Day 17 - No Writing Today, Researching Writer's Platforms

Day 17

I'm not going to try to defend my lack of writing yesterday. I didn't write - not a paragraph, not a sentence, not a word. I own the fact that I did not make the time to move my story forward. 

It sucks! But, it happens to most writers at one time or another. The important thing is to not make excuses - "oh, I had x, y, or z going on yesterday, otherwise I most certainly would have gotten some writing done." 

Sorry, but there are no justifications for not doing your job. At the end of the day, writers must hold themselves accountable for their writing. Whether you have an editor breathing down your neck or simply a group of supportive friends and family, you, dear writer, are the beginning and end of the work. No one can do the work for you, and no one is responsible for it getting done except you.

So, today, I will pull myself up by the bootstraps and make time to write.

Instead of Writing

What did I do instead of writing yesterday? Well, I'm glad you asked. 

I spent my writing time yesterday researching and reading about creating and building a writer's platform. If you've been writing and selling (or trying to sell) your work for awhile, you probably know all about this concept. However, if you are new to the world of publishing and self-marketing, then you are probably not familiar with the term.

A writer's platform is the public, online, and publishing presence writers build for themselves. Not only do you need to write a kick-ass story that people want to buy and read, you also have to take the time to get your name and ideas out there for other people to see. Unless you plan to go the self-publishing route, publishers expect you to have the drive and tenacity to get this done.

Now, you may be thinking this is a case of putting the horse before the cart, but I assure you it is not.

Since it is election time around the country, look at it this way - being a writer who hopes to be published is much like running a political campaign. Name recognition is important, but the ability of the voters (publishers) to find out about you, your ideas, and brand (platform) is imperative.

Susan Grigsby, one of my writing mentors, has told me many times about the importance of self-marketing, particularly online. To paraphrase Susan: 

Potential publishers will look for you online if they are interested in your work. They want to see that not only have you taken the time to build an online presence, but also that you have the technological skills to do so. If the choice comes down to two authors, one who has a strong online presence and one who doesn't, they will choose the one with over the one without every time.

The fact of the matter is this - publishers only spend marketing money on their top selling authors. The remainder are expected to market themselves and their work. This is where building your writer's platform comes into the picture. In my personal research of a wide assortment of publishers, I have found approximately 25% (particularly smaller presses) ask about either what you are willing to do to help market yourself (readings, conferences, workshops, ETC) or what platforms you are currently active on (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, ETC) - more often than not, they ask both.

Resources for Building Your Writer's Platform

During my research yesterday, I found some good resources to share with you about this important facet of being or becoming an author.

• Janet Cannon has an excellent article about building your public presence here. 
• Kimberley Grabas  offers 101 Ways to Build Your Writer's Platform which is filled to the brim with links to other extremely helpful articles and resources.
• Matthew Turner provides writers with 5 Free Services That Help You Build Author's Platform.

Moving Forward

I am going to have to work on this process. I tend to get lost in a time suck when I enter some of these online forums. I need to streamline the process. I'm looking into HootSuite to help with that (fingers crossed).

For now, I'm imposing time constraints on the amount of time I spend in these online endeavors (because there really is no point if I never finish this book). The way I figure it, if I can't accomplish what I need to in an hour, I'm not doing it right.

I'm going back to my writing. Yesterday, I encountered a stubborn little girl who insists her story be told differently than I first saw it in my head, so I had better get to it.

Good Day and Good Writing to You All!

Writing Day 16

I chose this bit of wisdom regarding rejections today because I feel it is something I need to remember as I ready myself to jump back into the fray - the wonderful world of editors and publishers and rejection letters.

Coming off a rejection for my most recent academic offering, it becomes imperative to remind myself that my writing does have worth. On the plus side, two of the three reviewers did say that while my piece was not quite academic enough for their use, it was a promising op/ed piece for a different venue. so, that's exactly what I did with it. I used it, along with some of the resources I discovered while writing it, as a new post for my academic blog. If you are interested, you can read it here.

Having digitally submitted my children's book to two publishers and getting my hard copies and queries ready to submit to three additional houses, I feel it is necessary to remind myself again that even if my book doesn't find a home with one of these publishers, there are more out there. I just have to keep looking. Now, an interesting thing about children's publishers is that they do not send rejection letters. If they are interested, they will respond to you within a given time frame - usually 3-4 months. If they are not interested, you will hear nothing from them at all. They will recycle your manuscript and move to the next one in their pile. There is an awful lot of waiting involved in publishing, but I'm not sure how I feel about submitting and not getting anything back. However, if you think about it, it's just like filling out job applications - submit them and keep your fingers crossed someone will call you.

In the writing class I took over the summer, we spent a good chunk of time talking about publishing, researching publishers, writing query letters, and working out the best way to present our work to editors. In the process, I learned a great deal about matching your work to publishers and querying with an eye toward not only each house's current catalog, but also their affiliates and partners. Getting published (especially the first time) is A LOT of work. It's not for the faint of heart, that's for sure.

If you are looking at publishing, the best advice I can give you is be prepared to do your research. Get your hands on a copy of Writer's Market (you can get the previous year's volume at a deep discount which is fine because by the time the next one gets published many of the entries are already outdated or you can subscribe online for $5.99/month). Visit the publishers' websites, check their criteria, browse their catalogs, read their books, research their company, and decide which houses seem like a good fit for your work. Submit to a variety of publishers (make sure they accept simultaneous submissions [SS]) both large houses and small. Do not submit to publishers not accepting unsolicited submissions. Make sure you read their guidelines carefully AND follow them to the letter. Personally, I would not submit to a publisher who doesn't accept SS unless I felt strongly that they were the ones for me.  The publishing world changes quickly, so I don't see the value in paying for a subscription when I am going to have to do all this work either way.

At the end of the day, I write because I love to write. I will continue to write for the same reason. I'm not saying it wouldn't be wonderfully satisfying to see my work in print or to see it in the hands of readers who enjoy it as much as I do, but whether or not this happens, I will continue to write (and to look for homes for my work).

With all this being said, let's talk about the novel for a moment.

It is steadily coming along. I finished another section of Chapter 8 today. One more and I'll be ready to move on to Chapter 9 (and back to Verity's story again). While I did a lot of work today, I didn't get as much writing done as I would've liked - 592 words today. But before I beat myself up too much, I did get almost 600 words and really that's nothing to sneeze at. :)

Tomorrow, I will be talking about another aspect of writer's work beyond writing - self-marketing AKA building your writer platform, but until then. . .

Good Day and Good Writing to you all!


Today's Stats -

NIP - WTA - pages: 58; word count: 16121

Writing Days 4/5

After the past two days, this bit of writing wisdom seemed most fitting. I would amend the 97% to also include being distracted by life in general.

The past two days have been filled to the brim with those everyday distractions that happen when you have kids to raise and a household to run. With the schools currently on summer break, I can't blame work for not being able to write; however, I can blame grocery shopping, house cleaning, laundry, running errands, being a mom taxi, cooking, and the ever present masters class homework.

Fortunately, this is my final week of summer term classes, then I will have a couple of weeks until school (both work and mine) starts up again. So, I will not have either of those things to use as an excuse.

Despite the internet and life in general, I have done some work over the past two days. I have put together a total of six solid publishing leads for my children's book and completed queries/cover letters for each one. So, I am ready to submit (ready or not).

I also wrote another five longhand pages for chapter four of the novel and roughed out chapter five. I have night class tomorrow, but my plans are to complete chapter four longhand tomorrow and attempt to get most (if not all) of it in Word at some point tomorrow. I have one more major assignment due this week, which I hope to get knocked out Tuesday. Then, WATCH OUT! I will be a writing fool for the rest of the week. :)

Novel Stats for Today -

NIP - WTA - No updates, still working with pen and paper. :)

Writing Day Three

Today's writing inspiration from Mr. Clive Barker.

I have nothing to add. This says it all.

Well, on the writing front today, it was slow and steady with a break for creation of another kind. As I was falling asleep last night, I was struck with the idea of creating a book trailer for my work in progress. Ever since I first saw Ransom Riggs' trailer for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, I have been utterly smitten with the idea of marketing written works through a variety of media. After a quick search on YouTube, I discovered that book trailers have become quite commonplace in the world of publishing. Of course, many of these (including Riggs') are slickly packaged mini-movies in their own right. For a newbie to the world of video production, I used MovieMaker and Audacity (both free programs). I taught myself to use MovieMaker for a class in Educational Technology that I took earlier this year, and did my best to teach myself to use Audacity this morning in the wee hours before the sun came up (see people, insomnia is good for something).

So, with no further ado, here is my maiden voyage into book trailer creation.

Now for the day's writing stuff. I did not progress a lot on the digital manuscript - adding a scant 76 words. I did, however, work longhand today - completing 4 1/2 pages. After working on the trailer, I was just digitally done for the day. 

Plans for tomorrow include working out some more longhand (the weather here is supposed to be bee-you-ti-ful tomorrow). If everything goes according to plan, I should be able to finish Chapter 4 and be well into roughing out Chapter 5 tomorrow. I also have to make time to complete the query and finish the publisher's search for my Children's Book - I have a quickly approaching deadline to meet.

Good day and good writing to you all!

Today's Novel Stats - 

No stats for today because the majority of my work was done the old-fashioned way. :)