Dusty Pages: Meet A Writer Monday Presents...

Dusty Pages: Meet A Writer Monday Presents...: ...Elgon Williams 1. Tell me about your book Fried Windows (In A Light White Sauce} and where you got your inspiration for it? I wr...

About Launching A Book

What has happened with the recent launch of Fried Windows is fascinating to the publicist side of my nature. It is not entirely unexpected, but some things have been surprising.

Let's be honest. The initial response to the launch of Fried Window has been, in a word, underwhelming. As much as an author would like to sell hundreds of books on the first day and reach best seller status for a few moments in the spotlight, those things happen because a lot of factors converge at once. It is a false indication of the book's overall potential for success. A book is a success because of the connect it makes with the public, not because of how many friends and family member buy it on the first day. So it is dangerous to read too much into a launch day spike - or in my case the absence thereof.

The problem is almost never the book. Everyone who has read Fried Windows in advance has loved it. It has a great, attention-getting cover. Although some friends have told me it is startling and a little over the top the book is unusual. I think the graphic captures that.

The problem Fried Windows is having in the market place is the same as every other book from every one of the millions of obscure authors. It is a new book from what the public perceives as a new author. Readers are attracted to brand-name authors. They invest time as well as money in purchasing a new book to read.

My fan base response to Fried Windows has been lukewarm at best. That's what is disappointing in that I have worked a lot on building relationships with others over the past few years. But I also understand that launching a new book without a lot of fanfare is like throwing a frozen burger patty into a skillet before it's heated up. At first nothing happens. Heating things up a bit is all that's necessary but it takes some time. Sounds simple, except it's not quite as easy as turning a knob on a stove. As is true of nearly everything worth doing, there is a process involved and procedure to follow. The first step of that is finding out why promotional efforts in advance of the launch failed to produce the desired result - sales.

First of all, selling anything via social media alone - as was the case with this book - is difficult. People are online to be social, not transacting business. They tend to ignore direct pitches, especially since they are inundated with them. So despite FB's claims that you can promote your page for a few dollars a day and gain all sorts of followers through likes, that in itself is not going to sell a book. Also, in the interest of bolstering their own business model, FB has altered their algorithm so that your messages reach perhaps only 7% of your friends. Unless you buy FB services what you post on your page will not reach all your followers. So out of the thousands of people who might have seen my message about a book launch, only a few actually received the message. Each social medium has its limitations. I'm picking on FB because they are the biggest and have most recently been playing games with their programming that counters whatever users may be doing to promote themselves in a social medium.

Let's face it, people who will buy a book from a relatively unknown author have more than a passing acquaintance. And the mere fact that someone is a friend does not necessarily mean he or she will buy your book. For the moment, let's set aside the real goal of an author, which is to have others read the book and sing its praises to others through written and posted reviews or spreading the word to their friends. It is a fan base problem.

Growing the number of fans is an evolutionary process. It cannot be rushed because attention and awareness must be cultivated and reinforced throughout your process, otherwise a fan will forget that he or she ever was a fan. The best connections are personalized through memorable events - like book signings or chatting online. Others may be people you know at your day job. They may purchase a book simply because they know you - even if you are not close friends - but usually co-workers will not buy your book unless they know you well. Why should they?

Since most of my online friends are other authors, I have never expected a great number of sales from those associations. Why would I? Authors are busy hawking their own wares. Some have bought my book, though. Those tend to be people whose books I have read and reviewed and those with whom I have had repeated contact. Again, it is a matter of turning an acquaintance into an fan. With most authors, it comes down to quid pro quo and professional courtesy. I'll buy your book if you buy mine. I'll write a review for you if you'll write a review for me. Sharing blogs with other authors exposes one author to another's fan base. So it's worth having other authors as friends as long as the relationship is cultivated beyond mere acquaintance.

What about all those people you knew in school or wherever else? Counting on the support of people you knew in the past is iffy. It will depend on how well you got along in the past and whether your relationship continued or recently resumed. Even then, simply having contact with someone you know doesn't mean he or she will buy your book. However, if your book becomes popular and you become famous, that dynamic will change dramatically. People you never knew you knew will suddenly claim to have known you well.

The launch of Fried Windows has exceeded any of my previous work. That's progress and it's due to building my fan base. Once the interest in the book increases through other promotional efforts, the momentum will build as well. It may take months and the subsequent launches of my other books in order to stir the desired level of interest in Fried Windows but it will happen. The book is that good. Once someone reads it they understand that it is unique in many ways.

An Author's Friends And Family

I've decided not to overanalyze anything to do with the response to my recent book release. As there is nothing really controversial in Fried Windows I don't expect a lot of fallout from anything I have written. Maybe I stretched my imagination a little more than usual, at least as much as I bent the truth, but it's intention was mainly harmless fun. I'm not sure why my friends aren't flocking to read it, but that's okay. Mostly my friends never paid that much attention to anything I said before I started writing. So why should it be different now?

Anyway, part of becoming an authors is seeking new friends. They're called readers. The reason is not to discard and replace old friends but to acquire followers as a supplement to those who have known the author since before... Unlike old friends, the new friends find it easy to become fans. Why shouldn't they?  They know an intimate part of the author, what he or she writes. I'm not sure every old friend can become an avid follower and reader of an author. It may have something to do with being there in high school and knowing the real story. Old friends saw the stupid crap we did. They were the ones carrying our drunken asses to dorm rooms in college. They were the ones we confessed any number of things to here and there along the way.

Family isn't much better as as source of readers. There are exceptions, but most buy an authors book out of familial obligation. Few ever read the book all the way through. Those who do probably deserve a medal for perseverance. I get that.

You see, like friends, family knows us for our flaws and secrets. They know some things abut us better than friends because they share a genetic identity. They understand our special level of crazy because they were not only there with us while growing up together but also they have some of the same traits.

Like fiends, relatives hear a real voice when they read our words in print. Sometimes that is at least unsettling. I suppose it can be unnerving, especially when reading a fictional account that seems kind of familiar. Moreover, family is used to giving us advice, not necessarily hearing concoct long, convoluted stories that may actually make some sense - especially when those stories come pretty darned close to revealing things that really happened to this or that other family member.

In Fried Windows I have tried not to borrow too much from reality. But there are some situations that some might recall. The book is a fantasy, though. There are always pieces of an author's life that find their ways into a book. That why names are changed to protect the author as much as anyone else. The parts that borrow from real life distort the facts enough to be mostly idle fabrication.

On balance, I think I'll gain friends from having written the book. I doubt I'll lose any friends along the way - I hope not. I wrote the book to be a fun read and I think it accomplishes that. I wanted it to change the way every reader looks at the world around them. Maybe it does that. For those who will read it, please let me know what you think. And yes, there is much more of Brent's story left to be told.

What I Should Have Been Doing All Along

I'm not sure I ever intended to be where I was a couple of years ago. I could play the blame game - there was enough to go around but the tough times I was experiencing were largely brought upon myself. But that is not what this blog is about, anyway.

I've overcome a lot in the past couple of years. Some of it I did alone but for my basic surviving and needs I have to thank others, particularly my family. You see, I've been basically homeless for nearly two years - since my eviction. I'd be couch surfing had it not been for family support.

Artists go through period like I've just been through. It's nothing new. It was a strain on my relatives, though. I'm sorry for what I put everyone else through but not for the way things turned out. I am confident that had I continued in the way I was going a little more than two years ago I would be dead by now. I have far too many stories I need to complete to be about dying. So you see, I didn't have a choice then or now.

Along the way I applied for other jobs, but i was not willing to go back into a situation similar to what I was before. You see, once the kids were grown and I was divorced, I really didn't care how much I got paid as long as I could survive on it and continue to write. I have that situation now. It;s not idea but like an situation it;s temporary.

It's hard for people who don't write to comprehend living the way I do. I get that. Most people don't think of what I do as work and, frankly, neither do I. Over the years of working I have learned that it is tedious, stressful and wholly unenjoyable. Although writing can have moments when it is like work in those ways, generally it is a worthwhile experience providing a sense of accomplishment at its end. That has rarely ever happened whenever I worked for someone else.

Also, there's something to be said about writing as therapy. Most writers will tell you we're functionally insane on the best of days. We use the escape time that our creativity afford to gain a sense of balance and for me it is a daily battle. I used to drink too much in an effort to cope with the confluence of pressures surrounding me. Working 70 hours a week - if not more - with feet and back hurting so bad afterwards that I could barely walk or sit up in a chair. Alcohol numbed things at least And it also helped me slip into a creative state of mind for a brief while.

I'm not saying that I write better when half lit but I had some highly creative ideas - provided I was able to set them into words that a sober me could read, revise and edit. I played that game for a while. Yet, all along I knew it was incremental suicide. Every drink I took was killing me.

I struggled a lot between 2002 and 2013, the period I will label as 'between publishers'. I wrote quite a lot of material but never was it good enough for a publisher to pick up. I've always been a writer in search of a good editor, though I could never afford to hire one to transform my raw manuscripts into clean works of literature. So, I think when I checked out - quitting my job to write and being forced to scale back on my living expenses - it was purposeful. It eliminated the pressures and it also forced me to quit drinking. Oddly enough, I wrote Fried Windows (In A Light White Sauce) about a month or so into the sober period of my life. What was different about it was the author's voice I discovered writing it in first person. I had written about the main character, Brent, before but I had never actually tired on his skin to become him and see the world through his eyes.

Since writing Fried Windows I have written a few other new things but mainly I have been revising the older things with fresh sober eyes. Most of what I have written in the past was done in third person, which is fine. I'm just tweaking things, removing redundancies and correcting errors. I am determined to make writing my career, now. This is my life and it's what I should have been doing all along.

No Superbowl L

Wait! Before you have a panic attack, there will be a fiftieth playing of the world championship pitting the surviving and hopefully best teams of the two football conferences again one another. It's just they won't call it 'Superbowl L'. After forty-four years of using Roman numerals for designating the particular edition of the annual Superbowl game in American football, the National Football League (NFL) has decided to break with the tradition established inn 1971 and not to use the the letter 'L' to designate the fiftieth one. Instead the game will be officially called Superbowl 50.

I suppose they could call it Superbowl 5-0 but that would be confused with the TV show Hawaii 5-0. Perhaps if they held the game in Hawaii that might have made sense in a cute sort of way. Also, there is the stoma associated with the letter 'L' standing for 'loser', something popularized int he 90's by someone holding up the thumb and index finger of one hand to his or her forehead to indicate that someone else was a 'Loser'. We can't have something like that associated with the most watched sporting event in America, now can we?

Do they intend to to return to Roman numerals after this coming Superbowl, designing it LI? Well, I'm concerned that could be mistaken for a reference to Long Island. The game will not be played there. It was a gamble wight he weather and all playing it at the Meadowlands in NJ last year. I think most people in the league feel they dodged a bullet as a snow storm was bearing down on the east coast at the time and hit the event site the day after.

Maybe they should just scrap the Roman numerals altogether. After all, how many times have you had to explain to a kid what the letters meant. And then there is the whole matter of how Romans added subtracted multiplied and divided those crazy looking numbers and why western civilization adopted Hindu-Arabic numerals in lieu of the Roman ones. Who wants to go through that explanation? Eventually the roman numerals will be so long and complicated that it will be difficult to immediately decipher.  Superbowl MCDXCII is a few hundred years away, but every American football fan hopes there will still be games then so we can continue watching them from the grandstands in Football Heaven.

My suggestion is to just start calling the games by their serial number in standard, commonly used and understood numeral like 51, 52 and so on. It's not like you see Roman numerals on that many things any more, some analog clock faces, volumes of books, the copyright script at the bottom of some movies. Yeah, I think we could officially just do away with them. Let them go the way of cursive writing, forever forgotten and no longer taught in school. We have more important things to teach. Who cares about tradition and cultural identity?

It's all a little silly anyway, isn't it? Although I love watching American Football it always struck me as being rather odd that they used roman numerals for the Superbowl anyway. It was only for appearances, so it seemed more official or important in some way. Appearances is the real reason Superbowl L will be designated Superbowl 50.

Evolution Of An Idea

This morning I have been thinking about everything that has happened in the past year with regard to Fried Windows (In A Light White Sauce) - really the past two or so years since I wrote the original draft. It has been a crazy journey in every sense of the word 'crazy'. A lot of people have helped me along the way, including family and friends.

On Washington's Birthday in 2012, I left my position in retail management. Although I started looking for other work immediately, what I focused more on was my writing and getting my personal life and health back on track after a detour through a personal level of hell to which I never want to return. A couple of days before St. Patrick's Day I wrote a poem with a whimsical childhood theme and posted it online. It received a lot of favorable feedback, even though I'm not much of a poet. It inspired me to write a quirky story that became the nucleus of Fried Windows.

The odd title came from a misread headline on an online news feed. I wasn't wearing glasses at the time and mused about how one would serve Fried Windows - in a light white sauce, of course!  Anyway, the title seemed to fit the story which was about a middle aged man receiving a gift - the opportunity to reconnect with his childhood. SO I worked the title into the story, explaining it fairly early in the telling. That initial story from which everything else evolved is contained in the first two chapters of my book.

Many people who read the story after I posted it online at a writing community suggested that I continue with more stories about the same characters. Over the next month or so I wrote a total of sixteen separate stories. A little later on I added a seventeenth story that now appears as Chapter 13 in the finished book. Yeah, the stories were discreet, stand alone short stories at one point and the order in which the basic elements of those stories are arrayed throughout the book does not reflect the order in which they were originally posted in my writing community. You see, about a year after writing the stories I pulled them down from the site with the intention of submitting them to a magazine, beginning with the original story. I allowed a good friend of mine to go over that story and edit it a bit.

After submitting the story, I felt very good about its prospects for publication - so much so that I revised the other stories I had written so that I was ready to send them to the magazine when requested. Never did I believe for a moment that the initial story would be rejected. It was so vastly different from other things I had submitted only to be rejected over the years that surely it was magical and would be the breakthrough piece for me. I was sure I'd found the formula for success as a writer. When the rejection came I went numb with disbelief. How could anyone reject that wonderful story?

I know what you're thinking - especially if you're a writer with some experience in being refused publication Rejection is part of life as an author. Believe me, I could wallpaper a house with the rejection letters I've received over the course of my life. I've heard every excuse in the book as well. Most of the letters seemed to be standardized form responses to a submission politely telling me not to quit my day job.

Well, too late for that. I was unemployed and counting on selling some stories. Having worn out my welcome with my relatives, I was facing the prospect of couch surfing for a while - something many artists can relate to, I'm sure.

As I had revised the several other short stories I had written along with the original Fried Windows piece I noticed some continuity. When assembled in a certain order with a few connective pieces there was the makings of a novel. I spent a few days writing some additional chapters and coming up with a tentative ending. Once reassembled, I was determined to prove the naysayers wrong. I was going to upload the book and start selling it.

Around the time I was formatting everything to standards for eBook publication, I received a tweet from Pandamoon Publishing. The company's name intrigued me because I have always loved pandas. I checked out the website and submission guidelines. After spending a couple of hours creating the proper documentation and presenting the novel in an acceptable format, I deferred self-publishing for the moment to submit Fried Windows. Honestly, I expected to wait a few weeks before receiving a polite pass - another rejection. A few days later, though, I received confirmation that the manuscript had been received and would be reviewed. But to my amazement the next email I received began with the word "Congratulations' and it referred to Fried Windows as a great novel.

Yea, I re-read the email several times looking for the punchline. You do that when you've been rejected as often as I have. I forwarded the email to my kids (who are full grown) and some other relatives to see if anyone read the email differently. Everyone confirmed what I understood to be acceptance, offering their congratulations. A few days later I had a phone conversation with the publisher and a few days after that I negotiated a contract for publishing a book.

After the long process of receiving and responding to substantive edits, content edits, cover design concepts and publicity campaigns the book is ready for release in a few days. (May 30, 2014). The cover was revealed last night (May 26) and is posted above. From a crazy idea to a book in two years - maybe it can be done quicker, I don't know. But in that span my life has evolved along with bringing the concept to fruition as a tangible book for public consumption.

Although their are general similarities, the publishing process is unique for every author and each book. Some win contests, other must struggle as I have to get attention for a book. More would be authors are rejected than accepted. Like most authors I have always had faith in my projects and have usually taken rejection in stride, reviewed the project and made some adjustments before submitting it anew. It's not an easy thing to do getting others to believe in something you wrote, but that is the essential difference between a writer and an author, isn't it. Both write but the author is the one who doesn't give up on an idea.

We Are Authors, No Competitors

Look, I've been in competition for years, selling all sorts of things from toe nail clippers to complicate computer systems to expensive automobiles. I know the best and worst practices of the sales process. having studied marketing and promotion, I also know the difference between strategy and tactics.

Some of things authors post online in an effort to gain attention of their recently published books cause me to shake my head. You see, as a rule, writers are not great strategic marketers or tactical salespeople. Some are and those tend to be best selling authors. We all aspire to being successful but to do that we must promote and sell effectively even if we have little or no direct experience. The good news is that you don't have to be a professional marketer or salesperson to be a nest selling authors. You only need to be yourself and attract fans.

What most writers do wrong is focus on the book not the author's brand. That is the major disconnect. It is like trying of sell someone a generic brand cf something with which they have no experience. Would you buy a car without knowing the manufacturer's reputation?

Most writers who fail in becoming successful authors approach the marketplace as if it is a dog-eat-dog competitive environment with authors competing against one another for the exact same valued readers. Here's what you need to realize that makes all the difference. You are not in competition with anyone except you.

The key is not your book. That is not as important as your author's brand. Why? Readers could not care less about your book. As its writer, you are the only one who cares about your story until you persuade someone else to try it on as an alternate reality for the span it takes them to read it. Until a eager belies you can entertain them, he or she will not buy your book.

From a reader's perspective they have already heard every possible pitch you are gong to use to promote your book. They are skeptical because they have bought books before and not been satisfied wight he content. This is especially true of indie books where it is more common to find errors and the perceives quality of the work is lower. Let's set aside the fact that many books from major publishers that have spent upwards of two years editing and designing a book have errors in the finished product. It happens. But when it happens to an indie author, it is almost always blamed on self publishing.

How you gain a readers attention depends on how well you communicate one essential thing to the reader. What makes your book different. The answer is as obvious as your nose or anything else about your face. YOU are the only reason someone will want to buy your book.

Unlike other products, books don't really have a set life cycle. Yes, I know the conventional wisdom that has come from traditional publishing, but in this modern age of eBooks those rules no longer apply. A book doesn't need to generate all its sales in thirty or sixty days. Amazon and other eBook sellers do not have a limited number of shelves. Each virtual bookstore continues to add new publications everyday and each new offering has its own shelf. However, you want your book to be noticed, so you need to ensure it is displayed closer to the front of the virtual store. How? You need to establish your authors brand giving readers a reason to come looking for your book. That in turn will increase its likelihood.of your book being displayed near the to front of search engines.

So, how are you not in competition with every other author out there? It's fundamental marketing. You are only in competition with other authors of any specific genre that you may target. If a product is unique enough, it will have no competition. That needs to be your goal in establishing your brand distinction as an author. It will also increase the universal appeal beyond any specific genre categorization The singularity of your book will attract the attention of readers who are always looking for the newest thing. It almost seems silly having to say it again, but the difference between your book and everyone else's book is that you wrote it. Sell the reader on you as a writer and they will buy your book.

Since there cannot be anyone else in the universe exactly like you, you have no specific competition. That's great news. Feel free to promote other authors and their brands because the overall goal is to grow the aggregate market of readers. Give everyone a reason to cuddle up with a new novel, whether eBook or printed page instead of allowing their minds to rot watching the inane drivel of a reality TV show on cable or satellite TV.

You're the only one who can attract your fans. And yes, you may share fans with other authors because readers don't read just one book. They do not follow only one author. The world of opportunity is large enough for every one to prosper and succeed if you first establish your particular brand.