Why you really should be doing author interviews

Hey.

I've been a big moan in the past (we know, says everyone ever, we know), but there is one aspect of self-promotion I enjoy: author interviews and spotlights. They tend to be good fun, and they are an aspect of promotion that should not be overlooked. If you haven't done any yet, get involved. It's a chance to talk directly to your readership, to give them an opportunity to learn a little bit about what kind of person you are, about what drove you to write your crazy book in the first place. Yes, reviews and promo spots are great, but a lot of readers want to know if the author is similar to any of the characters, of if the author found her or his self in similar situations in real life. Young social media savvy readers in particular will want to reach out and connect - so give them the opportunity to do exactly that.

Everyone's a winner here. The author gets some positive exposure, the blogger gets some good content to post and tweet about, driving traffic to both blogger and author. An added bonus - this content isn't time limited. It stays up until the blogger decides to take it down (and we all hope they don't!).

As you do more and more interviews, you'll end up with a vault of answers you can give to a wide range of questions - although you might not need an answer to If you were a box of cereal which one would you be? very often in your career. You never can tell, though.

Plus, if you're a bit reticent like me, interviews will give you increasing confidence to talk about your work, and you should be talking about it because you should be proud of what you've achieved.

A great big thank you to the guys below. They truly believe in indie authors, and do their very best to promote those they showcase on their blogs. I enjoyed doing every one of these interviews and spotlights. Visit them, read them, follow them.

And if you get featured on someone's blog, make sure you re-tweet them. And link back to them. They've done you a favour - do the same for them.

https://teripolen.com/2017/12/08/indieauthor-friday-steve-conoboy-ya-horror-ghosts-steveconoboy/

Twitter handle: @TPolen6

I did an interview with Teri Polen on her great blog. This is a little sample of how that went:

What’s the most constructive criticism you’ve been given in your writing career?

There’s two things, the first of which I’ve heard time and time again, most clearly from Stephen King’s legendary ‘On Writing’ (I reference King a lot in blogs and posts and I just don’t care). Drop the adverbs. Don’t be afraid to just say ‘she said’. Honestly, I think this piece of advice makes writing a lot clearer. Going through a passage a few times and taking out adverbs goes far in the removal of clunkiness.

The second thing, and slightly more abstract, was my introduction to General Semantics. Look it up, seriously. It’s where we get the notion ‘the map is not the territory’. I learned about it from this sci-fi editor who was attempting to get my short story writing up to the point where I was worth printing. He nearly managed it. But GS can teach you a lot about clarity, word usage and meaning. Basically, I was throwing too many words at the page without considering if they were getting my message across (there are those who say I over-extend my sentences now – I was way worse back when I started out). Writing stories is fundamentally an attempt at communication between myself and the reader, and I want them to get the image I’m trying to transmit to them as clearly as possible.

General Semantics is meant to bring clearer thinking, peaceful interaction and greater sanity. This is the complete opposite of my home life. Daughters and cats result in none of these things.

writerdmayall.wordpress.com/2017/09/17/authors-spotlight-steve-conoboy/amp/?__tw

David put together a great Author Spotlight for me, covers both my books in detail with large cover images. Really appreciative of this one.

Twitter handle: @writerdmayall

Hit David up if you fancy something similar for yourself.

authoranthonyavinablog.com/2018/01/28/interview-with-author-steve-conoboy/amp/?__twitt

Twitter handle: @AuthorAAvina

And finally, this is an extract of an interview I did with Anthony Avina, who not only gave me a great review for my first release, but he's also going to read my next novel A Graveyard Visible. A hard working guy doing a lot for indie authors.

7) What advice would you give to up and coming authors?

Do it for the love. Really, that’s the most important part of the whole process. If you’re enjoying what you’re writing, then there’s a chance that someone else will enjoy reading it. If it feels like a slog, something’s wrong. I’ve dumped a couple of novels partway through the writing process because they felt so off.

8) What’s next for you in the world of writing? Any new or upcoming books on the horizon?

I’m currently gearing up for the release of A Graveyard Visible on 27th April 2018, so there’s a lot of promotion work and pulling together some reviews (which are proving to be very divisive so far – that’s either incredibly worrying or a great marketing tool). It’s being published by Lodestone Books, and the cover and the layout of the paperback look absolutely fantastic, so pleased with the result. On the writing side of things, I’m playing about with a possible tone change for an AGV sequel, as well as being deep into the writing of a story about the political activism of a pig. Yeah, it’s something a little bit different.

That's my highlights from the last couple of months. You know what? I've been enjoying doing little blog posts about upcoming indie books in recent times... Maybe I'll start posting some author interviews as well. After all, everyone wins. And it means I get to mess with other authors' heads by setting them weird questions about what cereal they would be and why. Yeah. Revenge.

Laters.

The Timelost by Chris Turner

Happy weekend, dudes.

Here's another new release I'm excited to tell you about  Now, this guy's got a pretty new approach to story telling and world-building which I've never come across before, a mix of sound and writing which I think is pretty rare (I'm a simpler creature - some tunes on while I scribble is about as exciting as I get).

Check it out:

Human vs Alien

A pilot stranded on a faraway planet, timelost. An alien seeking symbiosis.

Visceral alien battles, planetary wars. Experience the adventure...along with edge-of-the-seat SF audio in this Star Wars meets Alien thriller.

In 2014, I started sequencing original SFF to audio using the Booktrack free studio tool, and it offered up a unique, creative experience. I was amazed at how the placement of some well-crafted audio, synced by word, sentence or paragraph could make a story come alive—in the same way a soundtrack makes a movie come alive. To date, I have produced a few dozen, text-and-audio renditions of my stories, drawing on the wide variety of sound clips from the Booktrack audio library.

The Timelost, my most recent production, is a gritty, dystopian foray into the macabre.

The world-building was intense, as I tried to incorporate elements of ‘galactic empire’, the theme of ‘a few struggling against many’, and extraordinary alien adversaries. I also wanted to develop the concept that an ordinary person, the pilot Miko, when plunged into a hostile, colonized, or uncolonized world with chilling advanced alien technology, could become a hero. And not just by circumstance.

The movie Prometheus, even though I had seen it after writing The Timelost, deeply moved me and confirmed my fascination with a SciFi, man-vs-alien conflict. Human and alien genesis theories intertwine as the characters scramble to survive many bizarre and unexpected hostile encounters. The story took on overtones of fantasy horror as it gained momentum, with elements not dissimilar to the Cthulhu mythos a la Lovecraft and the imaginative works of R.E. Howard.

I invite you to enter Miko’s distorted world in The Timelost. The Booktrack text-and-audio based format thrusts the reader into the terrifying unknown of planets of deep space.

Booktrack: http://bit.ly/2EhEfFH

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Timelost-Chris-Turner-ebook/dp/B079D5FBVS

You know what to do, give an indie author's work a few moments of your time and you might just find your new favourite book.

Laters

Running Toward Illumia by Angel Leya

Time to boost another fellow author, and this one sounds like a whole new place worth visiting. 

Over to Angel to introduce us to a new world.

Hi, I’m Angel Leya, and I write clean young adult stories with (at least) a touch of magic and romance. My latest story is Running Toward Illumia, Astrea’s tale of finding herself while running from the one thing she wants most: To find her sense of belonging.

Astrea’s lived in the Mist all her life, and she loves it there. In fact, she’d do just about anything to feel like she fits in with her Rudan people, even hunt a unicorn to feed her starving tribe.

Illumia is the first city beyond the Mist, just past the Dragon Range. Astrea’s come up with 10 reasons to never go to Illumia. I’ll let her tell you more.

***

Top 10 Reasons NOT to Travel to Illumia

10. They don’t have fog.

Who needs sunshine? I’m a Mist girl. Great for concealing movement, comfortable like an old blanket, and you never have to worry about dry skin. 

9. They don’t all have red hair.

That’s why this tribe is here, despite being sent to the fog to die. And why we call ourselves the Rudan, rather than the Banned.

Wish my hair was redder. And I could use a few more freckles. But I’m one of the Rudan, I swear. I’d be dead if I wasn’t.

8. They’re weak.

Fog weeds out the weak. And if the fog doesn’t, the Lynx, ogres, or Rudan will. Illumians live the easy life. They have no reason to be strong.

7. They’re not very welcoming.

The Rudan take in anyone who can survive the fog. Illumians kicked us out (or at least my parents, but children of the Banned are no less welcome).

6. Illumians are idiots.

Everyone says so.

5. Big government.

I know all five of my council members, and they earned their spot. Like Seneca, first huntress—my mentor. Illumians probably have no idea who runs their council.

4. The journey’s dangerous.

Even if you can navigate the fog, streams filled with flesh-eating fish, and ogre-infested swamps, there’s the dragon range. There’s one pass, guarded by Illumians. The rest is mountain. Treacherous, dragon-housing mountains. No other way around it. Going to Illumia is a fool’s errand.

3. My family’s not there.

If you think getting one person into Illumia is hard, try five. Two brothers, plus Mamaa and Pawpaw.

Course, the whole tribe’s basically family. I’d want to take them all.

Except maybe Mavin. He’s a jerk. (Kidding. Sort of.)

2. I can never come back.

Going to Illumia is a one-way trip. Illumians and dragons ensure that.

1. I don’t want to.

Do I need any other reason?

***

Thanks for reading! If you’d like more, click for an excerpt from Banned, Part 1 of Running Toward Illumia.

Get all 4 parts of Running Toward Illumia today:

1.       Banned (free!)

2.       Lost (On Sale for 99¢ through 2/15/18)

3.       Drenched (On Sale for 99¢ through 2/15/18)

4.       Marked (On Sale for 99¢ through 2/15/18)

So go for it, guys, check out something new, you really don't have much to lose.

More promos soon.

Laters. 

I'm an author without a website!

I know, shocking isn't it?

Actually, it's really bad that I've left it so long. It's only because I've committed myself to updating this blog with info on how my promotion work is going (long sentence, breeeeeathe) that I even realised I'd made such an oversight.

During my research into the things authors should have/should be doing/cannot possibly function without, post after post after post reiterated the same thing: as an author, you must have a website. It's essential. It's like your store front, it's a central hub for everything you do, it's the first thing prospective readers are going to look for.

Here's an example of what I'm on about. This is taken from Publishing... And Other Forms of Insanity. It's an amazing website for authors of all levels. Honestly, there's so much content here it's ridiculous.

Even if you have not yet been published, you absolutely MUST have an author's website. Websites are not optional; they are a requirement for anyone with something to sell. (Authors are not only selling their writing, they are selling themselves.) At the very least, put up your first page (bio and photo), a blog, and a contact page. If you want to talk about your current writing project, do so on your blog.

Not optional. A requirement. Lordy.

(Go here to read more of this article, and then get yourself totally lost in all the links: http://publishedtodeath.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/everything-i-did-wrong-part-2-designing.html)

Long past time to get cracking, then.

Now, I should say that I did have a website already in place - and it's still up. Macadamian Pliers was due for release, and I knew I had to at least try to do something to get that novel some space on the interweb, and everything has a website these days. But instead of making an author website with a page or two about the book with links to go and buy it, I did something slightly different. And by slightly I mean radically. The website I created was put together from the point of view of the novel's characters. Yeah, that's right, it's a site from within the Macadamian Pliers universe, as if he was real and Cherry and Frank were real and all the stuff that happened was real. Yeah, I did that. Spent hours on it. Thought I was really clever.

I suppose it might have been clever if I was an established author, or there was lots of buzz around the book and people were aware of it, but in hindsight it just came across as confusing.

It's still online, I can't bring myself to kill it off - this is the link: http://ihatemacadamianpliers.weebly.com/

So, Life-Threateningly Important Point Number 01 - you must build your brand first. You must be clear. Do not muddy the waters. Save the funky tricks for later, when there's a chance that someone might know who you are. Put yourself in the position of a potential reader/buyer coming to your website. Show them the most important things first. Latest book. Upcoming releases. Make sure your reader/buyer can see these products and can get to them easily. They want to know who you are and what you've written, so make it easy for them. Not like I did.

I've kept a couple of aspects of this website made by an insane version of myself, and put them in the new one, although they are far from the main feature. The books are up front, everything else is there to explore if the visitor wishes.

Ah, straight away, Life-Threateningly Important Point Number 02 - Get the books up front! With links TO BUY! The first thing you see now on my brand new website is the front cover of my upcoming novel, with a link to Pre-Order. Actually, I've literally right this second just discovered the pre-order button is not functioning. So....

Life-Threateningly Important Point Number 03 - Check EVERYTHING. (These Life-Threateningly Important Points are coming thick and fast all of a sudden.) And check it again. And AGAIN. When I first published my new website, I trumpeted loudly about it (always happens after too many dry roasted peanuts) on Facebook, Twitter, all that stuff, confident that it was looking good, even though a few of the lesser pages weren't yet in place. A day or two later, I found the time to have another look at it. There were two pages of wildlife photography hanging over from the original template, there was a weird heading about 'Fotographia' that I couldn't get rid of, links weren't working, nightmare, nightmare, nightmare. It looked incredibly unprofessional (and don't you dare say it still does, I will cry). Check your work, people. Check it, and check it again.

Really, all of this should have been done already. I just put making a real author website off. I told myself, what difference will it make anyway? And I still don't know if it will make any difference at all. However, and here's...
Life-Threateningly Important Point Number 04 - Your books CANNOT sell themselves. You need to do everything you can, and if sites like Publishing and Other Forms of Insanity are telling you to have an author website, then damn well get one. Make it yourself, get a friend to do it, pay for it to be done, whatever. But get it done. Maybe it won't be much help. But if you don't have one, then it DEFINITELY can't generate sales. It's your space to talk about your work, to show off your work, so why not? I thought of it this way - Every time I read a Clive Barker book or think about one, I head to his website to catch up on what he might be doing next (more specifically, when is he going to release the next bloody Abarat book). So if I'm doing that, others are.

It all makes sense.

Honestly, take advice from someone who's done everything wrong.

(Edit: I wrote a piece about websites and didn't even put a link into mine. Amazing, right? www.steveconoboy.com )

Laters

*******Pre-order A Graveyard Visible on Amazon now!*********

My problem with promotion... is me

So.
Nobody bothered to read my last post about It, the deep, insightful and topical piece that I thought was totally relevant right about now.
Get bent, all of you.

Anyway, on with today.
My problem (apart from a slight attitude issue) at the moment is promoting my own fine novels. I'm not good at it. It's a complete bogglement to me.
I tend to think about promotion, shrug, then hide myself in the writing of the next novel. Very unprofessional.

I've said this before, but that doesn't make it any less true. I allowed work to get in the way of my writing and I let that happen for way too long. It got out of control. 60 hours a week has become the norm. Not good and not right. It was hard to write, let alone think about promoting my work or putting fresh stuff out there. It's been frustrating to release Mac Pliers then realise that I haven't really done anywhere near enough to support it. I can't let that happen again.

I did try, though.

The thing with Twitter is, it looked to me like Mac Pliers was getting completely lost in a vast sea of other books. A lot of people know how to get the best out of a tweet - make it visual with a cover image, use the right hashtags, get those key words in. When everyone knows how to do it right, it's hard to stand out. Unless you bombard Twitter with adverts every ten minutes, that is, and then people just get sick of seeing your book. I'm trying to use Twitter again, sparingly, but... I still get the feeling that the only people retweeting books are those who are only after a retweet themselves.
But you've gotta try, right? Something's better than nothing.

The thing with Facebook is, it's just my family, mates and people I knew in places I worked once. These people would either buy a copy anyway, expect a new one, or don't like me but can't be arsed to have me 'removed' (ominous). One can always try Facebook advertising, one supposes, but one was broke, so one didn't, did one?
But you've gotta try, right? Something's better than nothing.

The thing with getting reviews is, well, you've got to get people to write them and post them. I tried so many book bloggers, read their sites to get an idea of what they were like, personalised each and every contact, and I think I ended up with one review out of it, and I didn't realise that review had gone live until months later.
Something's... better than nothing?

And there's a load of sites that promise you a promotion package, for a price. Eye-watering prices, some of them (although, to be fair, anything beyond stumping up a tenner makes me weep (ask my girls, I've got a chain wrapped around my wallet)). I couldn't really see much benefit to anyone who took on these book blitzes or bashes or bonanzas or bombing raids or whatever they're called.

It was all a bit discouraging.

But.

This time I'm not a new writer with just one book to his name. I'm a seasoned veteran, with his second (fantastically well-produced) novel on the way, both in the same genre. I've got an actual body of work to peddle here. And I think I need to work to one other strength - I'm not self-published. This isn't vanity, and I'm not expected to 'donate' towards the publishing company's marketing costs. I am true legit. For real.

Things seem to be going a little better this time. I'm about to send off A Graveyard Visible to be part of a fantastic new review scheme, Kid Lit Exchange. Find them here: https://theloudlibrarylady.com/kidlitexchange/   These guys ask only for one copy of your book, then, when one of their reviewers wants to read it, the Kid Lit Exchange sends it out, and it's that one copy which does the rounds. Fingers crossed for a few rounds, then.
I've decided not to give up on book bloggers either, and I'm going through a ton of blogs to find out who might be a good fit for good old AGV (plus my publisher is proving to be very helpful so far, offering to send out copies on my behalf. Sweet!)

Also, to my absolute horror, I have landed an interview on a podcast. Yeah. One of them things where people can hear you. And see you, I think, because I've got to do it over Skype. My God. I'll have to brush my bloody hair.
It took me about a week to pluck up the courage to choose a time slot for the interview (early October, broadcast date as yet unknown). I had to pretend to myself that it wouldn't be awful and my voice wouldn't sound terrible and I'd sound very charming and witty and that it's all for the good of the book. Got - to - try.

I shall also be throwing myself into everything else, yes even the stuff that I'm not sure worked the first time - Twitter, Facebook and it's forums. I think blogs and review and book news sites are the way to go, though. Author spotlights, reveals, that sort of thing. You've gotta try, right?

What you have to be, then, is brave. You must be determined. You must be bloody-minded in the face of ignorance. You must be a pain in the arse - but a nice one. Annoying is off the table. And whatever happens, you must be prepared to carry on. And on. And on.

I will post some (fairly) regular updates here, with what I've been doing, what's worked, what I'm trying next. See how we go, eh?

Come back soon for a freebie. Next post will be a short story, I reckon. Bit of fun.

Available for pre-order at Amazon.

Release date April 2018

Laters.