Category: Life as I know it

Finding the time to write – the story continues

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it

I’ve been blogging a lot recently about my efforts to better understand the world of book sales after publishing; research which might have been beneficial to do several months ago rather than the trial by fire that is selling anything between Thanksgiving and New Year. However as much as I share what I am learning, the post that continues to gain the most amount of views remains on the topic split between how I managed to get anything written in the first place between day job with two kids and National Novel Writing Month.

I can’t tell for certain exactly which of the two topics is of greater interest, so I’ll touch on both.

No, I did not participate in this year’s NaNoWriMo challenge. I was still too close to the characters and story from my initial work to attempt to grind something out in such a sort time – nor would my children have let me spend so much time in the office. There were emergencies that needed to be attended too RIGHT NOW such as the crisis of the missing Lego City Fire Truck door, the milk shortage of Small Business Saturday, and the sit down strike against wearing warm winter coats even when it is 40 F outside.

I did however complete my plot map for my next project along with a whooping 4953 (you read that correctly) words which I am hoping to finish by mid/late Spring if I can remain focused. Could I have finished out a nice round 5000 words? Possibly, but more than likely a majority of those 47 words would have been mom,mom,momma,mom.

Unfortunately this time I won’t have a nice long sabbatical to maximize. Instead I will just have to find the time elsewhere as I am able. Luckily at least one kid still takes a nap and the other has befriended the kid next store. Thank goodness also for Netflix streaming. Now that Breaking Bad is off the air and the Walking Dead is on break, I should be able to ignore the TV for days. Now if I can only find time to squeeze in my holiday shopping…

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Thanksgiving may be over, but that doesn’t stop my gratitude

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it

The dishes have been put away, and it may take me weeks to get over the overstuffed feeling in my stomach, but that doesn’t mean that the only opportunity I have to be grateful is over for another year.

I would have posted this yesterday, but I wanted to spend yesterday with my family and not the computer, as I would never have written word one without their support.

Today, however I wanted to express my gratitude for those of you who have visited my blog and have been willing to share some of your experiences with me. To all those readers bloggers out there who take a chance on us newbies get our name out either by interviewing us, or featuring our books on your sites, I do really appreciate what you do. To all of those author bloggers who share mistakes made or trade tips so that the process can be made easier for tomorrow’s new author, I’ve learned so much from you and hope to one day help someone else.

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Virtual Trade Shows

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it

Shortly after my book was published, I received a call asking about whether or not I wanted to participate in an upcoming book show where I would be one of several new authors. All I would have to do is register for the event for a mere $1000 USD and arrange my own transportation, hotel room, etc.

I’ve participated in a number of tradeshows over the years through my day job and am very familiar with trying to balance between being the best eye candy I could be in order to draw visitors to my booth and representing myself and my company as an expert in the field in order to keep them there. I’ve helped create large visual displays for the booth, administered contests, sent out targeted invitations, and have done the whole swag give-aways thing – I could go into depth on my opinion about the effectiveness of tradeshow swag, but will save that for another day.

In short, I’ve done as much as I could to differentiate myself and my company, and that was only against a small handful of similar product and service companies also in attendance. At this show I could only imagine the competition is much, much fiercer.

Admittedly my tradeshow experience has been in a completely different industry, but based on my royalty rate, I would have to have massive amounts of foot traffic at a time when most people in the US are visiting family in order to see a return on that investment. Additionally the time spent at the show would keep me from continuing work on my follow-up project, an activity that I now understand is absolutely critical towards establishing myself.

I politely declined this ‘opportunity.’

Still the concept of added visibility from a show is appealing. Luckily there are things known as Virtual Trade Shows, also known as Virtual Book Tours and Blog Tours. Rather than physically being behind a booth and smiling until your cheeks hurt for hours at a day, participants ‘exhibit’ themselves at a number of blog site destinations. I’ve found a number of organizations advertising ‘tours’ which they will arrange for you for fees ranging from as little as $15 to $200 depending on the level of service you need. Heck, you could even arrange one yourself for no cost at all – provided you are friends with a number of book bloggers with high readership counts. You would still have to provide any merchandise for sales, giveaways, swag, etc, but at least you are able to make your sales pitch via podcast from the comfort of your home or office rather than deal with TSA. Plus this method allows you to reach a potentially much greater audience – assuming you do your homework, are selective of your partners, and prepare ahead.

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Promoting myself as an author for the first time

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it

I was recently invited to participate in my city’s Chamber of Commerce networking group for Working Mom’s. This is a normally a great group because when all else fails you can ask about a person’s children whenever you are in need of an icebreaker conversational starter and I’ve very much enjoyed that my hometown offers this program. I’ve been a participant for years; however this was the first time I was going not in support of my day job, but as an author.

I had had the brilliant idea that I would donate a couple of copies to be raffled off because my novel does deal with the stresses of being a working mom then nearly had a panic attack waiting for my additional copies to show on my doorstep from my publisher. These copies did show up the evening before the event, but it was a nail biter.

It was finally time for the big event. I arrive, copies in hand, and am invited to drop my business card into a bowl for other giveaways. Suddenly I was faced with a dilemma – what business card do I put in the bowl? Obviously I want to sell my book, but I have years of equity in my other professional brand. Would my announcement of my new endeavor help or hinder?

In the end, I decided to promote both of my jobs. These were working moms after all – very used to performing at least two jobs – of course they would understand, and in fact it gave them an opportunity to tell me about their own side projects and/or bucket list goals. For example, I met one woman who having just left a position within operations of a major computer company was now starting her own business selling baby blankets with built in cushioning, and learned of an IT manager who actually has published three books herself.

Hopefully I gained a few sales, but if nothing else, at least I gained more experience.

It does make me wonder how other writers, especially those who have day jobs in vastly different fields than writing, felt after their first public outing.

If this describes you, I would love to hear your stories.

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To sequel or not to sequel?

by Allie P., posted in Life as I know it

My debut novel is approximately 30 days old this week, and like any new baby, is still keeping me up at night. My gut tells me that by this point my friends and family who were thinking about purchasing it probably already have, and so any sales from this point on would be from strangers. This is a prospect that both excites and alarms me.

I unfortunately have a taste for writing now, but do I truly have the skills necessary to convert it from hobby to business? Only time will tell for sure, but until history decides to weigh in I am faced with some difficult questions:

Should I begin work on a new project knowing that energy spent on that project will take away from energy being spent on promoting my first book? Another blogger, Chris Ward wrote about his views on writing a sequel, and I definitely am taking his experience into consideration.

If so, though I never identifed my inital work as being part of a series in order to give would be readers a reason to leave it on the shelf, should I focus on creating a sequel to the first book not knowing mass market acceptance, or should there even be a sequel (have I not already put my protagonist through enough) or should focus on bringing forth one of the other ideas currently co-habitating my brain?

Can I use a life line to phone a friend?