Shouting into the void: yodeling for beginners
My one-month publishing anniversary will be Sunday. SUNDAY. HOW DID THIS HAPPEN?!?
Wow. I'm sure this restless excitement I'm still feeling will ebb in time. Perhaps if I publish a book a year for a couple of decades it'll all feel so very *yawn.*
The silence out here in the echoing depths of the internet is pretty intense, but it isn't absolute, and it isn't impenetrable. I saw an initial flurry of activity in Smashwords & Amazon, due to my babbling on my personal Facebook timeline. Another burst of interest (which caught me wholly by surprise) followed my brash decision to post links on John Scalzi's "Gift Ideas" blog page for indie authors.
We'll call that my first lesson in the power of social media. The Scalzi thing drove traffic HERE. Who woulda thunk it? How embarrassing to be caught with my blog all amateurish and personal and all. If I'd known I would get visitors then I would've tidied up.
Okay, that's a total lie. But still. Wow.
I consider both my books to be in an introductory-edition phase, and I will republish when I've had a chance to get feedback. That means "When I fix the last few typos that got past me and my dedicated proofer, and also "when I've come up with a series title so I can number Controlled Descent as book #1 and Flight Plan as book #2." And I'll also raise the price. Because wow, there's stuff out there for $3 bucks that makes mine look like deathless literature, so why undervalue myself. Plus then I can "discount" it. Heh.
I hope to publish an origin story novella at the same time that I re-publish. Maybe I can have a giveaway contest. Likely not. I just can't like that idea. I'm trying, but...no.
This week's life lesson has been: "Research is valid work too, even when it feels like loafing." I'm spending hours looking at other authors' promotional efforts, analyzing their approaches. I'm also searching for sites/blogs/pages that offer valid, useful opportunities for exposure, and refining my own ideas about my work. One of these days I hope to be able to answer the question "So what are your books about?" without sounding like a drooling idjit.
It feels like surfing and reading and wasting time, but how else can I learn? (Don't answer that.)
Of course I want anyone who might enjoy my stories to be able to find them. (And purchase them too!) I have to keep working to make my work visible to others here in the dark quiet backwoods of the web.
I'll keep learning the songs of the established authors are using, and I'll try out different calls see which echoes come back the strongest. (Oh no, not another learning experience!) I want to be heard, but I don't want to scream until I'm hoarse, nor do I want to push my way into every possible venue until people are sick of my voice. So to speak.
I'll be out here shouting for quite some time.