Oct 24 2013

A New Word for “Woman”?

I came across this blog, and I thought the idea was fascinating. The blog makes what I feel is a very good case, and the proposal appears to be well thought out (i.e. the reasoning behind the choice of the word).

Before you point out the criticism (which you’re welcome to do—at least, you’re welcome to do it in the comments section of my blog), consider this.

It might not be realistic to replace the word “woman” with a new word.

What’s more realistic is for people who support this idea to spread the word about it, and for some authors in some contexts to slowly apply it (and explain why), so that eventually this new word is used enough that it becomes an addition to the language. This seems plausible for the not-too-distant future. In the far future, perhaps it could replace the current word, but I think just getting it used enough to gain acceptance would be a giant leap.

Back to possible criticism. Such might just get the new word the publicity it needs.

I wouldn’t go out and write any novel using this word. Maybe there are a limited number where this word would gain more support from readers than it may put readers off. But if you write something where this word might fit the context and you support this word, there are small ways that use of the word could grow.

Maybe I’m in the wrong gender to advocate the use of the new word. I just thought the idea was fascinating and wanted to share it. Feel free to dislike the idea. 🙂

Note that we do already have a three-letter word for woman. It’s “fem,” short for female… Maybe they can get into the three-letter club with this? But “fem” may not be entirely suitable. Plus, like “woman,” which includes “man,” “female” includes “male.”

Oct 24 2013

A Writer’s Health

Heart

Writers have several health hazards to contend with:

  • Anxiety. Will they love it? Will they hate it? Why have my sales stopped? Will that bad review kill my sales? Should I have posted that comment? Did I spend too much on my cover?
  • Indigestion. Stress is a factor for common digestive problems such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Diet is important for good digestion, so writers need to work a good eating plan into their busy schedules.
  • Heart health. All that time sitting down at the computer writing needs to be balanced with some exercise.
  • Vision. Reading and writing several hours each day can cause eye strain.

Stress is a big problem. It’s easy to get, hard to get rid of, and can have a big impact on your health. Stress is a factor in many common chronic health conditions like asthma and IBS.

It’s easy to say, but hard to do. But to help reduce stress, you need to not let things get to you. You also need to avoid things that can increase anxiety like checking sales reports avidly, checking reviews frequently, responding to reviews, or setting unreasonable expectations. Find things that you can do or people you can interact with which make you feel more comfortable.

Regular exercise is important for your health, and may even help you release some stress. At the very least, exercise for a few minutes multiple times each day. Force yourself to get up from the computer periodically and take an exercise break. Surely, you can spare a few minutes here and there.

There are probably times where you are stuck in your writing—great times to get up, stretch your muscles, and move your arms and legs around with some exercises. When you find yourself just checking one more thing online when you really don’t need to, or checking stats that you had just checked a few minutes ago, force yourself to get up and exercise for a few minutes.

Something like an elliptical is handy because you can move both your arms and legs actively for a few minutes. If you have asthma, exercise in spurts instead of lengthy workouts if longer workouts are more likely to trigger your symptoms. Even if you don’t have asthma, working out more frequently for shorter periods might be easier to fit into your schedule. There may be health benefits from longer workouts, but shorter workouts are better than nothing.

Swimming is another great way to exercise your limbs, if you have access to a pool. But you don’t need to invest in an elliptical or swimming pool to exercise. All you need to do is invest some time. After incorporating regular exercise into your schedule, you might just find that you feel better in more ways than one.

If you have digestive problems like acid reflux or IBS, you need to watch what you eat, as certain foods are more likely to trigger your symptoms. In addition, minimizing stress and exercising may help with these conditions, too.

It may benefit your heart to avoid long periods of sitting down, and to get up, stretch your muscles, and move around for a few minutes in between. It may also benefit your vision to rest your eyes, avoiding long durations where you stare at a computer monitor.

I’m not a medical doctor. If you want medical advice, consult with a medical professional. However, if you have a math or physics emergency, I do have doctorate in physics. 🙂

Chris McMullen, author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers, Vol. 1 (formatting/publishing) and Vol. 2 (packaging/marketing)

Oct 23 2013

more, More, MORE; will it ever be enough?

More Pic

 

You start out with some sales.

So happy to sell your first book.

Something to show for your hard work.

 

Then you realize it’s not like you dreamed.

You had fantasized about a bestseller.

Now that seems ridiculously far-fetched.

 

Maybe it’s your cover. Could it be the blurb?

Or does it need an edit? What’s the problem?

See if some revisions will do the trick.

 

You’re excited when sales improve.

Until you realize it wasn’t all that much.

Your dreams remain a long way off.

 

Aha! Marketing must be the answer.

You scour the internet for information,

Learning everything you possibly can.

 

Sales improve after trying these ideas out.

That must have been the key.

Except that it’s still not enough.

 

Then you get a new idea. Write another book.

The sales will feed off each other.

Why hadn’t you thought of this before?

 

Your new book helps. As does the next.

Pretty soon you have several books out.

Sales are so much better now.

 

But it still isn’t enough. You want more.

You crave it. You can taste it. You need it.

Why? You don’t know. You just do.

 

Afterword:

 

I think it’s important to compare yourself to your former self (and not just in terms of numbers).

Don’t worry about how many books other authors are selling.

Some books rarely sell, some sell like hot cakes.

Trying to grow your numbers is a good goal to strive for, as long as you don’t go overboard.

As you learn more and gain experience, and as you have more books out, this should help your numbers grow.

Improvement will give you a temporary euphoria.

Then you get accustomed to it and expect better.

When the numbers drop, as they surely will, you’ll feel depressed.

Sales fluctuate. It’s a fact of life. Strive for long-term growth. Try to ignore short-term drops.

There are seasonal and many other effects, which guarantee some drops.

Try not to let your sales dictate your happiness. Otherwise, you’ll be unhappy much of the time.

Try not to fall into the MORE trap, which doesn’t just plague book sales, but plagues many aspects of life, such as finances.

More can’t really make you happy. You seem happy about it at first. But you can’t always get more. Do you want to be unhappy all those times that you can’t have more?

But more can be a healthy goal, in moderation.

You can use this goal to strive for improvement, and to stay motivated.

Just try not to let it consume you. Then more becomes a huge problem.

Remember, you can measure “more” in other ways besides numbers—better quality, for example.

The last things you want to do are lose your passion for your hobby, forget your roots, or feel like you sold out… all to get more, More, MORE.

If you focus on more, it will never be enough.

 

Chris McMullen, author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers, Vol. 1 (formatting/publishing) and Vol. 2 (packaging/marketing)

Oct 22 2013

How to Get Your Book’s Picture on the Read Tuesday Catalog

Would you like to include your book’s picture in the Read Tuesday catalog?

Oct 21 2013

Marketing and The Scotty Principle

Here is a fascinating marketing philosophy and a refreshing viewpoint. The downside of taking this to an extreme is a possible lack of initial sales and a slow sales rank that may be a challenge to overcome. Perhaps there is a way to give this consideration and still market toward initial and continued sales. The idea is certainly worth a look as it is quite interesting. 🙂

MishaBurnett's avatarmishaburnett

Remember Scotty, the engineer on the the original Star Trek series?  Every time there was trouble, he was on the intercom to the bridge, telling Kirk, “There’s no way the engines can take warp seven!”

Kirk would of course shout back, “Do something!  We need that power!” And then somehow Scotty would do something, and get the engines up to warp eight, and be a hero.

In his honor, the principle of Underpromise&Overdeliver is nicknamed “The Scotty Principle”.   It’s one that I learned and used constantly when I was on the road as locksmith, long before I knew there was a name for it.

It works like this: If I need to order a part and I think it’ll take two days I don’t tell the customer it’ll take two days, I say something like, “Usually they take about a week, but since I know you’re in a…

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Oct 19 2013

Facebook and Twitter Options at WordPress (and Why You Should Use Them)

Two Audiences Pic

If you don’t already feed your WordPress blog into Facebook and Twitter, you should. People who don’t blog here who may want to read your article (because someone was kind enough to share it with them, or because they discovered a link to it somewhere) may not want to create a WordPress account in order to subscribe to your blog. Facebook and Twitter provide two popular alternatives.

Even if you don’t currently use Facebook or Twitter, you should take a moment to open accounts there and to also create a Facebook page. (The how-to part of all these suggestions is described later in this article.) Don’t worry about not having friends or followers there yet. Feeding your blog into Facebook and Twitter is a handy way to get started there without having to do any work. Then you’ll feel that you’re actually using those services, and stop worrying about not using them. Once you have a healthy following there, then you might get the motivation to utilize them by doing more than just feeding WordPress posts to them. In the meantime, it’s a good way to get the ball rolling with little effort on your part, but it will be very handy for potential followers who prefer Facebook or Twitter.

You should also make it easy for people to find other ways to get your blog feed. You can include an email option at the end of every post, put a Follow me on Twitter or Like Me on Facebook option on your sidebar, add a Follow Blog by Email widget, and include links to subscribe to your RSS feed. The more options you provide, the easier it will be for people who aren’t WordPress bloggers to follow your blog.

Of course, they really should sign up for a WordPress account, even if they have no intention of blogging. It’s a great ambiance, the interaction and connections are wonderful, and there is a wealth of amazing material to read or look at for free. I like it better than any magazine. If you can convince somebody of this, that’s great for WordPress and for that person, too.

However, we know that some people are reluctant to sign up for a new account at a site that’s new to them. So make it easy for them to follow you.

How to get started at Facebook and Twitter.

If you don’t have Facebook or Twitter, it will just take you a minute to set up accounts there, add your author photo, and setup your profile. You should also add a header, probably like the one you have at WordPress, although the aspect ratio will be somewhat different.

You should also have an author page at Facebook, to keep separate from your friends and family page. People will be able to Like your author page, too. The name of the page will be different from your Facebook name. From your Facebook home, find the Create a Page option on the bottom-left. For an author page, click Artist, Band, or Public Figure; one of the options is author. (You can also make a page for your book by selecting Entertainment.)

When you want to do something as an author rather than with your personal account, login to Facebook, click on your Facebook page (see the list on the left-hand side), and look for a message at the top of the screen that shows how you are posting. There is a place to click to change this. You’ll need to get into the habit of checking how you’re posting, liking, or commenting before you do it.

How to feed your WordPress blog into Facebook and Twitter:

Find your Settings. There is more than one way to get there. One way is to click the My Blogs tab at the top of the page you see when you login (you also see it when in your Reader or viewing your Stats), then click the button that tells you the number of posts. Now look for Settings near the bottom of the list on the left-hand side.

Now choose Sharing. On Facebook and Twitter, click the Add New buttons. This will give you the option to login and agree to feed your WordPress blog into your Facebook and Twitter accounts. For Facebook, be sure to do this with your author page instead of your personal page (see the previous note regarding how to select how you post, like, or comment at Facebook).

This will feed your posts into your Facebook and Twitter accounts (once you click the Save button below).

You can also add Google+, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and Path. There is yet another Google+ option below.

Further down, there are several other buttons that you can add, such as PInterest and StumbleUpon. You can choose from this list even if you don’t have accounts there. PInterest isn’t for you to use. It’s for anyone who uses PInterest to Pin things they like. So if you would like someone who uses PInterest to have the option of Pinning something you posted, you should add this button, even if you don’t use PInterest. The email and print buttons may be convenient for people who aren’t into social media connections at all.

Explore all the options at the bottom, like the button style and where these options will appear on your blog.

How to add Facebook and Twitter options to your sidebar

In the same place where you found Settings in the previous instructions, look for Appearance and select Widgets.

Look for the Facebook Like Box widget. Drag it over to your sidebar. Click the little triangle in the blue bar, if necessary, to open up the options. Add a title. Go to your Facebook author page and copy/paste the url from your browser (up at the top, including the http:// part) into the url field. If you don’t have any friends yet, reduce the height to 100 pixels (if you enter a value less than this, it will revert to the default); if you have faces to show from your author page, you may want a higher pixel count for the height. The standard sidebar is 200 pixels wide (if you have a dual sidebar, the one on the left may be more like 150).

If I visit your blog, I’ll try to remember to check if you have an easy way for me to check out your Facebook author page, and if I like it, I’ll Like it, too. 🙂

Look for the Twitter Timeline widget (the old Twitter widget is expiring soon, so don’t select that one if you see it). Enter a title. You’ll need to login to Twitter (in another window) to get a widget id. At Twitter, go to edit your profile (look at the top-right), then click Widgets. Create a new widget. Save it when you finish selecting your options, then look for the long number called your widget id in your address bar (it’s in the url at the top of your browser). Copy and paste this into the widget id field at WordPress.

Open up your blog’s homepage and refresh the page to see how it looks. If you need to make changes, refresh the page again when you finish to see how your revision looks.

How to setup other follow options

Go to your WordPress blog’s widgets (see the previous instructions). Drag the Follow Blog (whereas the Follow button is for WordPress.com users) button over to your sidebar. This will let non-WordPress users subscribe to your blog by email.

You can also add the RSS Links widget to provide links to your blog’s RSS feeds. Many professional authors only have this option; but we can benefit by offering the convenience of several different options.

The RSS feed for your WordPress blog is simply your blog’s url plus /feed/ (for example, mine is https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/feed/). You can use this to feed your WordPress blog into your AuthorCentral page at Amazon.com (but in the UK, you must feed Twitter there instead) or into GoodReads (go to your author account there to do this), for example.

How would you like to participate in a Black Friday type of sales event designed specifically for books? Check out Read Tuesday. It’s going to be HUGE!

Chris McMullen, author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers, Vol. 1 (formatting/publishing) and Vol. 2 (packaging/marketing)

Oct 19 2013

Gifting ebooks outside the US: Any Problems?

Present

We received a new comment on Misha’s article about how and why to gift an e-book today. It relates to gifting ebooks at Amazon outside the US.

Does anyone know if this is a problem? For example, suppose you live in the UK and wish to gift a Kindle ebook to a friend who also lives in the UK. What’s the best solution?

Oct 19 2013

Looking to Update the Read Tuesday Catalog (Good time for authors to add their books)

Now is a great time to show your support by adding one book (at least) and yourself to the Read Tuesday catalog. This will help to interest the growing number of visitors in Read Tuesday, and thereby help to make the event a success. It will just take a moment of your time. 🙂

Oct 18 2013

Kindergarten Geometry Challenge: What Shape Is This?

Octagon

Don’t bother to count the sides.

Don’t try to think of what prefix to use.

I learned the “correct” answer from other parents who pulled their children out of school for homeschooling.

If you thought this was an octagon, I’m sorry to say that you were way off.

It’s a stop sign, of course.

Even though it’s not red.

Even though it doesn’t have the word STOP anywhere on it.

If your kids watched Mickey Mouse Clubhouse or Team UmiZoomi in preschool, this could be a little confusing, since those preschool shows actually use the technically correct words for these shapes (Mickey even teaches the names of 3D shapes).

Maybe those words become more challenging when the kids enter kindergarten.

All I can say is:

Please, oh please, octagon teaching our kids the wrong words!

Octagon it!

Between this and my previous post, I know we’ve said enough and have probably said too much.

Perhaps this merits a moment of silence instead…

Oct 18 2013

Read Tuesday: We need your help to get the word out!

This is a great effort to help spread the news of Read Tuesday through Facebook. 🙂

S.K. Nicholls's avatarS.K. Nicholls

cropped-rt-logo-21-2

All you Facebookers: We need your family and friends.  Help us promote this event with a post to your Facebook account.  This event is like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but it is all about books. It can read something like this:

“Authors interested in promoting your books?  It is easy to sign up.  Gift Givers: Support the Indie Author & the Traditional Author and give the gift of books for the Holidays this year. This is going to be HUGE! December 10th! Mark your calendars. Free and 99 cent books. HUGE discounts. http://readtuesday.com/.”

Feel free to copy and post to your Facebook site.  Post it to your group sites, as well!  Or make your own message!  (Copy and paste the Read Tuesday URL http://readtuesday.com/ into your Facebook status with your message!)

When you post the link, a gold bow will appear in a thumbnail with a link…

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