(no subject)

[cblj_backup]

The main reason Amanda Hocking gave for going pro-publisher after making a zillion dollars as a selfpub author is that she was tired of doing her own publicity. For real, selling oneself is hard.

I'm still working on marketing research but I'm also realising I should be managing my existing online assets with slightly more aggression. I feel somewhat ridiculous about it, like I'm pretending at being a Real Author, but it's reached the point where entropy no longer smooths over the chaos on its own. I keep a clippings file, but that's about it, so today I got on LibraryThing and added tags and cover images to my books there. Is anyone running a Sam's Cafe group on LibraryThing? Imma fire one up, if not, but I didn't want to supplant anything already in place.

And just in case anyone wasn't aware, you can follow my (very rare) tweets at ouija_sam on Twitter. I'm on Google Plus under Sam Starbuck, and technically I'm on Facebook but I never log into Facebook. There is a Sam's Cafe group there, however.

My hand to god I will stop talking publicity soon. I'm just incapable of processing things silently when I have the internet to talk to.

Comments

[sanura.livejournal.com]

Don't worry about putting us off with the publicity talk. It's part of your draw, that you process everything in front of us. It's so cool to see a Real Author (and don't doubt it, people have saved your books from house fires) doing authory stuff within the view of us internet mortals.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I do kind of like that I can just throw shit out there and make it public. There's not much written about publicity that agents/pubhouses do, and it needs a twist for selfpub anyway.

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

Um, Sam? I have two books of yours on my bookshelf; you ARE a Real Author. Think of yourself as Tinkerbell and of us as clapping our hands... okay, bad analogy, but whatever. **grins** Just don't try flying out any windows, okay? Or at least not yet.

[nakki.livejournal.com]

We do believe in Sam's! We do! We do! *clap clap clap*

[ysabet.livejournal.com]

YES! EVERYBODY CLAP! **clap!clap!clap!clap!clap!**

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Oh, it's not that I don't consider myself "real" in some sense, it's more that my thought processes get all caught up in how an author is defined and who gets to speak with authority, and I'm still learning to assert that I have that authority. :) Thank you, though.

[adina-atl.livejournal.com]

The problem with going pro because you're tired of doing your own publicity is that most publishers don't do squat for publicity for most of their authors. They still expect the authors to do it themselves.

Personally I'm interested in hearing what you have to say about the publicity. No offense, but if you can make a receptionist job sound as fun and interesting as you do, you can make a PR job sound just as interesting if not more so.

[canaana.livejournal.com]

The problem with going pro because you're tired of doing your own publicity is that most publishers don't do squat for publicity for most of their authors. They still expect the authors to do it themselves.

This. So much. Even publishers that do still do publicity for their authors don't take all of the burden off the author, unless it's someone who sells like Amanda Hocking.

(And I am Facebook impaired, I can't find the Café page. If anybody wants to link me, I would be most grateful.)

[deborahsama.livejournal.com]

Search for Copperbadge Cafe. It's a closed group, for privacy's sake, so just ask to be let in the group and I'll add you :)

[canaana.livejournal.com]

Okay, if I clicked to the right button, I just sent the request from one of my writing persona pages.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

That is true, though they do help with putting out materials and some funding. But yeah, I suppose what I'm doing isn't that different from a midlist propub author...

[deborahsama.livejournal.com]

Don't stop talking about publicity. This entire process you're going through with Extribulum and your selfpub efforts are really interesting.

I don't see a Sam's Cafe on Library Thing. Be sure to let us know when you set one up~

[skelody.livejournal.com]

Darlingsnickerdoodlebums, the internet is for talking to.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

This is true!

(Also I totally LOLed at Darlingsnickerdoodlebums.)

[air-ocean.livejournal.com]

You are a Real Author, I've had your books shipped across an ocean, ok?

Incidentally, Neil Gaiman has just tweeted about an internet publishing venture a fellow author is starting.
"Author Peter David (& friends) starting a new internetty publishing venture. http://www.crazy8press.com/ You can preview his new book there."

[nature-aly.livejournal.com]

I don't think the self-publicity machine ever ends, I literally just got off a call from a published author looking for our library to buy his book.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's true. I can't help liking the guy who called you though -- I can think of a lot of authors who would turn up their noses at libraries :D

[tjs-whatnot.livejournal.com]

Publicity and marketing yourself will never be fun, ever. Whether you are indie, self or one of the big 3... you have to do the work.

♥

PS...just followed you on twitter. :))

[chewipaka.livejournal.com]

Dude, I just finished reading Felinecor's Land, and I have to say, I have read many worse young adult books than that one*. It also had the bonus of making me want to do historical research! But seriously, you write well, you write entertaining things, and you have an audience. This makes you a real author, even if you are still working on figuring the best way to self publish.

*Also, it was good in its own right, and I do have to say that the creation of a land and prophecy out of a Bob Dylan song is both cracktastic and works amazingly well and I enjoyed it immensely. Why, yes, I did sit down and read it in one afternoon.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Well, I know in some sense I am a Real Author, but there's also always that comparison to writers who make a living at it, or who have propub contracts. I don't even want one, and I know propub is not any more legitimate than good selfpub, but it's so new the old habits are still there :)

The story itself came out of that Dylan song, which never fails to astound me. It's one of the few of his I really truly love.

[canaana.livejournal.com]

There are so few writers who have ever made a living at it. Don't ever let that be your standard. Most of the propub people only ever manage to do it as a sideline. :-)

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

And see, intellectually, I know that! But I still hold them up in comparison.

[canaana.livejournal.com]

It's your neurosis, I guess. ;)

[kallaneboi.livejournal.com]

I added Charitable Getting to Goodreads a while back, but I don't think there's a group for you there. I know there's a Copperbadge group on Ravelry, though :P

[liviconnor.livejournal.com]

Wait, where? 'Cause I'm looking and not finding so much... and I searched most of the relevant terms. I found some really interesting forum posts (Torchwood drinking game?), but no group. :(

[kallaneboi.livejournal.com]

It's called something like Copperbadge Knits. Here's a link: http://www.ravelry.com/groups/sams-cafe-knits-3

[liviconnor.livejournal.com]

Thank you! *joins* *casts on*

[zzanthalinn.livejournal.com]

Soooo real. Very real. Book on my nightstand real.
Advertising is *always* a pain - even for those people who have 'real' publishers.

Have just gotten an invite to Google+. Find it vaguely scary (the extent to which it could 'fill in the blanks' of my profile with the power of its giant world-devouring search engine is unnerving... it knew more about all the places that I've lived than I usually remember). Have added you to my writers circle (if it sends you a notification, I'm that Wendy Schultz person).

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I like that I can add everyone back on G+ without breaking it (or myself :D)

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

Hm. I'm trying to think of book publicity campaigns and the only things that come to mind is that one old guy years back who self-published a biography and then rented a storefront and had a bookstore that only sold his book.

And the kerfluffle over Katie McAllister's Steamed 'trailer vid' using photos of steampunk costumers without their permission.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

LOL a single-book bookstore. Oh my god.

[madripoor-rose.livejournal.com]

Did a little googling, and there seems to have been two of 'em:

http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20113659,00.html

is the guy I was talking about.

And this guy in New York

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/a-bookstore-thats-book-singular/

And...it seems to work in that the idea is so weird it gets picked up as a human interest story in the mainstream media.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

You know, I have to say, I'm really glad Walter Swan sold a lot of books. He sounds like a nice guy!

And Kessler sounds kind of pretentious but also very thoughtful about what he's doing, and I can't say I dislike the idea of books as installation art...

[minkrose]

I think it's good to talk about - it reminds people to help you promote your book. Word of mouth is going to be your best asset here. I think I've said this before, but having specific links or clear summaries to send people to makes recommendations easier.

I'm also happy to recommend and retweet things. Which reminds me... I have something for RFM that I need to write up for you.

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

Do send it! I'm all prepped for RFM so it's easy to add. :)

[minkrose]

I really want to write up something better for this, but I've been at a con all weekend, and I am totally braindead. However, it's Kickstarter, so there's a time limit. Here's a bit of a mish mash of the stuff I know; hopefully this isn't completely useless. Sorry it's so late!

First link: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1738994529/kikori-open-source-cnc-gantry-router?ref=video

My friend Judah just graduated with a degree in industrial design. He's designed an open source Computer Numeric Control (CNC) Gantry Router, which is demonstrated/explained in the short (but extremely informative) video. I believe that people should be able to make a living doing what they love, and that's basically what he is trying to do. The other emphasis he has is that he's trying to make these machines available to others in order to create jobs. Hence, open source. The highest Kickstarter reward is the parts for the machine itself, which is only $600.

His blog/website: http://sindrianarts.com/
His post explaining what CNC is: http://www.sindrianarts.com/2011/07/06/so-what-is-this-cnc-stuff-anyway/

The last link, the blog post, is what really demonstrates his passion (and intelligence), short of meeting him, which is why I include it.

Is that enough that you can pull it together into something coherent? Given the hour, I may not wake up before you RFM this and therefore probably can't answer questions, but he's still got 20 days left on the project, so if it has to wait for next week, that is okay!

[firynze.livejournal.com]

I need to get better about managing presence and corralling things online. And I really need to start using LibraryThing.

Sigh. So much to do, so little time to do it all in...

[monkeypumpkin.livejournal.com]

I am kinda famous on the internet under my real name, and when i figured out that was happening, I, uh, got an intern. For reals. I put out an ad for an unpaid intern and got like twenty candidates and now I always have a college kid pushing stuff for me. I still need to figure out my media strategy and tell the kid what to do, but I don't have to actually do it. Maybe you could do that?

[copperbadge.livejournal.com]

I've thought about it :D The problem really isn't lack of time, for me, as much as it is that these are new skills -- there's both learning the skill and learning to be unashamed about stuff like publicity. Plus while I try not to be, I am something of a control freak and I'm not sure I could back down enough to trust someone else to represent my brand.

I am seriously, seriously considering asking the cafe for help if I ever have to move my archive again, though :D