Jeff Haws

Independent author

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Release Plan for “Killing the Immortals”

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Planning

With the Release Day for “Killing the Immortals” fast approaching, I’ve had to shift gears lately from focusing on writing/editing to marketing/publicity. For many authors, this is where shit gets real. “I’m an author, not a marketer” has been the cry from many an author when it comes time to get the word out on their books. And, to be fair, it’s not something that comes naturally for a lot of them, particularly those who didn’t grow up in the social media age and are trying to adjust.

Twenty years ago, the barriers to entry for publishing a book were rather high, and most everyone had to go through a traditional publisher to get their book out there. That also meant going through a literary agent, which meant query letters, rejections, and years of waiting, waiting, waiting. It also meant someone was handling the majority of marketing for you. Your publisher came up with a marketing plan, and you showed up where/when needed. Maybe you did a book signing. Maybe you did a speaking engagement, or a newspaper interview. Whatever it was, your publisher probably lined it up for you.

Today, that landscape has changed. Even if you get a publisher, they only handle so much. Almost no publisher is going to take over your Twitter account; that’s on you. And if you’re self published, you’re everything. I’ve got to not only do it all, but plan it all too. [Read more…] about Release Plan for “Killing the Immortals”

3 Reasons to Join the Curiouser Author Society

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Team

Writing can be a pretty solitary pursuit. Most people are solo authors on their manuscripts. Most will bring in help at the tail end of the project; some may even solicit some advice over the course of the project. But, for the most part, the story is being pulled from some deep, dark part of your brain. Well, mine is deep and dark. Yours might be sunny and bright. Don’t let Negative Nancy here tell you how your pretty little brain should work.

But the process doesn’t have to be as solitary (and whiskey-fueled) as many make it out to be. While you may or may not get explicit help during the course of writing a story, having the support of others — knowing there are people going through the same problems you are, and that are rooting for you to succeed too — can be a great motivating factor toward getting to the finish line. One such option for that support is the Curiouser Author Society, a pay spinoff from Shayla Raquel’s Curiouser Editing site that can provide lots of editing services for your book. The Society is more of a general help site, with an e-newsletter and a (private) Facebook page where the members can interact with Shayla and each other, getting questions answered, offering advice, critiques, and bad jokes (mostly by me).

After several weeks of trying out the Society, I thought it could be worthwhile for more authors to give it a shot. Here are three reasons you might want to consider joining: [Read more…] about 3 Reasons to Join the Curiouser Author Society

3 Lessons From Editing My First Novel

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Lessons 2

Last week, I finally finished the chief revisions on “Killing the Immortals,” nearly four months after I wrote the last words of the rough draft. I have no idea if “Six weeks to write and four months for editing” will be a common occurrence for me (It is my first book, so my experience level is a tad low), but that’s how this one went. So, here we are now, getting near the end, and I’m sort of in reflecting mode on how it’s all gone.

I’ve learned a lot during the past four months about my own writing (I use the word “just” way too damn much) and what’s effective for me when it comes to evaluating what I wrote. It’s not easy to step back from a personal project of this sort of length (88K words), that you put so much work into, and evaluate it fairly, in a way that allows you to actually see the warts, recognize them, root them out, and smash them into a million pieces.

Here are the three biggest lessons I’ve taken away from going through the four-month editing gauntlet with this book: [Read more…] about 3 Lessons From Editing My First Novel

Don’t Fall For These Twitter Distractions

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Twitter 2

In trawling the interwebz yesterday, I ran across a post at the Self Publishing Advice blog by a Swedish indie author named Anna Belfrage discussing whether or not Twitter can be effective as a marketing tool for self-published authors. And, while I’m certainly a novice — considering I haven’t actually published a book yet, “novice” might even be kind — at self publishing, Anna is an admitted novice at Twitter. So, while I can’t say for sure whether Twitter is necessarily effective at marketing self-published books in particular, I can say it’s been an effective tool in marketing for my past two jobs (Yes, I’m a social/content marketer by day, aspiring author by night/weekend, much like a super hero), and I’m fairly confident I can make it work for me in the author world too.

Now, to her credit, Anna does admit to her inexperience with the medium, and she does acknowledge that Twitter helped somewhat, and could probably help more as she grows her following/becomes more comfortable with using it. But you don’t see much of that unless you read to the end, and I’m afraid there’s a decent bit of not-very-good advice and implied advice earlier in the piece. I wanted to address a bit of it here: [Read more…] about Don’t Fall For These Twitter Distractions

Your First Look at the Cover for My Novel

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almost-there-sign

I’d imagine few things make the whole “I’m going to publish a book” thing feel more real than the day you receive your book’s cover from the designer. It’s one of those moments where it starts to come to life, where you see the first artistic vision of the world you created with words.

That’s the step I’ve reached. I’ve been running through some options with my designer, along with a revision or two, and now I’m ready to reveal the cover for my first novel. Take a look below. [Read more…] about Your First Look at the Cover for My Novel