How Story Structure Saved My Sanity (and My Writing Career!) by Cathy Bryant

Hello, Katy Lee here. Today I have author, Cathy Bryant visiting the Scribes with some really great info for you! So take it away, Cathy!

Psst. Hey you. Yes, you. Wanna hear a secret? I have oodles of incomplete novels residing in my file cabinets. They started off as great story ideas—stories I was in love with enough to launch myself into the lengthy process of writing a novel . . . um, well . . . at least for the first thirty-thousand words.

So what happened between my optimistic start and the time where I threw my hands up in surrender, snatched up the stacks of finished pages, and crammed them in the dark depths of my desk? Simple. I hit the proverbial brick wall and couldn’t decide where the stories should go next.

For years, the same scenario would play itself out. Dream the story. Attack it with gusto. Write merrily. Hit the wall. (Rinse. Repeat.) Then once my kids were grown and on their own, I decided it was time to get serious. I voraciously studied the craft of writing using the internet, books, online classes—whatever I could get my hands on. Then finally, I found the cure for my ailment . . .

. . . Story structure.

All stories follow a tried-and-true formula (with minor variations). Don’t believe me? I’ll prove it. Read this post, then watch two or three movies—preferably in different genres—to see if you can find these elements included in each of them. And to drive home the point, I’ll also give you a few movie examples. (You can do this with books, but it saves time to watch a two-hour movie instead.)

Part One

-Regular World:

When the story begins, the main character is in his/her normal everyday world. (Examples: Mary is at the wedding of a client in The Wedding Planner; Frodo is in the shire in Lord of the Rings; George Bailey is in Bedford Falls in It’s A Wonderful Life.)

-Opportunity Knocks For A New Life:

The hero/heroine then has an opportunity for a new life. (Examples: Erinpersuades an attorney to give her a job in Erin Brokovich; Robin Williams’ character initiates a plan to see his children in Mrs. Doubtfire.)

Part Two

-Event That Changes the Plan:

Something happens to the main character that changes everything and moves them into the real story. (Examples: A tornado hits Dorothy’s house in The Wizard of Oz; the ship hits an iceberg in Titanic.)

-The Point of No Return (midpoint of the story):

Our hero/heroine must move ahead knowing there is no turning back, with the stakes higher than ever. (Example: In an attempt to gather evidence, Mitch McDeere is forced to hide his activities from both the antagonists and the FBI in The Firm.)

Part Three

-Dark Moment Which Leads to the Final Battle:

The worst of the worst happens, but our hero/heroine has grown throughout the course of the story and is now ready to take on the antagonistic force. (Examples: in almost every romance, this is where boy loses girl, but then goes on to win her back; the oldest son of Mel Gibson’s character dies in The Patriot.)

Resolution & Aftermath:

The biggest scene in the story takes place, followed by the ending scene(s). (Example: Rocky defeats . . . well, depending on the number, you can pick your opponent.) =)

I hope this helps you in your own story-writing and saves your sanity in the process. And who knows? If you’re like me—and have a few dozen stories hidden in your files—it might be time to dust them off and see if we can get past that proverbial brick wall…

 

Cathy Bryant’s first completed novel, TEXAS ROADS, was a 2009 ACFW Genesis finalist. In 2010, Cathy added A PATH LESS TRAVELED to the Miller’s Creek novels, and is currently working on THE WAY OF GRACE, book three in the series. Cathy, a native Texan, recently yanked up her yellow-rose-of-Texas roots to be transplanted with her husband of thirty years to Northwest Arkansas near the world’s cutest grandson. You can find out more about Cathy at www.CatBryant.com or find her on Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you, Cathy for sharing your secret with us. This was just the message I needed to hear today!

 

Readers: Cathy is giving away one copy of A Path Less Traveled for 25 or fewer comments and two eBook giveaways of the same book for more than 25 comments…so start commenting, asking questions, discussing problems in your WIP…you name it, let’s hear it!

*Enter your email in a safe format by 5/21/12 12:00PM ET if you want to be considered. The winner will be announced next Sunday.*

Blast From the Past

Hey, all. Suze here. Guess what? May is the Scribes’ birthday month! We’re going to have some special things going on all month long in honor of our upcoming first anniversary (including some pretty cool giveaways!). Make sure you visit us every day so you don’t miss anything.

Just for fun, I thought I’d repost my very first blog. Hope you enjoy it!

Hi, all.  Susannah Hardy here.  I’m a writer of humorous mysteries set in the fictional resort town of Bonaparte Bay.  I hope you’ll be able to travel there with me soon!

With summer approaching, I was thinking about my own childhood summers in northern New York State, way up by the Canadian border.  I would often spend a day or two with my grandma, Gert.  Gert lived with her second husband in a little converted one room schoolhouse, surrounded by zinnias, peonies (which she called “pineys”), and old-fashioned pink roses.   She always did her housework and gardening in the morning, because after lunch she dropped everything.  She’d make herself a cup of Red Rose tea and put an Archway cookie on a plate, then park herself in her rust-colored velour recliner in front of the television to watch her “stories.”  Now, there was no cable where she lived and she only got a couple of stations, so it was the CBS soap operas for her — The Edge of Night, and Secret Storm, and As the World Turns.

The point is, her stories were important to her, so she scheduled her other activities in such a way that she had time for them.  And that’s a lesson we can all learn as writers.

There are so many demands on our time — families, housework, jobs for those of us still in the traditional workforce — it can seem impossible to eke out even a few minutes to write.   I’m here to tell you, though, that The Dream, whatever The Dream constitutes for you, is never going to come true unless you find time for it.

Notice I didn’t say “make time.”   We’ve all got the same twenty-four hours in the day (at least here on Earth that’s true — you fantasy and sci-fi writers, modify to suit your particular planetary rotation), so there’s no way to make the day magically longer.  However, we can structure our days to include a few hours, or even just a few minutes, to work on our stories.

Maybe you can get up an hour earlier than the rest of your family (easier in the summer than the winter here in the Northeast!).  Maybe you can skip going out to lunch with your co-workers, but instead brown-bag it with your BFF the laptop in an unused office or the local coffee shop.  Maybe you could – gasp! –ask your family to make a simple dinner a couple of nights a week, or put in a load of laundry, or run the vacuum cleaner.   Maybe you could — bigger gasp, possibly resulting in hyperventilation! — limit Facebooking, Tweeting,  Internet surfing, e-mail reading, and/or television watching.  You might just be surprised at how much you can get done in an hour or less of focused effort.  And even small amounts will eventually add up to a completed manuscript.

Take a look at your typical day and see where you can rearrange or delegate some tasks, or delete some time-suckers, to find time for your Stories.  Nobody else will, or can, do it for you.

Till next time,

Susannah

KDP Select and My Three FREE Days Experiment.

Hello Scribe’s readers. What a crazy week and a wild ride I’ve had. First, let me thank everyone who either downloaded SAVAGE CINDERELLA or helped spread the word that it was available for FREE for three days last week. And if you missed out, I’ll be using my two remaining “FREE” days at the beginning of June just before I pull the book down from the KDP Select program to upload it to Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. What does all of this mean? This post might be a bit long, but bear with me and I’ll explain.

Kindle Direct Publishing Select program is available to authors who upload their books to Amazon and agree to exclusively sell only on Amazon for a ninety day period of time. I won’t get into all the details of KDP Select since I’ll be covering it in depth soon on Market or Die with Jennifer Fusco and I want to focus this post on the results of the promotion. In short, one of the perks of being in the Select program is the ability to offer the book for free for up to five days during that ninety day period. The benefits of this are numerous. Allow me to share my experience with you.

On Thursday, April 19^th, I joined fifteen other children’s, middle grade and YA authors who put all of our books for free for that day only. I used the momentum of that promotion and added two more free days for my book. Thanks to the organizational genius and diligence of our “fearless leader” Stacey Juba, the books were listed on dozens of sites that showcase FREE books. Stacey assigned each of us five sites to contact regarding the promotion. That means at least seventy-five sites potentially carried our free promo. It cost us nothing and was very easy and manageable. I also listed my book on the following FREE Book promotion sites:

E-reader News Today, Indie Book List, Pixel of Ink, Free Kindle Books Today, Your Book Authors.com, and Kindle Nation Daily, most of whom kept my book listed on their front pages for the entire three days. It might interest you to know that I had just come off of a ten-day Blog Hop with seventy-four other authors and had the opportunity to promote the event to the dozens of people who “hopped” by my blog to check it out or leave comments. We implemented a massive tweet and FB campaign as well with our social networks. 

My goals for the FREE promotion were as follows:                                                                                     

1)      Increase visibility/discoverability (Top 100 lists)

2)      Expand my readership/reach new readers

3)      Boost sales

4)      Get more reviews (I had only two reviews, both 5 stars before the promo started. This will become important later.)

I was stunned at the results and I’m still floating on the residual effects. Before I started the FREE days, I was feeling a bit discouraged. January, February, and March sales had climbed steadily and I half expected April to continue to climb since I had just released SAVAGE CINDERELLA (SC) in mid-March, thereby expanding my backlist, which should, theoretically increase the sales of all of my books. Not so much. Truth be told, April brought on a big fat stall in sales and I hadn’t sold a book in three days. As of April 18^th I had sold 11 copies of SC on Amazon for the month. My Amazon ranking was somewhere around 80,000. Pitiful, I know! Sales of ON THIN ICE have consistently been good and I was at 58 sales for April. Not bad, but not nearly as good as the previous three months.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up on April 19^th (three hours into the promotion) to 57 downloads and a ranking of 7,842 in the Kindle  Free Store. I watched throughout the day and was mesmerized as I saw the numbers soar. By midnight that night, I had 4,954 downloads and was #89 on the Free Kindle Books list. I’d broken into the TOP 100 list that would gain me the exposure I was looking for.

I won’t bore you with a blow by blow of the numbers over the next few days, but by the time the promotion was over on Sunday morning, SC had 26,688 US downloads, 1,031 in the UK, 76 in Germany, 6 in France, and 1 in Spain (my first Spanish reader!) My book was #7 in the Kindle Free Store. There are other lists that are important to note here. Books are categorized into many sub genres when you list your book on Amazon. Authors get to pick these categories so it’s important to choose wisely. SC stayed in the #1 slot in my categories for the full three days.

The only downside I discovered is that I’ve gotten a few less than stellar reviews which has lowered my starred ranking from a lovely 5 star average to 3.8 stars. This is not an uncommon occurrence according to many indie authors who believe that this is due to the large cross section of readers who may not, in fact ,enjoy the genre but download anything FREE. There is also the belief that anything FREE is of lesser quality and value. 

The upside is that I met all of my goals and exceeded my expectations. Since the promotion ended on Sunday, I’ve sold 120 copies of SC with 45 borrows (for which I will be paid 2.04 each), and 30 copies of ON THIN ICE. HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES has sadly fallen off the radar with only 13 sales this month, and will have its own promotional resuscitation very soon. These are my current stats in the Kindle Paid Store as well as in my categories:

• ·         Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,088 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
  • o    #33 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Children’s Fiction > Literature > Love & Romance
  • o    #45 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Romance > Romantic Suspense
  • o    #49 in Books > Romance > Romantic Suspense

 Overall, a resounding success! It’s likely that the numbers will settle down again over the next days or weeks, but the boost has been encouraging and I am absolutely thrilled with reaching 28,000 potential readers. You couldn’t buy that kind of exposure and it really cost me nothing but a little time and effort. As always, thanks to all of you who continue to support my efforts and make this crazy ride such a blast to share.

 Questions? Comments? Do you appreciate FREE books as much as books you’ve paid for? I’m curious to know.

 

Big numbers and Blog Tours

Since you folks seem to like seeing the numbers, I thought I would give you an update. This is totally in the interest of helping others to see what indie-publishing has to offer and to encourage those who might be considering it. Or maybe this is a deterrent, depending on your expectations. Either way, these numbers reflect my personal experience and are being shared because I consider you all to be my friends. Without your help and support, none of this would be possible. So thanks a million guys!

While preparing to do my taxes (which is as far as I’ve gotten), I was adding up my numbers. Sales numbers that is. I reported back in November that I was pleased with the progress in my indie-publishing journey and that sales of HEAVEN IS FOR HEROES were on a steady path of growth. With the release of ON THIN ICE, and a few promotional efforts through the holidays, I’m happy to say that I’ve met one of my big goals for my first year of publishing. 1,000 books sold!

I’ve often heard the statistic that says most new writers will never sell more than a thousand books. Yikes! So when I heard that statement, I decided that would be my short term goal. I knew that if I could sell a thousand books, I’d be on my way. I originally gave myself a year to do this, but once I started seeing how the numbers climbed on my Amazon sales reports after each blog tour or advertisement that I did, I realized the potential to surpass my goal. It’s been a lot of work, but if I include January sales of 165 books so far, I’ve reached 1,000 books sold in four months! 

I published my first novel on September 24^th, and the second on December 15^th.

Sales have gone something like this:

September:            October:         November:    December:HIFH/OTI January:HIFH/OTI

Amazon      22            13                 198                     239/36                              23/114

BN               7              3                    29                      14/5                                  10/5

Hardcopy   28            39                   40                      14/12                                1/12

Createspace has sold a total of 28 copies in 2011 and 7 in 2012. Smashwords: 42 of HIFH and 59 of OTI since the books were released. In addition there have been 72 free downloads of HIFH and 29 of OTI. I’ve also donated books to libraries and sent out review copies and contest prizes.

Both books have received consistent 4 and 5 star reviews and I’m getting excited e-mails from readers who are looking forward to SAVAGE CINDERELLA in March. I haven’t yet figured the exact revenue from all of these sales because HIFH was up for sale for six weeks at .99 cents which I’m sure, in part, accounted for the boost in sales. I also advertised on Pixel of Ink, The Frugal E-reader, Super E-Reads, and a few free sites.

 I found blog tours more successful than book signings, and cross-promoting with other authors for the Booklovers Buffet to be helpful. Although, at .35 cents a sale at the .99 cent price point, I would have had to sell a heck of a lot of books to make real money. I know I’ve made enough to cover the cost of the first book and some advertising, but my budget is still running in the red. My goal for this year: 10,000 books. That breaks down to about 900 books per month, or 225 books per week, or about 30-40 books a day. Sounds doable when I put it that way, right? I’m hoping the release of SAVAGE CINDERELLA in March puts that goal within reach.

I’m beginning another blog tour this week, and would love for you to drop by and leave comments, tweet, or share my posts to your Face Book pages if you find them interesting or entertaining. You can find out where I’ll be and what I’ll be talking about on my calendar page of my website. I’ll be posting the specific links to my FB Fan page  as soon as I have them. If you want to follow along, just “like” my Facebook page or follow me on twitter @pjsharon. The tour starts this Thursday, Jan. 26^th on Author Eileen Cook’s website where I answer interview questions that will definitely let you all get to know me a little better. Thanks for sharing the journey with me.

Savage Cinderella Cover Reveal

Good morning Scribes fans! Today I’m doing my big cover reveal for my next book, SAVAGE CINDERELLA, due out, March 15^th. I’ve mentioned before that my husband makes my covers so I’ll give you the skinny on how he does it, in case you’re curious.

First, we talk about the book and my vision for what I want the cover to project. Then we peruse the stock photo sites looking for that one picture that screams at both of us, “I’ll tell the story, pick me—pick me!”. I found both the front and back cover photos for  this book at Big Stock Photos. After much research, reading the fine print, and following several discussions on the Indie Romance Ink loop, I realized I didn’t need to pay extended licensing fees on the stock photos for book covers unless I was planning to sell over 5000 print copies or use the photos for merchandising, neither of which seems likely. I can always change the cover later if I need to. So compared to the $300 we spent on Heaven Is For Heroes,

Heaven Is For Heroes

the $100 I spent for On Thin Ice,

On Thin Ice

and the $13.98 I spent on Savage Cinderella, I can safely say I’ve cut my production costs by several hundred percent. That’s what I call a bargain! I can use those savings for editing services or advertising. A learning curve, indeed!

Once I pick out the photos, my husband–the creative genius techspert–takes control of the next step. He downloads a template from CreateSpace that is based on the size of the book (in my case 5.5×8.5). I chose this size because it puts my 80,000 word young adult novels at a manageable width for readers. The print is large and readable, there is adequate white space on the page, and they are distinct from the typical 4.5×6.5 romance novel sized book. Anything I can do to have my books be reader friendly and stand out in the crowd, is a good thing. The spine width is automatically determined by the page count of the book.

Next, he sets up the template on Power Point and starts fitting the photos onto the template and adding the layers of text. I’d love to give you all the specs of step by step processing, but I’ve watched him do it three times now and the details still befuddle me.  He alters coloring as needed, we agonize over fonts for a while, and finally, when it’s as perfect as we can get it, he saves it to a PDF which is the format required by CreateSpace. Voilà! Hubby crops and saves the cover photo as a jpg. or png. file so I can use it for blogs, advertisements and on my website.

So there you have it. Above is the front cover and to the right is the back cover. We’ve added a QR code with a link to my website and Createspace will add the UPC with ISBN number. I’d love your feedback about how you think we did. We’re still learning and are open to constructive criticism so we can keep improving with each cover. I love each of them for different reasons but it’s fun to see the evolution.

My New Love Affair . . . With Evernote

Howdly Doodly, Scriberinos. Suze here. Today, because you’re all close friends and I know I can trust you, I want to tell you a Secret. Don’t spread this around, but I’ve been having an affair. A cyberaffair. I’m in love, I’m in love, and I don’t care who knows it!

Kiss me, you fool!

My new amour is . . . a computer program called Evernote. (Click here to meet my honey). Maybe that sounds like the premise for a science fiction novel, but I assure you it’s very real.

I know some of you are rolling your eyes out there. Suze, you say, Evernote’s been around for a while, as has the Microsoft version, Onenote.  I’ll grant you that. But I didn’t know about it, so it didn’t exist for me, okay?

So what’s Evernote?  It’s a free, very user-friendly program that enables you to organize any project in a coherent, completely portable way.  (There is a paid, upgraded version of Evernote, but for now the free version is working fine for me).  I believe Onenote works basically the same way, but it costs money.  For each project you create a new Notebook, give it a name, and then create Notes within the Notebook.  Here’s an example of how I am using this to organize a future writing project:

I have an idea for a paranormal spoof on a classic novel.  I know I’m not going to get to this project for a few months, but now I have a place to store ideas as they come to me or as I find interesting articles on the web that I think might be useful.  I created a Notebook with the working title of the novel.  Within that Notebook I made a Note where I simply brainstormed ideas.  I made another Note with the Sparknotes (www.sparknotes.com) for the classic novel I plan to spoof.  ‘Cuz, I might not have time to reread the whole book, you understand. I made another Note with the entire text of the classic novel, which is in the public domain and therefore fair game, obtained from Project Gutenberg (www.projectgutenberg.com).  See how this works?  Everything, all in one place. No sticky notes.  No incomprehensible scribblings on the back of a junk mail envelope or the back of my hand.  No headslaps because I’ve forgotten a fabulous idea.  When this novel makes its way to the front of my To-Be-Written queue, I will be ready.

Evernote can work for basically any project.  Are you redecorating your living room?  You can make a Notebook and put all your ideas and a to-buy list in that.  Need a place to organize your recipes?  That could work too.  There’s a cool web clipper that allows you to cut and paste web pages into your Notebooks — no more printing stuff off and sticking it into a to-be-filed pile (or in my case, a never-to-be-filed pile!)

And guess what?  Evernote is accessible from any computer with an internet connection, anywhere. It can synch up with your smart phone, so you can use your phone to take pictures to add to your Notebooks.  I think you can even make audio notes to yourself.  The best part (other than it’s free)?  No backup required, because the information is stored, not on your computer, but out in Cyberia somewhere.  So unless we don’t make it past 12/21/12 in which case you won’t care anyway, you will never lose your hard work.

Trust me when I say I’m no tech goddess.  Up until a year or so ago I could use a computer for basic word processing and web surfing.  I had only a very basic cell phone, and could barely use a digital camera.  I made a conscious decision to get more up to speed with technology, and my skills have grown exponentially since then.  Oh, it still scares me a little.  That scene from Poltergeist where the kid gets sucked into the portal and ends up in the television always lurks in the back of my mind.  And I do still carry a small spiralbound notebook and a pen around with me for those nostalgic, lazy moments.  Just as ebooks will never completely replace physical books for me, Evernote can’t serve all my needs.  But it’s doing a pretty good job, just the same.

What about you?  How do you feel about technology?  What can’t you live without?  How do you use it in your personal and professional lives?  Has it made your existence better … or worse? (How many questions can I pose in one blog?)  Have a fabulous Thursday, everyone!

Writing Interrupted?

Happy New Year! Katy Lee, here. Today I’m wondering how many resolution people are out there? I’ve visited many blogs and sites this week and have read quite a few resolutions (some serious, some hysterically funny), and honestly, I hope they reach them all! (The one who plans to make a million dollars in book sales—Go for it!)

Now, I am all for making a plan, but I am not a resolution person. I know life is filled with too many interruptions for them to stick. For example, I would love to lose twenty pounds, but I keep getting interrupted by breakfast, lunch and dinner. (I do love my food)

But seriously, I would love to make a resolution that this year I am going to complete four novels and sell two of them. It feels great to say, and in fact, having the New Year start today just motivates me more to sit my butt in the chair and get it done. But I know something will come up.

Picture this:

I’m sitting at my computer, writing like crazy. The thoughts are flowing too fast for my fingers to type. I am in the zone, and then, Bam! My son is sick. I am ripped out of my chair and all production stops for seven to ten days. (That’s what happened this week.)

After taking care of that interruption, I crack my knuckles and get back in the chair. My fingers begin to fly again; gradually I return to the zone, and then I swear not fifteen minutes go by when my husband calls, “What’s for dinner?” “The phone is for you.” “The kids need a bath.” “What’s for dinner?”

Oh, yeah, and let’s not forget the big 10 day interruption this year… “The Power’s out!”

Anyway, after jumping up and down, up and down, I’m lucky if I can get a line or two in before the next interruption.

I’ll be honest, many times I just want to throw in the towel and say forget it, and I’m sure that’s how a lot of resolutions get forgotten. Plans get interrupted. It’s not that we want to fail. I mean, seriously, who sets out to fail? And, I don’t know about you, but I can start to feel a bit resentful when I think I have.

I don’t like that feeling.

Writing is something that makes me happy, and I want to keep it that way. So, I suppose the only resolution I have is to make sure I keep my writing enjoyable through all of life’s interruptions. I understand that not everyone has the luxury to write to their heart’s content, and even some who do, choose to take their writing slow. In fact, I read somewhere that J.K. Rowling likes to write at a snail’s pace. She savors the process like a warm cuppa tea.

I also understand that each of my interruptions is food for my stories, so instead of taking out my anger, I take notes.

The Unlocked Secret:  Keep your writing enjoyable, even if you’re only savoring one line a day. Don’t get resentful about your responsibilities and interruptions. Complete them, learn from them, and use them. They’ll only make your stories stronger. And, whatever you do, don’t throw in the towel just because life throws you a curveball. Even though every day is not a New Year, it is a new day.

Question: So, go ahead, spill. Do you have a resolution this year? I do love to hear them.

A Sense of Impending Doomsday

Greetings and Happy Solstice, my friends!  Suze here.  Yup, it’s the shortest day of 2011.  What you might not have realized, and you’ll thank me for telling you this, is that it might also be the first day of the last year of your life.  

This poor guy does NOT look comfortable

Wait, wait, wait.  I’m not trying to jinx myself or anyone else.  But unless you’ve been living a hermit’s existence somewhere, you must have heard about December 21, 2012.  As in the day the Mayan Long Count Calendar ends.   (If you haven’t read Jessica Andersen’s Nightkeepers series, do it while there’s still time!  Click here for a link to our interview with Doc Jess earlier this week)

Terence McKenna analyzed the Chinese I-Ching and found patterns suggesting that the world will end on, you guessed it, December 21, 2012.

The Web Bot project, which involves a lot of spiders crawling the web searching for keywords, and which supposedly taps into humanity’s collective unconscious, predicts a cataclysmic event on that date.

Back in the 12th century, the Irish St. Malachy predicted that there will be only one more Pope after the current Pope, Benedict XVI (the new, last guy’s name will be Peter, by the way).

Admit it.  It freaks you out, just a little.  Or maybe a lot.  I don’t really believe it, but . . . what if?

If this really were the last year you had on earth, how would you spend it?  I’m talking about a bucket list, here, distilled down to its most basic elements.   Not: I want to skinny dip in a champagne fountain with Johnny Depp.  (Although if you’re able to manage that, this Scribe wants to hear the details!)  For me, I plan to focus on just a few things:  getting and staying physically healthy, eradicating negative thoughts that hold me back, loving my family and friends, and selling at least one of my novels.  That’s it.  If the world ends a year from now and I’ve stayed true to this vision, I’ll be kind of OK with being annihilated.

Now, please don’t go out and max out your credit cards, figuring if you time it correctly you won’t have to pay any of the money back.  I’m pretty, kinda sure we’re gonna make it.

Proof that some men can wear anything and still look hot . . .

And now, because I want to leave you on a happy note, I think today would be a good Gratuitous Hunk day, don’t you? We deserve it!  You can’t reach into the Scribes’ candy dish, but you can enjoy some dishy eye-candy.  Have a blessed December, whatever your beliefs.

Care to share?  Tell us what you want from 2012.  Maybe we’ll check in with you half way through the year, just to make sure we’re all on track!

One Month From Now….

Happy Friday everyone! Casey Wyatt here.

One quick note - unpublished writers - it’s not too late to enter CTRWA’s The Write Stuff Contest. The deadline is December 5th. In addition to receiving feedback from experienced contest judges, this contest awards cash prizes to the winners!

And fans of the Scribes – we need your help. If you enjoy our blog, please nominate us for The 6th Annual Top 10 Blogs for Writers Contest - here. Please leave a comment and our link (otherwise your vote doesn’t count!). Thank you for your support.

Yup, I sold this book!

Last year around this time, I completed my first NaNo novel. It clocked in at around 80,000 words. Little did I know then, that the book would be sold and slated for publication by January 2012.

If future me got into a time machine, came back and told 2010 me, I know I wouldn’t have believed it. (I’d probably yell at my future self not to mess up the space-time continuum!).

I still kinda of don’t believe it!

Why?

There are several reasons, the biggest is that I’ve heard “no thanks” so many times, that when I got a big fat YES, I thought the editor must have made a mistake. And it seemed too good to be true.

I can’t blame my little buddy the Doubt Monster for that reaction. Disbelief is vintage me.  When I made the decision to sell the book to Soul Mate Publishing (after I did my research and some soul-searching), in the end, I still kept the sale a secret for several weeks.

Why didn’t I shout it from the roof tops? This is what I’d been working toward. Right?

Because I’m really cautious about good news. Over the years, I’ve developed a bit of a paranoia – that for every piece of good news, bad things will follow. Sadly, this was the case. Two weeks after the offer,  my beloved Oreo died (the third pet death in my house in less than a year). ”See?” The paranoid side of my brain said, “I was right!“

Last week, I learned my release date. First reaction? You guessed it. Keep it a secret. Then I remembered publishing is a business. I wasn’t doing myself any favors holding back. So last week on my blog, I revealed the date.

So far, lightning hasn’t struck my house (geesh, why did I say that??).

I participated in NaNo this year. Like last year, I walked away with another completed novel. I also finished a book in July (did Suze’s double dog dare). Two books in one year isn’t too shabby.  And I will be seeking publication for both of them.

Here’s my promise to you – When I make another sale, I will be sure to share it with you all this time! No more paranoia!

So one month from now, Mystic Ink will be available for purchase. Don’t worry, I’ll remind you!

Bottom line here – Celebrate success! Accept that bad things will happen to you (in life – no escapes unscathed). Don’t let anything stop you from pursuing your goals.

Where were you a year ago? Imagine your success – Where would like to be a year from today?

My “Visibility Experiment”

Every day since I began writing toward publication, I’ve sat down to my computer, rubbed my palms together in preparation, and stated the affirmation, “I am an excellent writer. I am a bestselling author.” That was six years ago when I was a decent writer with a lot to learn, and the idea of being a bestselling author seemed miles away. But I’m a firm believer in the power of affirmations. When I hit the Kindle top 100 list yesterday, I thought, Holy cow! I did it! After a moment of grinning like a loon and jumping up and down, I came back to reality and looked at what that really meant and analyzed how it happened overnight.

As I mentioned last week, one of the key ingredients to achieving my goals is to create visibility. I spend a lot of time on Indie Romance Ink, a yahoo group where indie authors share ideas and information about all things indie. I also follow WG2E (Writer’s Guide to E-publishing) blog site where numbers are reported, analyzed and manipulated on a daily basis through creating a solid backlist of products and precise placement of advertising. D.D. Scott wrote an excellent blog on the importance of creating visibility and talked about bestseller lists and what they mean. View her blog here.

 I’ve been hearing for months about review sites, promotional opportunities, and what has worked for others. The candid communication and exchange of information on WG2E, IRI, WANA Minions and YARWA has been incredible–thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. So I decided to take what I’ve learned and do my own Visibility Experiment.

 Two of the promotional opportunities that are frequently mentioned are Pixel Of Ink and Kindle Nation Daily. Both are paid advertisements, but have reportedly garnered excellent results for many authors. When I finally decided to pay for the Pixel Of Ink spotlight ($119 for a one day ad), I knew I was taking a leap of faith. I had lowered the price of Heaven Is For Heroes to .99 cents and figured that I would have to sell 340 books to recoup the cost of the ad. I had no epectation that this might actually happen, but I was hopeful. I was also taking into account the long term effects of this kind of visibility and how the added exposure would fit into my overall marketing plan for the next month during my release of ON THIN ICE. I decided the cost was worth it, even if I didn’t make back my cash investment right away.

When the ad went live at 2:00 Sunday afternoon and stayed up through 2:00 on Cyber Monday, I was blown away by my results. I didn’t sell enough in one day to pay for my ad, but I did sell 170 e-books in twenty-four hours, which propelled me to #68 in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Fiction > Genre Fiction > Romance > Contemporary. Technically, being in the top 100 on any list puts me in the bestseller category, but THE top 100 in the Kindle paid store is a bit tougher to achieve. I would need to sell about 300 books in a day to get there, and staying there is the real trick. After the Pixel Of Ink ad came down today, sales went back to just above their normal trickle and my overall ranking in the Kindle paid store rapidly dropped from #638 to #1,219—still nothing to sneeze at in the bigger pool of 750,000 e-books. Was a day on the best seller list worth the $119 investment? You bet! Heaven Is For Heroes was viewed by about 80, 000 readers. That kind of visibility is bound to create momentum for my next book. I’ll be saving my pennies for a Kindle Nation Daily ad (about $199) in the near future and I’m not stopping there. I have a blog tour scheduled, (My first appearance is today at http://clovercheryl.blogspot.com/ where you can meet my main character, Penny from On Thin Ice). Beginning December 4th, I’ll be participating in a Blog Hop with several other authors, and I’m part of a Book Lovers Buffet .99 e-book blowout–all scheduled for December.

To further create visibility, I’m taking yet another page from Jennifer Fusco, Market Or Die guru, and working with other authors to cross promote. Starting this Friday, I’ll be giving up my personal blog through my Blogger site and joining four awesome indie YA authors at www.yabeyond.com. We go live December 1st. I’m excited for the opportunity to blog every Friday about Healthy Teen Tips, while my new grog partners cover topics like music and movies, dating, love, school, and all things YA. Cool, huh? I’m hoping to reach out to my target audience and really start using my knowledge about health and fitness to make a difference in the lives of teens. No worries, I’ll still be here every Tuesday passing along writing and publishing secrets to all of you wonderful Scribes followers.

Everything is slowly falling into place and I owe so many thanks for help along the way, I wouldn’t know where to begin, but one thing I do know, is that setting goals is the first step to any good marketing plan and that believing in yourself is an essential ingredient in achieving your dreams. Here’s to getting on and staying on the Kindle Top 100 list.

Sharing your goals can help you by holding you accountable. It can also help others by motivating them and giving them ideas. As December knocks on your door, have you set any goals for the first quarter of 2012? Any ideas about increasing your visibility?