My Turn-ons include Napalm:
So I started trying to publish this on the Amazon Kindle for free, but apparently there is a long drawn out process that will require me to do all kinds of irritating things that still might not spur Amazon to price this short at zero. So for now the story will only be free on my blog and http://lorewriter.com/ . Hopefully one day I can complete this but for now my more enterprising readers will have to find a way to get my short on amazon without paying for it. I did turn off DRM on it and allow lending whenever possible. Please help spread the word and of course I appreciate you reading my work.
The short should be available in the next day or so here. The story has already been published on RW Herper's website at Lorewriter.com and you should feel free to check out the other works posted there.
Cell Phone Blues:
As I have discussed before with my new Android cell phone, I have run into a few issues. This is an account of what I have been able to figure out to make the phone more accessible to the nearly blind.
I found an app called Big Font which more or less makes the menu options legible for me. It doesn't really help with the icons in my app menu and doesn't do much of anything for my email and text messaging. I tried several SMS Messaging apps and most just caused my phone to blink at me with no real effect. I finally settled on the MySMS app which came with a dark theme in a seperate download which at least allows me to see who is sending me a text and I can more or less puzzle out what was said. There is a big font version as well but it isn't much bigger and the white background with black text is actually more difficult to read than the dark theme. This app also has the added benefit of allowing me to read and send texts from my computer where my adaptation software is a little more extensive. This doesn't help me in a pinch but for the ajority of time I receive texts while at home anyways.
I got stitcher up and running so now I can listen to podcasts on my phone which I have been enjoying. I haven't been able to get the Netflix app to actually work but chances are that the screen is too small for me anyway so I don't particularly care. I don't think I want to bother with the twitter or facebook apps because that might be too taxing on my eyes.
I was finally able to get all my contacts ported over to my new phone and have a app that makes that least a little bigger and I can call people largly on purpose.
That's all for now. The new short should be up in the next day or so. Thank you again for all your support.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Friday, March 23, 2012
Finally into the Blessed Darkness
Sleep, Wonderful Sleep!
So after a few false starts I was finally able to catch some z's and crashed hard after ingesting a ridiculous amount of pizza and the sheer grease of the deep dish pizza gave me the effect of an induced coma. This allowed my phone to charge completely.
Battles with the Transfix phone:
Email setup WIN
Google Wallet Setup WIN
Finding the back button on the phone WIN
Changing Font size DRAW more on that later.
Netflix installed DRAW
Stitcher installed DRAW
MLB.TV installed STILL ENGAGED
Messaging Font: STILL FORMING BATTLE LINES.
Setup Voicemail: STILL FORMING UP.
Moving and Creating Shortcuts for APPS: WIN
Netflix is giving me a confusing problem. I am installed and the account is connected but when I go to start a video it starts buffering and then just stops and doesn't give me an error and the screen doesn't flip longwise and I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm curious if the app is ready for the phone since it's brand new no matter that the Android Marketplace says it's compatible.
Font size has been my main concern and given me the most trouble because if I manage to fix that the rest of the problems will be minor for my low vision issues. I have downloaded Big Font which works after a fashion but manages to be completely unsatisfactory for my uses in general. It claims that it globally increases the fonts which is true but it doesn't really increase it enough to really be all that useful. It works really well on the text in the settings menu which is nice but it doesn't really do much for the text underneath icons and the such. I have done quite a bit of researchon apps that are supose to help with this sort of thing and it appears that I will have to root my phone to do what I need to see it. I'm really wary of doing something like this and I am afraid that I could be one fatfinger away from screwing up my phone.
I downloaded a weird little app that I think will be quite cool once I have thoroughly explore it. It's called Spare Parts and it has a number of little gismos that equate to adding a ton of options to the phone. It even has another app called "Font Size" built in that usually requires that you have your phone rooted. I thought that I had found a clever way to circumvent the whole rooting process and immediately dove into Font Size feeling quite full of myself. I cranked up the global font to XXL and the option seemed to take but when I got to the menu nothing happened. I thought Big Font might be giving a conflict so I turned it off. I tried again but Font Size still didn't work. I tried running it and then restarting the phone like I saw someone do in a youtube video but that didn't work either, so I am guessing that rooting is still necesary.
Stitcher is being a little irritating because I signed up but it is whining that my email isn't on fiile so I will have to investigate that nonsense sometime today.
I've downloaded MLB.TV and I am holding off on that for a bit since the baseball season doesn't actually start for the Texas Rangers until the 6th and I primarily just want to use the app for when I am away from home.
I got a text this morning from my "answer monkey" saying that my voicemail was broken which is probably true since I haven't set it up yet so I suppose that should receive some consideration moving forward.
I'm getting a little better with the slide out keyboard and doing my best to familiarize myself with it's function. I discovered that holding shift down was problematic and all you had to do was hitit once and it would shift the next thing you hit and then revert which is a good thing to know I guess.
The miracle of figuring out which symbol stood for the back button has really been helpful and I feel less of an idiot.
My poor powered magnifier has finally gotten a full charge and I am sure I will probably run it dry by the end of the day. Hopefully I can get some of these issues resolved.
Missions
Find a way to see my phone or organize it in such a way to render the issue mute.
Find a way to get my text messages in larger print by default. I believe this can be achieved by getting some SMS enlarger.
Find this magnifying glass I heard about even though I heard it was basically useless.
Figure out how to click a link from my email.
See if I can't change the wallpaper to something a little more blind friendly instead of a sea scape that is while beautiful, rather impractical.
Get my contacts imputed into my phone.
Learn to use the Voice imput options where possible to avoid screwing with the keyboard whenever possible.
Familiarize myself with all the gizmos I already have.
Well there it is. My battle report of a blind man with his first smartphone. Stay tuned for updates of how far off the rails I am getting from working on my stories.
So after a few false starts I was finally able to catch some z's and crashed hard after ingesting a ridiculous amount of pizza and the sheer grease of the deep dish pizza gave me the effect of an induced coma. This allowed my phone to charge completely.
Battles with the Transfix phone:
Email setup WIN
Google Wallet Setup WIN
Finding the back button on the phone WIN
Changing Font size DRAW more on that later.
Netflix installed DRAW
Stitcher installed DRAW
MLB.TV installed STILL ENGAGED
Messaging Font: STILL FORMING BATTLE LINES.
Setup Voicemail: STILL FORMING UP.
Moving and Creating Shortcuts for APPS: WIN
Netflix is giving me a confusing problem. I am installed and the account is connected but when I go to start a video it starts buffering and then just stops and doesn't give me an error and the screen doesn't flip longwise and I'm not sure what to do about it. I'm curious if the app is ready for the phone since it's brand new no matter that the Android Marketplace says it's compatible.
Font size has been my main concern and given me the most trouble because if I manage to fix that the rest of the problems will be minor for my low vision issues. I have downloaded Big Font which works after a fashion but manages to be completely unsatisfactory for my uses in general. It claims that it globally increases the fonts which is true but it doesn't really increase it enough to really be all that useful. It works really well on the text in the settings menu which is nice but it doesn't really do much for the text underneath icons and the such. I have done quite a bit of researchon apps that are supose to help with this sort of thing and it appears that I will have to root my phone to do what I need to see it. I'm really wary of doing something like this and I am afraid that I could be one fatfinger away from screwing up my phone.
I downloaded a weird little app that I think will be quite cool once I have thoroughly explore it. It's called Spare Parts and it has a number of little gismos that equate to adding a ton of options to the phone. It even has another app called "Font Size" built in that usually requires that you have your phone rooted. I thought that I had found a clever way to circumvent the whole rooting process and immediately dove into Font Size feeling quite full of myself. I cranked up the global font to XXL and the option seemed to take but when I got to the menu nothing happened. I thought Big Font might be giving a conflict so I turned it off. I tried again but Font Size still didn't work. I tried running it and then restarting the phone like I saw someone do in a youtube video but that didn't work either, so I am guessing that rooting is still necesary.
Stitcher is being a little irritating because I signed up but it is whining that my email isn't on fiile so I will have to investigate that nonsense sometime today.
I've downloaded MLB.TV and I am holding off on that for a bit since the baseball season doesn't actually start for the Texas Rangers until the 6th and I primarily just want to use the app for when I am away from home.
I got a text this morning from my "answer monkey" saying that my voicemail was broken which is probably true since I haven't set it up yet so I suppose that should receive some consideration moving forward.
I'm getting a little better with the slide out keyboard and doing my best to familiarize myself with it's function. I discovered that holding shift down was problematic and all you had to do was hitit once and it would shift the next thing you hit and then revert which is a good thing to know I guess.
The miracle of figuring out which symbol stood for the back button has really been helpful and I feel less of an idiot.
My poor powered magnifier has finally gotten a full charge and I am sure I will probably run it dry by the end of the day. Hopefully I can get some of these issues resolved.
Missions
Find a way to see my phone or organize it in such a way to render the issue mute.
Find a way to get my text messages in larger print by default. I believe this can be achieved by getting some SMS enlarger.
Find this magnifying glass I heard about even though I heard it was basically useless.
Figure out how to click a link from my email.
See if I can't change the wallpaper to something a little more blind friendly instead of a sea scape that is while beautiful, rather impractical.
Get my contacts imputed into my phone.
Learn to use the Voice imput options where possible to avoid screwing with the keyboard whenever possible.
Familiarize myself with all the gizmos I already have.
Well there it is. My battle report of a blind man with his first smartphone. Stay tuned for updates of how far off the rails I am getting from working on my stories.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
The technological woes of a blind man.
A word of warning. I have only had one hours sleep in the past two days and I am at my most insane. My visual impairment punishes me all the worse when I am in this state and my blind spot grows larger and my patience with it is pretty thin. That's probably why I am having the issue I have right now.
I have had the same piece of crap phone for five years. It was out of date when I got it and it hasn't aged well since. I was running around with a Samsung Sync on AT&T all this time and averaging about 100 minutes a month. Why this constituted 50 bucks a month after taxes and 200 message add on I have no idea. So the Sync was finally dying a slow agonizing death and causing me no end of troubles. I come from a line of people with vivid imaginations and when I called my mother and the mic in the phone decided to pop out for a smoke, I was left yelling into the phone while my mother asked if I was being dismembered because I wasn't speaking. Two phone calls and a restart later I was able to allay her fears but it was still a horrible conversation that annoyed me.
So I finally ran over to Cricket and picked up a Sansung Transfix and took my first plunge into the new smart phone revolution. My first issue is that I needed to pull down an app just so I could see the darn thing with its small fonts. The app I had researched didn't do very good and kept pushing me to grab another app which I found annoying and it took several goes before I finally figured out how to make the stupid thing work as intended instead of being a clicky billboard. That finished and with lackluster results I turned to other spects of the phone and was trying to get a handle on some of the options to make things easier for me. That's when issue two settled in.
I went to call my guru o technia only to find that the phone wouldn't let me call out. Two hours and a phone call alter I had somehow turned airplane mode on. Airplane Mode? My old hoopty just got a nice heathy stab to the power button when I got on a plane. So now I feel like an idiot and I still haven't figured out half of what I need to know just to operate the phone as well as I did the busted one.
I neglect to mention that I am trying to use a powered magnifying glass and holding it over the screen the entire time and it is contructed in such a way as to need to lie flat in order to be in focus. So I am dealing with a fuzzy UI and trying not to jab my own fingers on the keyboard and the touchscreen the whole time and my magnifier ran out of gogo juice before I really could make any more significant headway.
I go through this stuff all the time but when it is something as fundamental as a phone it can really be a pain. With my last phone, which was far less complicated as this one, it took me a while but I managed to be able to operate it and send texts without even looking at the screen or dial pad. I could read a text and start typing back with my phone in my pocket.
I think the most frustrating thing is that I keep fatfingering the display and I haven't figured out how to go back a menu. I somehow manage to do it eventually but haven't gotten the knack of it yet. It's really good times and since I am sleep deprived there is a great deal of grunting, high pitched whining, and chest beating. I was lucky I didn't need to go to the bathroom because I might have been willing to give aerial deification tricks a try. Lack of sleep and a visual impairment can really make you go mental and the best part of being stark raving mad is that you simply don't care. Thank goodness the house was empty tonight. If I had to ask for help I might have burned a few bridges and terrified children.
Feel free to laugh at my ppain and sorrow because I sure plan to, and then go right back to it tomorrow and see if a new psychosis presents itself and tips its cap. If I keep messing with this phone I doubt it could call before it came over.
I have had the same piece of crap phone for five years. It was out of date when I got it and it hasn't aged well since. I was running around with a Samsung Sync on AT&T all this time and averaging about 100 minutes a month. Why this constituted 50 bucks a month after taxes and 200 message add on I have no idea. So the Sync was finally dying a slow agonizing death and causing me no end of troubles. I come from a line of people with vivid imaginations and when I called my mother and the mic in the phone decided to pop out for a smoke, I was left yelling into the phone while my mother asked if I was being dismembered because I wasn't speaking. Two phone calls and a restart later I was able to allay her fears but it was still a horrible conversation that annoyed me.
So I finally ran over to Cricket and picked up a Sansung Transfix and took my first plunge into the new smart phone revolution. My first issue is that I needed to pull down an app just so I could see the darn thing with its small fonts. The app I had researched didn't do very good and kept pushing me to grab another app which I found annoying and it took several goes before I finally figured out how to make the stupid thing work as intended instead of being a clicky billboard. That finished and with lackluster results I turned to other spects of the phone and was trying to get a handle on some of the options to make things easier for me. That's when issue two settled in.
I went to call my guru o technia only to find that the phone wouldn't let me call out. Two hours and a phone call alter I had somehow turned airplane mode on. Airplane Mode? My old hoopty just got a nice heathy stab to the power button when I got on a plane. So now I feel like an idiot and I still haven't figured out half of what I need to know just to operate the phone as well as I did the busted one.
I neglect to mention that I am trying to use a powered magnifying glass and holding it over the screen the entire time and it is contructed in such a way as to need to lie flat in order to be in focus. So I am dealing with a fuzzy UI and trying not to jab my own fingers on the keyboard and the touchscreen the whole time and my magnifier ran out of gogo juice before I really could make any more significant headway.
I go through this stuff all the time but when it is something as fundamental as a phone it can really be a pain. With my last phone, which was far less complicated as this one, it took me a while but I managed to be able to operate it and send texts without even looking at the screen or dial pad. I could read a text and start typing back with my phone in my pocket.
I think the most frustrating thing is that I keep fatfingering the display and I haven't figured out how to go back a menu. I somehow manage to do it eventually but haven't gotten the knack of it yet. It's really good times and since I am sleep deprived there is a great deal of grunting, high pitched whining, and chest beating. I was lucky I didn't need to go to the bathroom because I might have been willing to give aerial deification tricks a try. Lack of sleep and a visual impairment can really make you go mental and the best part of being stark raving mad is that you simply don't care. Thank goodness the house was empty tonight. If I had to ask for help I might have burned a few bridges and terrified children.
Feel free to laugh at my ppain and sorrow because I sure plan to, and then go right back to it tomorrow and see if a new psychosis presents itself and tips its cap. If I keep messing with this phone I doubt it could call before it came over.
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
A Change of Pace
I always wondered when I started writing "Prey for Vengeance" if I would be the kind of writer that just had the one series and that was it. Some of my favorite writers were this way and I didn't think there would be any shame in it if the books took off. Even when I resolve the main objectives of Nina Suoh it would be very easy for me to call forth a range of tasks for her to indulge in.
I have found however that I am increasingly abrraged with new ideas and more genre specific work that I would love to tackle once I iron out how to do a first prospective style that doesn't make me scream every time I read back over it. I spent so much time with my quick shots of multiple prospectives that when I am writing a first person narative I use far to many "I's" and it reads like I am telling the story instead of letting the reader experience it. It feels really weird being transported back to when I started my first novel and having to relearn and redefine my style all over again. I thought writing a first person would have been easier since I have been a ravenous reader most of my life and by and large, most of the books I read are first person.
The idea and creative aspects of storytelling have always come rather easy to me and even when I am doing my best to follow an outline I am able to work within the framework with a little spontaneous scenes that enhance the scene. The true struggle is keeping the technical bits down and making things read smoothly or deciphering when I have the descriptive writing down properly. I have a hard time meeting in the middle on that point and either go to far or not far enough and it sometimes creates confusion when there is a lack and when there is too much I get bored and hate editing it down.
When working to write the second novel for "Prey for Vengeance" I had very few issues with this. I banged out the entire first draft in November during National Novel Writing Month. Going through the second draft has actually been a pleasure and quite easy to edit with only a couple glaring continuity errors that are easy to fix and a few issues with details surrounding a few scenes. The overall structure is fine and requires little editing.
Since I have started on a couple different High fantasy projects, I have spent my time trying to frame the scope of the story. So many fantasy novels put the main character at odds with an unspeakable evil that palgues the land I wanted to do a snall snapshot of a particular character given an unusual task or a more personal ambition that effects just those he encounters. Doing this helps me thumb my nose at cliche and tell a more personal story. The problem I am having is that high fantasy needs lots of detail when it comes to dress, customs, architecture, plants and animal, and well, just about bloody everything. I want to tell a concise story in a genre that punishes you for it. I stand determined though and who knows what the word count will be when all is said and done.
I am still working on Prey book 2 and should have the revisions done soon and I only have to wait on my editor to see how his class schedule effects his free time. Steve Griffing, my illustrator, is working deggedly on the cover and I hope to have a title for him soon. I have a few short stories in the wings that I need to work on and my big side project "Digital Divine Intervention" will probably be my main project once Prey book 2 is out for purchase.
DDI is going to take far more research and more changes than I previously though mainly due to the first person native and because I just want to clean up the dialogue a bit in places and I am not quite happy with the antagonist and some of the religious philosophy yet. When its done I hope to have a personal tale with some thoughtful touches and its one of those projectss that might be a life's work. I'm not sure I will ever be truly satisfied with it since I do my best to transplant myself into the character and tell a story as if I was living it. It's a far cry from the character I write now that were slapped together pieces of people I knew thrown together into a series of Frankenstein monsters.
This project also keeps warping on me. I've never gone off outline more than this and the story keeps twisting and turning and when I closed in on the finish the ending didn't sound as clever as I thought. I can work on the begining and middle bits just fine but the ending is going to take some serious soul searching. It's hard to think about what would break me and push me over the edge or even put myself in a great deal of power which the character in this story does despite his wishes.
And now for something completely different,
The promotion is over and I am rather pleased with how many people picked up my book "Prey for Vengeance" for free. I'd love to receive some more feedback from random strangers. I got a text from an old friend that I used to online game with quite a bit. He told me he purchased the book when I called him and said that he couldn't put it down and even when he was working on the line he kept pulling out his phone to sneak a few sentences.
The crazy bastard works in a steel mill and catches glowing hot rods of molten steel for a living and he was doing something quite dangerous to read a sentence or to and I would be hard pressed to find a better compliment.
I'm hoping to figure out a way to get some ads going on Google Adsense soon and should be receiving my Press release around the end of the month. In a week or so my short "My Turn ons Include Naplam" should be going up on the Amazon Kindle. I'll start digging through the internet for blogs and podcasts to send the press release with a prmo copy of the book and hopefully get a little alternative press. If you are a shot caller on such a site and would like to interview me please send the request to thischrisdodson.blogspot.com and I shall answer directly.
Thank you to all of you that has read my book and made the effort of giving feedback. It's a big world out there on the internet with millions clambering for your attention and I appreciate hearing an answer when I am shouting into the void.
I have found however that I am increasingly abrraged with new ideas and more genre specific work that I would love to tackle once I iron out how to do a first prospective style that doesn't make me scream every time I read back over it. I spent so much time with my quick shots of multiple prospectives that when I am writing a first person narative I use far to many "I's" and it reads like I am telling the story instead of letting the reader experience it. It feels really weird being transported back to when I started my first novel and having to relearn and redefine my style all over again. I thought writing a first person would have been easier since I have been a ravenous reader most of my life and by and large, most of the books I read are first person.
The idea and creative aspects of storytelling have always come rather easy to me and even when I am doing my best to follow an outline I am able to work within the framework with a little spontaneous scenes that enhance the scene. The true struggle is keeping the technical bits down and making things read smoothly or deciphering when I have the descriptive writing down properly. I have a hard time meeting in the middle on that point and either go to far or not far enough and it sometimes creates confusion when there is a lack and when there is too much I get bored and hate editing it down.
When working to write the second novel for "Prey for Vengeance" I had very few issues with this. I banged out the entire first draft in November during National Novel Writing Month. Going through the second draft has actually been a pleasure and quite easy to edit with only a couple glaring continuity errors that are easy to fix and a few issues with details surrounding a few scenes. The overall structure is fine and requires little editing.
Since I have started on a couple different High fantasy projects, I have spent my time trying to frame the scope of the story. So many fantasy novels put the main character at odds with an unspeakable evil that palgues the land I wanted to do a snall snapshot of a particular character given an unusual task or a more personal ambition that effects just those he encounters. Doing this helps me thumb my nose at cliche and tell a more personal story. The problem I am having is that high fantasy needs lots of detail when it comes to dress, customs, architecture, plants and animal, and well, just about bloody everything. I want to tell a concise story in a genre that punishes you for it. I stand determined though and who knows what the word count will be when all is said and done.
I am still working on Prey book 2 and should have the revisions done soon and I only have to wait on my editor to see how his class schedule effects his free time. Steve Griffing, my illustrator, is working deggedly on the cover and I hope to have a title for him soon. I have a few short stories in the wings that I need to work on and my big side project "Digital Divine Intervention" will probably be my main project once Prey book 2 is out for purchase.
DDI is going to take far more research and more changes than I previously though mainly due to the first person native and because I just want to clean up the dialogue a bit in places and I am not quite happy with the antagonist and some of the religious philosophy yet. When its done I hope to have a personal tale with some thoughtful touches and its one of those projectss that might be a life's work. I'm not sure I will ever be truly satisfied with it since I do my best to transplant myself into the character and tell a story as if I was living it. It's a far cry from the character I write now that were slapped together pieces of people I knew thrown together into a series of Frankenstein monsters.
This project also keeps warping on me. I've never gone off outline more than this and the story keeps twisting and turning and when I closed in on the finish the ending didn't sound as clever as I thought. I can work on the begining and middle bits just fine but the ending is going to take some serious soul searching. It's hard to think about what would break me and push me over the edge or even put myself in a great deal of power which the character in this story does despite his wishes.
And now for something completely different,
The promotion is over and I am rather pleased with how many people picked up my book "Prey for Vengeance" for free. I'd love to receive some more feedback from random strangers. I got a text from an old friend that I used to online game with quite a bit. He told me he purchased the book when I called him and said that he couldn't put it down and even when he was working on the line he kept pulling out his phone to sneak a few sentences.
The crazy bastard works in a steel mill and catches glowing hot rods of molten steel for a living and he was doing something quite dangerous to read a sentence or to and I would be hard pressed to find a better compliment.
I'm hoping to figure out a way to get some ads going on Google Adsense soon and should be receiving my Press release around the end of the month. In a week or so my short "My Turn ons Include Naplam" should be going up on the Amazon Kindle. I'll start digging through the internet for blogs and podcasts to send the press release with a prmo copy of the book and hopefully get a little alternative press. If you are a shot caller on such a site and would like to interview me please send the request to thischrisdodson.blogspot.com and I shall answer directly.
Thank you to all of you that has read my book and made the effort of giving feedback. It's a big world out there on the internet with millions clambering for your attention and I appreciate hearing an answer when I am shouting into the void.
Saturday, March 17, 2012
Let the Amateur Marketing Commence
Well it's been a little more than a month since I released by debut novel and I have learned a lot. For one thin, you can't expect people to find your work just because it exists. I suppose I already knew that but there is always the suspicion that you will get discovered and win the lottery no matter how stupid you know your being. In the past month I have done a ton of marketing research and come to a few realizations.
One thing that I heard from the "Writing Excuses Podcast" was that you can't expect to have a following after one novel or even a few. One of the hosts himself came from a self publishing background and gave away his material for free for six years prior making his living through writing. I also have read many author's blogs I found through Twitter asserting the same thing.
In response to this I used the Promotion available through the Kindle Direct Publishing tool and put my book out for free for five days. There are still a few days left but I am already happy with how many people have grabbed the book. Hopefully I can get some feedback out of it and get some recognition when I come out with more stuff.
I'm gearing up to do some paid advertising soon and my hopes are high but my expectations are cynical. There's seems to be a theme going on with being a first time writer, one of discovery and trepidation.
Soon I should have my short story "My Turn ons Include Napalm" up for free on the Amazon Kindle and hopefully it can drive sales as well.
Lastly is that credibility seems to come with the more works you put out there so I need to keep my nose to the grindstone and keep plugging away on the material I am working on.
I thank those that have helped me along. The list keeps growing and I appreciate all the wise words and selfless actions.
One thing that I heard from the "Writing Excuses Podcast" was that you can't expect to have a following after one novel or even a few. One of the hosts himself came from a self publishing background and gave away his material for free for six years prior making his living through writing. I also have read many author's blogs I found through Twitter asserting the same thing.
In response to this I used the Promotion available through the Kindle Direct Publishing tool and put my book out for free for five days. There are still a few days left but I am already happy with how many people have grabbed the book. Hopefully I can get some feedback out of it and get some recognition when I come out with more stuff.
I'm gearing up to do some paid advertising soon and my hopes are high but my expectations are cynical. There's seems to be a theme going on with being a first time writer, one of discovery and trepidation.
Soon I should have my short story "My Turn ons Include Napalm" up for free on the Amazon Kindle and hopefully it can drive sales as well.
Lastly is that credibility seems to come with the more works you put out there so I need to keep my nose to the grindstone and keep plugging away on the material I am working on.
I thank those that have helped me along. The list keeps growing and I appreciate all the wise words and selfless actions.
Tuesday, March 13, 2012
"Prey for Vengeance" for FREE!
It's time for A Consumer's Vengeance!
Pick up "Prey for Vengeance" staring March 14th for free. This promotion will last until March 19th. Get your chance to pick up my debut novel for free and check out my new short story "My Turn-ons Include Napalm" on http://lorewriter.com also for free.
Take advantage of your opportunity to see all my published works without any investment. Please leave comments and feedback and tell me what you think.
Pick up "Prey for Vengeance" staring March 14th for free. This promotion will last until March 19th. Get your chance to pick up my debut novel for free and check out my new short story "My Turn-ons Include Napalm" on http://lorewriter.com also for free.
Take advantage of your opportunity to see all my published works without any investment. Please leave comments and feedback and tell me what you think.
The Short story is up!
My short story "My Turn-ons Include Napalm" is now available at http://lorewriter.com .
The story takes place a little after the novel "Prey for Vengeance" ends, but it works well as a stand alone story as well. I tried to be sneaky as I refer to events from the novel but without actually giving details as to what happens so it doesn't ruin the novel for you. Check it out and let me know what you think.
The story takes place a little after the novel "Prey for Vengeance" ends, but it works well as a stand alone story as well. I tried to be sneaky as I refer to events from the novel but without actually giving details as to what happens so it doesn't ruin the novel for you. Check it out and let me know what you think.
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