A Starting Snapshot

Social Channel Marketing
Now that I've had a month to think about everything I learned from the Write On The Sound writers' conference in Edmonds, I've been slowly formulating the approach that I'm wanting to take as a writer.  The market is undergoing significant changes.  Traditional print media is rapidly being supplemented by eBooks and online content.  Along with that, the use of social media marketing is having a huge impact.  So, I've been examining the approach that I want to take.

Thus far, I've been able to stay away from Facebook.  While I know a lot of people have used FB for their promotions and marketing, I still hesitate to go there.  Instead, I'm going to continue with the blogging and use Twitter & Google Plus as my channels for marketing my writing.  Since I'm still in the infancy of my transition to fiction, I felt this would be a good time to do a snapshot of impact.  Thus far, here are my current statistics:

Klout Score : 37  (A bit better than my initial starting score of 20)
TT.com Page Loads for Oct. : 640  (Mostly from searches for ERD. Guess a lot of folks need that.)
Twitter Followers : 67 (Just starting to focus on this.)
G+ Peeps that have me in their circles : 82

Almost embarrassing!  Well, it has been 6 years since my last book was published and I'm focusing on fiction as a new market.  I guess these types of stats are to be expected when I'm just starting in a new market.  Since all of my published work has been in the non-fiction technical field, I'm sure there's confusion about my intended audience as well.  I don't know if this will ever change.  I'm a geek in the computer industry who also happens to write science fiction.  I figure if Wil Wheaton can find success as a techno geek/writer/actor then maybe there's some hope for me as a writer. ;)

Goal Setting
Another thing that WOTS impressed upon me was the need to set some goals.  Being a writer is not just about writing.  People have to be able to read what is being written.  That means finding a channel for my writing, getting the word out, and making sure that my writing is of high quality.  With these in mind, I've set my current goals as:

1. Expand my audience via social media marketing (Twitter, Google Plus, Blogger, Word of Mouth).
2. Write more!
3. Find an editor to work with.
4. Write more!
5. Find a graphics artist for quality cover art.
6. Write some more! 
7. Track my ideas.
8. Sample/publish some writing.
9. Publish

Now these are not necessarily in any specific order.  Some do have to occur before others.  But, I can work on many of these at the same time.

Ideas?
Do I have ideas?  Tons!  I'm always amazed by the writers who say that they can't think of any new stories.  I don't have that problem.  I have the opposite problem - too many ideas and not enough time to write.  I've already built a small catalog of short stories and I have a novel in the works.  Plus a bunch of ideas that I've not fleshed out yet.

Stuff that I'll be promoting soon:

Zegin's Infection - Short story in the Zegin series
Zegin's Kidnapping - Short story in the Zegin series
Invis - Short story
The Wings of Leonardo - Short story
Jezi's Delima - Short story
Trans Op - Novel, in process

Ideas on the drawing board:

Markers - Novel
Flyer - Short story
No Home On Earth - Novel

Yes, I have a lot on the plate.  I guess this would be a good snapshot of how I'm starting.  It'll be interesting to come back and look at this in a year to see where I'm at.

Write on the Sound!

WOTS

Last weekend I had the great privilege of attending the "Write on the Sound" writers' conference in Edmonds, Washington.  It made my head spin with the wealth of information presented.  The view from the location was amazing (of course) and I got to rub elbows with a lot of writers, editors, and various industry folks.

To provide an full overview of the weekend would just be too much to cover here.  I guess I'm just not enough of a journalist.  But overall, I came away with the following jewels of wisdom:

"I am a writer and I'm proud of it!"  The first thing we had to do was to proclaim this openly and verbally.  Though I would've liked to have stated, "I'm a struggling writer and I'm proud of it!" ;)

Not everyone is going to understand what it means to be a writer.  Don't be discouraged when your closest friends or family members don't read your latest creations.  The need to write and create comes from within.  Recognize that and be willing to strengthen the creative self.

The industry is undergoing major changes!  I thought that if I even mentioned electronic publishing or Amazon.com that I would have been kicked out.  It was a pleasant surprise to hear that so many authors are moving in that direction.  Even the Editors are embracing the movement.  However, the big warning from almost everyone was, "Garbage in equals garbage sales!"  In order to be successful at self publishing on electronic media, an author still needs to utilize a professional editor and artist for the cover (and internal illustrations if needed).  Readers will not put up with shoddy work, poor grammar, spelling errors, or in-consistent story flow.  It still takes a bit of an investment to make it all work and to be successful at it.  Point noted!

Those who self publish also need to be good at formatting their work for use on the various platforms.  Several of the sessions I attended actually went into the details on how to format the project for uploading to the various media outlets.  I'm sure glad that I'm computer savvy.  There were a lot of glazed over eyes during those sessions.  Along with those topics were the discussions of how important social marketing is.  How to use Twitter, Facebook, Blogging, and other processes for promoting your work, while at the same time not letting it dominate your time and take away from writing.     

Out of all the sessions that I attended, I think the most enjoyment and beneficial aspects were from hearing how everyone else got started and what they were doing to be successful at writing.  Almost every session was presented by an author who was finding success in both "New York" style publishing and "ePublishing".  Even the Keynote speaker, Carla Neggers (over 60 books), gave us a little insight on how she got started.

Was it worth the time and cost?  Totally!  I highly recommend a writing conference to any budding writer.  It was a great boost to my confidence and gave me a lot of great ideas.

Desk Pictures?

Speaking of good ideas, I guess my request for pictures of the desks of published authors fell on blind eyes.  No one responded!  I guess maybe most authors feel that their desks are a secret ingredient to successful writing?  Well, if I do manage to get some pictures, I'll be sure to share them here.

Now to get to all those "To Do" items I came up with during the conference.

Keep writing.