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Tag: Self Publishing

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October 17, 2016
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Sunrise

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As I sit here on this beautiful beach in the med, I can’t help but be taken back by the power of the ocean. It’s simple rhythmic sounds of the waves coming in and going out.

Coming in and going out.

Nothing could be more calming to the soul than the music of the ocean for me.

To someone else, it may be the stillness of the mountains.

Or the whiteness of fleshly dropped snow.

But whatever it is that relaxes your mind and makes you one, I suggest that you at least do it once or more a year. Just to settle those nerves, just to relax those doubts.

Posted
October 11, 2016
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SFF Mega Promo – October

 

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The SFF Mega Promo, organised by Irish author Dean F. Wilson, is one of the biggest on the internet, with over 100 authors participating, giving you, the reader, the very best in speculative fiction — for free!

Click the link below to download as many as you want for free!

FREE BOOKS

Posted
September 26, 2016
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Endurance

endure

 

Lately, things have been difficult in regards to this business.  I won’t say I was depressed over it, just……

Annoyed.

We live in a world of what appears to be fast results and fast outcomes. Where if your overweight, it should come off in six weeks. And if your poor your pockets should grow as quickly as snapping your fingers.

But life doesn’t work like that now does it. I wished it did, honestly I do. But hard work is the only thing that will get you to where you need to be.  But more than hard work, you need something else to get you across that finish line.

 You need to endure.

You need to grit your teeth and weather the storm. It may haul you to and forth. It may bring everything you love crashing down around your ears.. But if  you don’t endure until the black clouds pass and you can feel the kiss of the sun on your cheek, then all your hard work will be for nothing.

I was a late bloomer to this game. I didn’t know what I wanted until I hit 25-26.

Before that I was aimless.

Before that I wanted to do a host of things that really didn’t match with my capabilities.

Maybe I should have pursued them further. Maybe I should have stayed on course, till that boat bought me to a different shore.

But none of that really matters now.

The past is the past.

The future is still unwritten.

Only the present counts. Only the present matters.

Now I have embarked upon this goal of being a best selling author. Of being a household name. Of making a full time living from this. I don’t want to stop till I reach that destination.

I believe that I can do it.

I know I can do it!

I just have to be patient.

What really matters now is how much I can endure.

The more I chase my goals and dreams, the more I am starting to see how much of a necessary that this quality is.

I can’t let my foot off the gas. I can’t drive leisurely to my destination. I need to use every ounce of drive, passion, motivation, desire and I have to get me there.

Then and only then will I get where I need to be.

But even then, that may not be enough.

I know one thing though, if it kills me I will become a full time author by Dec 31st 2017.

Just you watch me!

Endurance

Posted
September 12, 2016
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Greatness!

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As an artist you could not wish for anything more. The lure of having your name spoken in the highest regards among your chosen peers. The acknowledgment, frame, and power that greatness brings.  It is so tauntingly glorious to taste that fruit, that men would give anything to chase after that bite.

Who wouldn’t give anything to attain that goal?

Many won’t.

And even fewer will reach their desired goal even if they set on that path towards it.

Some will stop at the first pebble in their shoe and go no further.

Others, will overcome the first few hurdles and keep at it until they declare that life has gotten in their way. These folks are the ones that wait by the path and taunt and mislead you. Like sirens out at sea they will always steer you wrong.

Not because they want to do you harm oh no.

They believe that they are looking out for you. By telling you all the reasons why they failed, they hope that you don’t reach to high above your station. You don’t aim for that goal. Because like them you too shall fail.

They allow fear and pain to of failure to stop them from continuing on.

When drunk, they will proclaim loudly that if live had given them a break then they would have been where so and so super star is today.

If live had only given them a break.

If only….

The last group of people that you will meet or see on this journey to whatever you which to obtain, are the quiet souls that keep their head down and keep pushing on. They say little. Do much. And sometimes they may reach greatness. Many times, they won’t.

And that’s the scariest thing about the journey in and of itself.

There  is a higher chance than most that you won’t reach that mountain peak.

You won’t pick that hanging fruit onto of the mountain and look across the plains below you while you bite into it. Reflecting back on the journey and everything that it threw your way.

Writing this, part of me is scared. Most of me is excited.

I am a strong believer that if you do whatever your craft is enough times. Then your will bound to reach some sort of goal, acknowledgment, acclaim.

Being praised by people is not what drives me.

No.

Its reaching the top of that mountain. Since I could remember people of have told me I couldn’t do this or that, and just pushing forward to prove them wrong is more victory than I could ever want.

Now is that unhealthy?

Maybe.

But it’s my why.

It’s what fuels me.

It’s what drives me.

When I have overcome, smashed, destroyed that hurdle, then my goals will change.

But for now, that’s the mountain I want to conquer.

That

And becoming the greatest writer that ever lived.

Becoming the greatest writer that I can be!

Listen, if I publish a hundred books before I am dead, one is bound to be a best seller.

That’s all anyone ever needs.

Just one shot.

One chance.

One hope.

Posted
May 23, 2016
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Stress

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Stress all affects us in different ways. For some it prevents us from accomplishing our goals or dreams. For others, it can push us to even greater heights than where we currently are. But to a person, everyone has stress in their lives or will do at some point.

It’s how we deal with it that matters.

Being a part time writer, with everything else going on is a pain in the ass.

Getting from part time to full time is my goal. Getting there is the biggest hurdle I think, I have faced in my life. Writing for me comes easily. I know that may stick in anyones throats, that suffers with writer block, but it does. You either write what you love or don’t.

It’s as simple as that to me. Writers block comes from shame.

Shame that you’re not good enough.

Shame that people will hate your work.

Shame that you are baring your soul for people to see, and they may not even be bothered.

No writing was never hard for me, because I never gave a fuck what people think or say. When it came to writing. Because I have an ego when it came to writing. I have a chip on my shoulder to prove to everyone that I am good enough. To prove to everyone that a dyslexic kid, who couldn’t read and write till he was in his early teens, can write a good book.

It was never shame that I felt when I wrote. It was anger. Anger which I used to push me to greater lengths and greater strides, when it came to writing.

No it was never shame that stressed me out when it came to writing.

It is everything else which comes from being a self published author.

Marketing

Ad Copy

Email list building

Facebook Ads (which I still have yet to do)

And the endless other bullshit that you have to deal with, when you’re running a self published author business. Now I know some self published author’s love having all that control. They love being in charge of their domain and I do to.

But…..

If When I make it big and some publishing house offers me a big contract, am talking millions and millions here. Then I may take them up on it.

I may not.

But when I dreamed of becoming a writer, doing all this other shit wasn’t in the plans. I envisioned myself sipping cocktails on a sandy beach, swinging in a hammock, typing out my next novel.

But alas, you have to dig the dirt for the ground before you lay the swimming pool.

Anyway, sorry for the rant guys. Just feeling a little stressed.

Can you tell?

Until next time.

Good Morning

Good Evening

Good Night

Posted
May 16, 2016
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Failures

Failure-Celebrated

I have failed a lot in my life.

Shit

Thinking about it now, my eyes grow moist at all the failures that I have gone through and not learnt from. I am a hard headed stubborn bastard, who sometimes needs to go through a experience more than once so it sinks into his head. And I know that is a major fault of mine.

I know it’s stupid. Its something that I am trying to change.

Learning from your mistakes is important, but not making any or seeing them ahead of you so you can sidestep them is even better.

This year I have tried my upmost to stop making mistakes.

And you know what.

I failed miserably..

We are only five months in this year and the growing list of mistakes I have made keeps on growing, and growing, and growing.

But last night, I battled with myself and stopped myself from making one.

I TOOK CONTROL AND STOPPED.

Now this isn’t going to be a speech about, motivation or achieving your goals or any of that bull. Its just one man’s thoughts on how we are all human. It’s just one man’s thoughts on the struggle it takes to change yourself.

This year my goal was and still is self-growth and change.

I accomplished a lot last year. But it was with 60% of my overall effort. Everyone else looking from the outside in, would have been amazed at what I had accomplished. But honestly. It was easy.

It was easy to write a book. It was easy to learn about this how self-publishing business. It was easy to get all my ducks in a row.

But what isn’t easy, is knowing within myself that I could have done better. I could have archived more. I could have grown more.

So as the new years starts proper, none of this January business. I have made a promise to myself that I will attack it like it owes me money.

An in a lot of ways it does.

Remember that what you do, is a lot more important than what you say.

I just have to remember that myself sometimes.

Until next time

Good Morning

Good Evening

Good Night16

Posted
May 9, 2016
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What did I learn from completing a book series.

I treat this blog, the same way I would treat a dairy. So a lot of the words on this blog, website, page, are a lot closer to me than they should be. Half of the writing population will bare their soul out in their work. But even less than that, will bare their soul on outlets like this.

I understand why.

10Your time writing blogs, could be better spent writing novels.

And

Yes

That is true.

But like I said this blog for me, is more of a personal diary than anything else. So I write on here when I need to get things off my chest, thoughts down on paper, that sort of thing.

So today I am going to talk about what I learned from finishing my first series.

The Fallen Angels Series contains 2 novellas and 2 novels.

From the get go, I can say without a doubt that I should have just done a trilogy and been done with it.  I think doing that hurt sales and more importantly pissed off readers.

For that I am truly sorry. Lesson learnt.

The second thing that I should have done is learn about the craft of writing more. I am a doer. I jump into something with both feet and only learn how to swim, when am rapidly sinking to the bottom.

I should have taken a few months out just to read books on the wonderful world of craft.

But I didn’t.

Not much I can do about it now.

And last but not least I should have plotted out my story more. At least have some sort of idea, about what my story was about.

Instead I just said to myself, I want to write a story about Angels, and I just did it.

The characters, the plot, the story line, just came as I wrote.

It was  the most pantser’s, pantser’s book that has ever been written.

But a story did come out of it.

Apart from all the negatives above I did some things right.

I stuck to my guns and wrote Two hundred and Ten thousand words.

I found out that if I wrote everyday a book would come.

I didn’t do anything by half measures. I got the best of everything that concerning my books.

From the best editor that suited my style.

From the best cover designer, that bought my dreams alive.

To the best proofreaders, that caught stupid typo’s that I just plain couldn’t see.

I invested everything into those books and for that I can hold my head up high.

It still doesn’t feel real to call myself a author.

But people have officially paid me for my books. So I guess I can.

Do I wish that my first series sold better.

Yes.

Will that stop me from writing another.

No.

Till next time folks

Good Morning

Good Evening

Good Night

Posted
May 2, 2016
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Where am at‏

So…..

I have finally finished my fourth book in my fantasy series Fallen Angels. It took me longer than I would have liked, but the book ended up being longer than I thought.

It topped out at 107K of written words.

That’s a hell of a lot, for a book that was only meant to be 55k at most.

What are the reasons for this?

Well honestly, I wanted to write a fourth and a fifth book. But after finishing the fourth one, which stood at fifty-five thousand it didn’t feel complete. I felt I had a lot of hanging plot that my readers would be angry about if I didn’t just wrap it up. So I thought what the hell and just kept on writing. In doing so, I kind of finished the series.

I have left it semi open, so I could go back to it if I wanted to. But honestly I don’t think I would want to.

That may change in the future. But I have so many ideas that are running through my head of things that I want to write, that it doesn’t make sense putting it off any further. And honestly the books did okay, but it wasn’t as big of a hit as I thought they would have been.

So at the moment, I am going to have one more sweeping pass at it. Then send it off to my editor.

She will have it for the next few weeks or more, and in the mean time while she does that I will be writing my new series.

I don’t want to give the title away. But I will be dipping my toe into the Scifi genre and see how the readers over there like me. It’s my second favourite genre to read in, I will be honest.

Fantasy will always have my heart. And the many sub genres in it. Urban, Superhero, Epic.

But I do like to get my socks off with some Scifi books.

Like I said before, last year there were two books that competed for my number one spot.

The Never Hero- Superhero genre

And

Red Rising- Scifi

When I say I will be writing in scifi, it won’t be hard scifi or space opera. Not my sort of crowd. To techie for me, and I don’t think I’m smart enough to write a solid story in that sort of universe.

No, I’m  talking about books like Omega Force by Jason Burke and Star Splinter by J G Cressey.

My story will be based along those lines, so readers of those sorts of books will be happy.

I would call it low scifi I guess….

It will have plenty of action, more action, fights, kick-ass assassin women and more fights.

Plus shit is going to blow up for no reason!!!

To say that I am excited about writing this story is an understatement. I have been thinking about this universe for so long that, the first book has basically written itself.  All I have to do is put the words on paper. At the moment I am busy plotting it all out, and all the characters have a strong voice.

Thinking about this now, this may become a problem when everyone is trying to compete for page space but I hope that it won’t be.

Man I am excited for this new series, I just hope that I do it justice.

That’s it really.

The last and final book in the Fallen Angels Series will be out July-August time.

And I will be plotting and writing all three books in my new series. Which should take me till the end of the year.

I already have another series which I want out next year. It will be in the superhero genre.

If there where only more than one of me, I could get more than one story at once.

Till next time folks

Good Morning

Good Evening

Good Night

Posted
April 11, 2016
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The highs and lows of writing

I am a very optimistic person, or I would like to think so. I always have a smile on my face and tend to see the sunny side of every situation that I am in. No matter what it is, I believe that you can always grow from the experience that has befallen you. When you can look back on your worst day and learn from it, then you can move on from that pain of the experience.

But writing, boy does it seems to kick you in the teeth. Unless you have skin like a rhino, then you will not last long in this game.  Some of the reviews that you receive can be pretty hurtful, if you let them get to you. Some authors I know don’t even read reviews anymore, they simply flat out refuse to.  But that in itself, I think can harm you a lot more.

When your first starting out, and you don’t have beta readers to highlight where the story lags and where it doesn’t work, reviews can do that for you. Not every review will be helpful, but the ones that tells you what didn’t work for them you can disgust that and use it in your later work.

Reviews like “Rubbish.” With nothing else written, just ignore. As well as any personal attacks, these do not help and can just be met with a shake of the head and move on.  But others that really break down your book, use it to your own advantage so your next book is tighter, stronger, better.

I will admit the above is not easy to do.

Trust me, I know.

It will have you doubting your work, hating everything that you write, and can sometimes led to writers block if you let it. But what I have learned and what works for me, is that once your book is out in the world for people to buy it, you can’t be that attached to it.

If you are a self published author, then you must treat your book like a publisher. If something doesn’t work change it. If a cover is wrong for the genre, that you write, change it. If the story sucks then it may be time to un-publish it and try again.

When you are creating your work of art, treat it like your best friend, lover, soul mate, to get the most out of that book. But once the work is done. It’s done.

Treat it like a brief love affair, then move on. Get what you can from it, experience, knowledge, what works and what didn’t, but once you hit publish.

Thats it!

It really doesn’t belong to you anymore.

I know we all get attached to our work, but getting better at anything is a painful process.
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