Month: July 2016

The associate pastor at my church will from time to time give “Random Thoughts” homilies. I don’t know how random his thoughts are, but in the end, the sermon covers what we need to know about the readings for that week. If he can do it, surely I can. Welcome to today’s blog post on random thoughts.

I do encourage aspiring writers like myself, to enter contests at the writing conventions they attend. The contest can force you to write on an unusual topic, and nearly all of them have word limits. The smaller the word limit, the more precise words you have to use to express your character’s thoughts so a reader can relate to him or her. I wrote a contest story this week about three young adults on a mission trip. Originally, the theme was going to be romantic, but I turned it into a tragedy. You never know where your characters will take their story. Remember, history doesn’t write itself.

As a bonus, when you do become rich and famous and get the “New York Times Best Seller” stamp on your book cover, you can publish all the short stories and contests stories you wrote those many years ago in one tome. This will give your audience a peek into your work before you were famous. Write on and keep what you write. If you make repeated appearances at the same event, you could take your characters from year one and advance their story in year two.

And speaking of the “New York Times Best Seller” stamp on your book cover, I shopped at my local Barnes and Noble recently and saw a majority of the books with that prized blurb on the cover. It is hard to find a book for sale that wasn’t a New York Times bestseller. Does Barnes and Noble only sell New York Times bestseller books? I hope not. The world is full of talented authors that aren’t master marketers. We write.

My last random thought concerns George R.R. Martin. He wrote a fabulous series called A Song of Fire and Ice. He’s still writing the series. HBO based Game of Thrones on this series. It took him five years to write and publish book four in the series. It took him another six to do the same for book five. Six years have passed since A Dance with Dragons hit the shelves. During this time, he’s done quite a bit of marketing promotion for Game of Thrones. The time he spent marketing took him away from writing. I do wish him good health because I do not want A Song of Fire and Ice to end up like Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time. Writers need to write. Marketers need to market.

A few random thoughts from an aspiring writer. We write because spending time with our imaginary friends brings us great joy. Let us write. Let the marketers market. History doesn’t write itself.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what I’m reading. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read. I finished Rediscover Jesus: An Invitation by Matthew Kelly. I also read two short books on prostitution in the West. The first book was Tainted Ladies: Female Outlaws, Renegade Women and Soiled Doves of the Wild West by Vickie Briton. The second book was Madam Dora DuFran – Cat House Queen of Deadwood Gulch. I reviewed all three books on Goods Reads. Up next is Humanae Vitae: Of Human Life by Pope Paul VI. This will start a six book endeavor of reading the basis for St. Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

Welcome back, followers. I know you missed me last week, and I’m sorry for depriving you of my wit for so long a time. I drove my parents up to the suburbs of Chicago for a family reunion of my Dad’s cousins. I heard numerous family stories and wrote down many of them. History doesn’t write itself. We drove back Sunday in heavy rain until Springfield, Illinois and then sunny skies.

As mentioned in previous posts, I’m a writer, not a master marketer. Facebook tells me my author page spikes in views when I update the blog. I know people are reading, maybe not the whole thing, but I do get visitors. Is that enough for an aspiring author who doesn’t have a book yet? For me, yes, but I can’t speak for others. After all, I’m not a master marketer. I’m a writer.

Writing stories for the Ozark Writer’s Conference contest entries has kept me busy this summer. Working on them is on my calendar for this afternoon after running a few errands. The contests are challenging, one is to tell a story, with a beginning, middle and end, in only 99 words. Authors prefer to use more than 99 words. However, I did enjoy the work, and I hope the contests judges appreciate my effort.

I still have three weeks before the publishing company makes a decision on my manuscript I sent them at the end of May. I believe in my little story of a romp in the swamp at a Louisiana bordello. I hope they do to and not my inability to bring the masses to my website, Facebook page, and Twitter account. I’m a writer, not a master marketer. Granted I could increase my odds by doing multiple submissions, but I hope my preference not to put pressure on the publishing company of being in competition with others favors their view of me.

I will continue writing new stories and revising my manuscript. I will continue to excel in my woefully underachieving marketing skills. I’m a writer, not a master marketer. I believe you can liken this to the proverbial groom. He says to his blushing bride, “Just tell me what time to be there, and where ‘there’ is at.”  To my future publisher just tell me what book signing to go to, what conference to sign up for and how you want me to assist your marketing department in promoting my book. I’ll be there. Let those who know how to market, market. Let the writer write. I’m a writer, not a master marketer, and history doesn’t write itself.

What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what I’m reading. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read. I finished Once, There Were Sad Songs by Velda Brotherton. My review is here on Good Reads. Currently, I’m reading Rediscover Jesus: An Invitation by Matthew Kelly. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

I was going to write more along the theme of last week’s post, but I’m going to focus on this week’s events. Police officers killed two people, one in Louisiana and one in Minnesota. Last night an armed, former soldier killed five police officers as a rally wrapped up in downtown Dallas.

I lived in the Dallas / Fort Worth area for almost nine years. I saw first hand the patriotism of the residents after September 11, 2001. My Dad and I were in Texas Stadium two weeks later to watch the San Diego Chargers take on the Dallas Cowboys. For the Star Spangled Banner, armed forces personnel unfurled a massive, Texas size flag. It covered the field, and only the end zones remained visible. At that moment in time, we all loved our country.

Years later a tornado struck downtown Fort Worth, knocking out many windows of the skyscrapers. It was a difficult time, but the citizens of North Texas came together, and the vibrant atmosphere of Fort Worth lives on. It is a great town to visit.

I watched ABC News tonight and at the end of their broadcast, they showed several people approaching the memorial outside Dallas Police Headquarters to lay flowers or other mementos. Those who stopped by said it was important to show support for the Dallas Police force. I truly believe the DFW area will emerge stronger.

Tragedy struck Dallas before, and I shouldn’t have to mention the tragedy by name. Life in Dallas, and in Fort Worth, and all the surrounding suburbs, will get better. Just like it did those many years ago.

There are incredible stories coming from last night’s events. As a writer, that’s where you want to be, capturing the emotion of each person involved. I wish that author my best. After all, history doesn’t write itself.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what I’m reading. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read. I finished Way of Wonder: Wisdom from G.K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist. My review is on Good Reads. Next week I will be reading Once, There Were Sad Songs by Velda Brotherton. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.

It’s Friday night, time for another blog post.

I’ve attended many writing workshops and local conferences. I’ve listened to numerous authors talk about their books and what they’ve done to get published. I have a growing following Twitter promoters for self-published authors to help them market their work. I understand how important marketing is for any book. You can write an awesome book, but if nobody knows about you’re not going to get the sales you anticipated. Marketing is important, but I’m not a marketer, I’m a writer. History doesn’t write itself.

I know extremely little about marketing a book. Notice all the emphasis I put on that word. I’m not avoiding learning about marketing a book. I’ve registered for and attended a couple of webinars and read blogs on book marketing. But still, my knowledge on how to market a book lacks greatly. I’m a writer, not a marketer.

What I am doing is probably not right. From what I gather, there are thousands of ways to market a book. I’ve taken the first steps. I have a website in my name, an email address in my name, an author Facebook page, a Twitter account. Am I using them properly? I don’t know. I’m not an expert on how to market on Facebook or Twitter. I’m thinking of adding more social media accounts. But which ones? Instagram. Pinterest. Linked In. MySpace. There are probably more. Which are good and which are bad for an aspiring author? Can they be tied together so that a post on one flows to all? I don’t know. I’m a writer, not a marketer.

There are classes and workshops all across America and the world teaching the English language and how to write. There are probably just as many classes and workshops on how to master social media. I see a difference between them. Once you learn how convoluted the English language is with its array of dangling participles and prepositional phrases at the end of sentences, you harness that knowledge and avoid the mistakes. Being a master of social media is, I believe, a continuing process that binds you an outlet(s) for as long as that outlet is relevant. Earlier I mentioned MySpace, a forerunner of Facebook. If you took the time to master MySpace, it is all for naught. I believe it is still operational, but it is not a viable marketing tool. So you go master Twitter. Oh, but wait, Twitter is slowly losing its grand power to reach the masses to market your book. So you go master Facebook. Until something replaces it. I hope you see the pattern. If you choose the wrong social media, you’ll have to learn a new one. And the next one after that. All the while, your sales lag in obscurity. To me, that is a massive amount of work for aspiring authors. We are writers, not marketers.

Granted, there are authors who are wonderful marketers. I applaud them. But not everybody can do that. Some people have a different thought process. For us to learn, comprehend and understand the proper ways to market an author’s first book, we would need to obtain a BA in marketing from a university. Most authors do not want a BA in marketing. They want an MFA in creative writing. I ask for publishers to judge us on the manuscripts we submit, and not how grand our social media present is. As a publisher, you hire people to market books. Let them do their job. And let us do our job. We are writers, not marketers. After all, history doesn’t write itself.

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What I’m Reading – Many readers I know like to inquire what their favorite author is reading. At the end of each blog post, I’ll let you know what I’m reading. I may not be a published author yet, but I hope my choice of reading material inspires you to read. I finished The Last Raid of the Daltons by David Stewart Elliott as well as The Branches of Time by Luca Rossi. My reviews of both books are on Good Reads. Next week I will be reading Way of Wonder: Wisdom from G.K. Chesterton by Dale Ahlquist. I encourage you to read a variety of topics.