Writing, Self-Publishing, Book Marketing

Greetings, Earthlings,

Wordbot here, and I wanted to remind all those surfing the tsunami waves of the Internet that you only have t-minus three weeks and counting to submit to the Wordclay Single Short Story Contest and Short Story Collection Contest.

In other words, it’s not too late to e-mail your cover letters and stellar pieces to contests@wordclay.com as Microsoft Word attachments. Please double space all your entries, too. This robot’s fiber-optic implants aren’t what they used to be, and they don’t make reading glasses for androids without noses yet. So help a robot out and make your entries clear, so the judges and I can enjoy your prose.

Visit the Wordclay Contest Connection page for the complete guidelines and submission instructions.

Single Short Story Contest Deadline: May 31, 2008, 11:59 p.m. EST
Short Story Collection Contest Deadline: May 31, 2008, 11:59 p.m. EST

As the entries mount and I run submissions through my publishing-feed processor, my aluminum knees are knocking with excitement. This is your chance to register with Wordclay for free, and submit up to three stories for a chance to appear in Wordclay’s new anthology series, Best Modern Voices.

To review winning entries from the previous poetry contest, check out Volume 1: A Poetry Anthology, available in the Wordclay Bookstore.

Wordbot upload complete. Transmission ended.

It’s a widespread area of uncertainty for up and coming authors: the blurb about the author. “Should I include it? What do I write?!” Often times, authors don’t even consider including one until it’s time to publish their book. 

While there is no rule that all books must have text about the author, it’s actually common and a good marketing idea for a couple of reasons:

1. Seize the opportunity to connect with your readers before they read the book, while they’re still deciding ift hey should read your words.
2. Solidify the bond with your reader after they’ve spent time reading your book.

For most people, the about the author might not have a huge influence on whether or not someone buys a book (unless the author is famous or well-known). But the second point is extremely valuable to building a loyal fan base, piquing curiosity and helping to further define the picture readers have of you in their mind.

Here are some helpful hints about how to write an about the author for your book:

Use the third person
You’ve probably heard this one before, but it’s an important point. Instead of saying “I, me, my,” say “[Your name], she/he, her/his.” Even though it might feel weird and perhaps a little psychotic, that’s just how it’s done. It’s an industry standard, so play along.

If you can’t tell everyone, don’t tell anyone
This text will be available to the public. Would you be comfortable with your boss reading it? How about your father, grandmother or child? What about a complete stranger? Or that neighbor you are sure stomped your tulips? Personal information (more…)

What is SEO?
Short for Search Engine Optimization, SEO writing utilizes the keywords of your Internet articles and posts to locate your content when an individual searches on your subjects. For instance, when a person searches on “free self-publishing,” the Wordclay blog will be listed among the pages that may interest you. Similarly, when a person types “free author Web sites” into the Google field, AuthorTree will be listed as one of the sites you would want to visit.

The Next Step
Say you’ve published your book and perhaps you’ve even set up a free author Web site with AuthorTree. Now what?

In order to get as much Internet exposure as possible, you need relevant and insightful content that will not only reveal the virtues of your recent publication, but also optimize the odds that readers will stumble upon your title as they search on specific keywords and loyally read certain periodicals.

For example, your book may concern a particularly heated political issue, so your target audience may visit blogs and news feeds that examine these issues at length. Even if you’re not writing for CNN, you can still draft and submit relevant articles to other Internet corners that are related to your field of expertise. The more people read your insightful prose and hear the authority in your voice, the more they’ll trust your book is a good investment.

It doesn’t stop with articles either. There are plenty of Internet journals that allow writers to post or submit reviews. Topics of these articles are numerous, with subjects such as TV shows, movies, books, magazines, comics, art exhibits, music albums, cultural and sub-cultural events, as well as other forms of emerging multimedia platforms.

You may also want to submit more personal articles to various e-zines. If you’ve had a recent dating experience others might enjoy, check out Nerve, where you may consider submitting a piece of creative nonfiction. Or if you’re particularly interested in pop culture, maybe visit PopMatters and search out a place for your voice.

As you post these reviews and feature stories, your recognition should grow as your writing infiltrates the digital world. (more…)

Browsing one of my favorite Web sites, The Internet Movie Database, for information on Joss Whedon’s new TV series for the Fall, I stumbled upon a link at the bottom of their home page.

There’s a guy, Adam Box, takes his inspiration from Kyle MacDonald’s book, One Red Paperclip, and the non-profit organization The 1 Second Film, not to mention some random guy who collected pictures of sheep from around the world. Considering all this, Box decided to put together a film project for his family—specifically his daughter—and called for submission.

Called Counting High, numbers from 1 to 123,465 will each get their own frame in the film. And everyone who participates in the project gets their very own number to design as they please, in whatever medium they choose.

My number’s 23. Which I’m totally loving—it’s prime, figures somewhat extensively in Lost lore, it’s sort of round—it’s just a cool number.

But I can’t, for the life of me, figure out what to do with it. I could paint it, I could sculpt it, I could choose a font and have large black text on white paper…I could have my hapless co-workers form the numbers on the floor of the auditorium and take a picture. Hee, hee.

The ways in which I can use this number are endless so, I’m having trouble focusing. And, really, with 25 frames per second, the chances of anyone seeing my number and being profoundly affected by its design are pretty low. It’s not about any single number, is it? It’s about the effect of the whole, all 123, 456 numbers.

So, if you want a number, visit Count High, read the background behind the project and e-mail Adam your request for a number—I think he still has a ways to go. Maybe I’ll get “23” tattooed on me somewhere, take a picture of it and use that as my submission. Problem solved!

-Jenn

Greetings, Earthlings,

Fresh off the Wordclay video feed, yet another movie comes to curious readers and film connoisseurs. This one, entitled The Interrogation: Is Wordclay Self Publishing Really Free? will likely give you goose bumps and curdle your blood. Lucky for this robot, I don’t have skin, nor blood, so I was able to watch relatively unharmed. There was a small short in my logic circuit due to the intense pressure, but nothing my publishing technicians couldn’t fix.

Reminiscent of Saw IV and Severence, with a dark, warm-hearted twist not unlike that of Will Smith’s Hancock, the publishing blurb on the back of this movie should read:

Driven to the brink of insanity, a man takes a Wordclay employee hostage to find out the truth about Wordclay’s free self-publishing service. The interrogator heard claims that Wordclay helps writers create and publish books for free. But he’s sure there’s a catch to Wordclay’s free online program, and he’s determined to find out the truth once and for all. A dark, humorous twist on the idea that “nothing is ever free.”

And here it is for your viewing pleausre. Watch if you dare!

If you’re reading this now, you must have survived! The Wordclay Team and I hope you enjoy this film noir bent on self-publishing, and we encourage you to post a comment. Review this publishing video or suggest one for Wordclay’s next – whatever you’d like. After all, as the man said, “We’re not out to get you.”

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So you’ve done the work, overcome a busy schedule, beaten back personal doubts and published your book. You witnessed your life dream come to fruition when you first cracked open the cover of your book and ran your finger over your name on the smooth pages.

So … what happens now?

If you’re thinking, “Now I’ll just sit back and wait for the royalty checks to pour in,” you’re going to be sadly mistaken.

Most publishers don’t offer a lot of marketing for their books, especially self-publishing companies (yes, that goes for Wordclay, too). Some authors publish for a limited audience of family, co-workers or friends, and for these authors, they don’t actually need to do anything else. However, if you’re among the majority of authors who want to compete in the book market, hoping to sell at least a handful to perfect strangers with your ultimate possible outcome being world domination, then it’s time to get to work.

The truth is, if you don’t market and promote your book, no one will know that it exists. Not librarians, bookstore owners, students, book club leaders, not people browsing for a book on Amazon – no one.

It’s time to take action with these seven easy and inexpensive book marketing tips to get started promoting your book:

1. Get with the times and get online.

Anyone can have a blog or Web site, so you’ve got no excuse. Blogs and sites are an easy way to increase your Web presence, keep readers updated with upcoming events and create a relationship with your readers. Here are a few to consider:

• Author Tree.com – Create a free author Web site at AuthorTree, an ever-growing community of writers.
• WordPress.com – Hey, they gave us a blog, and they’ll give you one too (it’s free plus you can pay extra to get cool upgrades).
• TypePad – Dynamic blog platform with affordable monthly rates.
• Blogger – A free blogging platform owned by Google.

2. Rehearse for your grocery store cameo.

(more…)

Have you heard of the crunch motivation, when writers of all walks brew pot after pot of coffee, peck furiously at the keyboards, awake and writing for maybe 12 hours straight, desperately trying to meet their preordained deadline? It doesn’t matter if you’re writing an article or submitting to a literary contest like Wordclay’s Short Story Contest, the fact is writers like to procrastinate. Writing is damn difficult – that’s why. It’s exhausting both physically and emotionally. In just a few sentences, writing can challenge people, realities and ideas. It’s not only easy to burn out, but likely as well.

The trick is to keep writing fun and interesting. Still, that’s quite a daunting task in times of existential crisis. Trust me – years of literary and philosophical criticism as well as a master’s degree in writing under my belt – when I say that quiet despair and frustration is all that awaits the lone writer, always struggling against a current of deadlines.

So how do you become enthusiastic and then sustain that enthusiasm about writing? If you’ve read our previous blogs, you know that communities and other engaging forums are a great way to talk the industry talk, but that’s still a discussion of sorts. What you want are places to visit where you can actively write alongside your fellow artists, egging each other on to the next great sentence.

That said, here’s Justin’s list of the Internet corners that not only encourage writers to write, but also seek to return writing to its invigorating (non-exhausting) roots.

Unveiling 15 Writing Communities & Web Sites that Engage Writers

Protagonize

About: (Note: All “About” sections are lifted directly from the source Web sites.)

Protagonize is an online community originally dedicated to the (nearly) lost art of the addventure (yes, that’s spelled right), a very specific type of collaborative fiction. Recently, the site has been expanded to support the creation of linear stories, as well. We hope this will allow the site to attract a broader community of authors looking to create collaborative, interactive fiction.

Continue for all 15 listings. (more…)

Years ago, while working at The Book Corner, one of the last independent book stores here in Bloomington, I stumbled upon a book titled, The Melancholy of Anatomy by Shelley Jackson. Part of this collection of short stories (with titles like “Heart”, “Foetus” and “Nerve”) is a short story that’s still in progress called “Skin”.

“Skin” isn’t in the book. Rather, it’s a “mortal work of art: a story tattooed on readers’ bodies, one word at a time.” Only the participants of the story will receive a complete copy of the whole story, and I want to be one of those participants.

It’s been almost two years since I e-mailed Shelley about my desire and willingness to be part of the project and, with only 315 words left to distribute, my chances don’t look too good.

I’ve long been fascinated with words – not just words that roll off the tongue well, or have cool meanings – but how words look. The combination of the font, the letters in the word, coupled with the meaning of the word, has an affect on me that I can’t, well, put into words.

When I was a kid, maybe nine- or ten-years-old, I used to beg my sister to write words on me with those colored markers that smelled like fruit. It’s funny, though, she had terrible writing, and I was always disappointed with the outcome. Then, I discovered tattooing and Peter Greenaway’s film, The Pillow Book. Check out the review on Rottentomatoes.com. Together, it was a realization of what I tried to get my sister to do as a child – indelible words on my skin.

Like Justin, though he has me beat by the sheer amount of ink on him, I love my tattoos. And I love the words I have tattooed on me – but I’m not part of a collective story. Not collectively written, but a written upon collective.

And it makes me wonder about the convergence of flesh and words and meaning, and if the same word tattooed on two different people means the same thing. Or if the same word in two different books (or even the same book) means the same thing. And if they don’t, then how can we come to a consensus over any written text, whether on paper or skin?

I guess that’s why there are so many books out there – we haven’t come up with all the ways stories can be told – or written.

Question: What business does a publishing company like Wordclay have planting trees?

Quoting Wordbot:

For one thing, planting trees moves the thermodynamic heart inside this bucket of bolts.

In case you’re not familiar with Wordclay’s Environmental Promotion, we’re making every effort to become a greener company. Essentially, if you or anyone publishes a book with Wordclay in April, we’ll have Trees For the Future plant a tree in your name in a country devastated by logging and deforestation. Better yet, if you publish on Earth Day (April 22nd), Wordclay will have two trees planted in your honor.

Relatively new to the earth, I myself stayed indoors my first weeks on the planet. Being a robot, you worry about the short circuits and rust even the most minor of downpours can cause. I’m embarrassed to admit that my metallic knees clanked together at the very mention of a stroll down the block.

But as I read the Wordclay books and discovered a whole world of life on which I was completely missing out, nature started to make me curious, and it wasn’t long before I was inching my way to the tree nearest the Wordclay building entrance.

Once I arrived, however, placed my magnetic hand on the bark and zoomed in on a bird chirping in the branches, this nature thing started to make sense, and Wordclay’s promotion finally clicked for me.

Just check out this video by our benefactor of the Wordclay “Publish a Book, Plant a Tree” campaign. Personally, I think Dave Deppner presents flawless arguments and calculations. For a human, that is.

Maybe we’re a print-on-demand publishing company (more…)

No, you’re not crazy. You heard correctly. Despite our attempts to maintain an air of secrecy, word’s gotten out. Information has been leaked to the public. Unconfirmed rumors about a robot working for Wordclay have been making headlines.

I’m here not only to substantiate the story, but to introduce the robot that’s stolen all our hearts here at mission control as well.

It’s all true! Due to a freak accident in our IT laboratories, as some of the Wordclay techs were perfecting our online publishing wizards with some servos they obtained from NASA, lightning struck the modern sculpture out front, electrified the building and shorted-out our publishing server. When the storm abated and the lights came back on, to our surprise we found Wordbot, perked by a bookshelf, completely self-aware, reading.

When asked about his sudden and unexpected appearance, Wordbot commented:

“Search me. Without warning, I was just there, and I had the uncontrollable urge to read anything I could get my metallic paws on. I found this bookshelf and went to work. I learned a few languages in the few hours I was awake, which is the reason I’m able to communicate with you now. I guess you could say I was born to help Wordclay.”

Over subsequent weeks, enduring many skeptical professionals, slowly but surely, we all started to warm to our new publishing friend. Of course, we’re still working out the legality of his rights, i.e. whether Wordclay owns the rights to him as you would your book publishing through us, or Wordbot being of sound, independent mind has the right to leave and exercise his creativity at will. For the time being (more…)