Tech

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Writer’s Retreat…

2016-10-07 12.13.47.jpgPeaceful – with view.

Writing Week…

Good place for inspiration –  which was just as well – as it turned out I needed some for the  WIP I am story editing right now. Much walking about the fields these last few weeks talking to Dragon and then – depending on the Dragon’s ‘windyness’  editing the transcriptions  – new addition to the Tech Dept’ was a tiny fur thing for the MIC – looks like a dead mouse on my jacket – but it dealt with the growling wind that Dragon was suffering with 🙂 I have less transcription editing to do now and I can actually ‘see’ my ideas.

Next step will be to work them into the plot on scene cards – and play about till I am happy – then get on with the rewrite. I would like to have this draft done by the end of this year.

Reading this week?

‘How To Blog A Book’ by Nina Amir – very interesting and giving me ideas for this book I am  editing now and for the non fiction projects I have on the go at the moment.

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Typing On…

Dreams

Dreams

I got on with some typing up of the YA series – it was a bit awkward in 27 as I prefer to stand and type and generally it is easier in here if everyone sits still but I managed 2000 and my time management tool Rescue Time told me I had hit my 2 hour goal in my 8 hour day – which I was pleased with as I don’t type fast and deciphering my long hand scrawl is a pain – typing up huge gaffs like ‘head hopping’ also need spotting at this stage and either a note left to self to rewrite or re write it then and there…though I try not to do that and I also only do a cursory spell check etc before it is added to Scrivener and then printed off – that is the bit I most like -seeing a manuscript start to appear – reading it on paper is when the major bloops really stand out and also when I stop feeling embarrassed about the thing as if it is now an entity in it’s own right – no pun intended – and I can rip it apart and revise it without feeling a ‘failure’ or that it is ‘a waste of time.’ !!
BT say they are due here on Friday morning – an actual person !!!!! – and that the phone and BB WILL be fixed – we can’t have our old number – by midnight Fri – I have to get our electrician to swap the lines over as Mum’s line comes into our sockets and my IT engineer may also have to come if the BB extender has been compromised that shunts the BB out to 27 – I am not letting self think that it will plug and play on Friday as then I won’t be disappointed – it has cost 100’s of £ to sort this out and doing stuff like VAT which is all on line now has been made impossible – it has been a real eye opener of an experience all around!
I was sooo lucky Gordon was able to get me this Iphone to at least give us some connection this last 4 weeks – I had no idea they would run a laptop BB as well as them selves – so that is a big HUG for him dragging me to the phone shop that morning as soon as we discovered what had happened.

Tue 03 Nov 2015 at 05:49AM
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Knackered Tonight!

Knackered tonight! Yesterdays research and activity surrounded interesting blogging sites and today’s has been all about researching  on line writing groups – many of whom I have joined over the years and not used in favour of one I very much enjoyed – but sometimes wings need to be spread and so I am checking out these others – what a selection too!

Horses have come up and stared at me through the office window a couple of times and I took my tea out and sat on the trough scoffing cheese on toast while they snuffled about me, inhaling mozzarella and pulling funny faces.

Tonight I need to be back in the office typing up for my two hours of ‘daily typing up’ I will get this draft ready to revise by the end if the summer – I hope.

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Still Thinking This Through

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Good place to think

Looking, listening and learning – what do I see? Hear? Know now? For Sure?

If I am going to sell ebooks.
1. I need books – finished, revised and beta read. Formatted, jacketed and I need to be able to upload them to the places where they can be sold.
2. I need a self hosted web page/s if I am going to run a shop for direct down loads and giveaways.
3. I am going to need a blog front to create interest and do all the things blogs do – link to Face book and Twitter etc.
4. It would be sensible to make it all look similar – ‘professional identity’ Back grounds, pictures etc with all the expected widgets and gizmos and buttons.

 

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Then we get into SEO  – well I will – when I get that far.
Most of that makes sense to me as I familiarise myself with it and mostly just requires me to just do it, and then get on with writing more books.
But in Guru Land and Advisor Plains and Coach Worlds where I  wander wondering at the moment – I am starting to see issues and to feel uncomfortable. Or may be I am just being British.
The primary sources have been in this game from the start – highly successful now – they are no longer alone – they don’t rely on the free third party software they suggest – their teams use the Pro versions – if they don’t use their own designed in house.
 They don’t sit down and write every day several times a day they ‘fill buckets’ and ‘schedule content’ – they launch ever tinier bits of ‘How To’ with mind trapping hooks, wallet opening, loan inducing marketing strategy – they talk of scarcity and of making the mark feel they belong to a community… they talk about peddling your message…  Of ‘monetizing platforms’ to the point you don’t have anything to sell of your own – you just recommend other folks stuff or  carry advertisements… reminds me of that song ‘Money For Nothing’ and everything is ‘Amazing’ and ‘Super’ and they want you to be ‘a good follower’.
 Why? They didn’t follow anyone. This brings me to the second and third tier guru, advisor or coach aka some one like you and me who has a product to sell being encouraged to pay money to learn to imitate someone else – the fact is that the up shot of my several months of study on this – is that I now see the genuine folk I thought were real are actually preprogrammed and scheduled team auto responses cleverly packaged and aimed at me – so do I really want to schedule email, Facebook and Twitter comments throughout the day or worry about Thursday’s ‘content?’ Do I scour other folks sites to parasite my blog posts off their headlines or just pass them on? Or do I speak when I have some thing to say? Get on with writing my books and getting them ready to sell?
I have to say at this point I don’t know – I keep sheep I am not one – BUT all the folks I have come across are genuine and generous and if that translates to them making mega bucks by selling a tiny product for a few ‘bucks’ millions of times does that make them wrong or make the advice bad? No it doesn’t.

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It seems to me – at this point in time – that most are saying the same things –
1. Don’t wait for perfect – go with what you have or have decided on and alter it later.
2. Product and Marketing are equally important – there is no one without the other.
3. No matter how big these people turn out to be they all say start using free stuff and don’t give up the day job with out a plan – and as you grow buy in what you need in terms of design and help even – heaven forbid – content, then look at giving up paid employment.
This all seems perfectly solid, sensible and responsible advice and rather at odds with the ‘Money For Nothing’ content products messages that seep in.
So I find my self deep in hooks lines and sinkers and trying to clear wood from trees to see which bit of the jungle out here I am in now.
1. What tech stuff do I need for a frame work?
2. What buttons will I need to get pushed?
3. What strategy for marketing will I choose?
4. Who am I?
5. What am I?
6. Why do I want to do this?
7. What do I want to do?
Answers 4 – 7 Marie-Claire is a writer who wants to sell the books she writes.