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Therapy for Writers in 140 Characters or Less Written by Patty Blount ~

I’m a writer.

There.

I said it.

No, I’m not yet published, nor do I have an agent. But I write. Every day, I sew words into sentences, sentences into scenes, and breathe life into my stories, doing all the same things ‘real writers’ do with their stories. Yet I argue with myself that I’m still not a real writer. I thought that when I completed a novel, I’d be a real writer. I’ve since written four and still frequently feel like a fraud for daring to call myself a writer.

For a long time, I believed I was alone with such defeatist thoughts.

And then I found Twitter. My involvement with social networks was born from my day job as a software technical writer. A new executive who’d taken over my team encouraged us to “think outside the book” and find ways to engage and converse with our customers. I went from a puzzled frown, “What’s a twitter?” to having two Twitter IDs, two blogs, a Facebook page and a LinkedIn account in the span of a year. What began as mere research has since evolved into an always-available writers’ conference. I first began by searching popular celebrity hashtags. (Okay. Yes! I admit I avidly searched for news on Robert Pattinson’s whereabouts. But I’ve since stopped that. No, really, I have.) When I learned more about hashtags, I started following those related to my interests, such as #techcomm or #stc (Society for Technical Communication). Later, I branched out to #fiction, #amwriting and #writechat.

But it was by searching on #query that I found literary agent Janet Reid, also known as the Query Shark. Janet’s Query Shark website is devoted entirely to queries, using real submissions from people willing to brave the waters and subject their ideas to her professional and frequently brutal feedback. By following Janet, I soon learned of her clients and began following them. Jeff Somers and Bill Cameron each have multiple titles published, Sean Ferrell was eagerly awaiting the release of his debut novel and Dan Krokos was just beginning the process. Following these folks on Twitter led me to still more authors, each in a different point along the road to publication. I now follow over a hundred writers and agents who have taught me that the very last thing I am in this odyssey is alone.

Writing is such a solitary endeavor, isolating and lonely. We sit at the keyboard or the notepad and talk to ourselves. If that doesn’t end a party early, surely asking people their opinions about the drawbacks of first person versus third person point of view does. (Take my word on this. I cleared a room by asking this question once.) No, you are far better off posing such questions to other writers, of course. Whenever I have questions, someone typically tweets a link to a blog post that helps answer it. How to query, understanding the distinction between a synopsis and a summary, characterization, dialogue, plotting versus writing by the seat of your pants, I’ve read blogs on just about everything fiction-related.

Twitter preserved my sanity last month. After a particularly bad day, I settled in for an evening of writing and was struck senseless by how BAD my writing was. That single thought spiraled, out of control, until my twitchy finger hovered above the Delete key, ready to erase 60,000 words out of existence, thus saving the world from my drivel. Luckily, I tweeted about my despair and one of my Twitter pals rescued me with an offer to beta read. Kelly, you didn’t just save a manuscript that night. You saved me, because I was ready to quit completely. I’m so glad I didn’t delete anything because last week, I won a contest run by the generous Candace Ganger, who tweets as @candylandgang. The prize was thirty minutes of phone time with agent Michelle Wolfson. Without Twitter, when would I, a full time technical writer, have been able to speak with a professional agent?

I’ve read tweets and blog posts from a number of the folks I follow and realized that no matter where in the process they are – agented or not, published or not, book deals signed or not, we all feel like frauds at some point, all believe our writing sucks, all believe we’ll never be as good a writer as INSERT BEST-SELLING AUTHOR HERE. In other words, every writer has doubts.

Am I alone with my doubts? Not anymore, thanks to Twitter.

~ Thanks Patty ~

Patty Blount is a technical writer by day and a novelist by night. Her first novel, Penalty Killer – a whodunit about a star hockey player whose father is arrested for the murder of a dad on the opposing team. Her second Postpartum Deception is about a grieving mother whose emerging psychic ability helps her locate the baby presumed dead in a fire. Border Lines and Send are her most recent.  Border Lines is about a doctor whose free clinic teeters on the brink of bankruptcy unless she can convince a hot reporter to give it some positive press coverage. Send is a story about a boy whose failure to respect these technologies ends a life and ruins another. (taken from Patty’s website)

~ GUEST POST ~ I’m delighted to introduce author and marketing expert Phyllis Zimbler Miller at my blog today ~

Use Videos Posted on YouTube to Attract Readers to Your Books written by Phyllis Zimbler Miller ~

If you’re a book author, it’s important to realize how helpful videos can be to promoting your book.

Let’s review the situation:

There are zillions (perhaps I’m exaggerating a tiny bit) of books competing for attention online and in book stores.  How are your books going to stand out – especially with the people most likely to want to read your books?

Book trailers similar to movie trailers have become popular.  Often these short trailers (2-3 minutes) cost a lot of money and are done by a professional.  The cover of the book, other graphics, quotes from reviewers, etc. may slide in and out of the screen.

But after I paid to have such a video created for my novel “Mrs. Lieutenant,” I realized that the video (while done quite well) perhaps didn’t resonate with my target market.

Instead, I wanted to tell book clubs why “Mrs. Lieutenant” would be an excellent choice for them to read and discuss.

Yes, I already had downloadable book club questions on www.MrsLieutenant.com, but I wanted to personally share my thoughts with potential book club readers.

The solution was to have my business partner, Yael K. Miller, video me talking about the reasons why I thought book clubs would enjoy discussing “Mrs. Lieutenant.”  This video did not require any fancy graphics – just me talking.

And then Yael optimized the video for keywords when she put it on YouTube before embedding the YouTube code into the “Mrs. Lieutenant” website.  Now people could find the video on YouTube and come visit the book’s site, while others already visiting the site could access the video directly.

Compare my two book videos:

Here’s the one with just me talking — http://www.mrslieutenant.com/book-discussion-questions/

Here’s the one done professionally — http://www.mrslieutenant.com/fiction-teaches-us-history/

While the professional one is interesting, it doesn’t encourage a social media relationship with me – and it cost money to have produced.

You can do your book promotional budget a favor and use a video of yourself talking about your books – it’s your passion that can help “sell” the books.

FYI – Writing this guest post reminded me that I should make a video for my brand-new book – FOUR COMEDY SCREENPLAYS.    I’m hoping that using social media to promote this book will connect me with Queen Latifah, for whom I wrote the fourth screenplay in the book – “Dr. Soapy.”  (You can read about the screenplays at http://www.millermosaicllc.com/four-comedy-screenplays/ )

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the co-founder of the social media marketing company Miller Mosaic Power Marketing.  Download the new FREE tips booklet HOW TO USE SOCIAL MEDIA TO INCREASE YOUR BUSINESS at http://www.millermosaicllc.com/tips-booklet/

Thanks Phyllis ~

As it’s a Friday, I’ll try and keep my bit short.

I’ve watched Phyllis’s trailer and video. Personally, I think if you could have both, then have both.

Youtube is one of the biggest search engines on the web, almost every product that is launched these days has accompanying videos from the product makers and bloggers are embracing it more and more as a way to communicate with their readers. Read more at ProBlogger.

A professional book trailer is the norm now so having one done if you can afford it makes sense. A video with you talking to the camera about your book is easier to achieve and if you have the time to create one, do it. As Phyllis said, who would show more passion and enthusiasm for your book than you?

A book trailer works well when it stimulates all the senses by using visuals / images, music, written words or a voice commentary for example. Some people are more taken in by the visuals, others are affected by music, others prefer to listen to a voice or read words. Interest is created when you can combine all these factors well or excel using a few. Anything less, it helps if it’s humorous.

This is not to say that a video of the author talking about the book is not as valuable.

After seeing the book trailer, people may want a closer connection to the author and the book – that’s when the video would give them the opportunity to have that experience. This is especially true for someone who wishes not only to read the book but also to discuss it in a book club or class.

How do you feel about videos and book trailers?

What do you think? Are they worth it?

Have a great weekend.

“You gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face. You must do that which we think we cannot.”

Eleanor Roosevelt – Social Activist and First Lady of the United States

CURRENT STATUS: Reminder, Motivator and Review Meeting (Read on if you want to join me in my Corporation of One meeting)

What l have learnt:

• When to withhold suspense in a novel and when it shouldn’t be done (via Edittorrent).
• 10 Steps to a better story (via The Blood-Red Pencil).
• Boost your book sales with the magic of niche marketing (via AlanRinzler.com).
• 10 Important Things I’ve Learnt About Indie Publishing by editor and publisher Alisa Krasnostein.

What I have done:

• Created Twitter accounts for @insomniacfoetus which focuses on science fiction and fantasy; and @jessiemacnovels which focuses on adult fiction and crime thrillers. Not sure how this will go but I thought I’d give it a try. Whilst my main Twitter account @jessiemacwriter will focus on general fiction, writing, marketing, blogging and films.

WORD COUNT: Night Walker 144, 000 words in total. Monday 2 August 1,000 words; Tuesday 3 August 1,000 words; Wednesday 4 August 2,000 words; and Thursday 1,000 words.