Thursday, August 21, 2014

Welcome back Kim Smith! (I've been away, didn't you notice????)

Wow, Murderers- I feel like I have been on the moon for the last few weeks. So much has been going on here in Murder by 4 land that I will be a while just catching up! Not to mention that I just returned from a fabulous week-long vacation - so I feel especially out of touch. Nothing like being in the mountains for a week with limited Internet and so on. It's great to get disconnected for a time.

So- here I am! Back with a vengence and ready to ramble. Er. Rumble. No, ramble works better here I think.

What I would like to talk about is how a new writer can get going today in this overly saturated book market. I think that there are more authors out there in the digital world than ever before and sorrowfully fewer readers! I have just read an article that gave some stats that say that 80% of us never bought or read a book last year. What????? That's insane!

If this trend continues, we may have more books than readers. Wow. Think about that for a second while I prepare a little list for you...okay, are you done yet?

The bottom line is this: there are few gatekeepers of the publishing industry anymore, and even less in the SELF-publishing arena. Can you say EBOOK? Anyone with a computer can publish today-either through Smashwords, or Amazon or Kobo or any number of others. It is not new technology any longer and if you don't believe me, go to YouTube and search for how to create an ebook and just look at the dates of the videos.

Self-publishing in this new world, can be a good way into traditional publishing. Today, publishers (indie and traditional) are trolling the net looking for books and authors that fit their bill. A bill that screams of necessary promotional and commercial zest in order to build their company.

IF you are new at this, a few things to remember are:
1. Build a website
2. Start a blog
3. Get on Facebook
4. Learn how to use Twitter
5. DON'T SPAM.
6. Offer stuff for free
7. Join other writers and use the power of multiplied effort

Okay, that's about all I have for now. My post-vacation brain is empty and I have to do some minor tweaking to get it going again.

By the way, don't forget my podcast! I need listeners! It's called Writer Groupie and you can find it on my website, Writer Groupie page

Happy Thursday, Murderers. I have missed you all!

3 comments:

Terry W. Ervin II said...

Welcome back, Kim. Get the vacation brain put away, except for the good memories, of course.

Aaron Paul Lazar said...

Woo Hoo! Kim's back! It's lovely to "hear" your voice again, Kim. Welcome home to MB4. We HAVE missed you!

Unknown said...

Welcome, Kim! It's great to have you back!