Slightly Off the Mark

There are two things you need to know about writers:

1. They're excellent at organizing their time and their lives.

2. They lie. Often to themselves.

Well, not me so much, as I generally admit to being unorganized. Still, I'm working on it. Some stuff is going on in my life that might bring big changes. They might also bring more expenses; I didn't say they were all good changes. So I'm working on ways to, as they say, "monetize" my writing. One of the best ways to do this is to spend more time actually doing that writing (and that selling, and promoting, and so forth).

(Am I one of those people who'd write even if it didn't pay? Well, yeah--I've done that on and off for years. But I'd rather it paid.)

Now, over the years I've joined numerous social media sites, both to spread the word about the writing and to, well, socialize. Some don't seem to be working out too well. For instance, I went to Insanejournal when Livejournal started having problems, but seem to be the only person on Insanejournal. Anywhere.

When I first started getting published, Emily set up Facebook pages for each of my new books. Because, hey, when you've only got one or two books out ...

But now we have ten books out, and an eleventh on the way. I kept all the old pages, but just copied and pasted the same thing to those, for the most part. Copying and pasting doesn't take long once I get a post organized, but what's the point in places where no one is there, or only people who also are friends with me in other places?

So I'm deleting the Insanejournal page. I'm keeping Livejournal--I'm not insane.

And I'm deleting my Storm Chaser and Storm Chaser Shorts FB pages. For now I'll keep the Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights page and my main Facebook page, but for those of you who follow me for my writing, I ask you to join my FB author's page, at https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter/ 

 ... As I understand it, that's the best place on FB to be able to keep track of our writing news.

Later I'll decide other things. For instance ... MySpace? I still have a few friends on there, but haven't had any actual interactions for years. 

There's also MeWe, which I went to because Facebook seems to hate its customers, and wish them all the failure in the world. But very few other people are going to MeWe, so is there a point?

Stuff like that. Come to think of it, I'm on too many Facebook groups, too.

Oddly enough, I'm not that much of a joiner in real life. But online I'm on Deviantart, Goodreads, Tumblr ... it gets to be too much. A writer should, I think, concentrate on a few places, rather than spreading themselves all over the internet.

We'll see.

How do you all feel on the issue? If you're selling something, do you have an honest to goodness online strategy? Or is it more like me, throwing crap at the wall to see what sticks?

(That's just figurative, by the way -- I don't throw crap at walls. Ick.)

Of course, you'll always be able to find me on:

Blogger:  https://markrhunter.blogspot.com/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B0058CL6OO

Our website:  http://markrhunter.com/

Goodreads:  https://www.goodreads.com/ozma914 

Twitter:  https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter 

And there's especially our newsletter ... you can access past issues and the signup page by going here:

https://us10.campaign-archive.com/home/?u=02054e9863d409b2281390e3b&id=f39dd965f0 

I think you can. Because it's only been twenty years or so, and I'm not sure I have this internet thing down, yet. 

I used to blog every day, after hearing authors say it kept their names in front of their readers. Then I realized blogging every day left me with no time to actually write anything for readers to read. Also, I'm not interesting every day--even after editing myself.

But this time I've been away from my blog for two whole weeks, which might be a record. I actually had a real vacation, by which I mean I not only didn't do my full time job, I didn't even work on  writing. (We did spend a portion of our vacation in medical facilities, but that's tradition.)

I missed it. The writing, not the full time job. But sometimes a guy's gotta take a break.

But I wasn't totally offline. We've taken some very short videos in places we visited--I've posted a half dozen on Instagram so far, and they cross posted to Twitter and Facebook. They're fun videos, kinda, and give you a little sense of where we were, maybe, and if you turn the volume all the way up you can hear me, sorta. (I'm new to the video thing, and haven't gotten the volume part quite figured out yet. Some so far unpublished videos will probably have to come with subtitles.)

Having had very little luck posting videos to Blogger, I'd like to steer those who are interested over to my other accounts. I get videos and pictures up on Instagram:

https://www.instagram.com/ozma914/

Although I once swore never to go there, I'm a Tweeting Twit at:

https://twitter.com/MarkRHunter

 When my first book came out Emily set me up with another account at https://twitter.com/StormChaserbook, but let's face it: The same stuff mostly goes up on both.

There's a similar thing going on at Facebook, where my regular account is at

https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter914

Personally, I'd rather everyone follow me on my author's page, at

https://www.facebook.com/MarkRHunter/

 Why? Because as I understand it, it's easier to find what your favorite author is up to that way ... and don't you need someone else to fill in the time between hearing from your favorite author? Gaiman and Martin don't exactly post every day, you know. (By the way, I loved their comedy routines.)

Also, I've been hearing noises that small businesses (which is what authors are) are going to have a harder time promoting from personal FB pages, but we'll see. In any case, I'd very much like to avoid losing track of people who might someday want to read one of my books.

Or--and I hate to say this--you could do nothing. Because let's face it, you'll see the best of the photos we took right here, sooner or later, whether you read this on Blogger, Livejournal, or any of the other places I post to. I kind of like the little videos, but they'll never be nominated for a ... do they have an Internet Video Award?

I just realized that our only big news from vacation was that we bought a car-top carrier for camping gear. It's a nice change, to have no major accidents or illnesses.

I forgot to announce the results of my Facebook poll, in which I asked everyone which direction I should take my humor writing (other than in a downward spiral):

10 people voted I should sell my column to another newspaper or magazine; a regular income is cool. This I’ve done, with “Slightly Off The Mark” now appearing monthly in the Kendallville Mall. (If any businesses would like to sponsor my column, get in touch!)

9 people thought I should write more humor books; humor books are cool. My new book, imaginatively titled “Slightly Off The Mark” is mostly done, although its release may be delayed by other deadlines, so there.

3 people thought I should try monetizing my blog/website; ads are cool. (Okay, ads aren’t cool, but paying bills is cool.) This is something Emily is looking into. I hope people who support my writing won’t be too offended by that.

2 people thought I should try selling my column on a subscription plan; it could work, and things that work are cool. For now this is something I’m not messing with, as my hands are full elsewhere. Since I’m already with the Kendallville Mall, a subscription plan would involve writing an entirely different regular column, and I’m hearing noises that it doesn’t tend to work well.

1 person thought a part time job at Wal-Mart is a perfectly valid career move. This is what I get for putting in a joke choice. But at least it’s nice to know one of my former English teachers is on Facebook.

Here’s the link to the poll, which is kind of silly considering I already gave you the results:  https://apps.facebook.com/my-polls/view/xch7gcs9tq

           “I’ve been thinking about it.”

           “Did it hurt?”

           “Little bit.”

-- The Notorious Ian Grant

           Hey, look at that: a surprise sneak peak at my upcoming novel. And also a good intro, because, like Ian Grant, I’ve been thinking about things … and it did hurt, a little.

           I’ve self-published two books, and I’ve had a book and a short story collection released by a small traditional publisher.

           They both have disadvantages, one of which is you don’t get a lot of help in marketing. If you’re going for traditional publishers in the hopes you can just leave everything to them and go on to your next book, forget it. Unless you’re a big name, the publisher’s cut of your work goes toward editing, set up costs, cover design, and other things that don’t include sending you on a multi-city book tour. (Including profit.)

           What’s the best way to market your book? Everyone knows, but no one agrees. One thing most do agree on, though, is that one of the best marketing tactics is to keep writing good books. (Notice the “good” part.) Better still from a marketing standpoint is to write a series, since people like to revisit their favorite characters, if done well.

           So, how do you balance your time, as a writer, between writing your new book and marketing your last one?

           I dunno.

           But I’m trying some steps in that direction. First of all, I’m going to delete my “Storm Chaser” and “Storm Chaser Shorts” Facebook pages, which were, after all, an experiment to begin with. I’m considering keeping my “Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights” page, as it has more of a community aspect and relates to local history and firefighting in general, in addition to the book itself. (Or maybe I should give that job over to Tanner Lock’s excellent Albion Volunteer Fire Department Facebook page?)

           But in general I’m going to concentrate my efforts on my FB fan page, which is Mark R Hunter (as opposed to my “private” page, which is Mark Richard Hunter) It seems pointless to put extra effort into individual book pages, especially since Facebook recently has made changes that make it less useful to writers seeking new readers.

           On a related note, I have two twitter accounts: @MarkRHunter and @StormChaserbook. With the ease of Tweetdeck I’ll probably still cross post writing and weather related stuff to both, but otherwise the Storm Chaser one is going inactive.

           Finally, I’m going to change how I use social media, a little. Many writers spend a lot of their online time connecting with … other writers. Thanks to that, I’ve developed some amazing friendships, a support system I never had as a beginning writer, and great ideas.

           But writers can’t sell books just to other writers.

           For one thing, most writers are poor.

           So I’m going to make an attempt to diversify my posts a bit more, talking about things other than writing. Or maybe things that aren’t about writing, but that relate to the things I write about.

           See, if I can make those things interesting and/or funny, people might read them and say, “Hey – I should check out his books!”

           Meanwhile, by streamlining the process a bit, I’m hopeful for enough time to get out at least two books a year, and maybe some short stories or other writing, all going toward my eventual goal of world domination – um, writing full time.

           My main goal will be to put out the best work I can, in the hopes of making the readers think I’m confident and talented, and worth telling others about.

           It could work.