Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Keys to Being a Successful Author
Keys to Being a Successful Author
By S.E. Smith
I recently gave a presentation at the Romancing the
Capital Convention in Ottawa, Canada that helped to re-enforce what it takes to
be a successful author. The Keys to being a Successful Author are a little more
in-depth than what I’ll be posting in this blog, but they are the essential
foundation to being a successful writer. I’ve had many people ask me what I did
to be successful. Hard work, research, learning, some really great stories, and luck some more are
just a few things that helped me be where I am. Most authors would tell you
they are already doing this! But, it also takes a few additional strategies to
become successful. I’m not going to go into great detail, but I will share what
I told those who attended my workshop what I believe are the Keys to being a
Successful Author.
Stories Ideas are unique and should be! I'm not in the business to tell other people how to write their stories, just that if they do make sure they grab the readers attention. You want to make sure that you are writing in a genre that shows your passion for it. It will come through in your writing. You also need to make sure that your characters, good, bad, or ugly, fit the story and balance each other. Finally, if you are writing a series, start out simple. You do not have to build the entire world in the first book. Whatever rules you put in place need to make sense down the road. Build your worlds slowly, let them grow with your characters.
Write a great story that captures your audience's attention. You need to balance your scenes, descriptions, dialogue, and characters to do that. There is a fine line of giving too much or not enough. I recommend listening to your story being read back to you (you can use the speak command in the Tools if you are using Microsoft Word to do this). It will help you pick up flow issues, too much/not enough information, stilted dialogue, and more.
Use trusted Beta Readers to help you. They love to read and they do it very, very well. They will let you know if something doesn't make sense or if you have 'holes' in your story. The key is to trust them, listen to them, and appreciate their experience as a reader.
This is the business end of being a writer. You are the publishing company. Think smart, look at advertisements on TV, in the papers, in magazines, and think 'How can I do that?' You'll begin to immediately identify different companies branding. You need to think of branding yourself and your books! Also, remember that this is an ongoing experiment. Even the big companies don't have all the marketing answers. That is why they are constantly changing their ads.
Think long term when you start writing. Just like you hopefully don't plan to write one book, it will take time to build your reader base. Slow and steady, using organic growth, is the best way to build and retain your reader base. This is the group that falls in love with you, your characters, and your stories.
Use Social Media! Yes, in this day and age, this is the best way to get your books out their. Look at your own list of 'friends'. Now, multiply that list by having ten other people who 'Like' you. They like your books, your stories, your characters and they are talking about it to all their 'friends' who enjoy the same time of books. Slow and steady is a very good thing.
Remember, I didn't go over everything I presented, but just a few of the basics. Look at your set up as an author and compare it to what I have written on this few slides. If you ask me how I have become successful, here it is. Keeping it simple helps to keep it manageable. There are a lot of sub-categories for each of these and I went into more detail, but if you review your own structure you will see the foundation of what it takes to be a successful author. It takes a lot of hard work, research, learning, some really great stories, and just a bit of luck.
Part of my branding is in my book covers, in my name, how I do my business cards, even down to the colors I use.
About
S. E. Smith
S. E. Smith is a multi-listed New
York Times, USA TODAY and #1 International Amazon Bestselling
author who has always been a romantic and a dreamer. A prolific writer, she has
spent years writing, although it has usually been technical papers for college.
Now, she spends her days and weekends writing and her nights dreaming up new
stories. She enjoys camping and traveling when she is not out on a date with
her favorite romantic guy.
Look for Viper's Defiant Mate: Sarafin Warriors Book 2 coming the end of May 2015.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Do you Believe?
Science. Expanding our frontiers.
As both a scientist and a nerd, I firmly believe that science will solve most of our current problems.
But I also think, it creates unique ones as well.
Take Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). I can see the good in manipulating the code of plants and animals to make them more resistant to disease, to give us higher crop yields, to improve the nutritional value of the crop to eliminate disease in humans. Those are all good, admirable things.
However, scientists know that if one species has an advantage over another, the later species must find a way to adapt and sometimes steal that advantage by pilfering the genetic code. Think antibiotic resistant bacteria.
As both a reader and a writer, I love to explore mostly the down side of technology. And yet I also use technology and science to solve the problems too.
In my upcoming release, I take some pretty scary information on GMOs to create an apocalyptic scenario.
As both a scientist and a nerd, I firmly believe that science will solve most of our current problems.
But I also think, it creates unique ones as well.
Take Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs). I can see the good in manipulating the code of plants and animals to make them more resistant to disease, to give us higher crop yields, to improve the nutritional value of the crop to eliminate disease in humans. Those are all good, admirable things.
However, scientists know that if one species has an advantage over another, the later species must find a way to adapt and sometimes steal that advantage by pilfering the genetic code. Think antibiotic resistant bacteria.
As both a reader and a writer, I love to explore mostly the down side of technology. And yet I also use technology and science to solve the problems too.
In my upcoming release, I take some pretty scary information on GMOs to create an apocalyptic scenario.
Hadean: Threshold of Extinction
Our food isn’t killing us; it’s changing us—turning us into killers.
For decades scientists have used viruses and bacteria to insert rogue genetic code into our food. Now human DNA is mutating. Switches are being flipped. Some will commit suicide; others will become homicidal maniacs.
One family.
A mother in the custody battle of her life.
A college graduate whose experiment foreshadows a grisly future
A teen whose final exam won’t be in English but in survival
Separated by miles.
Desperate to reunite.
When all hell breaks loose, every block is a gauntlet.
In the end, isn't the job of good science fiction to question the status quo?
Monday, April 13, 2015
Interview with Vijaya Schartz (part 2)
How old were you when you finished your first novel? Is that novel published today?
I started a nonfiction book in my twenties but never finished it. Only after I settled down from my travels to write seriously for publication did I start and finish my first novel. Crusader was a labor of love. It took me two years to write it and two more years to polish it to publishable standards. Meanwhile, I was writing the second book, Checkmate. I was in my forties, and yes, that first novel was published eventually, after I wrote three more books and published the fourth book I wrote.
WHITE TIGER, my first novel published with Desert Breeze, Initially stood alone. When DBP offered to republish it after its first publisher closed down their doors and I had the rights back, I rewrote it. It became the first novel of a new series, the CHRONICLES OF KASSOUK.
Are you a full-out plotter? Are you a "let's see what happens" pantser? Or do you think you fall somewhere in between? Describe your process in coming up with and executing a story idea.
Like every fiction writer, I started as a pantser, following the whim of the characters, not knowing where the story would lead me. It's a very enjoyable process and a valid technique for literary fiction... but only if you have all the time in the world to go back and delete half the book then rewrite it, every time you realize you went in a wrong direction or wrote your characters into a corner. If I only have four to six months to write a novel, I cannot afford to go back and rewrite it fifteen times, like I did on my first book. I brainstorm to learn who my characters are, the main plot and the main twists, as well as how it will end. I also brainstorm about the setting, what is likely to happen in that environment, what the dangers are, what the political intrigues, the surrounding conflicts and the action might be. Then I write an outline of about fifteen pages, where each scene has a paragraph. During the writing process, my mind still explores other possibilities, and often I get better ideas and interesting details for the plot and the characters, so I modify my outline accordingly as I write. My main plot line, however, usually remains the same, although nothing is definite until the final draft goes to the editor.
Where do you draw your inspiration from? Is it dreams? Things you see on television or in movies. Books? People you meet?
The sources of my inspiration are many. Sometimes it's a dream, a fleeting idea crossing my mind as I talk with friends, watch a show or read a book. Sometimes a publisher will ask me to write a story in a multi-author series, like in the DBP novellas set on the Borealis space station (BLACK DRAGON - AKIRA'S CHOICE). I work well with specific constraints. Give me a world, a backdrop, and I'll come up with a story and characters that will fit it perfectly. Other times, it starts with a concept, a legend, or a "what if?"
The Chronicles of Kassouk series started with "What if a group of humans crashed on an unknown cold planet, lost their technology, then evolved again from scratch in their new environment. What would their society look like after a few hundred years?" Of course, this is super-simplified. If you read NOAH'S ARK, you'll realize the human ship in question was on a mission to seed a new planet with life, that its motley crew concealed many dangerous secrets on this one-way no-questions-ask voyage, and that their accidental crash was anything but an accident. Each book in the series is also a complete romantic story.
Friday, April 10, 2015
Music For the Sci-Fi Romance Fan
"Modern Folk Music At Its Most Hauntingly Beautiful"
If you need a soundtrack to your science fiction romance reads, check out the dulcet tunes of L.A band SCI-FI ROMANCE.
Based in Los Angeles, the band is singer-songwriter Vance Kotrla, as well as a group of collaborators including Jody Stark (cello), Kurt Bloom (drums), Mr. Mike (drums, art), Johnnie Kotrla (bass), and other wonderful people. The band’s debut album, …and surrender my body to the flames, was released in 2010, and followed up in 2012 by the concept album The Ghost of John Henry. Their most recent release is the EP October, based on classic horror movies and recorded on an old analogue cassette machine.
"Sci-Fi Romance plays folk music. When we’re loud, we’re good and damn loud. When we’re quiet, we’re trying to break your heart."
Sci-Fi Romance is one of my favorite bands. You have got to hear that gorgeous cello. So check them out and listen to them while you read your favorite sci-fi romance novels!
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