Except for writing novels, there are many other ways of making a living through your writing. This is the first of a 3-part series that deals with such ways. It is a guest post by Zake Alfie, a travel blogger and search engine optimization expert in Bestessays.com.au. He is in charge of several online projects and provides consultations on optimization and website promotion. He loves experimenting and finding new SEO tactics.
I’ve always been fascinated by travel writers and even know one (hi, Alexis!) As a professional travel writer, Zake is in a unique position to peel away the hype surrounding the profession and share what being a travel writer is really like!
8 Myths about Being a Travel Writer
Image: freeimages.com
Travel and write. Doesn’t that sound like the best idea, ever? The traveling inspires you to write more. The writing gets you enough money to keep traveling…
I didn’t get much editing done for a few reasons. I’ll be going into those in the sectioned areas, which are going to go from bad to fun distraction to the one victory of the week. Next week is going to be rough because my son has Tuesday off for Election Day and Friday off for Veteran’s Day. On the other hand, I might still get some work done because:
Wife Vs Gravity & Stairs: She Didn’t Win
So, Wednesday saw a little . . . modest . . . Holy fucking shit! My wife was going up the stairs to work and slipped. She broke her fall with her hands like you normally do, but the fall wasn’t the only thing she broke. Distal radius and ulna of her dominant arm, so she’s in a splint and sling until the appointment for the cast. She can’t drive, get herself dressed, open Starbusts, braid her hair (I can’t either and that’s the one fight we’ve had), or sleep in the bed. I’m nursemaid while trying to edit and get work done, which has run the gamut of good and bad. Even with the cast, I’ll have to get her to and from work, which means I’ll be exhausted by the time December hits. Plus side is that I got all, but 2 interviews for Warlord of the Forgotten Agedone for the guest posts. Cover art and final edits remain, which means I can take a hit to some extent.
Still, this means I’m driving my son to the upcoming birthdays instead of being given the time for work. I have to take my wife food shopping too. Probably have to go to Target for clothes that are easier to get her in and out of. Thankfully, I was already the one doing the cooking, laundry, homework with kid, and showers for kid. Seriously, the hardest part is her hair, which she’s incredibly defensive of. To the point where I’m still in trouble for cutting Nyx’s hair in one of the books. For the newcomers, my wife played Nyx in the D&D game and that was her first RPG character ever. I’ve voted that she just leave it alone, but I was denied. All that good will I got from surprising her with a smoothie went right out the window.
Halloween Hijinks
Halloween was supposed to be the only delay since I expected that. Took my son to a Safe Trick-Or-Treat on Monday at the high school, which he had fun at. Didn’t beat the big day that included a parade at school. Trick-or-Treating went very well and lasted for a little over 3 hours. For those who missed the post, he went as Green Lantern. We made a snafu here that went in his favor. My wife carried his pumpkin for the candy, which people put stuff into. They also saw the lantern and didn’t realize it was only a prop. So, about half of the people tried to put more candy in the lantern only to find that it wasn’t possible. They had already dedicated themselves to the move, so he got extra. He’s trying really hard to make it last, but he doesn’t have to worry.
The New One
Want to know a secret? I’m writing this post on Thursday with my new laptop. It’s an Acer with an Intel chip that came out in October. Snazzy and fun and a smaller screen, which I’m okay with. Hardest part is getting used to the new keyboard setup and putting all the programs back on. The power button is right next to the ‘End’ key, which is just asking for chaos. The volume ones are all Fn functions too. Still, it does what I need it to do and I have a 2-year warranty that goes through the store. Means it’s only a drive if something goes wrong instead of mailing it in.
The hardest part has been putting the programs back on. A few of them had product keys that wouldn’t let me install since I had already used them on the lemon. Had to make some calls to get them to work again because it really wasn’t fair that I lose these programs to the situation. One of them was Office, which caught me by surprise since it notified me in the middle of editing a bit. Needless to say, I almost cried. Everything else is working as of this writing and I’ll be giving it a better workout tomorrow. Hoping that I didn’t lose any bookmarks, but all the marketing spots seem to be there. This definitely works as a victory since the debacle is over.
Goals for the week:
Tend to wife and fight urge to use garden hose on her.
Edit Warlord of the Forgotten Age
Apparently make popcorn for hungry wife when done with post.
Vote on Election Day
Drive around when needed
Ask wife if she could read War of Nytefall: Loyalty.
Maybe do biking
Hope I can get more than 2 hours of sleep, which is a trend that started Monday.
This story is expanding. This week, you get a little bit of background on the technology being used along with some advancement of the current plot. I’ve got my end-game in mind, but I think I’m going to take a few more weeks getting there.
If you want to catch up on past installments, you can click on the links below:
Four Years Earlier – Secret Military Facility – Arlington, VA
“Mr. Blaylock, I’ve been getting a bit impatient with the promise of seeing your research. Today better be the day you deliver.” This ominous statement came from General Franklin Winston Butler, an imposing figure named after his father’s two heroes from World War II, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. Butler came from…
We all want reviews and there’s always the one that makes us regret politely asking that people leave reviews. Then we go right back to asking for them because they’re part of the life blood of an author. Reviews are the highs and lows of our adventure, which are becoming harder and harder to come by. Now, the methods of getting reviews are numerous in amount and range all across the morality spectrum. Instead of poking fun at how we get them, I’m going to give some T&C tips about reacting properly. I have to say this is humorous because it’s a topic that people take very seriously. Been there before and don’t have any plans of revisiting that debate again.
Do NOT publicly react to negative reviews even if they get personal. If you have loyal readers then they will handle it, but responding in person tends to create a worse situation than before. Besides, most people will read a review that’s all personal insults and not take it seriously. Unless you start a flame war with the reviewer and begin threatening their loved ones. Do I even have to tell you that such a thing is bad form?
Do NOT copy a 5-star review and post it on your blog in an attempt to show people what you think everyone should do. Post it to say thanks and give the person credit for brightening your day. Holding one review up as the ideal can cause two problems. First, you end up insulting anyone else who gave you a positive review. You know those stars can be changed, right? Second, now you’ll get a bunch of 5-star reviews that are carbon copies of each other and an email from Amazon that your books are being taken down. Oops!
Do NOT send pizza to positive reviewers and gefilte fish to negative reviewers. It can come off as creepy and the second option can be mistaken for an attempt at poisoning, which means the police get involved. Gets even worse if you don’t warn anyone and leave people wondering how you got their address. There’s also that issue of the pizza going bad before it arrives since it might be long-distance. As far as that happening with the gefilte fish, who would really notice?
Do Not tattoo full reviews on your body. You only have so much space and some can be fairly long. Not to mention the creepy factor, especially if you post pictures. Whoever is tattooed on your butt might have some harsh words for you too.
Do be proud of the reviews you earn and take some positive energy from them. At least the good ones. Learn from the negative ones and improve. Wait . . . I don’t think this is a funny one.
Do Not complain to Amazon that somebody gave you a negative review. This might be out of sight of people and maybe you can find a rationale about how it’s a terrible, unfair thing. Yet, it won’t get you anywhere other than a possible warning. On the other hand, you can complain about a positive one and get that wiped out in case you feel like being masochistic.
Do Not write about a review when emotional, which mostly goes for negatives. You will inevitably say something foolish and find yourself spending more time putting out fires than writing a new book. Vent to a friend in private, write poetry that you will never share, and whatever else it takes to calm down before touching social media.
This is a simple post to see what people thought of the 3rd Raven story. Many people said they enjoyed it, which is great. I’ve tried to be different with each volume:
Raven’s Hold was an attempt at supernatural thriller.
Raven’s Gamewas an attempt at the serial killer vs cop.
Raven’s Dawn was an attempt at a cult story where the true villain was a rarity.
The 4th and final volume for next year will be a Monster vs Monster story. I’m still trying to think of a way to do this and who I’m going to be rooting for. Typically, it focuses on humans in the path or sights of the monsters, which means I should probably design one or two central targets. I considered having Dawn by the central, but she’s definitely a character that would lose her appeal if around too often. What if the monsters had a battle near the beginning and wounded themselves enough that they have to get help? I’m just throwing ideas out here, but something is forming.
A big thank you to everyone who read the story and I’m glad you had fun. Part of me is still considering that after the 4th one, I’ll clean them all up, get a cover, and put them on Kindle in 2019 as a cheap bundle. That’s way down the road and depends a lot on where I’m at during that time.
So, what did you think of the latest Dawn adventure and the Monster vs Monster concept?
Welcome animal lovers and the creatures they care for. You’ve found Lisa Burton Radio, the only show on the air that brings you the stars from the books you love. I’m your host, Lisa the robot girl, and my special guest today is Buddy, a South American Degu. “Welcome to the show, Buddy.”
“Hi Lisa. Do you have any nibbles? I like nibbles… Especially cereal. No sugary kinds though, because I’m not allowed sugary foods. My favourite is Shreddies – do you have any Shreddies?”
“Maybe we should start off with exactly what a degu is. My research shows you are in the same family of animals that chinchillas come from. Care to expand on that for us?”
“A degu is a kind of rodent most closely related to guinea pigs. We look a bit like rats with furry tails, but our care needs are more like the care needs…
For many authors, one of the most important goals of writing a story is creating an emotional response in the reader. It covers the entire range from anger to relief to happiness. I’m sure most avid readers have had a moment with a really good book where they had to put it down. Not because it was bad, but they became too sad or anger in regards to a big event. There’s the full intention of going back, but you simply need that break to compose yourself. So, how do you make this connection?
Well, it differs from genre to genre and author to author. The first thing to realize is that there is one rule that truly does go across the board. You will NEVER get the same reaction out of every reader. For example, you have people who love LOTR and have no reaction Boromir’s death. You also have those who love LOTR and tear up when they reach that part. Others laugh because they think he deserved it, a fourth group gets angry, and you could have a fifth for something else entirely. All of these are legitimate reactions to a story event and demonstrates that we’re writing to individuals instead of a hive mentality.
With such a variety of emotions, all an author can really do is try their best to create the reaction they want. You can do it through building up, painting the scene with tension, or whatever tricks work for that scene. In the end, it really does come down to the reader opening themselves to the characters. That whole ‘lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink with a straw’ thing. This okay though because imagine how boring it would be if you could do this perfectly or there was one magical note to hit that would make humanity as a whole react the way you want. Guess there are some out there who would love this shortcut. Still, that’s not how the world works, which means we can only try our best and hope the readers meet us halfway. Possibly even a quarter of the way since they’re aren’t in the planning, writing, and editing stages, but my point is that you can’t force a person to be angry if they don’t feel it.
This is where I should put a tip about pulling this off, but I’m actually at a loss because of the variety. There have been a few deaths and disasters that have caused people to teasingly tell me that I owe them tissues. Yet, I don’t think I did anything out of the ordinary to draw out that emotion. Not on purpose anyway. All I remember is that I got emotional when writing the scenes, so maybe that’s a sign that you’re going in the right direction. It does seem to be harder as the series progresses for some reason. Either people are jumping into the middle or we naturally brace for disaster as a long series moves along. Thank you to all those authors who set the standard of killing off characters the instant the become relatable or beloved.
So, it might be better to open the floor to other authors and readers. What do you do to pass emotion through your works? What do you look for to gain emotion from what you read? Do you think this is a two person job instead of it being solely on one side of the equation?
Hello to all the Story Empire readers, P. H. Solomon here. With the first day of November and the Thanksgiving season, the main holiday buying season is upon us so I’m sharing a few of my latest marketing tools and tips. Read on for a glimpse at some of my latest marketing tools I use, especially for marketing “wide” (meaning beyond Amazon if you’re published elsewhere).
Author Reach Newsletters and marketing seem to be a bit of a challenge for me. I never seem to get the knack of a good newsletter, at least to my mind. So writing a newsletter is always something of a bother, especially when I don’t feel I get my money’s worth out of more expensive services. However, I’ve been using a new service for my email marketing for the last couple of months and I believe I’m getting a lot more out of the…
Legends of Windemere 