Home-Made And On the Road

When I was a kid in the late 40s–early 50s, Mama made most of my clothes. In fact, she made all my dresses, slips, and nightgowns. I still have a lot of the baby clothes she made. Here's one of my baby dresses.

A closer look. Mama not only made it, she also embroidered it.

 

She made me a lot of sun suits when I was a baby. . . .

 

. . . and when I was a little older.  In the picture below, my cousin Marty and I wear matching sun suits that Mama made us.

I still have Mama's treadle sewing machine, but it hasn't been used for decades. I never learned to sew on it.

I suppose I'm still into homemade stuff. My latest book—Them That Go—an Appalachian coming-of-age novel with paranormal overtones is homemade, if you consider self-publishing (albeit through the services of CreateSpace) as being homemade.

A commercial publisher might send its author on a book tour. A home-made author has to set up her own "tour." My first stop was at the Franklin County Library in late March where I sold some books even though I didn't have as big a turnout as I'd have liked. My second stop was at the Westlake Library, and stories in two lake papers, The Laker Weekly and The Smith Mountain Eagle, gave me some good press. A couple dozen folks turned out to hear me read and talk about the book, and I sold a respectable number of books. Last Saturday, I sold books and talked to folks who stopped by my table at the Franklin County Library. At the public presentations of the Lake Writers anthology, Reflections on Smith Mountain Lake, at the Moneta/SML Library and the Westlake, members of Lake Writers were able to sell their books, so—as one of the editors and a contributor to the anthology—I sold some books there.

And my tour continues. In May, I'll be on the road to the Wytheville Library on May 7 (10 AM-2 PM), the Fincastle Library on May 12 (6 PM), and the Vinton Library on May 14 (11 AM) as part of the Vinton Heritage and Storytelling Festival. If you're in the area, come see me.

If you can't make it to one of my stops on my home-made tour, you can buy my novel on Amazon and at a few local places. While home-made books aren't available in bookstores, you can get Them That Go at Virginia Office Supply in Rocky Mount and The General Store and Southern Roots at Westlake.

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Book Promotion—Maybe

Warning: This post is about book promotion. It will be overwhelming uninteresting to those not actively involved in trying to sell their self-published books—and possibly uninteresting to those folks, too. But I'll throw in some kitty pix.

George is so embarrassed about being exploited that he has to cover his face.

Since I will be self-publishing  Them That Go (my seemingly never-ending-Appalachian-novel-in-perpetual-progress-toward-eventual-self-publication) with CreateSpace in a month or two, I try to keep up with CreateSpace news.  Recently CreateSpaceBlogger posted "New Year's Book Marketing Resolution,"which says, "In 2016 I will do (at least) one thing every day to promote my book(s)."

Then she gives a list. Having self-published my first novel, Patches on the Same Quilt, twice—off-set print runs in 2001 and 2003; CreateSpace version in 2014)—I'm already familiar with these suggestions. A lot of writers conferences I attended stressed some or all of these suggestions.

Chloe checks out the old cover of Patches on the Same Quilt and the new.

Let's see how I shape up according to the list:

• Create or update your Amazon author page

Done that after Ferradiddledumday was published by a small press in 2010. If you click the link above, you can see it.

• Craft or update a short, compelling bio

I have a bunch of bios—short, medium, and long—in a folder on my hard drive. Every year I update some of them. Been doing it for over fifteen years. I keep a long bio on my website. If I'm invited to a presentation, I refer the person who invited me to use anything from this bio she needs to introduce me.

• Create or update a snappy description of your book

Snappy? For a serious novel? Uh, no. Concise, maybe? Here's what I have (so far) for Them That Go, but it's subject to change:

A secret revealed, A mystery solved, A life forever changed

In 1972, seventeen-year-old Annie Caldwell, who has the “gift” of animal communication, wants to be normal, but she’ll settle for being unnoticed. Annie’s brother died in Viet Nam, her mother is depressed and her father drinks. Her only friend is elderly Aint Lulie—who lives in the same holler and who understands the gift because she has one, too: “The first daughter in ever’ other generation has always been blest with a gift, though some think it a curse. Been that way for generations in the Caldwells, Byrnes, and once in a while in the Duffs.”

Aint Lulie also shares family history with Annie, including a mysterious death in the family and how their ancestors came to settle in the mountains: “There’s always been them that go and them that stay in ever’ generation.”

     When a popular local girl goes missing after a school dance, how do Aint Lulie and Annie use their gifts to help solve the mystery?

     Them That Go is an Appalachian novel rich in superstition, folklore, family, and secrets.

• Check all of the above for grammatical errors

Done that—several times.

• Update your headshot

Hmmm. Don't have any recent headshots. Does anyone really want to see how old I've gotten lately? How about a picture of a cute kitty instead? 

I have lots of those. But I think a good picture of the book's cover is in order. Because the book is the important thing. (The cover is still be created. Otherwise, I'd post it.)

• Create a website

Did that back in 2010.

I do need to update my website though, and remove/fix some of the broken links. One of the things I heard at the first writers conference I attended many years ago was that an aspiring author should get www.yourname.com as a domain name (with "yourname" being your author name). And start on a website before the books is even finished.

Another thing I heard long ago at conferences was to start a blog. I forget which literary agent said, "A blog is your column. It proves to the world that you can write." But not long after I heard it, I started this blog.

• Create a Goodreads profile

I didn't find Goodreads all that helpful, so I didn't use it much. It seemed like authors promoting to other authors. I have long since forgotten my Goodreads login info. But there's a page of my books here.

However, there's a good post about "Goodreads for Beginners" that's worth a read on Indies Unlimited.

• Insert a hyperlink to your Amazon page or website in your email signature

Uh, no. When I email someone, it's generally a personal message to someone I know or it's a business email. Neither category is interested in my website info. My friends are already aware of it; businesses don't care. The only exception I make is when someone wants me to do a guest appearance. Then I send the links to avoid having to add a lengthy attachment.

I hate getting emails from friends (and others) with all kinds of advertising info in their signature. Odds are good that I already KNOW their website/blog/Facebook/Twitter? etc. If I'm interested, I'll request it.

• Send a signed book to your college alumni magazine

WTH? Why would the VCU magazine be interested in a self-published book by someone who graduated 49 years ago? VCU already has plenty of big-name authors who either teach there or who graduated from there. A self-published author has little, if any, news appeal. ("I self-published a book" ranks right up there with "I attended community college" or "I shop at Kroger" because ANYBODY can do it. Now, if I could boast that "I sold 987,654,321 copies of my self-published book on the day before I won the lottery," that would be newsworthy.)

• Research local alumni chapters of your alma mater and reach out to them--many have monthly newsletters

I'm pretty sure there aren't any chapters in the Greater Lower Penhook area where I live. I don't think there are any in the whole county.

• Research book clubs near you--then offer to attend the meeting if they choose your book

There are lots of book clubs in the Smith Mountain Lake area. Some decide a year in advance what books they'll be reading. In the past, some read and discussed Patches on the Same Quilt and invited me to the meeting where they were discussing it. But "offering myself to attend the meeting" as some kind of prize, or something. Uh, no. I'll wait to be invited.

• Put a few copies of your book in the trunk of your car--you never know when you'll need them

Self-published authors ALWAYS carry more than just "a few copies" in the trunk. Currently I have a plastic wheeled-backpack filled with books—plastic, so books don't get wet if it rains; wheels, so I can move the thing when I do signings. In the truck, I also have a box of books so I can replenish the supply in the backpack.

However, I won't be "doing at least one thing ever day to promote my book." People get sick of that real fast. And I have a life—and cats that demand attention. I'll promote heavily at first—the first six weeks of so after the book is available—and then I'll slack off.

Other things I won't be doing are covered in my previous post, Book Promotion—Not.  And I don't want to do anything that would embarrass the cats so much they'd go into hiding.

I'd ask the cats for creative promotional ideas, but they're not good at thinking outside the box . . . 

. . . or even outside the basket.

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Book Promotion—NOT

Warning: Opinions about book promotion. Boring if you don't self-publish.
Despite the picture of Arlo (below),  this post has nothing to do with cats.

I'm in the home stretch of finishing what I've come to call my never-ending-Appalachian-novel-in-perpetual-progress-toward-self-publication, so I'm starting to think of ways to promote it. If you're a writer who is thinking of self-publishing, you need to also think about how your book will be promoted. "If you build it, they will come" won't work. A lot of other ways won't work either. 

I've learned from past experience with Patches on the Same Quilt that most ways of promoting a self-published book are pretty much exercises in futility. The best way to promote—at least in my case—is having the book with me when I do a speaking engagement. That's mainly what I'll do with the up-coming book, Them That Go.

Here are some promotions that I won't be using:

1. Chain Letter Forwarding

Recently I was forwarded an email chain letter that contained a poem (think doggerel, here) about what to do in winter (read). 

Given the light-hearted tone of the poem, plus the use of the expression "Woo Hoo!" and the overuse of exclamation points and the title of the book (with an exclamation point!) and the fact that the email was in Comic Sans font, I figured the book was humor, so I actually looked it up on Amazon. (I had to look it up because there was no Amazon link in the email.) I used Amazon's "look inside" feature to read a bit. I stopped reading pretty fast—a child discovering the decaying body of a girl obviously isn't humor. I don't want to read graphic scenes like this that involve children. Given that gruesome scene—and the misleading spam email (in Comic Sans, no less!!!!), I doubt I'll ever read anything by this author. 

Emailing folks you don't personally know—and who might not like your genre—is annoying. See literary agent Janet Reid's recent blogpost, "Who Should Be On Your Mailing List."

2. An Author Page on Facebook

I had some FaceBook pages for earlier books, but I took them down. They didn't seem to do much. Besides, Facebook is where I keep in touch with a variety of friends—former students, people I don't see often, people who share the same likes as I do, other cat-lovers, people with a connection to Appalachia, other writers both well-known and unknown, etc.—people I find interesting. Yeah, I'll mention my book from time to time, but I'm more likely to share a picture of one of my cats. 

I did a bit of research about the use of Author Pages and came to this conclusion: they're a waste of time. Here are some of the sites I looked at:

New Study: Investing in Facebook is a Waste of Time 

Promoting Your Book on Facebook and Twitter is a Total Waste of Time

Here's Why We Stopped Wasting Time on Facebook

Why Facebook Cannot Help You Sell Books

.  . . and there are more, but you get the idea.

3. Twitter and Other Social Media

I rarely use my Twitter account anymore. I find a lot of the tweets I get are basically annoying. Except those from Arjun Basu. Those are usually entertaining. I've never even used Pintarest or Instagram.  Janet Reid's posted about how not to use Twitter with suggestions on how to use it. It's worth a read.

A good blog-post that explains why social media doesn't work is Whimsydark's "Please shut Up: Why self-promotion as an author doesn't work."

4. Author Showcases or Samplers

Recently I've seen several online mentions about a "sampler" book that contains the first 2,500 words of fourteen authors who paid $25 (yes, PAID!!!!) to have their work included in a book that likely no one who doesn't know an included author will fork over $5 for the paperback or 99¢ for the Kindle version. However, the guy who published it also made a free download available, so that's how I happened to read some of it. (I assume he could afford to give it away free because advertisers paid $45 to have their ads included in the back.)

One thing I noticed about the "sampler" was that a variety of genres were represented—from horror to inspirational. And I noticed misspelled words and a few other problems that should have been fixed by editing. I doubt many potential readers will buy a sampler when they can just use Amazon's "look inside" feature for a title that might interest them.

I don't think being associated with an apparently unedited collection of assorted genres makes for effective promotion. I also think that if writers are not paid for a contribution to an anthology-type tome, they at least shouldn't be charged for inclusion. Anyhow—while I occasionally contribute to legit anthologies that are actually edited—I won't be paying my way into something like this.

5. Blatant Self-promotion

From Blogcritics' post, "Blatant Self-Promotion Syndrome": 

Nothing makes my day more than opening an email from someone who I thought was a friend only to be faced with a generic greeting (if there is one at all), followed by information about them and their book that I already knew. Now I’m convinced that the last thing I want to do is to buy their book.

What I will be doing: I'll make some personal appearances at area libraries and other places that offer me a place to sign and sell books or that let me give a presentation. Because of my limited mobility, I won't be going very far, and I'll have to consider venues that have easy handicap access. But I'll be going out where I can meet readers face-to-face. I think that's the best way to promote.

I might use some of the suggestions Whimsydark discusses in "Wait, keep talking: Author Self-Promo That Actually Works." 

And I'll exploit my cats. From time to time, I'll post pictures of my cats with the book. Arlo is already practicing.

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