One of the best things a writer can receive is an encouraging word--or 100--about something he has finally published! It is always a tenuous and fragile path from start to finish of a story, and any little word that adds to the positive experience is always welcomed. And when the sincere compliments come from personal friends or relatives, it takes on an even greater degree of meaningfulness. Of course, all complimentary words and phrases will be greatly accepted from anyone who took the time to read the book, not to mention to plunk down the money and buy the book.
Just today, I received a wonderful e-mail from a former teacher colleague who has just finished reading my novel, Black Wolf Lodge. In her words, she "really enjoyed it! You kept my interest and kept me guessing with some really great foreshadowing. And some of those characters are quite shady….easily visualized, too." Wonderful words from a fellow language arts teacher! And after a day of not getting much work done on my current writing project, this cheered me up extremely! But I think it was her next statement, "And is there a sequel in progress?" that really brought me back to believing that my efforts should continue to go forward. Thanks, old friend! There will be a sequel...
On another topic...In my scuffling and rambling about on various blogs and Facebook posts tonight, I came upon a very nice one by author Ron Knight. Never having heard of Mr. Knight before, I checked out some of his posts on his blog site and enjoyed many worthwhile pieces of advice he had to share. I particularly enjoyed his comments about how to build an audience by avoiding trying to "sell" right off the bat, but rather to "give information" and let the readers build their interest in wanting to buy the book. And he deals quite a bit with using the social networking platforms to build a fan base, NOT by hawking and promoting the book, but by getting discussions about writing and themes and ideas going. I like the concept. Thanks, Mr. Knight!
For more information about Ron Knight and his blog posts, go to the following: http://www.upauthors.com/“/how-to-sell-100-million-books
It's late, I'm tired, I have to get up very early tomorrow to take the car in to have the tires rotated, so my journey down this road has come to an end. Another adventure down another road lies ahead...MLA
I'll have to check out Mr. Knight's stuff. I finally put a new post on my blog if you want to check it out. Took the lazy way out and linked to some blogs that have piqued my interest about epublishing. (Tax time for a day time accountant *sigh*).
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