11 Ways to Share your Love of Stories

 2015 is Authorpreneur Almanac year. 

Join me in my 365 Adventures in Writing and Entrepreneurship...

There are only really three things I've ever been good at:

1) Writing

2) Speaking

3) Enabling others

But at the heart of it all, and something I've always loved, is stories.

Writing stories, understanding other people's stories.

As an author, conveying and sharing a story with readers is what I do. 

Because writers love stories and so do readers.

Writers are also readers.

11 Ways to Share your love of Stories

1) Write a review. Even if it's only a few words, on Amazon or Goodreads. Writers love some feedback and books with reviews are more likely to be bought. If you loved a story and want others to discover it, a review will really help.

2) Blog about them. If you have a blog, stories make great engaging content, or if you read a story that you are itching to comment on, whether good or bad,  blog about it. 

I wrote a blog post recently on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of books and had a conversation with a writer whose work I really love, Stephen Leather, as a result.

3) Vlog. If writing isn't your thing or you really want to convey your passion for a story in person, do a video blog about it. You could read the story to the camera and share your take on it.

4) Podcast. If you don't want to see yourself on camera or perhaps want to have some fun with sound effects, an audio blog is a great way to share your thoughts and ideas. 

There's something quite intimate about wearing headphones and listening to someone speaking to you, it's somehow more absorbing than watching a video.

5) Print a chapbook. Not sure what a chapbook is? Here's a neat Wikipedia article that sums it up well: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapbook. 

Create a small pamphlet of stories to give to people.

6) Write a feature article. Write an article about stories that inspire you and publish it online ie: on Goodreads or LinkedIn

7) Tell the author. Contact the author on Social Media and tell them what you thought. I've had people message me on Twitter and Facebook  to say hello and tell me they enjoyed my writing and it's brilliant. It's a tiny thing that can really make someone's day. 

Writers are a solitary bunch and we put out a lot of content without getting much feedback. Every small connection is precious to us.

8) Join a book club, or start your own. Watching movies and box-sets is often a shared experience, and what films we've seen recently is a popular topic in social situations, but it's unusual to find people who've read the same books. Social reading is a great way to share our thoughts on stories.

9) Host a book party. This was an idea that popped into my head and I'm not sure how it would work but it's something I'm considering. Get a few friends together who are keen readers and bring some books to swap. Have a chat over a drink and some nibbles and share the stories that moved us.

10) Interview an author. The thing about authors, like any 'small business', is that we love talking about what we do. We're passionate about our stories and our characters. Any excuse to talk about them is warmly welcomed. Many authors would be happy to be approached by a reader and be interviewed (although you may struggle to pin down someone famous - I suspect Stephen King or JK Rowling may be too busy and expensive to get!). 

A local writer or independent author would be much easier to speak to - a Tweet could be that start of a new friendship.

11) Go to an Open Mic event or host your own. Most towns and cities will have a community of writers looking for opportunities to share their work.

In the city of Bristol UK where I live, there is a growing community of writers. I wrote an article recently listing some of the regular events going on in the city: http://www.bristolprospectus.co.uk/when-writers-come-out-to-play/

How do you share stories you love?

Keys, Wine Cellars, Crowdfunding and My Number One Fan...

This week I've found any excuse to be outside in the sun and away from the computer.
My seven actions for:

 Operation Author: 365 Actions to Succeed as an Author 

have mostly involved preparing for my crowdfunding pitch to publish Solomon's Secrets and host a big event celebrating independent creative talent in Bristol .

I started completing the fields on the form for my Fundsurfer crowdfunding pitch. 

It's not yet published on line, I'll be starting the clock on 5th May which gives me a couple of weeks to get the rest of it together.

I went out into Bristol with my camera and took lots of images of locations featured in the book to use in the video. I also had a look at some venues for the launch event.

I've provisionally booked Averys wine cellars for the event and planned it for Friday 5th September at 8pm. 

Averys are a wine merchants that have been operating in Bristol since 1793. Under the shop they have this amazing 18th century brick cellar that I guess would originally have been used to store barrels of wine. It's really atmospheric and would look awesome lit up with candles.

This is a picture from their website of the space. 

My event wouldn't be a sit down affair like this, it would be more of a mingle and a few tables dotted about.

I've been doing the sums and working out what's possible so I can add it to the pitch. The event will include plenty of wine (sourced from Averys), food (provided for by local caterers), some live music (by a local band) and pop up theatre performing short scenes from Solomon's Secrets (by a local acting troop).

I've been recording audio and some short video clips to stitch together for a video pitch. I'll be including some sketches of my characters. Here's Sasha Blake:

And here's a short piece of audio about Sasha, unedited, to be stitched into my video pitch.

 https://soundcloud.com/amy-morse-2/meet-sasha-blake

I've enlisted my husband Graham to help make the video, I'll share it here too when it's done.

Other actions have been: 

I had an idea about some guerrilla marketing for Solomon's Secrets and went around some junk shops to find some old keys. I have been making tags with them. I'll be leaving them all over the place and asking people to tweet me if they find a key for a chance to win a copy of the book.

Another action:
I had previously had a Facebook page for The Bronze Box and finally got around to having a Facebook Author page. Check it out and like it for regular updates:

https://www.facebook.com/AmyCFitzjohn

Action 6: 
I read a really useful e-book  'A Weekend of Book Marketing' by Duolit and followed their tips. I've created a profile for my Number 1 Fan. By having an idea of who my ideal customer/reader is I can then be a lot more targeted in my marketing. I can select blogs to guest for and publications to write for based on the sort of things that may appeal to my target customer. Here's a profile. I've highlighted keywords:

Action 7:
I created a CV just for my writing and have registered with several freelance job boards

What marketing advice would you offer to other writers?

 

The Writing Process Blog Tour

Being a writer can be exhilarating, fulfilling, freeing, frustrating and isolating in varying combinations. Every writer has their own rituals, processes and habits.

It's fascinating to hear what works for other writers and how they view their work and methods. 

What keeps us motivated and drives us to disappear into our our minds and pour our souls out through a keyboard for little or no financial gain?

When Gill Hamer, asked me to participate in this blog tour I was delighted to do it. Like any geek, writers love talking about what we do. We learn from and support each other but also want to open ourselves up to our readers, to help them to understand what makes us tick.

Discover some writers to inspire and entertain by touring their blogs and getting to know them and their creative process.

Here's Gill's response to the blog tour: http://gillianhamer.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/the-writing-process/

This week it's my turn:

1) What am I working on?

I have just finished the first draft of the second book in the Sheridan and Blake Adventure series. The next book is called 'Solomon's Secrets' (blurb and preview: http://bit.ly/P79mZE) and I've just sent it off to the printers so I can get copies to my test readers and editors.

The book is a follow up to 'The Bronze Box', published last year and available in eBook and paperback from Amazon: http://amzn.to/1jd0sDE. 

Set a year after the end of the first book, it's not a sequel but throws my hero; Tom Sheridan, and heroine; Sasha Blake, back together into an increasingly tangled web of conspiracy, rivalled only by the increasingly complex nature of their relationship.

2) How does my work differ from others in the genre?

The best known writer of thriller fiction such as mine is Dan Brown, and in the genre generally there are few female writers. 

There is a tendency for these types of books to be 'men's books written by men'. 

Granted, I have been told I'm more bloke than lady (I drink pints and been known to have public flatulence!) but, I like a good edge of the seat thriller.  I also like thrillers to be multilayered and intelligent with a historic context. 

Kate Mosse is perhaps the best known female writer in the genre. I'd wouldn't mind being compared to her one day!

3) Why do I write what I do?

Like most writers, I write what I like to read. My favourite author is the late Paul Sussman. 

Few people seem to have heard of him, which is a tragedy because his writing is brilliant. His characters are vivid and complex, his stories are full of historic references, so it feels like you are learning something. There are complex webs of conspiracy and satisfying relationships, intricacies and metaphors.

I want to be able to write like that. It's going to take a lot of practice!

I also choose historic references and subject matter that fascinate me, which gives me a great excuse to do lots of research.

4)  How does my writing process work?

It usually starts with a spark of an idea, very often with a 'what if'. The idea will marinate, sometimes for days, weeks, months, even years.

Then I'll have other ideas that will brew away in their own little crock pots. The starting point is usually when I mix a couple of things together that feel like they'll fit. 

I day dream a lot, playing out scenes in my head until I find them satisfying enough to commit to words.

I'll start forming a basic plot structure in my head and draw some initial flow charts on big bits of paper with scenes on post it notes.

When I finally feel like I have something solid I write the first chapter and the last chapter. I then write the scenes that I've been day dreaming and jotting in notebooks and juggle them about to slot them in. This starts to give me a solid story arc. 

I think of it like a map; There's a starting point, a destination and various places I'd like to visit along the route. Next I plan how I'll get there.

I always have a wider strategic view of where the story needs to go and will steer it in that direction, but I keep it pretty fluid as I write. Often a character will start talking to me and showing me where they need to go. I like to prod them, make them uncomfortable and connect them to each other in ways they may or may not appreciate!

I'm constantly reviewing the overall structure and the plan for the story and it will slowly start to tighten up as I settle into it's rhythm.

I then go through rewrites. Involve beta readers.Take chapters along to a writers crit group for scrutinising. More test readers and editors until eventually it becomes a proper book.

*

The next three writers on this Writing Process Blog Tour on Monday 7th April, are a mix of bloggers, novelists, non-fiction and short story writers. They represent a great cross section of different writing disciplines:    
  
A brilliant writer I have recently discovered who writes in the same genre as I do.  Laurence O'Bryan is a tireless supporter of other writers.

Laurence O'Bryan is the author of a series of mystery novels published in 11 languages. The series starts with The Istanbul Puzzle, continues with The Jerusalem Puzzle and then there is, The Manhattan Puzzle, the current novel.

Laurence is working on the fourth novel in the series, The Nuremberg Puzzle. In it the puzzles revealed in the first three novels will be answered. That answer is a shocking revelation regarding why so many people died in the Second World War.

Laurence lives in Dublin. He teaches digital marketing and helps other writers get discovered through his site booksgosocial.com. Laurence lived in London for ten years until his daughter was born.

See lpobryan.com for more

Sandy Bird  - has a blog/journal about her experiences as a Canadian wintering in Florida and exploring the area on her motorcycle.

Sandy is a creative soul who naturally has a talent to create designs and work with colour. As the outside world inspired her, destiny led her to use the creativity that resided within her to design visually appealing messages through print and the web. All the while a hidden writer was yearning to escape. The passion for writing grew over the years in the form of poems and musings until she found her niche as a blogger. 

http://www.thefrozencanuck.blogspot.com

Mirjam Penning ('Penning' is such a perfect name for a writer!) - Is a non-fiction writer and blogger.

Mirjam says:

Slowly I shifted one career for another.

I became an author of non fiction articles about true crime cases. My writing can be defined as 'based on the truth', in the languages English and Dutch. Ive kept a blog since 2006. Currently working on a more professional looking website. An ongoing process.
I got into web content by creating 'simple' websites and editing (web)texts for entrepreneurs. My big project is expanding skills, writing e books and becoming a web content manager.

http://mirjampenning.wordpress.com

Lynne Cobine - Writes fiction and non-fiction and has so far had short stories published. She is a blogger and keen supporter of other writers

Lynne says:
I have a website to help writers to publish their short stories and to raise money for charity.  I am a writer too, and have had articles published online and in printed magazines, but really love creating fiction for people to enjoy.

If you want to discover new writing, and enjoy short stories, this website is a must: http://boxofwords.weebly.com/about-us.html 

Lynne also explains that - Box of Words: is a play on words from the New Zealand expression Box of Birds, meaning very happy.

Enjoy the next leg of the tour!

Bleary eyed Meerkats and the cute to cantankerous tabby...

It's been a fraught week, but finally we have at least got some answers about the future of our jobs, at last I can start making plans!

I'm a day late with my Operation Author: 365 Actions to Succeed as an Author seven actions update because yesterday I spent the day with family in Somerset for Mothers Day and with such lovely weather today I've been pottering around in the garden.

My seven actions this week started with putting a call out to writers to join a blog tour.

I was invited to join by Gill Hamer - http://gillianhamer.wordpress.com/2014/03/23/the-writing-process/

My goal was to get 3 and I got 4, including the brilliant Laurence O'Bryan who has very kindly written a guest post for me previously.

 

Writers might spend much of our lives locked to a screen, pulling stories out of our souls and breathing them to life, but when we do stick our heads up and look around, like bleary eyed meerkats, we're a supportive bunch, and that's really heartening. 

 

So thanks to:

Sandy, Mirjam, Laurence and Lynn for participating. 

 

My leg of the tour starts on Monday 31st so look out for that tomorrow...

 

Other actions:

I've finished the first draft of Solomon's Secrets. Here's the first proof of the cover art:

 

After an initial edit have ordered some proof copies print on demand. 

 

I'm taking a bit of a risk because I really haven't cut much out of the first draft and I am keen to get the opinions of my test readers on the aspects of the story I'm less certain about. 

 

Here's the start of one of the scenes that I've struggled with, as it involves an assault and I can't decide whether to include the scene, or rely on it being referred to later in the story?

 

As a reader, how explicit do you think traumatic or violent scenes should be?

 

 

 

 Another action: 

 

Is there anyone who would be interested in being a test reader/editor? - the more the merrier!

 

While I'm interested in the views of readers my next action is to conduct a straw poll:

 

How many novels in a year is too many to publish?

 

1 - 2

2 - 3

4 - 5

6 +

Other amount?

Comments? 

 

I'd like to hear your views. Some authors are more prolific than others.

 

I had an email back from Your Cat magazine about a proposal for an article I sent out a while ago, 'Cute to cantankerous, the perils of owning an elderly cat' - I'd all but forgotten about it! One of my actions is to respond and send over my piece.

 

My final action will be to join the blog tour tomorrow. See you there