Tag: Writing

Who Knew?

Author Carolyn Steele

Writing a decent book takes work apparently, I’m gobsmacked. No, really. I mean, you go off for a couple of years Having Adventures, you blog about it as you go, then you tack the blog posts together and call it a book…that should be enough, right?

Then, when you send the book to your favourite editor he writes back, “This is just a series of events.” Well, duh, that’s what I wrote, it’s what happened. He goes on to tell me stuff that should only apply to fiction writers, and moreover, the sort of fiction writers who haven’t read Lin’s Breaking the Rules series. “People like to read about conflict and resolution, you need some more structure and direction and a lot more internal motivation. This has to be about your psychological journey.” Continue reading “Who Knew?”

Entertainment to suit the age

Entertainment to suit the age

We seem to live in a sensationalist age, when things come to our notice only when they have become famous… or notorious. Celebrity-watching is super popular, and books seem to become instantly famous if they contain some controversy that brings them to the notice of the reporting and investigative media, more than literary critics or literary supplements.

Why is this? What is happening really? Are people losing interest in themselves in favour of celebrities? Are books becoming mere channels for discussion and debate? Perhaps this is simply a fashion or fad. It certainly has been going on for some time. There is a morbid interest among the general public for things that contain some sort of controversy. Continue reading “Entertainment to suit the age”

A Matter of Perspective

Lonely?

Writer.

 

That word looks so lonely. Every author has heard the proverbial, “Writing is the loneliest profession.”

Really.

We spend countless hours in front of the keyboard, with our imaginary and sometimes not so imaginary friends.

Think about it, if you write 750 words per hour (a decent clip, about what I average when I’m rolling) that means in the best case scenario, that’s 133 hours for a 100,000 word novel. In other words if you wrote for a solid five hours per day, it would work out to roughly 27 days—month and a week if you believe in weekends. Continue reading “A Matter of Perspective”

Branded by J.L. Murray

Author J. L. Murray

In my travels in the last year as an indie writer, I’ve learned a thing or two about selling my books. I’ve also learned what not to do. What to do and what not to do are what you always hear bloggers and writers screaming from the rooftops. It’s mostly people getting their panties in a bunch about spamming and establishing your brand. After a while, it makes your ears bleed, you hear it so many times. Spamming I get. It’s annoying. People don’t like to have their nose rubbed in your book. But branding? It just sounds painful and unnecessary to me. Like professional wrestling. Or dating Donald Trump.

No matter how many times I hear it, building a brand sounds more and more like a race car driver, plastering Pepsi and Conoco stickers all over his car and his person. This is what I think of when people talk about brands. Like writers are walking around with stickers all over their nobbly sweaters reading Paranormal Romance and Rock and Roll Horror Fiction and Zombie Erotica. Which makes me think that maybe the so-called gurus that tell us what do do may not have it right. What if these people telling you what to do are (gasp!) wrong? That would mean, of course, that I’m probably wrong, but if you’re familiar with my brand, that might not surprise you.

Maybe, just maybe, we should worry less about the brand and more about the writing. Continue reading “Branded by J.L. Murray“