© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2024
Feature Photo: Fishy © L.M. Kling 2014
In a previous blog I mentioned that the best form of marketing is to write a second book. I’m about to test that theory and my second book A Suitable Bride is at the proof-reading stage with a release date hopefully soon. (I’m reluctant to name a date until the book has been fully edited as many things tend to intervene and I have to apologise for the delay.)
My first novel A Suitable Heir was marketed to family and friends, through the indie table at the Romance Writers of Australia Conference and on their magazine Hearts Talk. I sold some through my art group. We tried a local market with no success. I sold about fifty books through this process and was reasonably happy with the outcome but hopefully can increase sales for my next book.
My problem, and I think it is a problem for many writers, is that I don’t have the knowledge, inclination or time to devote to marketing. I admire those writers who have taken the plunge and got a large following of readers and are making a good living from their craft but marketing is not my forte. However, as a member of Indie Scriptorium I feel that I have an obligation to get some understanding of the various marketing techniques and report on my findings. I would love to find a book marketer who is able to market my novels for me at a reasonable cost but first I think it’s important to know what sort of marketing you want for your books.
Types of Marketing Services
Each of these areas of marketing will need to be extensively researched and require a working knowledge of the various social media and web pages. There are lots of options in most categories. I will do the Google searches, look at countless You-tube videos and try to work out the sometimes-confusing web sites and social media platforms for my own edification and to inform IS followers.
The other option is to hire a book marketer. A quick google search for book marketers in Australia reveals lots of options that all want your e-mail address so they can bombard you with sales pitches for the rest of time. It’s also a matter of buyer beware as some of these book marketers are vanity publishers who promise a lot, take your money and deliver a shoddy product and leave you in the lurch. I will keep searching for book marketers who may provide a good service at a reasonable price and keep you informed.
Indie Scriptorium has provided some blogs about some marketing techniques. See our previous blogs on SEOs, cover designs, blurbs, websites but the above is a very large checklist and we still have a way to go.
I already have a website, business cards, reviews and I’m happy with my cover design, author bio and blurb for my second novel. I will be reviewing my SEO and making sure my keywords are the best for my novel.
My initial focus will be on my social media, look at Amazon and Facebook adverts and explore Goodreads and other book distribution services. Going local and using my existing contacts in Romance Writers of Australia, organising a book launch and networking with local writing and book clubs will also be in my plan. Hopefully I can share what has worked for me, and what didn’t. Stay tuned for more on marketing.
Cheers
Elsie King ©2024
Book cover © Kate Smallwood and L.C. Wong 2024
Indie Scriptorium is beginning a new tradition in 2024. Every fourth Sunday of the month we will be featuring a guest writer.
This week, the Indie Scriptorium team have invited fellow Adelaide artist and writer, Robert Richardson to share a poem from his recently published book on poetry, Words and Rhyme.
Some months ago, Mary McDee wrote a post giving tips on writing good poetry. We had quite a bit of interest in the article and some further questions pertaining to the mechanics of an effective poem.
The following poem by Robert Richardson is an excellent and catchy summary of the main types of poetry and how to write them.
If you’d like to read more of Robert Richardson’s poetry book, click on the link below:
Cheers,
Lee-Anne Marie Kling (c) 2024
Feature Photo: Words and Rhyme cover (c) Robert Richardson 2023
[New Year and for me at least a quieter time to reflect after a hectic end to 2023. Also a time when I have finally tackled the challenge of family history research. Almost thirty years ago, my auntie passed on the “mantel” of family historian. She also handed the box of research which she had done. For most of that time the box has been stored away in our closet, except for the early 2000’s when I took part in compiling my father’s mother’s family history. Then, after hitting brick walls in my research, back it went. Writing fiction was so much easier. And fun.
This last year, I have been working on a crime novel. Since a key part of the theme of this novel will include family history and using DNA to build ancestral family trees, out came the family history box again. You could say, I’m researching my novel by doing and experiencing. After only four weeks of exploring down the family history rabbit-hole, and believe me, it is a rabbit-hole, I’ve discovered tracing once’s ancestors requires methodical, critical brain power, and an OCD attention to detail…much like a detective, really. You wouldn’t believe how many of our ancestors have the same name but are different people.
I also have discovered that names, and dates of births, deaths and marriages get boring after a while. The family history books that stand out are the ones which give a brief, or not so brief, descriptions of people, their lives, personalities, interests and job.
On that note, I’m reminded of a blog I wrote way back in 2016 and how we are often defined and judged as a person by what job we do and how much we earn. So, below is that article which examines current day attitudes which may affect our motivation to become a writer.]
Census time!
As I filled the forms out online (two days after the due date—another story covered in the media), I had a Eureka moment.
I faced a dilemma regarding the work/employment section with questions: “What’s your main job?” and “How much do you earn?”
As an artist/writer I had a conflict of interest. I knew what the statisticians from Canberra were after. I understood by “your main work”, they meant “paid” work, or in my case, the work that paid the most dollars.
So, if I ticked my writing and proceeds from the novels I’ve published for which I’ve been paid a pittance, but on which I’ve spent the most time, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) would not be happy. In their estimation, work without the dollars attached to it, is not “work”.
If I put my Art, that is, painting, from which I earned a few hundred dollars in the last financial year, that also wouldn’t satisfy the ABS—even if I do sit down at Art Group and say, “I’m going to do some work now.” Besides, according to my accountant, my earnings from art is “hobby money” that goes back into painting supplies and equipment.
Well, then, that leaves the paper round. I inherited the paper-delivery-round from my son, who after he saved enough money for a computer, had no use for it. But I did. This “work” earns sufficient funds for a holiday every year or two. And I like the fresh air and exercise.
So I marked the paper-round as my main work even though I spend the least amount of time compared to painting and writing. How sad that my “work” according to the ABS is reduced to four hours a week delivering papers after having achieved a University degree.
[I might add here, that I no longer do this paper round. So, I am investing time into building up the Indie Scriptorium business and helping fellow writers in the process of publishing their books.]
The ABS will never know the other side of my life—my work of choice—the Arty Creative work, because there’s no money of any significance in it.
In our society, unless the “work” has dollar signs attached, it’s worth nothing.
So I mean to say, the whole spectrum of our culture, what makes our culture in fact, and enriches our lives: the writing, drama, music, art, doesn’t exist in the Australian story according to the ABS.
The reason? Artisans, be they writers, actors, artists, musicians and other creative people are not valued for their craft. To survive they must earn a wage—if they can find a job. How many of us “creators” are forced to choose between our craft, and food and shelter?
We become teachers, restaurant staff, cleaners, office workers, accountants or whatever while our passion to create becomes quenched by the need to survive. At the end of the workday, we are often too tired to create.
‘When we retire…’, we promise ourselves.
My Dad was an artist. He went to Art School after high school. He even sold a painting through the local newspaper as a young married man. However, he had a family to support, thus became a teacher, and his art was sidelined. ‘When I retire, I’ll get back to my art,’ Dad would say. He retired, but the paints and paper remained packed in a suitcase in the cupboard while he pursued his passion teaching and music.
Also, having come from a family of authors, he had dreams of writing a book, or maybe his memoir. Never happened.
I have inherited Dad’s 300gsm Arches paper, watercolours and brushes, and I feel that I’m carrying on the art tradition my Dad began. In the writing field, I am also carrying on the family legacy of authorship, albeit self-published, but published all the same.
So in the end, statistics are just statistics; they don’t tell the whole rich story. Statistics won’t reveal that the Fleurieu Peninsula (the area in which I live) has reportedly the highest percentage of writers and artists in Australia. Statistics only reveals the tip of the iceberg of artists and writers who have entered for the census information that they are a writer or artist because it’s their main source of income. However statistics will miss many other creators who do not put their craft as their main source of income.
For most of us creators, the line flung at us by well-meaning family and friends is: “Get a real job.”
Creating is not valued unless there’s a cost, and yet everyone wants to be entertained…often without cost.
The other side of the story those who push the “proper job line” don’t understand is that the rewards of creating for an artist, in the broad sense of the word, outweigh the monetary rewards one receives from the so-called “real work”.
© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2016; updated 2024
Feature Photo: One of my ancestral stamping grounds, and behind it, a riches to rags tale (but that’s a story for another time), Lake Geneva, Lausanne, Switzerland © L.M. Kling 2014
Last Friday, Mary and I attended a party at a local Café that we patronise every Wednesday between Bible study and Writers’ Group. We go there for lunch and have started to get to know some of the regulars there as well as the manageress. She makes a delicious Black Forest Cake.
Anyway, on the way, I remarked, ‘Wow, it’s been a week already since the market.’
So, how did we go? You ask.
What you must understand is that the main stream media did its best to deter people from doing anything—apart from activating their fire-safety plan. Or second to that, heading to the nearest bunker and hunkering down waiting for the apocalyptic storm to pass.
As it turned out, the doom and gloom weather forecasters were out by a couple of days. Clouds shrouded Adelaide by mid-afternoon, even a few spots of rain. The fires never happened. The evening of the market turned into a balmy twenty-something degree Celsius, perfect for strolling in the market or enjoying Christmas festivities.
However, the damage by media had already been done and no one but a hardy few, ventured outside their homes to attend. In the end, traders traded amongst themselves. I bought a native orchid and a couple of Christmas cakes. Elsie bought my significant-zero-number birthday present, a handy art pouch that I can use when painting en plein air.
And finally, after no financial transaction action all evening on our stall, a neighbouring vendor bought one of my books, and Elsie’s great nephew one of my miniature paintings. Minutes before, we had sold one of Elsie’s cards while she was away from the table having a break.
Disappointing? No, I don’t think so. I have come to believe that the market experience is more than just buying and selling goods. It’s about community. Building relationships. Being a regular reassuring presence. Being there to listen to people, to connect with people.
Now at times, during the evening, this connecting was difficult to do. We were situated right under the main entertainment; a couple of merry “Elves” singing Christmas songs. They were doing a jolly good job of it, drumming up that seasonal spirit—except that they sang to no one but the vendors most of the time. Where we were the music blared at top volume. When some hapless soul did enter the market and pass our stall, they sped around the tables, glancing only briefly at our books and artwork. Communication, even amongst us concluded in sign language and I resorted to sharing writing in my notebook; a kind of note-passing between friends.
When the music-makers took a break, we had opportunity to connect with potential buyers or people who just wanted someone to listen to what was going on in their world.
While packing up, one of the neighbouring vendors gave some advice; cards don’t sell, they said, and every time is different, so don’t give up. From the brief debrief we had, we decided that in the future, we’ll look at selling smaller paintings and trying to get a stall far, far away from the entertainment.
As for connection, the market is just one way for advertising Indie Scriptorium and our indie-published books. After years of going to this local café I mentioned Mary and I go to every Wednesday, I finally gave one of my books, The T-Team with Mr. B to the manageress to read as a Christmas present. The Lost World of the Wends was given to a young writer who also comes to this café, and also I gave away a bookmark advertising Indie Scriptorium.
Building the “brand”, the business by networking takes time, especially with the strident voice of professional media, but slowly but surely I feel, people are catching on and it’s happening for Indie Scriptorium.
A heart-felt thank you to all you faithful followers and newcomers to our Indie Scriptorium blog. Merry Christmas and we wish you a successful New Year in your endeavours.
Cheers, Lee-Anne Marie.
© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2023
Feature Photo: Indie Scriptorium Team at the market © L.M. Kling 2023
I’ve always been fortunate to have far more ideas for my fiction than I have time to write them into a story or novel. But some writers struggle to find an idea and inspiration. So how do you get inspiration and ideas for what to write? This was my experience.
My first novel was easy to plot and plan. I wanted to set the novel in the Regency era because of my love of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer. Then, women had no rights and little education and I wanted to promote my ideas about feminism and equality in that era. A Suitable Bride emerged from these basic ideas. I asked what would an intelligent and sensible woman do to ensure she made the best choices to achieve a fulfilled and happy life in a world where woman had no legal rights and little education? The answer informed the storyline of A Suitable Bride. The love that grew between my protagonists against impossible odds gave me the conflict required and the happy ending fulfilled the romance genre.
Family and friends who experienced the sad loss of a baby or suffered infertility inspired my second book A Suitable Heir. Again, I set the novel in the Regency period to capture the additional difficulties of upper-class woman whose main purpose in life was to marry and produce an heir. I asked how would a woman in a society cope with infertility in this era. In addition, I incorporated the issues of depression and loss when a couple remains childless and the joy of having children after a difficult time conceiving.
I’m currently writing my third book, which began when I watched the sad and senseless death of George Floyd. It appalled me to witness his awful murder and made me think what could I do to counter such extreme racism. I returned to my favourite historical period and I learned about the British slavery trade and its aftermath. This became the focus of A Suitable Passion. My protagonists appear to be on the opposite side of the abolition of slavery movement, yet my heroine is coerced into a marriage of convenience with a man she cannot respect. This book has been the most difficult to plot and plan as it required considerable historical research about slavery in the British colonies, a romance and a happy ending. Two rewrites later I am still attempting to incorporate an engaging story with a fascinating but sad history. I’m not sure I will achieve the right balance but love the challenge.
So, my inspiration for novels comes from social issues and themes, which I then incorporate into a favourite historical time to create fictional characters and storylines. I find inspiration for short stories harder but thinking back these are some spurs that have helped me to create my short stories.
An important step in the creative process is to ask what if or how would? What if that hero in the paper later regretted his actions? What if that murderer wasn’t caught? What if that woman I overheard left her husband? How would a barren wife cope with a demanding husband in the 1800s. How would an abolitionist cope when her family are slave owners.
So, select a topic, make whatever changes you like and ask what if, how would and get writing.
Cheers Elsie
Elsie King©2023
Photo from Apple stock images.
This Friday we, the members of Indie Scriptorium, will be selling our books, artwork and cards at the
Reynella Neighbourhood Centre Inc. Twilight Christmas Market.
164 South Road, Old Reynella
Friday 8 December 4 – 7pm
If you are in Adelaide, come and visit us there.
Not only will you be able to see the books and artwork which we have produced, we will be available to discuss with aspiring authors, such topics as: Helpful tips on becoming a writer, publishing your own book, and marketing options.
Hope to see you there,
Indie Scriptorium – a self-publishing collective.
MANY A SLIP TWIXT THE CUP AND THE LIP
Recent talk in my writer’s group: one of us is in the throes of self-publishing and was filling us in on some of the trials and tribulations she was enduring. Currently, her chief complaint is that the route she’s chosen to follow does not provide her with a “proof copy” for checking prior to final go-ahead before printing the number of copies she requires.
What has really stunned her however is that her complaints to a writer acquaintance elicited the response, “What on earth do you want a proof copy for?”
We, too, were stunned at this response and began to quote examples, from our own experience, of how essential it is to proofread the “final copy” of any work. Lest you are tempted to feel the same way, let me list a few that we came up with:
1. Numbering on the table of contents page was not in line with the actual page number of each chapter in the body of the work.
2. Words, phrases and even complete slabs of print omitted or relocated.
3. Pages printed upside down or reversed.
Bottom line is – you can’t trust technology!
With the best will in the world, mistakes happen, glitches, hiccups, whatever you want to call them, occur in the best regulated circles so everything has to be checked. And rechecked!
Sometimes it is simply a small step in the process has been overlooked by the author. This was what had happened in #1. above: she’d neglected to send her file as a PDF. So easily done!!
But not always – the machine itself (maybe its human operator) can have a bad day and stuff things up by accident.
Perhaps the classic in this last was one involving my brother. He writes and self-publishes technical books and was somewhat diverted on receiving the proof copy of his latest effort. The cover looked great. But the book itself was quite a bit thicker than he’d expected. Opening it up revealed, not the words he’d labored over but the complete text of a romantic novel – a genre he never read, let alone ever wanted to write.
Imagine the waste if he’d by-passed requiring a proof copy and had simply taken delivery of the couple of hundred copies he expected to sell.
© Mary McDee 2023
Feature Photo: The Proof-read Proof © L.M. Kling 2023
Comment from IS Administrator: Same company, different result. About the same time that the fellow above-mentioned author had published their book and had trouble having a proof copy delivered, I had published The T-Team with Mr. B. No problem having a proof copy delivered as you can see from the photo above. Had the publishing company’s policies changed in a matter of days? Or was something else going on?
Fellow authors, I invite you to share your experiences on publishing and having your books printed. Let us know in the comment box below.
Cheers,
Lee-Anne Marie Kling
My father and I sat in the dry river bed of the Finke River painting Mt Hermannsburg which towered above the river gums and spinifex. We painted our muse on site; Dad painted in watercolour and I painted in acrylic.
After a couple of hours, Dad packed up his brushes and palette and returned to the town of Hermannsburg. I stayed, in the creative zone, dibbing and dabbing, the setting sun casting shadows over the river bed and a cool breeze pricking me with goose bumps on my bare arms.
I made the final touches as the sun sank below the horizon and I was called in for tea. I signed with my maiden name, naturally, as I was only 18.
Dad’s painting and mine sat side by side on our host’s piano where all who saw, admired our work. I kept walking past and gazing at my painting. Did I really do this? Wow! Did I really?
© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2016
Introduction © Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2023
Not for Sale
When I first mooted (last century) to author a story of our adventure in Central Australia in 1977, Dad told me, “No! You’ll upset people.”
So, I waited decades, then wrote a private copy for my dad. Dad was appreciative but thought our safari adventures in 1981 would be more entertaining. Hence the creation of my travel memoir, Trekking with the T-Team: Central Australian Safari 1981.
The 1977 pilgrimage to the Centre languished in the draw for another decade, until enough time had passed to hopefully not offend people, and it had morphed into a historical travel “faction”; a story based on real events, some real people and others made up. In fact, before publishing my latest book, The T-Team with Mr. B: Central Australian Safari 1977, I included a disclaimer to that effect.
Why all the drama?
You see, as we know in life, an individual’s image of themselves, their reputation is important to them. Their reputation, social status, and what others think of them is vital for their survival and advancement in society.
With this in mind, you could wonder how accurate is history? Especially as individuals and cohorts of high status must maintain their reputations to keep that high status. I mean surely kings have never been murderers, leaders been despots, sports and movie icons immoral.
Have they?
I wonder…
Meanwhile, certain internet platforms are full of happy, well-adjusted individuals with thousands of friends.
Anyway, that being said, it’s not just these days that people have put their best face forward and hide their proverbial skeletons in cupboards. I confess that there are bony “proverbials” in our family history—locked away, key lost…
An elderly relative told me that I couldn’t put my missionary great-grandmother’s letters relating to her Caesarean birth experience in the Cameroon Africa in 1899 into the Lutheran Archives. Too personal, she said. Somehow, they are there now.
If my great-grandmother’s birth experience is too sensitive for some, imagine the real spicy skeletons that exist in families. Again, in our family, those fascinating stories have been leaked by enterprising characters who have written about them and published the works, these being limited publications such as family histories, part of a research study or as a theological study in one case. With the theological study book, we were told plainly, we were forbidden to read that book. Heaven help us if we developed sympathy for the good doctor with a problem with alcohol addiction. I read the book and found it fascinating and encouraging as it revealed in a very real and practical way, God’s love and grace for his broken people.
So, here I am thinking, just the type of stories the rest of the world would be interested in. Stories with grit, guts and depth. Stories that can change our thinking. Help grow us to be better people. Yet, because of an individual’s or community’s sensitivities and threat to their individual or collective reputations, these life-experiences remain ethereal, talked about in whispered tones around the dinner table after a few drinks, or when reminiscing the past with elderly relatives.
Well, that’s my family.
On the other side, there are writers who have no inhibitions when it comes to publishing juicy details on their family’s or friends’ misfortunes and unfortunate life-choices. They change the names, add spicy details of their own creation (just to give a little “kick”), and on they go to entertain their readership. Nothing like those skeletons to fire up the imagination. My eyes widen as one tells me about their friends or family they’ve included (without their knowledge) in the latest novel. I muse how common this modus operandi of writing is.
However, the rest of us, especially in Indie Scriptorium are sensitive to the feelings of family, friends and associates, and have shrouded our characters’ real-life identities in history, Science fiction, fantasy, as well as conglomerating them with several people we know while at the same time veiling the situations to disguise them. That way, no one gets offended or takes us to court…hopefully. As I mentioned, disclaimers about characters not resembling anyone in real life help.
So, I bring this missive to it’s conclusion, for now; our life’s journey, the people we meet, the people we from whom we are descended, the choices we make and the consequences that come from those choices, all enrich our lives and creativity with the stories they generate. And the skeletons in the cupboard also have stories to tell. In whatever way we decide to tell those secret spicy stories, whether as history or fiction, true characters or disguised ones, you never know, it may be those stories that will have influence for good and growth for the reader.
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
© Lee-Anne Marie Kling 2023
Feature Photo: Kangaroo bones, Brachina Gorge, Flinders Ranges © L.M. Kling 1999
Indie Scriptorium -- Self Publishing Collective 