Stepping Up To The Plate

 

It is a well-known old saw that the home run kings in baseball also tend to be the strike out kings.

Sometimes we writers are like the proverbial home run king. We step up to the plate and expect our latest piece of writing to be that blast out of the park that wins the game.

And when it isn’t, we get all depressed that we struck out.

It doesn’t matter what we’re writing: poems, short stories, blog posts, plays, or the grocery list. If we don’t hit it out of the park, we become depressed at our “failure.”

The difference between we writers and baseball’s home run kings, is that writers too often give up. The home run kings don’t.

However, let me propose a different approach. We writers would be better off to picture ourselves as the initial lineup.

The purpose of our first work, doesn’t matter what it is, is to get on base. To get some name recognition. The money, scoring a run, will come later.

The job of the second batter in the line up is to move the runner into scoring position. And that is the purpose of our second piece of writing. It furthers name recognition. And builds reader attention.

Our third work is the one that may score the run. If not, perhaps the fourth one will.

In any event, we keep trying that tried and true plan of getting on base, moving the runner over, then bringing him home.

Michael Anderle did much the same thing I’ve written above.

Using the minimum viable product approach, because he didn’t want to spend a lot of money or time on his books if they weren’t going to get on base, Anderle published 3 books in one month and then a fourth the following month.

As it turned out, they were a hit and he went on to build a giant publishing empire.

Now most of us won’t become millionaires from our writing. But we can gain name recognition and maybe a few bucks if we work it right.

The formula is simple: get on base, move the runner over, then bring him home.

If we try for a home run every time we publish something — we’re going to have a lot of strikeouts and probably lots of disappointment.

And who wants that?

Baseball and writing. Yeah. It works.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes 

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One Bullet At A Time

 Writing one bullet at a time.

—Caleb Pirtle III

In this age of hyper-narcissism, Caleb Pirtle was that most rare of human beings: a selfless man.

His passing has left a huge hole in the writing community. Yet, he continues to speak to us. He does so through his books.

And what you find in his books is a man with an incredibly deep well.

He knew life. He knew people. He knew the nastiness and he knew the sublime. His years of talking to people and observing them comes through when he tells his stories. They are always about people and what they do and don’t do. The lies they tell and don’t tell.

Caleb’s writing was always centered around the human factor. Fiction, or non-fiction. Didn’t matter. People were at the center.

He used to say he was writing one bullet at a time. That bullet could be literal or metaphorical. And its impact depended on where it hit. And how hard. Literally or metaphorically.

He was an incredibly optimistic man. If you talked with him, as the song goes, never was heard a discouraging word, and the skies were not cloudy all day.

Yet, Caleb was no Pollyanna. There is a darkness to his Magnolia Bluff books that is not present in any of the other books I’ve read. And that might be due to the Magnolia Bluff stories being told in the first person. They are told by a person who has seen a lot of life. And a lot of it wasn’t good. Or especially nice.

I have found that third person puts distance between writer and reader. First person erases that distance. The first person story is intensely intimate.

And it is that intimacy that gives his Magnolia Bluff books such incredibly deep insights into human nature.

I find the last five lines of Death in the Absence of Rain enigmatic. I’m not sure what they mean, and I didn’t get a chance to ask Caleb. 

Graham Huston, the narrator of the story, says:

We as a people are what we bury inside of us. 

I believe it with all my heart. 

Don’t know about you. 

But, frankly, I’ve buried about all I can bury. 

I’m running out of room.

There’s an observation about people in general. Then there is the application by Graham to himself.

That is one doggone penetrating bullet.

We are what we bury inside of us.

Death in the Absence of Rain is a book about lies. Lies we tell others and lies we tell ourselves.

It’s a theme Caleb explored in Last Deadly Lie. 

There is a darkness that surrounds us. All of us. Even so, Caleb chose to see what was good and positive — even if he had to rummage around in that darkness for a while to find it.

Caleb was a pantser. Pull up a blank Word doc — and start typing. The story will flow from the subconscience, through the fingers, and onto the page.

The downside to being a pantser is that there are usually no notes or outlines lying around. Which means we will never know if Graham found a way to make more room, or somehow stopped burying.

We are what we bury inside of us. 

Graham was burying a lot of crap. Most of us are.

I don’t think Caleb was.

Just a day or two before he went into the hospital, I spoke with him on the phone. He was optimistic as ever, even though he was in great pain. He was looking forward to conquering whatever the heck was the problem and getting back into the saddle.

We are what we bury inside of us.

Unlike Graham Huston, but very much like Caleb Pirtle, I hope I’m burying good stuff.

I want to end my days looking to get back into the saddle.

If you missed the Underground Authors tribute to Caleb, take a watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trjgrs0Qkwk

May we all take a life lesson from Caleb Pirtle. Write one bullet at a time. And do our darnedest to get back into the saddle.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!

CW Hawes is a playwright; award-winning poet; and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

Kickstarter for Fiction

 We’ve all heard the numbers. Over 7 1/2 million books on Amazon. Over 3,500 new titles added every day.

The gurus tell us we can beat the odds and become a bestselling author. All you have to do is pay them hundreds or thousands of dollars. And they will make it happen.

Hundreds or thousands of dollars? For one book? But, hey, it’s only money and they guarantee that your book will hit some bestseller chart (usually obscure) on Amazon.

The questions I ask are:

• A bestseller for how long?
• Will I earn back my investment?
• Can I duplicate the results on my own?

The odds are you won’t earn back your investment any time soon. Nor will you be able to duplicate the results on your own. Because if you did, the guru just lost a potential future customer and maybe created a rival. And that’s bad for business.

As for how long your book will be on the bestseller list — does it matter?

No, I don’t think it does. Because a bestselling book that ends up losing you money is simply a loss. No matter how many copies you sell.

Think about this: aside from Patterson, Rowling, or King, name me a bestselling author from 20 or 30 years ago. Fame is indeed fleeting.

And if you can name one, that’s only one writer among many, many tens of thousands. That’s something to think about.

Bestselling fantasy author Brandon Sanderson blew the lid off Kickstarter setting an all time record of over $41 million in pledges for his latest campaign. All I can say is that it got my attention. (If being a bestselling author was so great, why was he doing a Kickstarter?)

I took Dean Wesley Smith’s free Kickstarter workshop and took a long look at whether or not Kickstarter was a viable platform for me.

And that’s a valid question to ask about any platform. Is it valid for me?

Let’s face facts. Amazon is glutted. The odds of anyone finding your book are pretty doggone remote.

Most people don’t look beyond page 1 or 2 of the search results. If your book isn’t showing up there, for all intents and purposes — it doesn’t exist.

Couple the above with the fact that a search returns more sponsored ads and Amazon promos than search results — so there’s even less chance for someone finding your book on a search. Even if your keywords are perfect.

To put all of our auctorial eggs in the Amazon basket is, in my opinion, just plain stupid. I didn’t always think so. But years of minuscule sales have convinced me otherwise. There’s just too much competition, no matter what category you put your book in.

Practically speaking we independent authors are also independent publishing houses. Which means, whether we like it or not, we are businesses. Our job is to sell our books. Does it make sense to try to sell your wares in an overcrowded marketplace?

If you were selling apples, would it make sense for you to go to the same place where everyone else was selling apples?

Might you not get better results adopting a different sales plan?

Why do you think these gurus are teaching courses and selling their services? It’s easy money compared to selling books.

Remember: the people who got rich in the California Gold Rush weren’t the prospectors. It was the people selling stuff to the prospectors.

In my tooling around on the Kickstarter site, I was surprised at the number of authors who are in fact funding their projects. Sure there are a lot that don’t fund — but there are a lot that do.

I’ve supported a half-dozen projects and gotten loads of goodies in addition to the items I pledged for. Plus I found myself a couple new authors I want to follow. I’d say that was a win-win situation. Win for the author and a win for me, the reader.

I just finished writing the 9th Pierce Mostyn Paranormal Investigation. I’m going to use it to test the Kickstarter waters.

If I’m successful, I plan on doing more Kickstarters and will hopefully build an audience there, plus earn some cash along the way to fund my business. Others are doing so. Why can’t I?

And remember: Dean Wesley Smith has a FREE workshop to help you get started on developing a successful Kickstarter campaign. He’s run many successful campaigns. 

Get the workshop here: https://wmg-publishing-workshops-and-lectures.teachable.com/p/kickstarter

If you are a fiction writer and haven’t gotten any traction on Amazon, perhaps Kickstarter is a place you need to consider as an option.

My thought is this: if there are too many cooks in the kitchen — find another kitchen.

Comments are always welcome. And until next time, keep thinking outside the Amazon box.

CW Hawes is a playwright, award-winning poet, and a fictioneer, with a bestselling novel. He’s also an armchair philosopher, political theorist, social commentator, and traveler. He loves a good cup of tea and agrees that everything’s better with pizza.

If you enjoyed this post, please consider buying me a cup of tea. Thanks! PayPal.me/CWHawes

Reading Indie

I am surprised by the number of authors on Twitter who say they don’t have time to read, or who don’t read books by indie authors.

Don’t Have Time To Read

This one just boggles my mind. How can a writer say he or she doesn’t have time to read?

That’s like a painter saying he doesn’t have time to look at art.

Or a woodworker saying he doesn’t have time to look at other examples of woodworking.

Stephen King has noted that if one wants to be a writer, he needs to do two things:

1. Read a lot
2. Write a lot

And Mr. King is not alone in his sentiment. Every writer who makes a living from writing says the same thing.

Reading the writing of other writers not only provides enjoyment for the reader — but it is a seminar on how others approach the art and craft of storytelling.

Writers need to be readers.

Don’t Read Indie

This too boggles my mind. How can an indie author not read the words of his or her fellows?

That’s like an eye doctor never talking with other eye doctors. How is that going to work? I would not want to go to that doctor.

It saddens me to see indie authors not list an indie book when they play those Twitter games of list your current favorite reads. Or an indie author when they’re tagged to list current favorite authors.

I read an average of four books a month, along with a bushel basket of short stories and novelettes. I also sneak in some nonfiction. And most of my reading is of indie authors.

Mind you, I don’t read bestsellers. I find bestsellers, for the most part, not the best books. I scour the bottom of the barrel and maybe the middle of the barrel. That is where I find the real talent. The writers who truly know how to tell a good story. And I find it a shame that those writers are the ones who deserve to be bestsellers and are not.

Indie April is over. But that doesn’t mean the adventure has to stop. Those indie authors are still there waiting to be discovered. Go out and discover them. Find those books that are not in the top 300,000 on Amazon’s paid list. That’s where you’ll find the good stuff.

Writers, if you are serious about your craft, read lots and write lots.

Comments are always welcome! And until next time, happy reading!