In today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* End of the Hiatus
* TinyLetter? Um, No
* About Paid Reviews
* Of Interest
Quotes of the Day
“What is wanted is not the will to believe, but the wish to find out, which is its exact opposite.” Bertrand Russell
“Carry out a random act of kindness, with no expectation of reward.” Princess Diana
End of the Hiatus
I seem unable to stop playing with the Journal. There’s just too much to pass along, whether positive thoughts on writing, interesting posts by other writers, or warnings like the one below on TinyLetter.
So the “hiatus” experiment is over. I’ll figure out some other way to re-establish my fiction-writing habit. As in the past, there will be days when I have nothing to say and nothing to post in “Of Interest,” etc. But I should be here most days.
TinyLetter? Um, No
A few days ago I touted TinyLetter as a simple, no-frills, and possibly good alternative to Mailchimp and some of the other manure spreaders out there.
Turns out the subsidiary is as inept and unnecessarily suspicious as their parent company, Mailchimp.
So I was wrong. I do NOT recommend TinyLetter. I don’t like companies who interrupt the service they exist to provide on a whim and without justification.
I don’t want to go on a rant, so if you want specific details, email me.
About Paid Reviews
From a comment by Truant Librarian (Sue Ann Connaughton) on a Kill Zone post,
“In 2018, I … paid $20 for a service that combed Amazon for the most prolific reviewers in the women’s fiction genre. They sent me 20 email addresses for reviewers and a suggested email to request honest reviews in exchange for a PDF copy of my book. It netted me 7 reviews, which actually were honest opinions, bringing my total number of reviews to 20. I don’t think those reviews in and of themselves led to increased sales, but my listing in the newsletter did produce sales.
“Publishing more books is what produced increased sales for me. Now that I have three books out in my New England Murder Mystery series, sales have revived for the previous mystery titles in my meager backlist. I required the reviewers I got from the review service to state in their reviews that they received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.”
I suggest you read all the comments on that post. There are some good recommendations there on how to get legitimate reviews. The excerpt above is one example.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
See “What a Book Marketing Strategy Really Requires” at https://www.amarketingexpert.com/2022/08/30/breaking-down-what-a-book-marketing-strategy-really-requires/.
See “The Buffet Challenge” at https://deanwesleysmith.com/the-buffet-challenge/. Not for me, but a good example of thinking outside the box for ideas, writing, and promotion.
See “There is a saying” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/there-is-a-saying/. Dystopian story ideas anyone?
See “The Ultimate Guide to Social Media for Writers 2022” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-social-media-for-writers-2022/.
See “Instagram tests new features to give users more control over suggested posts” at https://www.thepassivevoice.com/instagram-tests-new-features-to-give-users-more-control-over-suggested-posts/.
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………………… 500 words
Writing of (novel, tentative title)
Day 1…… XXXX words. Total words to date…… XXXXX
Total fiction words for August……… 13935
Total fiction words for the year………… 66431
Total nonfiction words for August… 21990
Total nonfiction words for the year…… 128230
Total words for the year (fiction and this blog)…… 194661
Calendar Year 2022 Novels to Date…………………… 1
Calendar Year 2021 Novellas to Date……………… 0
Calendar Year 2021 Short Stories to Date… 0
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………………………………… 67
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)………………………………… 8
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)………………… 217
Short story collections……………………………………………… 31
Disclaimer: Along with discussing various aspects of the writing craft, I advocate a technique called Writing Into the Dark. WITD is “the only way” to write, but it is by far the easiest, most liberating, and most fun.