In Today’s Journal
* Your Morning Serial
* Yesterday and the Day Before
* On Book Covers and Sales Copy
* The Numbers
I haven’t posted a pic for awhile, so….
I’m on the western edge of the Chihuahua Desert. This is the view I have (facing west) each early morning as I leave the Hovel to head up to the house for another cup of coffee. Those are the Whetstone Mountains. Just thought I’d share.
Your Morning Serial
Chapter 16 of The Rise of a Warrior just posted yesterday over on Your Morning Serial.
There’s some good dialogue in that episode and a change of POV or two. If you wonder about things like that, you might take a look.
Yesterday and the Day Before
I spent so much time doing admin stuff on Sunday that by noon I hadn’t written any fiction. Frankly, the story was boring me too. Conscious, critical mind rearing its ugly head.
No, CCM never goes away completely. It only gets quieter and comes around less often. You just learn how to deal with it and keep pushing it down and trusting your characters.
I was frustrated, so instead of fighting that particular monster in that particular moment, I ignored it and opened the Brand Strategist course I signed up for a week or so ago.
I got through their orientation. It contained a lot of crap I don’t need and don’t care about. I’m not 12. I have developed a blood type and I have an actual pulse.
So, for example, I won’t be visiting the student center to sit around chatting about social issues. I want to learn about branding. And I won’t be joining the ‘Societygal club’. I have different plumbing.
Anyway, at the end of the orientation I tried to continue, but they wouldn’t let me until I typed in my name on an Orientation Completion Certificate, then downloaded it. Yeah. It wasn’t optional. It was required.
See, that’s something else I didn’t need. I don’t care for participation trophies. I’m from a generation who enjoys knowing they actually earned what they receive. How does one celebrate standing in one spot and nodding a lot?
If I owned a dartboard, today it would have a new face: a completion certificate. As it is, I’ll print my certificate later and wrap it around a tin can the next time I head out into the desert to practice with my 9 millimeter.
Frankly, I don’t even care about receiving the Brand Strategist Certificate (proving certification) when the course ends. I’m not looking for a job. I just want to learn how to better brand and move my novels, series, sagas, and other writing.
But whatever. At least I was finally able to move into Module 1 of the actual course.
Around three hours later, I’d finished that too. I did actually learn a few things, so that was good.
At that point I was bumping up against the end of my day timewise, but I still felt great, so I clicked Next:
Only to get a pop-up message saying the advanced material begins in Module 2 and it won’t be available for a number of days. Sigh.
The good news is that once they allow me into Module 2, all the other modules for the course (they allege) will be ‘unlocked’ at the same time. That’s what they allege. Weeshull see.
I finally understand why we have such miniscule life spans. Man, this is not my world. Have these people never dealt with a driven, focused student before? One who just wants to learn what they have to offer?
I know, it’s an online course, so they have to key everything to the lowest common denominator, but it’s still &%#@ing annoying.
Anyway, I finally shut down the Hovel, went up to the house, grumped my way through supper and a couple hours’ of TV, then went to bed. So that was the day before yesterday.
Yesterday was a new day, Thank Goodness.
I still wasn’t in the best mood, so on my way to the Hovel I growled at the critical voice that it would sooner sandpaper a bobcat’s butt in a phone booth than mess with me, and it vanished. Yay. Woohoo even.
Wish I could get a certificate for that.
So I filed TNDJ, then finally finally finally went back to the novel.
Alas, I got very little done—so little, in fact, that I’ll take a goose egg for today and include what little I did today in my word count tomorrow—before I received notification that I had to update my computer virus coverage.
After a couple of hours of that, I gave up on the day. That’s why the sun comes up new every morning. Another chance.
Grin. Thanks for playing along.
On Book Covers and Sales Copy
I’m repeating this, kind of, because I know not everybody reads TNDJ every day, and this is important.
First, check out Dean Wesley Smith’s post on Discoverability. It isn’t long.
Here’s the thing: At a bare minimum, your book cover should
- contain art that reflects the appropriate genre,
- contain the title of the book, and
- contain the author name prominently enough to be read in the Amazon (or wherever) thumbnail photo.
And on the back cover of a paperback, and in the description accompanying the ebook, the sales copy should intrigue the reader to buy WITHOUT giving away any plot elements.
If you give away the plot in your description of the book, you will actually cost yourself readers.
Think about it: If you give away the plot, the reader knows the story already, so why should he buy (or read) the book?
Giving away the plot in the sales copy is like telling someone the plot of a film before they’ve seen it.
The experience at Amazon that Dean outlined in his post is probably typical of thousands or even millions of other readers every day.
You wrote the book and uploaded it to Amazon (and I hope, to D2D). Why shoot yourself in the foot with plot-laden sales copy?
And yes, to learn how to write GOOD sales copy (meaning without plot), I strongly recommend you buy Dean’s book, How to Write Fiction Sales Copy.
In case you’re wondering, I don’t get any kind of kickback. I’m just a devotee of common-sense teaching. I also recommend buying the paper edition. Mine is dogeared.
Talk with you again soon.
The Numbers
The Journal………………….. 1070
Mentorship Words…………….. 0
Total Nonfiction…………………. 1070
Writing of Blackwell Ops 53: Jack Striker | The Next Level
Day 1…… 2035 words. To date………… 2035
Day 2…… 2217 words. To date………… 4252
Day 3…… 3751 words. To date………… 8003
Day 4…… 2218 words. To date………… 10221
Fiction for December……………………… 10221
Fiction for 2025…………………………… 764868
Nonfiction for December.………………… 10850
Nonfiction for 2025………………..……… 275980
2025 consumable words………………… 1033279
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 18
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 36
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 122
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 310
Short story collections……………………. 29