"Roundheads and Ramblings"
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Posted on Friday, February 10, 2012 3:45 PM
 Despite the fact that I am a serious writer, with a deadline hanging over my head, I seem to be spending all my time lately on social media. Now, I know that social media websites are useful tools for writers. If you're a writer, you can announce the publication of a new book and, with just a few clicks on the cut and paste keys, send that announcement out to thousands of potential readers. Your followers are your most likely purchasers. Your friends are the people who will share the news and help you celebrate. The internet provides the cheapest advertising you will ever get. But what about the downside? How much time do you have to devote to engaging all those friends, to providing your followers with useful tidbits of information, to share a joke with people you've never met? Several experiences recently have almost convinced me that a nasty, green-horned caterpillar lurks behind every social media butterfly.
I still don't fully understand Google+ and what it hopes to accomplish. Perhaps it's just me, but I'm seeing two kinds of people turning up on my desktop. The first group includes people I know, either through personal contact or previous internet interactions. A familiar face is always welcome when I go to a new site, but more and more, it seems that the people I know are simply reposting their comments from Facebook or Twitter. I don' have the time to read most posts meveral times. Then there are the people in my Circles who have popped up without an introduction and asked to join the conversation. OK, that's fine. At least they're saying something new. But more and more, the ones I get are either trying to raise money or push a particularly offensive political agenda. No, thanks.
I'm also becoming more and more suspicious of the "Groups" appearing on Facebook and LinkedIn. Talk about agendas! It seems like a good idea to connect with other people who share your interests, But these groups soon become monotonous if they can only share one set of goals or ideas. I go out into the internet to find new tastes, not a steady diet of the same old meat and potatoes. Today was a particularly annoying one. Someone in a group to which I have subscribed suggested that we all post the URLS of our Facebook pages, so that we could help to promote each other. I should have known better, but since I had recently developed a new style of Facebook fan page, I posted my URL. A plague of locusts descended! Three times I found my mailbox jammed with messages from group members saying, "I liked you page; now please go and like mine." I felt as if I were trapped in a revolving door.
And then there's Pinterest. I waited eagerly for my invitation, all the time believing that this new site was rapidly becoming the equivalent of Facebook. People kept telling me how wonderful the site was. I should have listened more closely to the ones who said that they got lost in in for hours at a time. If I understand how it works, members create little corkboards that reflect their personal interests. Then they pin pictures, sayings, blurbs, and whatever else they can round up to those boards -- for the purpose of sharing them with others. So members follow each other and look at each other's treasures, and maybe borrow what they see to add to their own boards. I still don't get the purpose of all of that. And the time it takes is indeed a sinkhole in the middle of your day. You have to find the items to be pinned, download the, assign them to one of your boards, and then identify each one with source and comments. I don't see the appeal, and I certainly don't have that kind of time.
I suspect social media sites are multiplying like those ugly green hornworns that will infest your tomato plants next summer. Yes, if you leave them undisturbed, they will eventually morph into a lovely butterfly, but not until they've stripped your plants of leaves and bitten gooey chunks out of your vegetables.
Oh, I'm not swearing off all social media. I'll keep my Facebook page because it lets me know what my real friends and relatives are up to. It provides a quick way to say, "I care about you." I'll keep my Twitter account, not only because it teaches me not to be wordy, but because among all the dreck, there are some terribly wise sayings that appear--bright new ideas that I need to hear. And I'll keep my LinkedIn account because its basic premise is to establish networks of professionals. But don't expect to see me every time someone comes up with a new idea for sharing. The caterpillars outweigh the butterflies.
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Posted on Thursday, February 09, 2012 11:20 AM
 On "Good Morning America" today, the "Play of the Day" featured a chimpanzee who is able to memorize the locations of randomly-placed numbers. He can handle as many as 19 numbers, even when he sees them for less than a second. I need that chimp!
 The numbers popping up all around me this morning are book prices -- my own book prices -- which have been changing and bouncing around without warning. When I began to plan for the book launch of "The Second Mouse Gets the Cheese," I decided to reduce the prices of all the books on my website. Now, understand that we're just talking about trade paper copies of the books. (To get electronic editions, you have to go elsewhere.) So I took $3.00 (a nice round number) off both of my self-published books and offered free shipping. I already had cut the price of "A Scratch with the Rebels" in half because the remaining copies in my inventory have been laying around here for almost 5 years. I finished editing the website to reflect the new prices, and sat back, satisfied with my decisions.
Then up popped a couple of moles. First, Amazon lowered the price of of one of those books by 28%, making the paper version of "Mouse" a strange $9.32. Several days later, they lowered "Beyond All Price" by 15%, to $12.78. At that point, one of my special offers was lower than theirs, while the other was higher. Sales were doing a little better than I had expected, so I decided to leave well enough alone.
Ah, but we weren't through. I had set the price of "Mouse" on both Smashwords and Amazon at $0.99, which should have been appealing to budget-minded folks, but apparently wasn't. Meanwhile, the publisher of my 2007 history, "A Scratch with the Rebels" enrolled that book in the Kindle Select program and opted to take their free days right now. They're doing amazingly well. The Kindle free version has popped up at #2 in Civil War history, bested only by a version of Lincoln's Gettysburg address! But "Mouse" is suffering from the competition.
 There's only one solution to competing with a free book (even one of my own!). I have now listed "Mouse" on Smashwords for free. Will Amazon follow suit? Probably. They don't like being undersold. But when will that change occur? I have no way of telling. I'm just sitting here, waiting for that particular mole to pop up.
In my days of traditional academic publishing, I could release a book and sit back, knowing exactly what was going on -- a set price and standard distribution channels. But self-publishing? Wow! It's a constant challenge to keep up with the changes. Wonder how I contact that chimp! |
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Posted on Wednesday, February 08, 2012 4:18 PM
 I've been working non-stop for the past couple of days on launching my new book on self-publishing. In that process I discovered a new application that allows its members to create small, specialized websites for free. I've designed one for "The Second Mouse" that looks like this. The panel on the right side changes when you push one of the five buttons on the left. This picture of the cover is the HOME page.
The WIX site provides a large selection of templates. You choose the one whose appearance you like. Then you can delete their pictures and add your own. You can erase their text and add yours. You can add music, videos, new backgrounds, and special effects, if you're the type who likes to see things moving around on your site.
To create The Mouse page, I started with a site designed for a bakery. Where they showed bread and piecrusts, I added mice. Where they had price lists, I inserted book descriptions and reviews. The whole thing took several hours but was relatively pain-free. Once you have your website finished, you can upload it to a Facebook Fan Page, for a really neat presentation. Mine is at www.facebook.com/TheSecondMouse .
To see my whole site in action, you can also go to its own website at: http://www.wix.com/schribercat4/second-mouse
The initial design account is free, but you can expect to be pressured to upgrade to a Premium account. So far, I don't see much of an advantage to doing the upgrade, especially since it costs $100 a year or more. I'm trying the premium settings for a month before I decide to commit to that kind of investment. Right now, I can't recommend anything but the free site. I suggest you try it out for yourself. Design a page and put it up on your Facebook page for a unique presentation
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Posted on Tuesday, February 07, 2012 12:14 PM
Book launches come in all shapes and sizes. When my first Civil War book came out, there was no fanfare involved. A Scratch with the Rebels was a curious mixture of academic footnoting, with just enough personal touches to appeal to a popular audience. The publisher didn't know what to do with it, and neither did I. I was just relieved to be finished with it.
But Beyond All Price was a different story, on many levels. It was historical fiction, so there was not a footnote in sight. I self-published it, so I knew I was solely responsible for publicizing it. I've written about the virtual launch party I threw for that book here on the blog and in my new book. Because I was trying to build my own community of writers, I reached out to writers I knew and admired. Some were newbies, like me, and some were experienced. Some were elderly (also like me!) and others were very young. Some wrote and some wrote about writing. But we all shared a love of good books and enthusiasm about the internet and the new trends in publishing. These were the literary-minded people who influenced the nature of that launch.
Later this year I'll be launching The Road to Frogmore with a much more traditional launch party. That book will commemorate the 150th anniversary of Laura Towne and the founding of The Penn School. On such an occasion, I will want to honor those people who own histories are tied into Laura's story with something more formal and personal.
But what to do with The Second Mouse? It's a "how-to" book and a memoir of sorts. It's an anecdotal account of my own venture into the world of self-publishing. As such, it is directed toward all those people out there who secretly want to write a book, those who have a story to tell, and those who are hesitant to start writing. Just recently, I received an e-mail from a retired gentleman who simply asked, "Can you tell me how to write a book?" He is my intended audience. But how do I find that audience? They are the people who lurk behind this blog, who read but don't comment, who surf the internet hoping for answers to those unspoken questions in their dreams. Obviously, the internet is the path to finding them. So here's what I have planned.
I'm taking a 10-day period to hunt down my next readers. This blog is only the first step. On the following days, we'll talk about my Facebook Fan Page with its new WIK design. We'll focus on other social media, too. I'm hoping to come up with a post directed at business people on LinkedIn, for example, and another exploring the uses of Twitter. We'll look at different venues for self-publishing. We'll talk about building a website. And I'll be offering links to places where you'll find low prices on books you've been wanting to read, a couple of free offers, and a give-away drawing.
I hope you'll be able to carry away from this launch a piece of cheese or two, a tidbit that will meet you own particular needs. Please poke around his blog and my website. If you don't find what you need to know, leave a comment and I'll try to answer your question.
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Posted on Monday, February 06, 2012 5:47 PM
Sometimes I just have to shake my head and move on. Recently I've been trying to add to my small business's staff by hiring an accountant and an editor. (If you missed my blog about why every self-publisher needs a staff, you can find it here) In both cases, I started by taking the recommendations of friends. I should have known better!
Case #1: The Accountant. She "welcomed my business", but never had time to meet with me. Meanwhile, I was sweating the fact that my book sales had added thousands of dollars to our income, without any deductions coming out of them. I knew I was going to owe self-employment taxes at least, and we might also be hit with a fine for not submitting quarterly estimated payments to cover the difference.
As January 17 got closer, I again asked for an appointment, which she made, and then cancelled twice. On the third appointed day, I arrived at her office with all my paperwork in hand, only to be told she was "out of town." Her receptionist offered to call her, and I had the dubious pleasure of listening to her sputter an apology. "Leave the paperwork there," she said. "I'll be back in the office tomorrow, I'll look it over, and call you." Right! She finally called on the Saturday afternoon before the deadline to say she didn't have time to go through the paperwork. Her recommendation: Send the IRS $2000 or more, and they'll be happy. Then, she said she would file to get me an extension on paying my taxes in April. Bottom line: "Call me back at the end of April, and we'll try to find a time to go over all this before the October deadline.
FAIL!
Instead, I found myself a new accountant -- one recommended by the Chamber of Commerce. He was polite and accommodating, offering a whole afternoon to get us straightened out. Thank you, Kind Accountant, for treating me as if my business is important.
Case #2: The Editor. She was excited to read the first three chapters of my book -- until she read them. Then back came the critique. "You seem to want your historical novel to be historically accurate, but all these details are going to bore your reader, as they do me. I prefer to work on a story line that has lots of action and excitement. I can do an edit on these pages and put in some more exciting events, but you'll have to start all over again to write the kind of book I produce."
FAIL!
I had told her that I am a historian and that the book is based on a real person. Sorry, but we can't put car chases, explosions, and terrorist threats into a Civil War novel. So I found a new editor, too -- one who found the real story interesting and promised to help me polish the book I wanted to write.
It's been an interesting couple of weeks! I'm trying to put a positive spin on the experiences. After all, I did end up with two wonderful additions to the "staff." But what on earth is wrong with people who offer their "services for hire" but don't want to serve the people who hire them?
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