Adobe Walls, and Great Marketing Advice

In today’s Journal

* Quote of the Day
* Adobe Walls
* Market Your Work
* Of Interest

Quote of the Day

“A Positive Indie Author/Publisher Mindset — This is the most important factor of all. Once I made the decision (February 17, 2020) to treat my indie writing and publishing as a business, things really changed. It takes time and persistence, but it’s worth it.” Garry Rodgers

Adobe Walls

My wife found a couple of pics of me in and near Adobe Walls. If you’d like to see them, I added them to the Old Promo Pics page on Stanbrough Writes.

Adobe Walls is the fictional name I gave the real ghost town of Charleston Arizona in the short story that gave rise to all the Wes Crowley novels that would follow.

Charleston lies about halfway between Tombstone and Sierra Vista along the west bank of the San Pedro river. It served primarily as the bedroom community for Millville, just across the river, where the ore was processed in stamping mills. Back in the olden days, they’d drop their dead into Dead Man’s Gulch, which flowed into the San Pedro River, which flowed north. At Fairbank a few miles farther north, citizens would fish-out the bodies and bury them.

Clanton Ranch, home of Ike Clanton and the “Cowboys” of the movie Tombstone fame is five miles south of Charleston and about 12 miles west of Tombstone. When they didn’t want to ride all the way into Tombstone, some of the Clanton ranch hands would head for a saloon in Charleston. Not surprisingly, that’s also where Wes Crowley first introduced himself to me.

Market Your Work

Don’t be like me. Market your work. I mentioned in a comment to Maggie K. that there are two books I hear most often mentioned when writers are talking about marketing. Actually, there were three books.

I finally bit the bullet and looked them up. This time I’ll add them to my writer resources over on HarveyStanbrough.com so I don’t lose them again:

The Indie Author Mindset by Adam Croft at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FZ3X349/

The Indie Author Checklist by Adam Croft at https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07NHVFTYZ/

I couldn’t remember the title of the third one, but I suspect it was written by Joanna Penn, and it’s probably one of those shown at https://www.thecreativepenn.com/books/.

Whatever else, once you buy the books you have to actually read them and then apply what you learn. Although some marketing seems to happen by osmosis, learning about marketing doesn’t. I mention this only because when I finally found the first Adam Croft book above, Amazon reminded me I bought it back in September 2018. As far as I can remember, I haven’t read it.

Write like I do, folks. I seriously believe you won’t find a better role model for writing fiction. But when it comes to marketing, don’t be like me. Market your work.

And by the way, if you’re a successful indie author who has found your way in marketing, don’t be like DWS either. Give something back and help the next guy up the ladder. (You can even write a guest post for this Journal if you want.)

Talk with you again soon.

Of Interest

See “Jerry Lee Lewis, Rock Pioneer and ‘Great Balls of Fire’ Singer, Dies at 87” at https://variety.com/2022/music/news/jerry-lee-lewis-dead-singer-great-balls-of-fire-1235415340/. A great overview of his life, rife with story ideas.

See “Courtroom Comedy” at https://killzoneblog.com/2022/07/courtroom-comedy.html. A fun blast from the past.

See “Indie Publishers — Exclusive or Wide?” at https://killzoneblog.com/2022/03/indie-publishers-exclusive-or-wide.html.

See “How To *Easily* Publish On Apple Books” at https://killzoneblog.com/2021/07/how-to-easily-publish-on-apple-books.html.

See “Kobo — A Truly International Indie Publishing Platform” at https://killzoneblog.com/2020/10/kobo-a-truly-international-indie-publishing-platform.html.

See “Top Ten Tips for Amazon eBook Publishing Success” at https://killzoneblog.com/2020/09/top-ten-tips-for-amazon-ebook-publishing-success.html.

See “Workshops Not Ending… Only the Sales” at https://deanwesleysmith.com/workshops-not-ending-only-the-sales/.

The Numbers

The Journal…………………………………… 610 words

Writing of The Stirchians (novel, tentative title)

Day 10… 1330 words. Total words to date…… 28459
Day 10… 2337 words. Total words to date…… 30836

Total fiction words for October……… 39028
Total fiction words for the year………… 159410
Total nonfiction words for October… 20530
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 173750
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 333160

Calendar Year 2022 Novels to Date…………………… 2
Calendar Year 2022 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2022 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 68
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31

Disclaimer: In this Journal, among many other things, I promote Writing Into the Dark. WITD greatly increases productivity and practice, and provides a rapid ascension along the learning curve of Craft. This is not opinion. It is all numbers and facts.