Dispiriting day...

I think it’s different for all of us. We all get our inspiration and ideas etc from somewhere. Maybe as you’re changing, your tastes in what you read etc are changing. I know I’ll be influenced by what I read and I want to be, I just feel like I want to at least get a skeleton version of what I think I want to say, down first. But who knows, I’m currently unable to read a book, listen to one or write one, so who knows what I’ll do first when I feel ready to get back into it. I’m still very much in recovery mode just now and not even recovery mode actually. I’m still winding down from the last 50 years of trying to be nt. and when I feel I’ve finished with that, I’ll move into recovery mode. 

Let's describe it.  Fundamentally, it's a love story.  It's a story about a very close and unique human relationship.  It's about hope and survival in adversity.  It's about sacrifices made for the love of another.  It's about fractious family dynamics.  It's about, too, growing up with Asperger's - a condition, which, in many ways, predisposed and conditioned the protagonist for his role: shaped his life in such a way that it put him in precisely the right place and circumstance, at the right time.  It's about grief and loss, and overcoming these things against many odds and discovering a new lease of life. It's about taking hold of every precious moment of life and experiencing it and valuing it, not taking it for granted.  It's about believing enough in that to have the desire to record it all in words - by which means not only strengthening that new optimism for life, but being able to encourage others with it. 

For the most part, these are pretty universal themes.  They're what it's all about, in the end.

So... probably the 'self-help' shelf.  Or, loosely, 'autobiographies'. 

Sorry to be flippant... but that's how it all makes me feel.  A market category.

Getting there is the easy part, getting clear on what you desire, with certainty, is the hard part. But the effort you put into discovering this, is worth more than the end goal or the journey, because it’s the thing that gets you started on the journey and then, the destination really does become almost secondary. Because in your heart, you already know the end goal, it’s already happened in you head and heart. Now’s the fun part, being part of the unfolding, the journey that takes twists and turns but gets you to where you already know you’re going. 

Maybe they’re approaching the whole thing from the ‘right’ end, for them. There are many reasons why people write. Some people find that it’s something they’re good at and they would therefore like make it their means of earning an income. If so, it would make sense for them to write about things that the reader wants. The reader is happy and so are they, they achieved their objective. You have to be clear who the book is for. Is it for you or the readers and who are your readers. Can you describe for me your target audience. 

what I needed to get clear on, for me, was, what I wanted to say, what I wanted to achieve from the book etc and how important it was to me.

Always been my approach.  The one literary agent who took me on for my children's stories changed them so much to what he thought they should be that I eventually took them back from him.  He took everything away from them that had driven me to write them.  Unsurprisingly, he got no takers.

That's a good tactic.  Writers like Stephen King say that anyone who professes to write should be reading constantly.  Alice Munro disagrees.  Interesting that the more King writes, the less I like his work - and the more Munro writes, the better she gets!

Yeah.  I'd agree with that.

When you know what you want, you don’t see obstacles, you see possibilities. The trick isn’t to overcome obstacles, the trick is to know with certainty what you want, so that it becomes a burning desire, and then you don’t see obstacles, you see exciting possibilities to explore, that might take you one step closer to getting there. 

I'm not so interested in making a living out of it as I am in using it as a means of communicating to people, informing people and helping people.  That's, of course, a basis for a marketing strategy!  What I mean is, though, I'm not driven by the celebrity 'famous author' thing that drives so many - especially younger writers.  Or by the idea that this will make me a fortune.  I belong to a few Facebook writers' groups, and for a good deal of the members it's all dragons and wizards and epic battles between the Scalcion Overlords of Nebulon and the Xathene tribes of Alaria (part were-rabbit, part vampire) on the plains of Endora, et al... because they see it as something that sells.  They're approaching the whole thing from the wrong end, as Paul Auster says.  But this is what 'corrupts' so many really good writers.  I'd frankly be a Knut Hamsun writing 'Hunger' - a book that most certainly would never get published today because of it's subject matter (a writer starving himself to death), yet is a cult novel that will never go away - than an E L James, writing trash for the masses and making zillions.

Yeah, great advice. Since starting my book, I have purposely stopped reading books in my ‘niche’ because I want to get the book out of me and onto paper (in rough form)  before reading other books. I didn’t want to risk being influenced by them before I had kind of said what I feel I wanted to say. Then I want to get going with reading other books and work out, as a reader, what I want from them etc. And yes, it most definitely needs to be a burning desire and for it, to be its only reward. We already fit the criteria of a writer, what I needed to get clear on, for me, was, what I wanted to say, what I wanted to achieve from the book etc and how important it was to me. I’m still working all this out, as well as how it fits in with the rest of my life. And that’s ok, I have a lot of clearing, decluttering and detoxing to do before I sit back down to write again and that’s what I’m currently working on coming to terms with. I realised I needed to get my basic home set up etc sorted out before I move on to anything else. But I’m always writing anyway as a way of processing my world. 

If what you write is something you desire 100%, it will happen, it can’t not. The writing down and getting clear on stuff is a process and helps you to discover if what you want is 100% and why. 

This is a continuous struggle between authors and publishers. However, again, it comes down to what you want. Publishers do have an idea of what people like to read, they have a lot of knowledge on what sells etc. They of course don’t always get it right, nobody does, but publishers do bring a lot of value to the table with their knowledge. The guy who wrote the book ‘I can make you sleep’ for Paul McKenna, said he faught with Paul over the tittle, he said it would never sell. But no matter what he said, Paul stuck to his guns and the book was a best seller. The guy admitted he got it wrong but in getting it wrong and Paul sticking to his guns, the book was a huge success. There are lots of things to think about such as who is your target audience. You have to be super clear on this as it will effect things such as book cover design, colour, the title etc, even the time of year when the book’s released. 

There are definitely easier ways to make a living, but this is more than that. If you want to make a living out of it then you most definitely do have to seriously consider your target audience etc and have great marketing strategies etc. 

Always loved this...

Paul Auster's advice to writers

Haha!  Yeah... done that.  Many, many times!

Marketing strategies are just ways that can be used to get your book in front of people. If nobody knows about it, nobody can read it. I know how you feel about marketing strategies though, I feel the same way, I just want to write the book, for somebody to publish it and for it to help others. So part of my ‘design’ or end goal, is that somebody helps me with that or more or less deals with that side of things for me. 

They suggest going to a book store and looking at the books in your niche, getting ideas about what people are reading etc and considering how your book fits in/compares.

This makes sense, of course - but again, too many writers get sucked into the 'commercial objectives' thing, which can have an effect on the way they write.  I've seen people change their style to fit in more with what sells.  Some have the idea of getting established first, then going back to their true ways... only to find that backfiring on them.  It also, I think, 'standardises' the whole thing.

There are easier ways of making a living!

There are so many ways to go about this, based on just as many or more variables, but the most important thing, to be absolutely clear on, is what do you want the end result to be. 

A good way to begin the process of getting clear on your end goal, is to imagine you’re being interviewed by somebody, about your book. For example, imagine the book is published and it’s a success (define what that means to you) and now you’re being interviewed by the local radio or something and they’re asking you, how did it all start. 

You have to either write this down or record it then get it transcribed. Go into loads of detail. For example, I enjoy getting emails and messages from people telling me how much my book helped them in their situation etc. Why you started to write the book etc, what did you want to achieve by writing it. How you achieve your goal is far less important than what your goal is. 

That's great, thanks.  Yeah, I know about the social media platforms.  I've tried a few things.  I've had several blogs, too.  My best outlet was ABCTales.  I had a good following on there and was consistently one of their top-read writers, also winning their competitions.  Their CEO at the time even came to my book launch for the novel.  He told me he thought I was the best writer he'd read who didn't have a publishing deal, and thought it was just a matter of time.  But I had a crash-and-burn, upset a few people (who, I think, were jealous), deleted my account and left.  I think a few other people got cheesed off and did the same.  I've thought about going back, but haven't. 

Part of me hates the whole idea of 'marketing strategies' - though I know you have to play that game eventually. 

I'll figure something out....

Thanks again.  I appreciate this info.

Yeah, it's true.

I always have a thing for the underdogs who stick to their guns.  I remember when REM were first finding their feet.  They were offered a decent sum to advertise at their early gigs - but they refused.  Didn't hold 'em back!  Talent will out eventually, as they say... :)

It’s good to explore all avenues. Talking about it helps you get a clearer picture.