Publication - Author Connections

18 November 2011, Publication - Author Connections

Introduction: I realized that I need to introduce this blog a little.  I wrote the novel Aksinya: Enchantment and the Daemon.  The working title was Daemon, and this was my 21st novel.  Over the last year, I gave you the entire novel in installments that included commentary on the writing.  In the commentary, in addition to other general information on writing, I explained, how the novel was constructed, the metaphors and symbols in it, the writing techniques and tricks I used, and the way I built the scenes.  You can look back through this blog and read the entire novel.

I'm using this novel as an example of how I produce, market, and eventually (we hope) get a novel published.  I'll keep you informed along the way.  At this moment, I'm showing you the marketing material I put together for a novel.

Today's Blog:  To see the steps in the publication process, go to my writing website http://www.ldalford.com/ and select "production schedule," you will be sent to http://www.sisteroflight.com/. 

Your publisher will have a list of opportunities for you to chase.  You need to start chasing them, and you need to connect with other authors to pick their brains on techniques and approaches that work for them.  Your publisher will usually have a forum of some kind for authors to connect.  You need to connect.  There are many other opportunities to connect with fellow authors as well as readers through websites and book forums.

One of the first and most important items on your list of things to do is to go to each of the major book sellers and populate the information you can on your book.

I'll write about that tomorrow.

I'll repeat my published novel websites so you can see more examples:   http://www.ldalford.com/, and the individual novel websites:  http://www.aegyptnovel.com/, http://www.centurionnovel.com/, http://www.thesecondmission.com/, http://www.theendofhonor.com/, http://www.thefoxshonor.com/, and http://www.aseasonofhonor.com/.

More on Inspiration

I wrote before, that to be inspired, I write http://www.ldalford.com/.  But you knew there had to be more to it than that--didn't you?  There is.  I'm not sure exactly what inspiration is.  I just get ideas.  When I get an idea, I write it down.  Some are mundane.  Some are more than mundane.  I turn them all into writing.  The point is, when I get an idea, I write it down.  That way I won't loose it.  I keep a couple of idea books around.  One I carry everywhere, and the other one is by my bed.  If I get an idea in the middle of the night, I write it down.  I have a list of Military Aviation Adventures I will write about.  The list comes from my experiences in military aviation.  When I remember an experience, I add it to the list.  The list is about 200 ideas long--enough for 200 short pieces (3000 to 6000 words).  When I read the paper, if I get worked up about some item of news, I don't seethe about it--I write it down in an essay or opinion piece.  Many of these pieces are never published, but I write them anyway.  The point is to be inspired by life and the record that inspiration.  Imagine your life as exciting and inspiring.  Imagine your characters and your writing as exciting and inspiring.  This is how you develop ideas and get them on to paper.

Another point that likely requires an even longer post: I don't write about myself.  Even when I am the main character in a Military Aviation Adventure http://www.wingsoverkansas.com/, I don't write about myself.  I'm not living vicariously through my own writing.  I don't try to make myself the hero of my fiction.  This is something many authors don't seem to understand.  They are all about turning their mundane persons into an exciting fictional character.  If they do, their characters aren't real and everyone can tell.  That's why blog writers and writers who convey themselves with all their faults are more popular than those who don't.  Of course some blog writers and self aggrandisers make up the stuff to sound more pathetic.  They should stick to fiction.  This is why I say--don't write about yourself.  My old self who lived those Military Aviation Adventures is much different than the self I am today.  I don't write about myself.  More than that, though my opinions and ideas surely come through in my writing, that is not wholly my intent.  My intent is only to get the theme through to the reader in an entertaining fashion.  I don't really want to put up a soapbox and have my characters pontificate on my opinions.  I put words in the mouths of my characters that I don't agree with.  I don't like some of my characters.  I don't like some of the characteristics of my heros and heroines.  I don't write about myself; I give life to characters who are entertaining and who appear real.  They are separate and different from me or they wouldn't be real--they would just be clones of me.  Maybe I should develop this point in more depth tomorrow.