But Where Are the Readers?

After publishing, the real hard work begins. Post a link to your newly published book and you’ll get the obligatory responses and purchases from select friends and family. But there are well over three million books in publication, ready to be purchased or downloaded at any given time. What makes yours stand apart?

Of course you’ll need a social media presence, but be ready. Despite social media interaction, which may devour hours of the day, you may receive one or two, Hey wanna book swaps? Great to at least get ratings, maybe readings, perhaps a solid review, but those are few and far in between. Not to mention you are either buying their book or buying yours and gifting it to them. I’ve had sales off FB and Twitter, and lots of to be reads off Goodreads. Most of those well intentions come from other authors looking for reciprocity.

Where do you get the readers? The following? Some companies offer marketing. I have tried several and gained several new authors as followers. But where are the readers? Your best bet is book bloggers, but good luck getting on their reading list any time soon. The good bloggers are backed up at least nine months. I have tried independent small marketing firms, mostly because I like to support the Mom & Pops out there. However, I have been burned by a few of those and recently disputed a fee through PayPal for one such company claiming they will publicize my book to over 15,000 readers on their blog and even more across social media for $14.99/month. I paid and never heard from them again.

Being listed as a writer on Facebook, I quickly realized that I am now targeted for sponsored ads relating to writing, editing, publishing, and anything interconnected to the industry. I look through the ads, do my research, read the comments, look for reviews and find that most authors are greatly displeased with these services. After all, they can only guarantee exposure not sales. Writers have been targeted by pop-up companies and services in mass this year. Authors are a consumer targeted group.

Then there are free books. Many authors boast, and rightfully so, about giving away 10,000 books on a KDP free day. It’s all for exposure and the cost (but no profit) of gaining exposure. And somehow, and this is just me, I feel like the adage: Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? I know those readers too. Many only look for free books and will not BUY anything indie. Many readers download free books from unknowns and don’t read them (bless the ones that do AND leave reviews…they are few). One friend shows me her Kindle with hundreds of free downloads, but she admits to rarely reading them, and often erases them to free up memory to download new free books. I ask why she downloads them and she proudly says, “I really do have good intentions.”

Writers beware! You will pour your heart and soul into birthing characters, plot, and story line. Some writers have only a family following. Some have a very small dedicated following. The greater majority sell under twenty books. This is in no way meant to be a downer but an insight into a whole new world that will take your hope and dreams and make you work harder than you ever thought possible. Many writers give-up, because marketing can consume your day, which in turn means you aren’t writing, which causes a bit of writer depression. There is a vicious cycle that consumes even the brightest of eyes. Those that succeed do so by sticking with their talents: write, publish, market, repeat. As Tom Hanks said in a League of Their Own, “If it wasn’t hard everyone would do it. The hard is  what makes it great.”

The best advice I have come across to date to sell more books is: WRITE MORE BOOKS.

If you have any great advise for indie authors or have a service you’d like reviewed, leave a comment below.

Tania L Ramos RN BSN

Follow me on TWITTER and FACEBOOK or visit my WEBSITE

I Didn’t Think I Would, But I Did

So many people kept telling me how amazing the FX television show American Horror Story was. I wasn’t convinced and managed to never watch one episode. Besides, there isn’t much quality programming on television anymore, so I gave up watching several years ago, and began delving deeper into reading … and daydreaming (an occupational hazard).

While perusing through my Netflix one day, I saw that American Horror Story was now available to watch. It took a few months before I finally succumbed to my peeked curiosity.  The first episode (pilot episode) ruined it for me, because most of it came off as more of a soft-porn program than anything else.  There were three scenes which all made me think, “What does this have to do with anything?” And though the sex through infidelity is crucial to the plot, it seemed over played and more of ploy to add in the “sex sells” element.

I didn’t watch anything beyond that for a while. The following week, I gave the second episode a go, because someone at work said it gets better.  Since I have told that to several readers about my book, I felt it was only fair to watch the next episode. Whew, only one strange sex scene. Very strange.  But I wasn’t sold, and didn’t feel compelled to go on with the series.

The same nurse asked what I thought and I gave my opinion. She said I really had to watch the entire series to really get it. I rolled my eyes and said, I’ll watch the next episode, but if it sucks, I’m out! The third episode was decidedly better, and the cheesy sex scenes were omitted.  After the third I had to watch the fourth until I was sucked into the story line.

12 episodes later I was pleasantly surprised with the story and how it unfolded. I thought to myself, “That is how stories need to be written (minus the unnecessary smut).  Draw you in, hook you, twist the plot, and make you say, ‘I never saw that coming.’ ”

Would I recommend the series? Maybe. If you like gore and a good plot then yes. If gore isn’t your thing then absolutely not. But based on the factor of how everything tied in together, how it twisted and left the viewer in suspense, how the character’s developed over the series, it might be good viewing just for reference into plot building and characterization. I give the series 3 out 5 stars, but did learn a lot on how to plan for a book with twists and turns.

American Horror Story is an FX series.

Tania L Ramos

Influences We Are

I try and write on a daily basis, but this last week has been about as crazy as any. Then I did an iOS update to the iPad which wiped out four chapters of my scifi book. I didn’t complain, I put it on my things to panic over right after a crappy paycheck because I was sick and missed 24 hrs of work, after burst a pool pipe, after a car accident, but before unpaid bills.  See the priorities there?

The person who did have the biggest fit I have ever seen was my daughter who uses my writer pad app to jot down words.  I was unaware of her “future” book she had saved on there.  The kid is five yrs old  mind you.  So she told me (demanded?) that I sit at the computer to write her story again.

So I sat down and wrote it out for her verbatim.  I must say this: The kid is talented. Not only can she draw like a champ, but the kid has serious imagination. And not only does she have a creepy imagination (I’m so proud), but she gave her story a beginning, middle, climax, and cliffhanger end. She left it open for the “part two,” in her own words. Then she says, “Now put it on the internet and tell me my level (rank).”

Tear.

JORJA’S STORY: The Monster in the Window (copyright 2013, reproduced with permission from the author. yeah, I did ask.)

There were two kids, a boy and a girl, brother and sister. His name is River and her name is Jorja.  They were sleeping and it was dark, so they didn’t see the monster come into the window.  River heard a noise and woke-up his sister and they ran out of the house. Far away from the monster.  They got lost in the woods and cried, but they had each other so they were okay and ate berries.

Years later the mom, her name was Tania was had another kid.  When he turned 9 years-old, she tied him to the bed. He cried because he did not want to be tied to the bed, but she told him, “I am keeping you safe from the monster so he won’t take you.”

“What monster,” he said.

“The one that took your first brother and sister,” she said.

He told her to let him have one more day without being tied up, so she let him. That night he ran away to find his brother and sister.  He found them in the woods and they were still little kids.  The three of them found the monster and vanquished him [yeah, her word not mine]. They went back home to their mommy and she was crying.

“Don’t be sad,” River said.  “We are now home.”

She gave them a big hug, but she thought she saw a shadow moving outside the window.

****************************************************************

That was my daughter’s story. It was all her and those were her words.  Despite the fact that she used a little author intrusion, I think it was brilliant.  I told her I would publish it to my blog and she could follow her rank here. 😉

Jorja’s 1st attempt at art (age 5)

The moral of the bigger picture is this: Influences we are! What are you teaching those that watch you even when you think they are watching Spongebob?

 

 

 

 

 

Tania L Ramos

Facebook.com/TaniaLRAmosbooks

Getting to the Point

Fifteen chapters in to my latest book, and I feel like I am on a major role here.  Except at chapter fifteen of my last book, I was rapidly reaching a major turning point and all signs pointed toward approaching the climax.  In this book, I feel I am still searching for the turning point.

Are there differences? I suppose there are. In Be Still the chapters were longer, whereas in this untitled book, the chapters are relatively short.  I also started Be Still with a major catastrophe, so the story started on a sort of climax then hit major lows followed by highs.  In the new novel, it starts with a razor blade, very dark and progresses at a slower pace. I also have to contend with a bit more of a back story  in this new book.

I know it’s not just me, because I’ve read so many other blogs and spoken with many other authors, but to me writing the first chapters is like listening to a long-winded friend set up the scene to an even longer story.  I just want to shout, “Get to the point already!” Which is exactly how I feel writing this story.  I want to get to the climax already. I’m so excited to get to the point and tell this.

This is the point where I get frustrated, it seems.  That pinnacle point of building up the story and the characters.  The work load and brunt of story telling.  But it’s also the point where I have to make the story compelling so readers need to know more.  Still, I can’t wait for the big crash of the orchestra drums to mount as I finally let the characters explode in their momentous (and devious) twist of the plot, so readers say, “I didn’t see that coming.” And I finally have my readers captive to the slippery slope of the next twist, and I stand high on my tower of books and let out a maniacal, “muahahahaha.”

Tania L Ramos

Cherishing the Tangled Webs I Weave

Every now and then this happens, and really hate when it does.  I call it writer’s ADD.  It’s that time when in the middle of writing one book another idea embeds itself into my mind.  It doesn’t always happen while I am writing, today it occurred during my drive home from work (I decided not to spend the entire day at work by the way, so I can come home to my beautiful daughter).  So there I was sitting on the horrible intersection at Hesperia Rd and whatever intersects Victor Valley Community Hospital, at a four way intersection.  This is one of those busy interections with a four way stop, and inevitably all four cars come to the stop at the same time, so nobody knows who goes first, and you end up sitting there for five hundred hours doing the stop and go thing…same as all the other cars.  I usually put my hand over eyes so people know I’m not going into the intersection, though I feel that some people think I’m just being so defensive that they think I am going to be that kamikaze driver who pulls through with her eyes closed, thusly making all other motorists stop.  It’s a brave idea, but far too brave for me.

What’s the point of my four point intersection story? The point is that in the middle of my internal dialogue between characters on the story I am working on, and while hiding behind my hands at the intersection, this new Hunter Hays song started playing on my satellite radio and in the middle of the hustle and bustle the characters arguing in my head fell into an entirely different story line.  I don’t even know how it happened, but they were, falling into some new sorted plot about people who can’t live without each other.  Now, I think it had to do with the words of the song, mainly, but when I started developing the plot further I thought, “Wow! Very uniquely Benjamin Button.” Of course it has nothing to do with, “The Curious CAse of Benjamin Button,” but it did have that oddly, “what if,” type of feel.  Not quite science fiction, not quite general fiction but some beautiful medley of the impossible being met with a, “perhaps.”  Okay, so it is very difficult explain, but something worth taking a gander at.

Now this why I have taken years to finish a book.  because in the middle of one novel idea comes something even more grandiose and wonderful, which makes me want to ditch my current project to take on the better idea.  The current idea. the fresh and inspiring idea.  Darn you creatively ADD mind for finding inspiration in even the smallest of things, like an intersection with some country song playing on the radio.  So, what I have to do is come home and type the idea in a  very skeletoned state just so I remember the premise of the idea, so I can get back to it.  Except these characters seem to have very alpha personalities and are quickly out shining my current, amazing characters.  What a tangled web my mind weaves.  I mean if my thoughts were spider webs, my mind would look like Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion complete with spider webs, cob webs, and dust bunnies, not to mention strange voices erupting from dark places.  Its all so very macbre and Hitchcock-ish…but I do cherish every sinister moment of the tangled webs.