stash of writing books, not really in a pile, not really sorted as to which to read next.

I had just finished several reading pile books in a row, decided it was time to read a writing craft book, and this one looked good. The age of the book didn’t seems to be a problem to me as I started.

Seger consults with script writers and film makers, and so many of her examples of character development were from those areas. She made frequent use of television programs I never watched (such as Murphy Brown) and movies I never saw. It was kind of hard to understand her description of a character when I had no clue about that character.

Segar’s book is divided into the following chapters.

  • Research
  • Character Consistencies and Paradoxes
  • Creating Back Story
  • Character Psychology
  • Character Relationships
  • Supporting and Minor Characters
  • Dialogue
  • Nonrealistic Characters
  • Beyond Stereotyping
  • Solving Character Problems

I have not previously read a book about characters, but I’ve read a lot about it in magazines and on-line forums, and sat through several classes at writers conferences about character development. The advice in this book pretty much matched what I’ve heard/read elsewhere. Characters need to be multi-dimensional. Heroes need to have flaws; villains need to have virtues. Characters need to act consistently, but not so consistently that they seem to be made out of cardboard.

Paradoxes are good. The woman who loves football. The man who makes floral arrangements. The woman psychologist who follows boxing. The thug kid who’s an A student. These all make characters seem more real.

I liked what Seger wrote about researching a character, and about creating back story. These are probably two things that writers (me included) probably fall short in most easily. She gave me some things to consider in these two areas.

I had in mind to write more, but must end now as I have much else to do tonight. I’m glad I read this book at this point in time. While perhaps a newer book would be more advisable, if a writer should have a chance to pick this up, you might as well and glean from it what you can.

Writing

Current Writing Projects

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I recently finished a writing craft book, Creating Unforgettable Characters. I want to make a couple of posts about lessons learned, but am finding difficulty getting to it. I’m working on two or three other projects, which have caused me to either change direction in my blogs or neglect them for a while.

One of these projects is working on Doctor Luke’s Assistant. After letting it sit for a couple of years, except for pitching it at the conference last June, I have decided to e-self-publish it. What the heck, so what if it doesn’t sell? It will be out there. I’m going to have to pay for a cover for this one, probably around $100 or so (I suspect more, but that’s the estimate). I’d like to get it published by February 2012. I did another reading of it and last round of edits, which have now been typed. At any time I can begin making the e-book file. Since this is a long book (155,000 words), I’ll probably list it for $4.99.

The other thing I’ve been doing is working on edits for In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People. This is based on initial beta reader comments, as well as some plot elements I thought of that didn’t seem quite right. I hope to work on this a little tonight. Assuming I eSP this, I hope to have it published by March 2012.

And, I’m working on a short story—a sequel, I suppose you could call it—to my short story “Mom’s Letter”. I may have mentioned this before; in fact I’m fairly sure I have. Tentatively titled “Too Old To Play”, I hope to have it ready to eSP in early January 2012. In fact, I hope to complete the story tonight, proof it in the next day or two, and build the eSP files by the weekend. I’ll be meeting with the cover designer (my son) over Christmas, and hope to have the cover “in hand” before the end of the year.

That’s where I’m at, writing-wise. I hope to be a little more regular on this blog and on An Arrow Through the Air, at least for the next week.

Documenting America, Writing

Promoting my Books: Do I have enough ego?

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Now that the print version of Documenting America is available, I’m moving into the promotion phase of being an author. It has been available as an e-book since May 2011, and as a print book since mid-November 2011. My short story, “Mom’s Letter”, has been available as an e-book since February. During that time, on Kindle, Smashwords, and the several other sites to which Smashwords distributes, I’ve sold a total 23 copies of the two.

Sometimes I note a sale the day after I’ve spoken to someone about it. When I went to the state ASCE conference in Little Rock in October, I had dinner with an old friend, told him about it, and the next day had an e-sale. In November I mentioned something about it to someone (the circumstances escape me right now), and the next day I had an e-sale. It seems that, at this point at least, I have to sell each individual copy. I have not succeeded in creating a buzz for either work. 

But, I’ve been doing mainly passive promotion. By that I mean: notices on my Facebook page; posts on this blog; posts at the Ozark Writers League Facebook page; a notice to my alumni magazine; posts at Conservative Arkansas Facebook page; posting notices on a couple of writing forums; adding links to my signature for e-mail and forum posting. All things I can do without interacting with a person. It’s out there, waiting for someone to see it. The Facebook posts on other pages took a little chutzpah, but still I would consider that passive marketing. And, I’ll make sure I have a mention of the book and a link to where to find them in our Christmas letter. After all, it’s big news for the year. 

I believe I can safely assume that passive marketing won’t result in many book sales. If I really want to create a buzz for either of these works (though I’m clearly more interested in promoting the book than the short story) I’m going to have to move into active marketing. That will require me to contact real human beings, either in real life or on-line, and either ask them to buy a copy of my book or to help me promote it through an interview or a speaking engagement. I have three or four ideas on how to accomplish this active marketing. One is to research blogs that might want to promote the book. This would be political blogs (more conservative than liberal) and USA history blogs. Another is to contact local civic clubs—Kiwanis, Lions, Civitians, Rotarians, etc—and see if I could speak at them. That requires research, however, to find out who does the speaker scheduling and contact them. 

Today I did some of the research needed for active promotion. I did a search for history blogs and American history blogs. This provided a lot of links, many of which were to abandoned sites or blogs that really wouldn’t apply. In 20 minutes of searching I found one US history blog where the owner encouraged publishers to submit books for review on the blog. I don’t know how he feels about author published books, but I went ahead and e-mailed him, and am now waiting. I suppose next week I’ll begin the process of the civic clubs. 

All this is not comfortable to me. I was raised to not toot my own horn, to let others praise when justified. Now, I have to go out and shout, “Hey! My book is worth reading, worth $10.00 in dead-tree format and $1.25 in pixel format. Buy it, buy it, buy it. How well I do this, and for how long, will likely turn out to be the biggest test of my writing career. 

Stay tuned.

Church History Novels, Doctor Luke's Assistant, Documenting America, Short Stories, Writing

Stewardship of Writing Time

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Thanksgiving week was not expected to be a time to get much writing done, and I didn’t for the first part. Our daughter and son-in-law came in with the two grandsons (3 and 1) on Sunday evening, then left the kids with us as they went on to Eureka Springs for a couple of days at a resort, courtesy of their church for pastor appreciation. Watching these two little boys didn’t lend itself to writing.

And actually, for the week before they came I didn’t write much, as the house needed a good release from clutter and dust and accumulation of months of having no visitors.

But the kids left Friday after Thanksgiving, my mother-in-law left on Saturday, so the house turned quiet real fast. With leftovers galore, even food preparation time was greatly reduced. So I did find some things to write, and ways to futher my writing “business”. Here’s my status right now.

  1. Last night I finished reading Doctor Luke’s Assistant, and have marked 60 or so typos and that many other places to make a few improvements. My goal is to e-self-publish this as soon as I can get the edits done, format it for e-books, and have a cover made. I suspect it will be ready in January some time.
  2. The print books of Documenting America arrived! Yesterday I found them at the office. They probably came in on Monday, but I never went to the mail area. I took some to Centerton yesterday when I went there and sold two. Sold one at the office also. I only ordered 20 copies to start with.
  3. I began writing my next short story, “Too Old To Play”. This is the next one in the Danny Tompkins short story series. The first one, “Mom’s Letter,” is available as an e-book. I hope to get this one available as an e-book as well. Again, having a cover made will be the hold-up.
  4. I’m reading a book titled Creating Unforgettable Characters, part of my continuing study of the writing craft. This is a little older, from the 1990s. It makes frequent references to characters in TV shows I never watched, such as Murphy Brown, and movies I never saw such as The Rain Man. But it’s pretty good. I’m gaining some new insights into fictional character development, even if I don’t fully understand the illustrations given.
  5. This morning (I’m home sick, the last stages of recovering from a stomach bug that hit me yesterday morning) I set up my writing business accounting spreadsheet. I entered the print book sales, entered the Suite101 income, and set up the expense tab of the spreadsheet. Maybe I’ll be ready to prepare my Schedule C when tax time comes.
  6. I wrote an article for Buildipedia.com and submitted it on the deadline, Nov 28. This is the first of a Q&A column on construction administration. It’s experimental for the on-line magazine. I have contracts for two columns, and I guess they’ll decide on more and the frequency when they see how these first ones are received. Let’s hope it works. I’ll be paid about 40 cents per word, which isn’t chicken feed.
  7. I completed an article for Decoded Science, another on-line source of potential writing income. I have not yet uploaded the article, as I have to first write short and long writer bios and upload a photo. Maybe I can do that today, and upload the article tomorrow.
  8. Attended a meeting of BNC Writers. We were a small group, but did some good critiquing and planning. We may have one more meeting on Dec 5, then wait till 2012 to resume.

That’s about it. I have much to do with writing over the next two weeks. Our Christmas letter, edits on In Front of Fifty Thousand Screaming People, the second Buildipedia column, finishing the new short story, planning for marketing Documenting America. Enough to keep me busy.