Tag: author

Social Media Self-Promotion

April 25, 2021 / Gary / 1 Comment

If I were a superhero, with the ability to soar through the sky (bad knees, so nope), the strength of Hercules (going to physio for tennis elbow, so that’s out too), and a gift for precognition (never would have predicted this as one of my powers, tbh…), I’d – of course – have to have a tragic flaw. And I know exactly what it would be.

Gary’s Achille’s heel: self-promotion on social media.

Wait. No need to even be that specific. My weakness is social media, plain and simple.

Now, I’m not a troglodyte (I assert to myself regularly), but I am in that particular age bracket that straddles two eras: pre-social media and… well, social media.

I was in university when UNIX-based emailing was just beginning, and I was all over that like a cheap suit.

But after that, something… stalled.

My path, and the evolution of social media diverged.

Social Media – I Missed the Memo

MySpace came along in 2003 (I know, cuz I looked it up), then Facebook in 2006 (ditto). But I missed the boat. Actually, no – I never even knew there was a boat to begin with.

I only grew peripherally aware of the existence of these and other platforms as years went by. Had you asked me back then, “Gary, what’s this Facebook thing?” I’d have given you a belligerent stare, then stopped returning your telephone calls to my land line.

How Not to Be a Luddite

Perhaps not surprisingly, being a teacher of high school students has helped keep me ‘connected’ (I use that term very loosely) to our evolving virtual world. Via sometimes-confusing, peripheral indoctrination, I have managed to catch on to the ‘what’, if not entirely the ‘why’ of apps like Instagram, Snapchat, Vine, and most recently TikTok.

Choosing to become an author has also drawn me forward out of the Meghalayan Era. I force-fed myself WordPress a few years back, to create this website, and even ventured onto LinkedIn and Twitter, finally delving into Wix for my ghostwriting site.

Using Social Media Effectively

So that brings us to the present. I get social media now, I do. At least the ‘what’ and the ‘why’.

But the ‘how’? Ugh.

My first book (under a pseudonym) came out last week. Yay! What could I have done better throughout that process? The marketing. The self-promotion. The ‘how’ to use social media to forward my career.

And that’s where I am right now. I could be writing the next chapter of my current science-fiction manuscript right now. Instead, I’m fretting over how many times per day to tweet… not to mention what I should tweet about (seriously – who honestly cares what my thoughts are regarding the Florida woman hit by a flying turtle the other day??).

(for the record, I haven’t lost any sleep over it yet.)

I know I’m not the only one worrying about this stuff. Thank goodness for posts like this one from NY Book Editors. Social media self promotion doesn’t have to be a dirty word (phrase?), nor does it have to be that onerous.

So, take five minutes (and a deep breath) and do your requisite daily tweeting. Then get right back to the fun stuff (writing)! 😉

~CONSTRUCTION UPDATE~

My standing desk is here, as promised. If my books wrote themselves as easily as this desk built itself, I’d have a dozen published novels under my belt…!

In any case, here are the pics. Check my previous posts here and here that detail the evolution of my desk project.

Polyurethane coats on, and set up in my second-office (aka bedroom).

Motivation + Habit = Success at Writing!

September 12, 2018 / Gary / 0 Comments

I’ll start my 21st post with some (more) words of wisdom from author David Farland, whose #WritingTips I always look forward to in my inbox:

Motivation vs. Habit

On the door at my gym, someone hung a sign that says, “Motivation is what gets you started. Habit keeps you going.”

I began working out regularly over 20 years ago. Since then, I’ve dropped about 75 pounds, and I’ve run or walked something in neighborhood of 22,000 miles. I can’t even imagine how much I’ve lifted in weights. But think about it, if someone had said to me, “Hey, Dave, why don’t you go run 22,000 miles?” it would have taken an awful lot of motivation to get me going.

However, it only took a tiny bit of habit.

Writing is much the same way. A lot of us try hard to get motivated to write a novel. But writing a novel is a lengthy process. Being motivated doesn’t help much, but developing good writing habits helps a lot.

I learned long ago that exercise is hard when you’re starting out. If you run three days, you’ll want to quit at the end of them. That’s when muscle aches and fatigue are the strongest. But if you run for a week, you’ll begin to notice that you feel better on the days that you’ve run. Soon, the day won’t feel complete without some exercise.

Writing is much the same. Jumping into a project is hard. Working on a novel for one day doesn’t really get you very far into it. But if you try making it a habit—if you bundle all of that motivation up and say to yourself, “I’m going to write for one hour a day this week,” you’ll find at the end of the week that you just don’t really feel that your day is complete if you haven’t spent some time engaged in creative recreation.

With my writing workshops, I generally hold them for a week. I try to motivate my students to write daily during that time, if only for a couple of hours. The goal in part is to teach the writers and get them to develop new skills, but just as importantly, I’m trying to get them into the habit of writing.

Quite often it works. I’ve gotten many letters from writers where the writer has said, “Hey, Dave, I got into the habit of writing at your workshop last year, and I’ve just finished my first/second/third/fourth novel!” Whenever I see that, I always feel as if the mission has been accomplished.

So here’s the key to become a writer: Use your motivation to create a writing habit. Long after you have run out of motivation, you’ll still be writing.

As usual with David’s words of wisdom, I find myself unable to express those ideas any better than him.

Full admission: I’ve fallen out of the *habit* of writing fiction daily.

I have plenty of motivation – heaps and heaps of it!

…Translating that into a habit, though (as David describes) is very hard, especially when you let everything else in your life take precedence. For me, this includes the other side of my quest towards authorship: ghostwriting.

I had an epiphany about this time last year. It went something like this:

If I wanted to be a full-time writer (one who could feed himself, and his family), I’d need an alternate source of writing income. More specifically, it had to be something that I was already comfortable doing. I dallied in the realm of B2B (business-to-business) writing for a while, but realized that it induced ZERO passion for me. The switch to ghostwriting came about at the end of a course I took with Ed Gandia, who is one of the best-known B2B writers and coaches in the field. Ed got me in touch with Derek Lewis, the best-known writer in *his* field (business ghostwriting), and my goal of becoming a ghostwriter took off from there.

A year-in, and I feel like I’ve got a good amount of momentum going with my ghostwriting business (you can check it out at my other website, LiteraryGhost.com)… and now, it’s time to get back into the *habit* of writing fiction. Every Day. Even if it’s only a couple hundred words. 🙂

20th Post – getting re-engaged with writing in 2018

January 9, 2018 / Gary / 1 Comment

Hello, and Happy New Year!

Now, I’m not generally a fan of New Year’s Resolutions. However, I’ve been in a bit of a writing lull recently, and have been looking for a way to get my butt back into it. So what better way is there to get motivated than to find inspiration in other people’s New Year’s blogs!?

…but first:

Recap of Writing; Fall of 2017

Rejections, rejections, rejections. These little messages in my inbox are becoming quite normal now – in fact, part of me gets a little thrill when I read in the preview box: “Hello, thank you for letting us read your story. Unfortunately…”
CANCON 2017 in Ottawa. It was great to meet some local and international authors, and do some <ugh> networking. Looking forward to next year’s convention!
Working full-time. This is my excuse for not getting a lot of actual words written this fall. Thankfully, that will all change in February, when I’m back to part time! Yay! (well, it had better change, or Trevor will not be pleased with me…)
Getting started as a ghost writer… more to follow in a future post!

Ok – onto the motivational part:

Getting Back to Writing in 2018

Two author-bloggers that I follow have done all my work for me for this post.

C. Hope Clark – ready to get writing!

First, Funds for Writers blogger and author of the Edisto Island Mystery series, C. Hope Clark, talks in her New Year’s newsletter about taking a break over the holidays, then getting back into writing – 500 words per day, as a “benchmark minimum”.

Here’s what Hope has to say about January:

This time of year excites me. The whole clean slate sort of thing. In reality the days are no different, but there’s something rejuvenating at having a new chance at making a difference. . . at becoming better. . . at making longer and more productive strides toward a goal.

Read her full post here, and subscribe to her great free newsletter here.

Second, David Farland – renown author of the Runelords series – talks about how he hates the word ‘resolute’, but finds himself always making yearly resolutions. This year’s advice to others is to develop a new relationship with your computer. Here’s an excerpt of his #writing tips for the new year:

…many of your habits are subconscious. Some people teach themselves that the computer is for videogames, or it’s for checking email, or it’s for chatting on Facebook. So when they sit down to the keyboard, by force of habit they immediately begin playing.

But what if you trained yourself to make writing your habit? What if you tried something like this:

Close your eyes and think about something that excites you. Perhaps it’s the idea of getting your first novel published, or maybe it’s an award you’ve won, or just the joy that will come when you complete your novel. Think about it, and let the excitement build for 15 seconds.

Now, sit at your computer, open the file to your work in progress. Do not do anything else. Instead, open your WIP and write one paragraph.

When you’re done with that paragraph, get up from your computer and walk around the room for a moment, thinking about what you might want to do with your work in progress.

Repeat step 1, thinking about something that excites you, and letting the excitement sweep through you.

I like it! Read David’s full post here, and subscribe to his #writing tips by clicking his banner below!

Ok – with that advice in mind, it’s back to my keyboard for another 500 words today!

First Short Story Published in Kzine Issue 17!

February 1, 2017 / Gary / 2 Comments

Well, the day has arrived – my first official published story was released on January 28th 2017!

… albeit in Kindle-reader format 😉 (but hey – published is published!!!)

The 17th issue of KZINE – a British sci-fi / horror / fantasy / crime magazine created specifically for the mobile reader – features seven short stories, including my tale Flesh.

Flesh follows the story of an octogenarian in his final few days of life, trying in vain to leave his past behind him. Of course, there’s a nasty villain, a space station, a gun fight & a high-speed chase, and — just for good measure — a StarWars-esque fall down a bottomless shaft.

Anyways – I’m very excited, and seeing my name in (electronic) print has been a great boost to my recently lagged productivity at the keyboard. Nothing like some tangible success to get the muse tapping at the window again!

Please check out KZINE, and consider purchasing a copy of the current issue here or here. You won’t be disappointed!

Seven agents down… but how many to go?

September 16, 2015 / Gary / 0 Comments

I am on the other side of history!

It’s nothing at that significant, of course; what I mean is, I’m looking back at having started my agent search, having dreaded the whole process for literally years!

Up until Friday 11th September 2015, I hadn’t really told many people about my novel: my husband, a close friend, and a handful of people on critters.org, who have absolutely no idea who I was anyways. But now, I’ve sent my story out into the world, to professionals, who’s job it is to take seriously what I do in my spare time. Which just feels weird to me, since I’m not quite sure I’ve been taking it seriously yet.

It was a bit surreal, when I hit <send> on that first e-mail query. I couldn’t quite believe that I’d done it. This is getting serious, I realized, though. They’re going to laugh at me.

Oops.

Did I just think that?

They’re going to laugh at me?

Yeah. I did just think that. I can’t believe that I might actually make a living as a science fiction / fantasy writer. I can’t believe that I might, one day, be an author. That’s crazy talk. That’s just a dream. It’s just a joke.

…or is it?

Seven queries sent every two weeks, until further notice. That’s the goal. Let’s see if this dream can turn into… something much greater.

Tag: author

Motivation + Habit = Success at Writing!

Motivation vs. Habit