Novel in Progress

[plumboz]

I am beginning, or rather beginning again, an experiment in posting my novel-in-progress in serial style. If you would like to follow The Baer Boys as it grows, please consider this your invitation to come visit Darin, Art and The General.

The Baer Boys

Ooh! And you should know that I haven't figured out how to get the earliest material to the top. Since I posted it first (of course) you have to scroll down to the bottom to find the
prologue. Then back up for the first chapter. If any of you web savvy folks know how I can correct this situation I sure would appreciate it!


Best,
Alan

[khalleron]

deleted

[plumboz]

Originally Posted by khalleron

deleted

Okay.

Well, if you say so.

[khalleron]

Sorry - I deleted it because I realized I was hijacking your thread. I may be high on percocet, but that's no excuse to be impolite.

Mea culpa!

[plumboz]

Originally Posted by khalleron

Sorry - I deleted it because I realized I was hijacking your thread. I may be high on percocet, but that's no excuse to be impolite.

Mea culpa!

No problem. Honestly, it's not like The Baer Boys is turning out to be much of a draw so far!

Best,
Alan

[Steven Lake]

Yeah, I found that I have better feedback if I put my book out on social networking sites than if I just post it on my own. That's one of the biggest reasons I took it down from my site was that barely anybody who was giving me feedback was getting it from there. I think the rate of social networking feedback vs my website was better than 10 to 1. So now all you find is just book info on my site. There's not much reason to keep putting all my effort into that if I'm getting much better response from other sources. So you may find that your blog will have less feedback to you than, oh say here, or feedbooks, or somewhere like that.

[plumboz]

Steve,

I am not really looking for comments/critiques. Just putting the work out there for folks to read and follow if they like. I have spent much time on writers' networking sites and honestly find them to be of relatively little use outside of the social aspect.

Best,
Alan

[Moejoe]

And herein lies the new reality of the web. Blogs aren't visited much any more, individual websites even less, so the likelihood of any of us getting 'followers' through these old methods is very, very slim. Everything is social now. Let me say that once again because it took me a while to realise - EVERYTHING is social.

I visit maybe a handful of sites every day, and I surf maybe a dozen more at random. I do not go to individual web-pages (of even my favourite authors) more than once or twice a month, if that. We independent writers need to start thinking of the social, and not the individual. We need to start forming allegiances and unions of interest that make us stronger in the face of the traditional publishing enemy. Not critiquing circles and review sites that turn into bitchfests and flame wars all too quickly, but real, honest-to-goodness publishing imprints run, owned and maintained by writers.

Find ten writers who are all fantasy authors and start up an imprint. Ten mystery writers and start up another branch. Ten writers of different styles and set up another. Editing duties can be groupsourced amongst the writers, everyone taking a chapter at a time of another writer's work. Marketing is now ten times more effective with ten times more people out there spreading the word. You only need one decent cover artist whose willing to work for shits and giggles, and maybe a percentage when things take off, and you're golden.

Working this writing game alone isn't going to work for many of us much longer. If we're to put up any kind of resistance then there is strength in numbers. There is opportunity within a community. *sings* There is power in a Union **

**Moejoe is a dyed-in-the-wool socialist in many ways and loves the Union's of old that fought against oppressive business owners.

[khalleron]

Originally Posted by Lord Raiden

Yeah, I found that I have better feedback if I put my book out on social networking sites than if I just post it on my own. That's one of the biggest reasons I took it down from my site was that barely anybody who was giving me feedback was getting it from there. I think the rate of social networking feedback vs my website was better than 10 to 1. So now all you find is just book info on my site. There's not much reason to keep putting all my effort into that if I'm getting much better response from other sources. So you may find that your blog will have less feedback to you than, oh say here, or feedbooks, or somewhere like that.

What other sources are you using? What works for you?

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by khalleron

What other sources are you using? What works for you?

I know I'm answering the question, but the best bet is Feedbooks.com I had 12,000 downloads of my short stories in about 7-8 months before I pulled them all and (eventually) gave them all to Mobileread.

There's a lot of traffic on Feedbooks, a lot of iphone/mobile users, and so far it's the best formatted stuff out there.

[Steven Lake]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

And herein lies the new reality of the web. Blogs aren't visited much any more, individual websites even less, so the likelihood of any of us getting 'followers' through these old methods is very, very slim. Everything is social now. Let me say that once again because it took me a while to realise - EVERYTHING is social.

Yeah, that's the new "in thing". Socializing digitally. I've oddly enough found that my website has more or less just turned into an information dump for the socially connected who want to browse for information on my writing, but little else. Most of the main reader contact is through social networking.

Originally Posted by khalleron

What other sources are you using? What works for you?

So far Facebook is the biggest, but MySpace also turns up some nice stuff. Feedbooks and Podiobooks also do some nice numbers for me.