by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

I’ve discovered that there are many things that I like about being a hybrid writer (one who self-publishes as well as publishes traditionally.)

I like the visibility that traditional publishing still affords me.  There are still some folks out there who shop in bookstores and have discovered me that way.  Penguin’s mysteries do tend to get decent visibility on Amazon, too, and they’re doing a good job with Facebook mentions and tweets on their end.

I like that my output tends to be higher when I’m working with my publishers’ deadlines.

I like the editing and story development assistance that I receive from my editors.

On the other hand, I like the higher income that I receive from self-publishing. 
Continue reading

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

Considering how much I post on Twitter, it’s amazing how little time
I spend there (thanks to a handy-dandy free tool called “Social Oomph“).

There are a few things that I see on
Twitter that make me wince.  One is a BSP
(blatant self-promotion) tweet that’s a variant of: my book is for anyone who loves a great story!

Well…sure.  We hope that anyone who enjoys reading will
love our books, right?  Just the same, I
know a good deal about who I’m aiming for with my books. I know how and where
they shop, their general age range, their interests, their general thoughts on
profanity and violence in books.  I know
their gender and some of the things they enjoy doing in their spare time. I know what they’re looking for when they pick up a mystery.

Clearly, not everybody is going to fit
into that very general reader demographic. But many do.  I aim for them with my books.  How do I know so much about them?  Readers email me.  They’re my friends on Facebook and Pinterest.
I listen to them and pay attention. My publisher helps me with demographics, too, and
nudges me in the right direction if I stray too far (which happened in my last
manuscript, as a matter of fact).  And I sure hear about reader preferences in
the customer reviews…good, bad, and ugly.

This isn’t a difficult task.  And structuring a story for a particular
genre or audience doesn’t much alter the most basic aspect of our story,
either. We do this all the time…this process comes naturally to us.

For instance, y’all know I recently
returned from a family vacation in Kenya (photo above. With baby elephant in the background). :) Upon my return, I’ve been asked about my trip by different friends and
family.

When young children asked me, I talked
about the big cats and the elephants we saw.

When my son’s teenage friends ask me, I
share with them that we had a leopard and hyenas running through our safari
camp at night.

When my parents asked me, I may have left
out the bit about the leopard and the hyenas since they wouldn’t have been wild
about the fact their grandkids were in a tent with wild animals around.

When an epicurean friend asked me about
the trip, I talked about the food that we ate there and how it was prepared.

A well-traveled friend specifically
wanted to know more about our flights over there and where we stayed for our
layover.

You get the idea. And this is just
filling people in on a vacation…in a way that hopefully makes the
vacation story at least a wee bit more interesting to them.  We do this all the time, right?  Tailor our stories for different groups of
people we know.  Our boss will hear one
version, our parents another, our children another, our best friend a different
one still.

If we’re writing genre fiction, it does
help to know the genre…not to limit ourselves, but because we have a good
picture of our reader.  We know some
general expectations that readers of a particular genre may have.

So, for me, if I’m writing a story about
a con man who gets murdered, I’m slanting it in a different way because I’m
writing for readers who enjoy cozy (traditional) mysteries.  The con man’s death won’t be gory, or, if it
is, I’m sure not going to describe it. My main character will be an amateur
sleuth who is tangentially involved with the case and feels a personal duty to
investigate.  Forensics won’t be
included.  The dead man’s wife won’t be
cussing up a storm when she comes across his body. The pace I’m aiming for is
one that moves along, but isn’t afraid to have some gentler detours.

Now, let’s pretend I’m writing a story
about a con man who gets murdered—but I’m writing a police procedural.  Now my main character is likely a cop.  I will probably describe the crime scene in
some detail, since the police must examine the crime scene. Forensics will be
there and my protagonist will be checking in with them later to get all the
clues they need to help solve the case. 
My victim’s wife can throw any kind of a fit she likes.  The pace of the story is fairly measured (but
never slow) as the police investigate the crime with a structured approach.

Now I’m writing a thriller about a con
man who gets murdered.  Maybe the reader
is even in the killer’s head sometimes….heck, maybe we even know the killer’s identity (which we sure wouldn’t know in either of the
other two genres I’ve mentioned) because the important thing in this story
isn’t the whodunit puzzle, it’s the race against the clock. Perhaps the killer
has a long-standing grudge against the man who conned him out of his life
savings and all the people the con man cares about.  We’re in a race against time and jump from
the killer’s POV to the cop’s POV with nerve-wracking parallel editing.  The mood is dark and tense and the pace is
very fast.

The fact that I know what I write and who
my readers are means that I’m not going to turn a thriller over to my editor
for my cozy readers. 

When I get an occasional email from a
teenage boy or a college-age woman saying they love my books…I’m thrilled. I
really am. And it shocks me to pieces. 
They aren’t the demographic I’ve shot for. And I’m delighted when I pick
up readers along the way.

Who is your reader? 

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

 

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 by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

It’s time for another update on ACX—the audiobook
platform that distributes to Audible,  Amazon, and iTunes. I first wrote about ACX in an
April post, so if you’re interested in getting details, take a look.
Basically, ACX is your audiobook option if you’re self-publishing.

I also wrote a
follow-up to the April post a couple of weeks later, talking about how the
audition process had gone.

Where I am
now in the process:  I’ve got two
titles for sale as audiobooks and 1 title in production (which should be
released in the next week or so).

What I
like:

I like that I’m opening up another venue
for sales.

I like that sales seem to be a lot
brisker than I’d thought (I’m around 177 sales for the past month and sold
copies even a day or so after the audiobook’s debut).

I like that the process was very
streamlined and that there were many FAQs if you got confused.

I like receiving a monthly statement from
Audible which includes sales figures for all three platforms (Audible.com,
Amazon.com, iTunes.) You can also check sales during the month on ACX’s site.

What takes
a bit of working through:

The audition process.  I think it’s good to take breaks.  I had quite a few auditions to work through.

Rejecting narrators (bleh).  Writers aren’t exactly naturals when it comes
to rejecting others.

Editing the finished narration (because,
honestly, all you can think about is why you chose that particular word, why
you didn’t add more conflict to the scene, what you were thinking…and this is
not the point of what you’re doing.)

The audio cover.  It’s a bizarre bit of squatty square.  Somehow I decided that I would work on making
it fit their specs myself, with PhotoShop. 
Many hours later, I finally realized that I would much rather pay
somebody to do this for me. 

What I
learned for next time:

I’ll start earlier.  When I’ve published a book, I’ll find a
narrator for the audiobook right then.

I’ll think about the narrator stipend
before I contact my narrators or open a book up for audition.  My books do seem to qualify for the $1000
incentive for my royalty-share narrators. 
What I really haven’t seen mentioned…an email to ACX where you brag a
bit about your numbers and the size of your social media platform seems to make
a good deal of difference as to whether your book has a stipend attached. I
didn’t know this until one of my narrators pointed it out. The email is
rights(at)acx(dot)com.

A nice
touch:

ACX provided me with five free downloads
for each of my audiobook titles—for giveaways and to increase awareness.  I wasn’t expecting this and I was impressed.

What I
hope ACX will soon change:

I’m hoping it will open up to non-US
residents soon.  They appear to be
working on it (their website
states: “We hope to open up to a wider
global audience in the future.”)

And, yes, I’ll complain a bit more about
the odd cover
requirements.  That’s because I lost
quite a few working hours while trying to figure out what I was doing
wrong.  There must be a reason for this
cover art requirement…except I can’t for the life of me figure out what it
is.  It’s not like these are CDs we’re
talking about. These are digital downloads.

Have you taken a look at ACX for your own
books?  Do you listen to audiobooks?  Have any questions for me? (I’ll try to
answer them.)

by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig

This post is especially for all the newer or
more uncertain writers out there.  The
ones who are frozen while working on their manuscript because they’ve read so
many writing craft books and posts that they’re just afraid of messing up if
they work on their story.

My sister had twins last summer and
quickly found that there was something about a new mother that made experienced
moms want to give them advice…on any and all topics.  But every baby is different and every mom is
different.  I decided I’d bite my tongue
and only give advice to my sister when asked for it.  After all—what did I even know about raising twins?  I had my babies 4/ ½ years apart and they’re
getting pretty old now.  And I’m
forgetful.

When she did
ask me for advice, I tried to phrase it so it didn’t sound bossy coming out:
“Sometimes I’d try to….”

Ultimately, each parent has to try
different approaches to see what works. 
Maybe the babies need a nap schedule. 
Maybe they don’t adhere to a schedule well.  Maybe they need a late-morning nap and then
skip the afternoon nap and then turn in for the day after an early supper.  Who knows? 
You have to experiment to find out what works.

This is what makes me nervous about
giving advice to new writers, too (which I’ve already done via email twice in
the past week. And, clearly, which I try to do on this blog.)  What do I know, when it comes down to it?  I know what’s right for me and my
books (most of the time.)  Each genre,
each writer, each book—is different.

Some books are more commercial than
others. Some books have a clear genre classification. Some books are lyrical
and different and unable to be easily categorized.

Some writers are retired. Some are
parenting challenging children. Some care for aging parents. Some work weekends
and nights.  Some face health problems.
Some are still in school.

I remember reading volumes on
writing.  I read books from the
library.  I read blogs and forums.  My mind was boggled by all the information—and
the way that so much of it appeared to be contradictory to other bits of advice
or information.

It’s not any easier now.  Should we get an agent?  Query publishers?  Self-publish? 
Should we write every day?  Write
to trends?  Outline?  Wing it? 

I know what I did.  I took it all in and tried different
approaches until I figured out what worked for me.  And even then…I’m still making adjustments,
ten years in.  What I need, what works
for me, is always changing.  I would have
never believed that I’d choose to use an outline, if you’d asked me. Even if
you’d asked me two years ago.

It’s good to be informed.  It’s good to listen to others and hear what
works for them.  But, ultimately, we have
to experiment on our own to find out what works.  And maybe we have to be open to new ideas and
new approaches if what used to work no
longer works for us now. 

We can read all the new parent books and
all the writing craft books…but at some point we have to put it all into
practice and give it a go.  Make mistakes
and learn from them and grow and improve and try and screw up.

There really are no rules. And the only
way we can really fail at writing is if we don’t write at all.