Can Your Book Marketing Be Detrimental?

author marketing_bubbleIn a world where purchasers often need to see a product as many as twenty times before they decide to purchase it, is there anything an author can do, in terms of marketing, that is bad for their book?

I pose the question, even though I don’t entirely have an answer. I am leaning toward yes, but first let me tell you why I posed the question. An author I know told me something they were planning to do to market their book. I thought it was the stupidest thing I’d ever heard. (And, NO, I won’t tell you what it was.) While I can be fairly blunt, I’m not blunt enough to blurt out that I think an idea is completely idiotic. I did, however, ask, “Do you really think that will be effective?”

The author’s response. “Can’t hurt, can it?” Continue reading “Can Your Book Marketing Be Detrimental?”

Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: Writing Tense Confusion

Writing tenses and terms The_Prague_Astronomical_Clock_in_Old_Town_-_8562
© Jorge Royan / http://www.royan.com.ar / CC BY-SA 3.0

Every now and then, when I’m reading, I’ll run across something that makes me go, “Huh?” I’m not talking about the sort of full-on assault perpetrated by authors who don’t think spelling, punctuation, and grammar matter at all. I’m talking about the sort of thing that makes my head wobble a little bit as I frown and say, “Hmm. That doesn’t sound right to me.”

Take, for example, the use of yesterday, today, and tomorrow in fiction. Sometimes they just don’t sit right with me. And it’s always when the narrator of the piece – first person or third, doesn’t matter – is telling about something that occurred in the past. Continue reading “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: Writing Tense Confusion”

Typos in My Manuscript — Betrayed by My Own Body

Cheeto, the typing chimpIt’s really nice to have support when I write. My entire body supports me. My spine keeps me upright in my chair. My butt anchors me there (sometimes too long), and of course my hands and eyes connect me to my computer via the keyboard, mouse, and monitor. Obviously, I could not write without the aid of my body, but sometimes it takes that support too far and ends up causing me trouble with typos. How so?

Fast typingFirst it’s my fingers. They’re very helpful. I should provide a little backstory and say that I learned to touch type in high school — home row, QWERTY, and all that. I never have to look at the keyboard to type, just keep my eyes trained on the screen and go. Because of that, I type fast, and my fingers know whole words after so much repetition. I rarely have to think about typing H-E-A-D, I just think about head and my fingers do the rest. Continue reading “Typos in My Manuscript — Betrayed by My Own Body”

Indie Book Blunders: A Reader’s Moment of Doubt

quotes by famous authors about bad booksI need convincing. I need convincing that it’s worth my while continuing to read books by independent authors.

Before you start shouting, ‘Defector, defector’, hear me out, please.

My Kindle has been one of my favourite purchases (I pretty much take my Kindle everywhere). It’s up there with my ice-cream maker (seriously, home-made ice cream is to die for, seriously), my MX5 (oh, I’m so in love with my car) and my latest bicycle (yes, I’m the female version of a MAMIL).

My first task upon receipt of my beloved Kindle was to download books onto it. Where to look? Amazon, of course, but via Facebook friends, I found some interesting book groups: groups frequented by independent authors, who, I discovered, were keen to give readers free copies of books in return for an honest review. Excellent! It wasn’t the free books that attracted me, I hasten to add (by this time I had, in fact, gone slightly beserk on Amazon, and my bill that first month of Kindle ownership was a bit…ahem…and caused raised eyebrows and dropped jaws on Mr S) but avenues leading to a source of potentially good books. Continue reading “Indie Book Blunders: A Reader’s Moment of Doubt”