Self-Publishing Observations #1: First Book's first week

One of my main strategies, especially in artistic projects, is creating a plan that involves a lot of improvisation. I enjoy painting myself into a corner, then figuring out how to write my way out of it.

Solving these puzzles for myself is not merely entertaining and satisfying. Learning things "the hard way" gives a broader experience and a deeper understanding of the situation, giving me new and different ways to solve future problems.

In short, Failing is part of my path to Success.

While dozens of people have given me publishing advice, whether I wanted it or not, very few of them actually had any experience in writing or self-publishing. I looked at other self-publishing bloggers for general tips, but I'm still interested in doing thing my own stubborn way just to see what happens, and find out what I can learn from it.

So, before completing my first novel, I hastily put together a short ebook compiling three of my published articled as a test run, to work the kinks out before my first novel is ready for publication.

Page Views for my eBook after release on 7th.

Pre-Release Promotion for new ebooks is highly recommended by several successful self-publishers. So, I didn't. You can imagine my surprise when I learned my ebook got over 1,200 page views the first day it was published. While that only translated to 6 downloads, it was interesting to learn that as a first-time self-publisher, with no social media promotion, and with a quick-and-dirty  home-made book cover, I still got over a thousand people to click on my bookshelf. That was a valuable lesson.

Downloads per day for my eBook after release on 7th.

While not very many of those 1,200 page-clicks ended up downloading my free ebook, it gives me a benchmark to improve upon. Since I consider this first compilation ebook as a "loss leader," and a way to promote the books spawning from those articles, the information I learn from it is more valuable than mere downloads. And as I launch different promotional campaigns for this book, as well as later books, it will be interesting to see how downloads are effected.

A Brief History of covering up Child Abuse

Somebody recently asked about what history articles I plan on writing in the future.

My first full-length book, nearly completed, is a “True Crime” novel about a group of corrupt police officers who embezzled evidence, and then, after I tried reporting this, Conspired to Obstruct Justice after several officers watched a car run me over in a crosswalk.

Around that same time, this same police department was harassing my disabled brother so severely that he never wanted to leave the house the last twelve years before he died, I believe these two facts are related, since my brother begged me several times over the years not to pursue legal action against the embezzling police department that filed false police reports to protect the hit-and-run driver from prosecution.

There is a lot more to this story than that, which is why I have been writing it into a book. Over the years, several people have argued with me about the veracity of my claims by telling me:

“But they aren't supposed to do that,” or: “But I can't imagine anybody doing something like that.”

While both of these statements are mostly true, having somebody keep interrupting me, over and over again, to refute my claims goes beyond the mere insult of suggesting I am a liar. The bigger problem is that these people, perhaps unwittingly, are helping and encouraging corrupt people abusing their authority.

And these corrupt people in authority count on their constituency protecting them by closing their eyes and minds by proclaiming, “But they aren't supposed to do that.”

This isn't the first time I have observed this phenomenon.

As a child growing up in Utah, I encountered a group of multi-generational child abusers. Meaning, the cruel grandmother bullied her children and step-children into conforming with her malignant narcissism, and they, in turn, repeated this cruelty on their own children - and other people's children, as well. And so on...

Several members of this family have demonstrated their complete lack of empathy, their inability to admit mistakes, and an insane victim-blaming: "You CHOSE this to 'happen to' you, and I'm not responsible for your decisions!" They excuse their own behavior, from Fraud to Child Abuse, by insisting their victims chose to be abused.

Of course, grown-ups aren't supposed to do that to children. But that doesn't mean I'm just making everything up. 

Not surprisingly, one of this group got onto the FBI's Most Wanted list for blowing up power lines as an Extortion scheme, and both of his brothers ran a skin care company charged with “pump-and-dump” stock fraud. But those investors chose to get defrauded, it seems.

I realize it is difficult for sane, rational people to imagine a child saying, "Please stop! You are hurting me," only to be told, "Well, you CHOOSE to feel that way, and I'm not responsible for your feelings!" It is even harder to imagine a group of people telling that to a child begging for their abuse to stop.

When I have tried explaining what I have observed, people's brains short-circuit, and they will tell me, over and over again, "But why would they do that? I can't imagine a person acting that way!" But when I say, "That isn't even the worst part - let me finish what I started trying to tell you," their overloaded brains simply can't process any more information, and they keep asking, "Why would anybody do that?"

It is hard to imagine somebody who is both a psychologist and a church leader telling a child that they deserve to be abused because that child CHOSE to become possessed by evil spirits. 

It is hard to imagine somebody writing children's books who also believes abused children choose their feelings. It is even harder to believe they would actually write that type of "grooming behavior" into one of their children's books. 

It is hard to imagine anybody choosing to act so hurtfully without remorse. It is even harder to believe an entire group of people helping each other abuse children this way, and telling abused children, "You Chose this to 'happen to' you, and we are not resonsible for your feelings!"

While this may seem hard to believe, there is a long history of this sort of abuse-and-cover-up. History is known to repeat itself, but I plan on naming names in my book to help stop this Cycle of Abuse. Two members of this group already told me they could shoot me in the head and make it look like a suicide, but that will not stop me from exposing them.

That is just the kind of Historian that I am.

History is written by Winners - and Historians

Everybody is born into this world with their own tool box, their own assortment of different abilities and potentials. Some people let their tools get rusty, while others hone theirs.

'Landmark by day, Beacon by night'

On rare occasions, with hard work, new skill sets can be uncovered - or created.

While I have always seen myself as a sci-fi writer, it turns out I have a talent for writing History. My amazing Journalism instructor, Anne Belden, helped me realize this through her Magazine Writing class. Or, more specifically, she encouraged my work, and kept inspiring me work harder, until I got my first paid article published - as a Sci-Fi historian.

Researching that article about Frank Herbert's early photojournalism career required months of microfilm research, scanning each article and photo for his name in the byline. My research uncovered enough material for a book, Frank Herbert's Lost Archives, Vol. 1.

That first small success led to my second published article, then a third and fourth. It also led me to research Jack London's near-forgotten science fiction works. That, also, led me to more microfilm research.

I moved away from Sonoma County to work on my writing, specifically my sci-fi, my screenplays, and my sci-fi screenplays. I ended up getting freelance writing assignment for the local newspaper, which had a habit of becoming "Wild West" history articles.

My latest newspaper article "Centennial Tower Dedicated" covers the dedication of Elko's Centennial Tower. While this was a "news" article, it also dipped into the history of what happened here a hundred years ago - and earlier.

As it turns out, I have a talent for uncovering forgotten tidbits in public records, that anybody else could have discovered first, and people tell me I am good at writing my historical articles in an approachable way. That was never my goal, but something that evolved from years of hard work.

Looking back, it makes sense that I accidentally became a Historian. After all, writing about the past is a form of time-travelling, and science-fiction is just another type of history.

Slow, steady progress

Years ago, right after I go my Journalism degree, and right after my brother died, I took the job that was offered to me, at a factory making frozen dinners. It was a very rough patch in my life, working six days a week to pay rent on the house where I had taken care of my brother for the last 15 years.

Our graveyard shift had two paid fifteen minute beaks each day, along with our unpaid thirty minute lunch breaks. Since successful writing typically involves making a habit of setting aside a time and place to write, I decided to turn my breaks into mini writing sessions. Our break room was fairly quiet, since most of my co-workers took naps during our breaks.

I kept a notebook in my lunchbox, and brought sci-fi paperbacks to adapt into  screenplays. Later, after learning the authors I was adapting had been influenced by Carl Jung's archetypes, I studied his books that I got from my local used bookstore.

Slowly, steadily, I chipped away at several larger projects in fifteen-minute increments. But even more important than my progress was the fact that I was transforming myself from somebody with a notebook into a Writer. Despite all the grey clouds in my life, I focused on the silver lining: I was getting paid three hours a week to work on my writing.

This change in my mindset might seem minor, but because I kept working under this new mindset, day after day, it began affecting me positively. Perhaps it was my Subconscious picking up on my newly synchronized thoughts and deeds. Or maybe it was my Higher Self, or my Guardian Angel, or even the mystical Lady of the Library herself taking notice of my humble efforts.

Whatever internal or external forces were transforming me, I got my first professional article published while working at that factory, and then my second. 

On Friday I published my first eBook compiling my first published articles, about sci-fi writers who had lived in that county, including Jack London, Frank Herbert, and Philip K Dick.

On Sunday morning my new book had 8 downloads. This morning it had 15 downloads. While that number, in itself, isn't very large, it represent many more downloads than I had just a week ago.

Slowly, steadily, the number of people reading my books will increase. Slowly, steadily, the number of books I have finished will increase. Slowly, steadily I will get paid more than three hours a week to work on my writing.

Slow, steady progress created my collection of notebooks.

My first eBook availalbe for FREE download

I published my first eBook yesterday, in time to promote it today at the winter festival. I will probably be changing my eBook's "cover" in the near future, but I wanted to make it available today.

Like my grandfather used to say, "A workable plan today is better than a perfect plan next week."

My first eBook combines three of my "Sci-Fi History" articles written for North Bay Bohemian, and also promotes several of my upcoming books, including Frank Herbert's Lost Archives, which compiles his pre-fame photojournalism, and a book about Jack London's near-forgotten sci-fi works, and his influence on today's writers of sci-fi and sword-and-sorcery.

Download my Free eBook:
https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/766141

The Harder I Work, The Luckier I Get

My grandfathers were both full of wise sayings and silly jokes, and as a child it was sometimes hard to tell the difference. Sometimes they would twist an old cliche expression into having a different meaning, or into a joke, by saying it backwards or by changing key words.

So, when my trickster grandfather told me, "The harder I work, the luckier I get," I assumed he was making a joke, or spoofing some other quote.

Then a couple years ago, my Screen Writing teacher told us that College Newspaper classes would get us into the habit of completing articles on a deadline. I joined the newspaper right after a campus cop got embezzling parking meter money, and I followed his trial for three semesters. I also wrote at least one article for each issue, and tried covering every type of story, with movie reviews, news, sports, editorials, photo features, business, and history.

I ended up getting three news writing awards for my trial coverage, but only because I spent hours taking notes at dozens of hearings over the months. It was a lot of work getting court articles up online the same day, but I considered myself lucky to join the newspaper at the same time as the college's Trial of the Century. I was also lucky in finding a great teacher, whose Magazine Writing class changed my life.

This led to my first professionally published article, in North Bay Bohemian, based on several months worth of microfilm research into Frank Herbert's photojournalism for the Santa Rosa Press Democrat from 1949 to 1953 before writing Dune. My Journalism class visited the Press Democrat on a field trip, where I first spoke to the Editor about compiling Herbert's lost archive of news articles. My hard work researching, luckily, uncovered enough material for a book. (currently at #2 on my To-Do list)

This first article led to a second article, about another sci-fi writer who had lived in Sonoma County, Philip K Dick. This ended up being the Bohemian cover story for their Sept. 30, 2015 issue. When it finally got printed, I handed out copies to all my friends at the local pub. A young lady I never met before asked me for my secret, what catch-phrase or grovelling I had emailed the editor to convince him to put my article on the cover of their weekly magazine.

I thought about it and said, "Well, part of my secret was this wasn't the first article I wrote for them. And for that first article, my email to the editor said I had a Journalism degree and three news writing awards for courtroom coverage of a local high-profile trial."

She looked crestfallen. "Oh." She realized my "secret" to getting my article on the cover was that I had paid my dues, that I did lots of hard, boring work for a long time. My secret was I had worked hard to get my lucky break.

Although I'm nearly finished with my first draft of my "True Crime" novel, I took a short break setting up social media, like this blog, for its pre-release. That put me into a position I have long avoided, to write regularly for something besides my regular writing. It seems inefficient taking time away from writing my books, and my other projects, in hopes of gaining "followers" interested in buying the books I'm writing about, while not actually writing them.

For years I had shunned this often-repeated advice, that I needed to write a blog

promoting my writing projects. When I begrudgingly set one up last week, and started thinking up different things to write about, it occurred to me that I could create a new e-book from thin air, out of articles I had already gotten published. Even better, I can write a book from all the research I gathered for each of these articles. So not only will this book from thin air be quick to e-publish it ill also promote four more of my upcoming books.

Because I was working hard finishing my book, and then getting out of my "comfort zone" by starting this blog, a new book fell into my lap out of thin air. What luck!

Publishing before finishing my first novel

I just heard from my editor at North Bay Bohemian, who said he would get back to me "this week" about my recently submitted article about novelist Jack London, and his nearly-forgotten science fiction works.

When published, this article will become my third Bohemian article researching  sci-fi writers who lived in Sonoma County. My two previous articles highlighted Philip K Dick and Frank Herbert, who wrote for Santa Rosa Press Democrat before gaining fame and acclaim for his Dune series. I had decided to release these two articles as free e-books before my first novel gets published, to show people interested in downloading my first novel that it isn't the first thing I have ever written.

I asked my Bohemian editor for explicit permission to reprint my articles, just to be on the safe side. Naturally, he said I could do so.

As soon as my Jack London article gets published in the weekly Bohemian, I will compile my three "sci-fi historian" articles into one convenient "free" e-book. Two of those short article could be considered "teasers" for two of my upcoming non-fiction books, about Frank Herbert's forgotten newspaper articles, and about Jack London's forgotten influence on science fiction, sword-and-sorcery, and dystopian literature.

So let it be written; so let it be done.

Creating a Blog to promote my E-Books

As my first novel, a True Crime story, nears completion I'm starting this new blog to promote my published works and to promote ongoing and long-term projects.

While researching my first published "Sci-Fi History" articles, I found enough information to write a book. After I finish my first novel, my next large-scale projects will include:

• Frank Herbert's Lost Archive, Vol. 1 - My first published article, in North Bay Bohemian, chronicle's the Dune author's early career as a photojournalist working for Santa Rosa Press Democrat, from 1949 to 1953. My microfilm research uncovered 140 articles Herbert wrote, plus an additional 200 sets of photographs. Some of these article are preminiscent of characters and events from his best-selling Dune series.

• Philip K Dick: Sci-Fi's Van Gogh - My second published article, in North Bay Bohemian, details PKD's life in Sonoma County before his books and stories became adapted into some of the biggest sci-fi blockbuster films, like Blade Runner, Total Recall, Minority Report, The Man in the High Castle, and more.

• Jack London: Sci-Fi's Forgotten Father of Dystopia - Soon to be published in North Bay Bohemian. Best known for his "dog books," Call of the Wild and White Fang, London is mostly forgotten as an early sci-fi writer. Also forgotten is his influence on George Orwell and 1984. London influenced so many of today's great writers of scif-fi and sword-and-sorcery that just naming them all could fill a book.

Over the summer I have been writing freelance for a smalltown newspaper near Metropolis, where my grandmother's family lived a hundred years ago.

I am preparing a Field Guide to identify invasive weeds plaguing the countryside near my writing studio. A corrsponding calendar is planned, as part of my other blog, Elko Scenery: Landscapes and Rangeland.

When my first novel gets completed, I plan on publishing on Kindle, Smashwords, and Lulu, among other platforms. I will keep this blog updated with my progress.