Keep Up!

As I sit on the train on my way back from Newcastle upon Tyne, to my home in Cambridge, travelling via London, I couldn’t help but think that if I wanted to choose one word to describe my status it would be this: DROWNING.

Seriously, what I won’t do is turn this post into a ‘Woe Is Me’ post, because that’s the sort of sentiment that irritates me. Drowning and angry about it makes it sound like it is all someone else’s fault. That would be so very t convenient. So, maybe it isn’t the best description?

The next important word is “No”. How many times have you heard that one. No! Not a chance! You are having a laugh! More to the point, how often have you heard that word uttered by your own lips? The likely answer is “Not often enough.” So I can see you scratching your head and wondering what the hell my ramblings hope to achieve. This is as much for me as it is for anyone else. Perhaps I would like to think that my book characters, Alpha Males and their Females, would like to take me by the shoulders, give me a damn good shaking, tell me to take stock and move forward. Out of the last three weeks, I have spent more time in hotels than I have in my own home. That’s the root cause of it.

I made a promise to myself that I would aim to achieve a work life balance, but it is damned hard. Working in a high pressure industry, where the emphasis is on hitting targets, it becomes far to easy to lose yourself in the endless circle of chasing business knowing that it you don’t, questions will be asked about performance, about ability, and then you might face formal disciplinary procedures for not hitting those targets. It starts a vicious cycle, because your sense of self-worth is affected.

The thing is that I am not just trying to do my job in aforementioned high-pressure industry. I am also trying to write and promote my books. So, in addition to worrying about hitting my targets, I become conscious that I have not been keeping up with the promotional side of being an independent author.

So what is needed, before that spiral into madness takes effect? You guessed it. Use the word “No!” more often. Also, don’t think that you can do everything on your own. Remember the post I did about the importance of family? Well, they might not offer to help, but it doesn’t stop you from, calmly, explaining to them that you need a bit of help. They might not be able to do the promotional stuff, but perhaps they can

help with laundry and housework, so that you have an hour to do that promotional stuff.

From the work front, if you are being drowned under a volume of work, then say so. Knowing your limitations does not make you weak. It makes you sensible. Let’s face it, does your employer want you fit and healthy and working, or do they want you to be off sick with depression as the spiral of despair takes hold? If they thought you were not ‘productive’ before, how much less productive would you be if you were off sick? How would they feel if you had an RTA because you were so tired?

All that promotional stuff? Well pick and choose what you do carefully. Don’t believe those who say you have to do a book tour to be a successful indie. If you only have time for writing a blog post, doing a few tweets over an hour or perhaps an extended Facebook post, then until things improve, restrict your activities that way.

Stop drowning by stepping out of the water.

LINKS TO THE BOOKS BY JO PILSWORTH & THE HUNTER’S ARROW LTD

“Bound”, Volume 1 of The Diaries of the Cŵn Annwn
currently free on Kindle Unlimited
Amazon.com $4.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B016TQFBNY
Amazon.co.uk £3.99: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B016TQFBNY

“Alpha”, Volume 2 of The Diaries of the Cŵn Annwn
Amazon.com $4.99: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ENZ972O
Amazon.co.uk £3.47: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01ENZ972O
Smashwords $4.99: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/631708

“Beta”, Volume 3 of The Diaries of the Cŵn Annwn

Amazon.co.uk: £3.05 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01KB20OL6
Amazon.com: $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KB20OL6#nav-subnav
Smashwords: $3.99 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/660156

The Importance of Family

One of the scathing comments often made about self-published authors is that “only friends and family” will buy your books. In fact, that is why you are not good enough. So, I would ask a question of anyone reading this: in being so dismissive, how many dreams have been burnt to ashes?

I make no bones about it myself. I write my books. They are for sale via Amazon and Smashwords, and I have produced it as a ‘print on demand’ paperback via CreateSpace. A recent discussion in another group asked the question of what was needed in order to consider your book ready for sale. The advice varied from starting with the e-book format, to having the paperback ready as a print on demand to the suggestion that the absolute essentials were to have the e-book, paperback, hardback and audiobook, and be prepared to spend at least six months doing a book tour to independent book shops, having sent posters and mailshots out first.

Whoa, horsey! My husband’s opinion that latter plan was that the list was all very well, but only if you had both time and money. Let’s face it, most budding authors who choose to self-publish have neither. In their absence, you may well have family and friends.

In this day and age of social media, that is how most of us will start things moving. Yes, in an ideal world, you score that big publishing deal, and they do all the promotional stuff for you. And, don’t forget, they take their cut. Even if you were paid an advance, the hard side of business interferes: you will have to sell at least that amount in books before you will receive any more money from your publisher. Think about that. If you received an advance of, say, £5000, that is the value you will need to sell before you are paid again. If you don’t look like you will make money and if your publisher decides that they were wrong about your potential for a return on their investment, you will be dropped. Simple business economics.

In reality, you will be working at least one job, perhaps part-time, but if you have a family to support, then it will be full-time. You have to do your own promotional activities, and that means using all forms of social media, but being able to balance, build up followers and post information on your books without falling foul of the social media spam filters. This is something that has to start before you are ready to publish. You need to build a presence.

So the importance of family. My favourite author, Sherrilyn Kenyon, has a fantastic quote on the subject in her Dark Hunter series.

I have my parents. I have my siblings. I have my husband and son. But then beyond that, I have my co-authors, Tracy Andrews and Donna DeBoard. Then there are others. There is a girl in Dubai, who is a friend of my son. She is the ‘daughter of my heart’. I have other close friends. I have colleagues.

Is it using people to ask them to talk about your book, about your dream? It can be, if suddenly, having not spoken to them in months, suddenly you start talking about your book, about your writing. Even the least cynical person would look in askance at the request that they spread the word.

What we write serves another purpose. It teaches us what is important in life. As Ms Kenyon’s words have encapsulated. Family is more than the ones to whom we are born. Before it is too late, before the only reason for you making contact with those who matter to you is to have them promote your work, start building those bridges.

I would like to sell more books, but I have learnt something very important to date. If I do make more sales, then well and good. I am fortunate in that my books are my dream which I am able to realise. I am fortunate that I don’t have to sell my books to make a living. I am fortunate that I can look at how successful authors like Ms Kenyon, like JK Rowling and all the others have built their words and their stories and learn from them how to write a better story and how to perhaps generate a larger following. But I am even more fortunate because I have found out that my ‘family’ matter even more to me that the sales. And, remember, that family is not just those to whom we are born.

LINKS TO THE BOOKS BY JO PILSWORTH & THE HUNTER’S ARROW LTD

“Beta”, Volume 3 of The Diaries of the Cŵn Annwn

Amazon.co.uk: £3.05 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01KB20OL6
Amazon.com: $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KB20OL6#nav-subnav
Smashwords: $3.99 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/660156

From Little Acorns …

“From little acorns do mighty oak trees grow.” That’s how it goes … plan well, and the plans will pay off. Let’s face it, that’s what most small entrepreneurs intend. I nearly said ‘hope’ just then, but I want this to be about positivity. When someone wishes me good luck, I wonder if they think I can achieve my goal, or do they really just think it is a pipe dream. How many authors are patronised by friends and family, who think their ‘little hobby’ won’t amount to much. I prefer to make my own ‘luck’, so this is as much about the concept of ‘paying it forward’ as anything.

Digital StillCamera — “From little acorns do mighty oaks grow.”

Well, to my mind, there is a technique which is often cited in growing business. Again, this is my experience, but I will say that I am a third-generation salesperson. Ironically, my father didn’t want me to go into sales, but hey ho … Twenty-years later and I am still in sales, albeit medical sales as the day job and book sales in the evenings.

That technique is networking. There have been books written about the process, too many to count, but one things remains. Networking is more than making friends and just paying lip-service to the friendship. If networking is to succeed, then whilst a certain amount of ‘drive’ is needed, make it all about the sales and not about the friendship, and it will fail. People will go off you very quickly if all you do is sell your product/book/service. Therein lies the skill of networking.

The Hunter’s Arrow and the worlds of the Negrescu Cwn Annwn and Anghelescu Hellhounds started from three friends meeting online and realising that they could write stories together which people seemed to like. The start of a network perhaps? Each of us had our own networks of friends, but due to the nature of our writing, we couldn’t feel that we could share everything that we did with all our friends. For example, the first time I shared some stories about a very foul-mouthed character with my cousin, my comment to the other writers in the group was “I’m going to Hell!”.

But, going back to how those networks form. As an author, there are loads of suggestions. I joined the Rave Reviews Book Club (#RRBC), which works on the basis that for our membership we have to buy, read and review at least four books by fellow members each year. Why? It builds sales, it builds reviews, which builds sales etc etc. The whole purpose of networking.

However, sometimes networking is not just about the books, and sometimes it is worth branching out, if for no other reason than you might find the ‘impossible’ birthday present from a sole-trader artist. This was the case with one contact I made: Carly of Carly’s Creative Clay. Her work features as the image at the top of this post and here.

carlys dragon — Large Mother Fire Dragon and Egg Vase

Perhaps it is by dint of enjoying good craftsmanship, and appreciating that if you want good quality work, then it costs. However, sometimes that isn’t always the case, and that’s where artists like Carly come into the equation. I am sure the next question will be “What’s in it for me, in mentioning her?”. Do you recall what I said earlier. Sometimes networks form because there is more than just selling. Sometimes they form because occasionally, even struggling authors like to buy themselves a treat. Sometimes they form because in the same way that I admire Carly’s work, someone else might admire my stories.

It won’t be an overnight thing. That was why I told another author I know that I have a three year plan regarding writing, publishing and selling my books, and I don’t expect to see a return on my investment for three years.

From little acorns do mighty oaks grow. Where there is one dragon, there are many. Carly is a very talented artist, as you can see.

If you love dragons, if you love designs which seem to have their own personality, then I suggest you take a look at her Etsy store.

Perhaps in time, someone else will feature my novels in the same way. Who knows? But that is how it works. Planning and making your own luck. And that concept of paying it forward? Perhaps by doing a favour to someone, whether it is giving an elderly American tourist in Edinburgh Airport a pound coin so he could exit the car-park, or whether it is mentioning a friend’s fantastic designs on my blog … Maybe one day, someone will do something similar, and hey presto! The gateway to sales of my book series might be there, just waiting for the right push.

And, by the way, no money exchanged hands for me to write this post … unless you count the little bowl in the bathroom, the dragon fridge magnet in the kitchen, the little collection of dragon charms on my desk … You get the picture. I like dragons and courtesy of PayPal and ‘clickety-itis’, I have several new additions to my collection. Thank you, Carly.

LINKS TO THE BOOKS BY JO PILSWORTH & THE HUNTER’S ARROW LTD

“Beta”, Volume 3 of The Diaries of the Cŵn Annwn
Amazon.co.uk: £3.05 https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01KB20OL6
Amazon.com: $3.99 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01KB20OL6#nav-subnav
Smashwords: $3.99 https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/660156

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