The Big Black Quiet

After it all ends, what is left?

So, my first novel is published. Self-published that is and on Kindle at that. After years of plotting, drafting and (re-)writing my epic young adult fantasy novel is out there...

...among thousands of others. Lost among the white noise. Unnoticed by all, but family and friends. I sold exactly one copy and got perhaps a few hundred Likes on my promotional Facebook page (for which I paid $65). Where is the release party? The interviews? The press releases and the bestseller nod? One month after my ego manifested itself online and my creativity up for sale, there is only a big, black quiet.

Let's put things into perspective. It's not death. Death is the end of a living being - surely not comparable to the mere release of one's creative endeavor? It's not that bad, and in fact I don't experience it as such, either. I'm having fun advertising my book. But it's not easy...

Any author/(self-)publisher will tell you it takes a lot of time and effort to advertise your work once its finished, getting the word out, making some noise and knocking on doors. Admittedly there are a lot of supportive websites that will gladly promote your ebook for free (as long as your book is for free) or have amateur reviewers read your book and post their opinions in blogs and articles. Then there's Twitter and Facebook. Tweet about your book. Build connections with first adopters, who actively are looking for new authors and new stories. Reward new readers with free give-aways, quizzes and Likes on their pages. There is quite frankly a ton of venues to sell your story.

When you don't have a fan base, you need to make connections.

Connection

 by MistoAcrilico

And so that's what I've been doing. On Facebook and Twitter I've been showing off present artwork in the book as well as sneak previews of artwork yet to come. I've run a single Facebook Ad campaign to test the waters and it's quite frankly a lot of fun to do it at first. 

But I'm not committed to accessing all channels of advertisement just yet. After all, the trailer version of the book - now available at Amazon :) - still has its fair share of grammar errors and temporary artwork. I'm drawing the official artwork as we speak and one of my three editors is already finished with checking the manuscript. So when I'm confident that the edition I release is proofed and complete, I will throw myself fully at the advertisement machine and give it its best shot. 

And to keep me really happy in the meantime? Start writing the sequel. That after all is the best way of getting picked up by a publisher/agent: proof that your not just a one-book wonder.

It's Time. My Time.

Today I've decided something important. I've decided to just write the story I want to tell for the last 6 years.

Yes it has been 6 years ago since the Muses started haunting me and I've come a long way. I have plotted all 5 books in my Ælemental series. I have written the first book, redrafted it and redrafted it again. I have started writing the second book. I have done a lot of research on fairy tales, rain forests, Mayans, Aztecs, Toltecs and Incas. I have learned a lot about writing, about rhythm and characters. I have read the most helpful books on writing and telling a good story. I've made drawings. I've invented an alien alphabet. I've kept this blog, started another one and released a tie-in called 'Impulse' on Twitter and Facebook.

But this is not so much about what I've done as what I'm no longer going to do.

I'm not going to:

• 'just' write a story
• write for a specific audience
• try to become the next J.K.Rowling
• write to become a millionaire
• perfect my story until my fingertips bleed
• rush redrafting because people want me to be finished
• include everything I find interesting
• cut out everything except the bare essentials
• have the characters 'come alive' and lead the story
• have the plot hi-jack the characters
• put gimmicks in the book to sell it
• feel bad about blogging, telling people and texting about writing the story

So, Anonymous? Get of my back and crawl back into that miserable little hole you came out of. I am glad for your 'criticism', but grow a pair and take credit for your complaints, cuz anyone can anonymously spout venom without taking the responsibility to use sound arguments.

Writing should be fun. You should not have to deal with pressure of performance. This is not an Olympic event. I'm writing a fictive tale, not a research paper on curing cancer or AIDS. The quality of my writing is not subject to any of the bullet points listed above, because for every rule there are exceptions. Books that break all rules become popular reads all the time. On the other side, I read crappy books all the time as well. I finish them too. I just don't pick up sequels if they're really not worth it. As a reader I can be judgmental. As a writer I cannot. 

I have a story to tell and I need all my concentration to weave that tale well.

So, after money, audience, comparisons with other writers, fame, page counts and attractiveness to publishers have all imploded as motivators due to their lack of substance, I am left with the final (and most subtle until I find the next) hurdle to penning a good yarn: time. I need to write when I can write (Sorry, Mr. King, we're not all as 'dedicated' as you are), at the speed I feel is right and damn those (including myself) who bug me about when they get to hold a copy (Sorry Geoff, Ray, Marcus, Dawn and others, I know you all mean well). This is my brain child and I will deliver her when she's ready, even if it takes me another 6 years.

Ælemental, 12 years in the making. Simon was born back... as was his audience.

And blogging? I'll keep doing that anyway, because it's like therapy to a writer: it clears my head and holds a mirror in front of me, like right now. But that's a story for another time...

Impulse Writing

Follow #Impulse on Twitter now!

So it's 2012 and we all make new year's resolutions, right? One of mine for the new year was to just do it. Whatever I needed to do to get an IT job, vent my creativity or otherwise needed to work off my To-Do list, I just needed to stop faffing around and get cracking. 

Just Do It!
So with regards to Ælemental, this meant get the damn book finished. Last time I had worked on the 4th (and final) draft was back in November 2011! I need to get this book done. Too many people know I'm writing yet too few people have actually seen any results. And I mean, c'mon, there are less interesting works filling up the bookshelves every month. In fact I picked up a book in the YA section the other day, which had an interesting fantasy cover, and not only did it turn out to be more of the same '13 in a dozen' material that has appeared ever since the boy wizard became big, the author had churned out 3 books since I started plotting my series back in 2006!

Naila, our heroine

No More Mr. Lazy Writer
Get your act together and this sucker published. Yet, the attitude is right, but being a father, husband and unemployed IT web designer looking for work does not leave me with much time to sit down, focus and write. After all, without making excuses, I do need at least 4-6 hours to really get into the deep mythological world I've created, with all of it's emotional ups and downs, character and plot developments and keep the editing now consistent. After all: draft 4 is where I turn the 'bullet list' of a book into a smooth read - something that's crucial if I want to stand out over the rest.

Naila's mother

Dedicated Writing Time
'Just doing it' is all nice and dandy when you're drafting your first book, but by the time you get around to the 4th version of your writing, you really need to be able to dedicate all of your attention, be immersed in your story and edit with care. Be that smooth operator, I talked about earlier. Yes, I have to act, but I have to also be smart about it. This means taking a week to clear out my schedule from all the job interviews, social 'catching up's and chores, so I can seriously book my time for the next few weeks and dedicate every breathing moment to my writing.

Naila's warrior father

Start With A Fuse

So where does this leave my momentum? My jazzed enthusiasm to just do it? Well, have you heard of Twitter? :) While I free up my schedule, my mind and my workspace to Ælemental Book 1: The Tree of Life, I can still keep the spark of my Muses going. I can lit that creative fuse leading to the explosive event (of wrapping up, DTPing and self-publishing my first big work) while at the same time remaining within the realm of my vast fantastical microcosm. Enter Naila.

Impulse is a teaser to Ælemental

The kidnappers

Naila is Impulse
Naila is one of the side characters in The Tree of Life, a little girl who helps Sally through the worst of times. Sally of course has been kidnapped and so have other kids all around the world. But this truth holds more secrets than may be apparent at first sight. And so does Naila. In a brief teaser to the main event, I am telling Naila's story through a number of tweets, three of which I am publishing every day for the next ten days. Limited to 140 characters (120 when an image is included) this forces me not only to be concise and tell a lead-in story in it's essence, it also allows me to disconnect quickly, so I don't spend too much time with it.

The Snowy Forest

A Taste of Ælemental

Impulse is not meant to be a full story, worthy of sitting down for, let alone any kind of literary masterpiece, but hopefully it will keep the awareness on Ælemental, while experimenting with Instant Storytelling. I'm not sure if Twitter has ever been used to tell a story, but I kind of like the immediacy of it. It's like a serialized free status update from a person that only exists in our imagination. From a secret world that is opening its door for you to glimpse through. A secretive race within a hidden domain is revealing its secrets in a series of quick tempting flashes.

Mr. Myst

Free is the New Sell
This is truth: offer your creativity for free to get the awareness for your work, so you can sell it later. I'll publish Ælemental as an e-book and charge an acceptable fee for it. If popular enough it might get me a published hard copy as well in the long run. But for now, nothing is more exhilarating and freeing than seeing my imagination come to life immediately and share it instantly with everyone. It is the new business model of our times after all for that same reason. So Impulse will be free to follow and comment upon. Let me know what you think. And to get you started: here are the first 11 chaptweets:

A mysterious helper

Impulse, The Story So Far
C1: Naila hadn't meant 2 start d fire. Rlly, she hadn't. But d flames had leapt off her fingers n on2 d man b4 she could stop them.
C2: Running thru d snow, Naila sucked on her black fingers n smiled. She heard d kidnappers yell bhind her.
C3: Naila stppd bhind a tree n thought of her mom. She missed her. 1 Spark Spell later n her mom appeared.
C4: Naila remembered when her family was whole. Her father, a fierce warrior, had taught her d pwr of fire.
C5: 'No time 4 daydreams,' she reminded herself. D burnt kidnapper n his gang were near!

Friend or foe?

C6: 'Child,' a voice echoed over d white blanket of fine snow. Naila gulped. 'I know yur here. I smell Persia'
C7: D man called Mr. Myst drifted closr until he stood almost nxt 2 Naila. 'We r family, grl. I 2 know fire.'
C8: Naila was terrified. Not only was she alone, an orphan in life. She was also far from the cold city she called home.
C9: 'Psst' Naila heard a voice whspr. Rubbing her skin a soft Ghost Glow appeared of a girl w/ long gold hair.
C10: D ghostly girl image hovered over Naila's wrist. 'Use yur Persian fire pwr 2 distract Mr. Myst.'
C11: 'Gotcha!' cried 1 of d kidnappers, pulling Naila frm hr hiding spot. Naila screamed n went up in flames

Follow 'Impulse' here and let me know what you think of it.