I'm wasting my time talking so much to authors

I need to think about how I should be trying to promote by books. Like everyone else, especially writers, I have a limited amount of time to write and promote, and work at my day job. I have been at this now since February, and while I have made some good friends and learned a great deal on various discussion boards and blogs. all of that is taking time away from communicating with potential readers.

Take, for example, my MG/YA books Anabar's Run and Anabar Rises. Instead of discussing them on author blogs and websites, I should be communicating with young teens and their parents and librarians and maybe even teachers. I need to focus on the people who I think are likely to read and enjoy my books.

Then there is social networking. To be honest, I still haven't really learned Facebook very well. I have a page and started a fan page, but I know I ought to be writing instead. Then there is Twitter. I do like Twitter, and I can usually spare a few minutes to send a few quick tweets or re-tweets. I just reached 100 followers this week, and I felt like that was a significant milestone for me; however, I see many people with thousands of followers. Instead of envying them, I wonder how much time it must have taken them to get so many followers, and for what?

I do believe networking and other forms of marketing are important when you are trying to make it in self publishing, but at some point they become intrusive. I see all this discussing books with other writers taking time away from my writing and connecting with readers.

I have made a few important connections with people in the business, but I don't need thousands of connections with people who probably won't read my books. I understand when other writers don't buy my books. I don't expect them to.

I have joined in a partnership with a small group of professionals involved in publishing. We are actively helping each other to revise, proofread, and market our books. This is vastly different from all those Facebook friends and Twitters folks. In this partnership, we are committed to working together and selling or books. I will write more about this in the coming weeks.

There is nothing wrong if you enjoy social networking and all the other forms of electronic communication available to us. Many people really enjoy them, and I am all for people doing things they enjoy, but I should be focusing on the people who I want to buy my books.
I wouldn't have this blog if I didn't want to sell my books.

Great review for Anabar's Run on CatholicFiction.net

Anabar's Run just received an excellent review on the CatholicFiction.net website at: http://www.catholicfiction.net/2011/07/18/anabars-run-by-will-granger/ .

I appreciate Jody Rakis taking the time to read and review my book. While I did not write Anabar's Run and Anabar Rises to be overtly Catholic or religious books, they do have some underlying themes of peace and avoiding hatred that I hope will appeal to readers of the reviews on CatholicFiction.net as well as other readers. I really hope MG and YA readers will benefit from these messages.

In other news, I also posted an original poem,Why , on my Anabar Series Blog. I wrote it as if it was written by Marabel, Anabar's mother, and I am quite happy with the way it came out. Poems are great fun to write.

Audio Interview with Will Granger at Work-At-Home-Success Website

Big thanks go to Leslie Truex from the excellent Work-At-Home-Success website for interviewing me this week. We talked about my experiences as an online college teacher and author.

First, I talked about some of the different opportunities in teaching college classes online through correspondence and webcam-based formats. I also explained what I know about the qualifications and experience one generally needs to become an adjunct professor at community colleges and universities. This is a great job, and there are plenty of opportunities out there.

Second, Leslie asked about my experience as an author. I told her about what I have earned about self publishing ebooks and promoting. I always like it when I get the chance to talk about my books.

Please go to the Work-At-Home-Success website and listen to the interview .

I really appreciate Leslie taking the time to interview me. I hope you enjoy it.

Vampire Truths: my new short horror story

I just published my newest short horror story, Vampire Truths, on Amazon.com. I decided to write this because I wanted to show my view of what life as a vampire would be like. This is no love story, and my vampire is definitely no romantic hero.

You can read an excerpt from Vampire Truths and learn about my other horror shorts Gladitorium Immortuos and The Deadly Path at my blog: http://baddreamsgranger.blogspot.com/ . I plan to have the story for sale on Smashwords.com next week.

I am having a great deal of fun writing horror stories, and although I plan to start Anabar's Night, which will be book #3 of my Anabar Series,  I think I'll stick with horror for a while. My next horror short will have the title Green, and then I have ideas for a lumberjack tale and another zombie story.

Anabar Rises featured on Indie Snippets Blog

Thanks to Bryan at the Indie Snippets blog for posting an excerpt for Anabar Rises , book #2 of my Anabar series of YA action coming-of-age books

You can read the snippet here: Anabar Rises Snippet .

You can also read more about Anabar Rises and Anabar's Run, book #1 in the series, at my Anabar series blog at http://anabarseries.blogspot.com/ where I have more excerpts, maps, photographs, posters, and other features.

Please check out the Indie Snippets blog. Bryan is doing a great job of promoting many great Indie books by providing excerpts from "New INDIE fiction in bite sized-flavors."

Excellent Review of The Deadly Path on My Book Addiction blog

Please check out a great review of my short horror story The Deadly Path on The Book Addiction Blog at Review of The Deadly Path . Big thanks to BookGirl for taking the time to read the story and write the review. Sales have started out very well for The Deadly Path  and my other horror short Gladitorium Immortuos and I believe this review will help my numbers even more.

Giving away five copies of Anabar series for Young Adult Book Club

From July 1 until July 7, I'm giving away five copies of Anabar's Run and Anabar Rises as part of the YABC Festival celebrating the first six months of the Young Adult Book Club (YABC) on Goodreads.com. YABC
This giveaway will be available for the first five YABC members that post a comment here asking for the books.
Readers can find much more about both books at my Anabar Series Blog: http://anabarseries.blogspot.com/

Shameless Comparison to Pottermore

I know some of you might accuse me of trying to take advantage of J.K Rowling's announcement of her new Pottermore website venture, but (here goes) I believe I have been trying to do a similar thing with my Anabar Series blog. Since I began working on my blog several months ago, I have been trying to make it an interactive immersive experience for readers of my Anabar series.

I carefully read Rowling's press release announcement of Pottermore, and I was happy to see her include ideas similar to what I am doing with my my blog.

The press release states: "J.K. Rowling has written extensive new material about the characters, places and objects in the much-loved stories, which will inform, inspire and entertain readers as they journey through the storylines of the books."


Well, everything on my blog is new material I have written, and I hope it will entertain my readers and add to the experience of reading my books.


Rowling's press release also states: "In the new website, the storyline will be brought to life with sumptuous newly-commissioned illustrations and interactive ‘Moments’ through which you can navigate, starting with the first book..."


Again, I am trying to do much the same thing. My blog now has new photographs, posters, notes, a map, and a journal. I believe these feature will bring my stories to life. I also have plans to continue to add to my blog every week in the foreseeable future. To be honest, I am having fun working on my blog - I hope readers and potential readers will have fun there too.


I think Pottermore is great news for those of us trying to promote our ebooks. Rowling had injected a huge amount of legitimacy to ebooks with her announcement. That can only help us all.


Please check out my blog. I would love to hear what you think.
http://anabarseries.blogspot.com/

New horror short stories and blog

I've just opened a new blog at Bad Dreams From Will Granger where I am promoting the first of my new horror short stories.


The Deadly Path is the tale of five-year-old Cindy, who often watches from her bedroom window as an old man passes by her house in the middle of the night. Strangely drawn to the man, Cindy sneaks out of her house and finds him by following a golden path that only they can see. She watches as he buries strange coins by the corners of several houses. 
What Cindy does not know is that people start dying in those houses. Cindy's life changes when her best friend dies in a fire, and she finds one of the coins buried under the ashes.

Gladitorium Immortuos takes place in Ancient Rome. Soldiers capture some Immortuos (Zombies), which are then used in a new form of gladiatorial combat where the audience gets to participate. The Roman crowd loves the new games, and everyone is happy until...well, ah, when do things ever end well with Zombies?

Anabar's Run featured on Indie Snippets Blog

Thanks go to Bryan for posting a snippet feature on Anabar's Run at Indie Snippets Blog. Bryan runs a great blog where he promotes many authors with interesting "Snippets" or excerpts of 200 words or less. He provides a great service for writers and readers alike. Please check out his blog at http://indiesnippets.blogspot.com/ follow it, and help spread the word about it.

Getting featured on Indie Snippets is my latest step in promoting my books and my Anabar brand. I also just moved my Anabar Series blog to Blogger at http://anabarseries.blogspot.com/ . I believe I have succeeded a creating a fun and interesting site for my readers, especially the Middle Grade readers. I will continue to add to site site.

I think my Anabar Series blog is an example of what writers can now do with our books to add to the overall experience of reading. I believe we will see more and more writers creating interesting websites to compliment their books.

Continuing YA discussion on Wall Street Journal boards

There is an enthusiastic discussion going on at the Wall Street Journal web page at this page.
Many people are debating Meghan Cox Gurdon's article Darkness Too Visible
Her subheading, "Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity. Why is this considered a good idea?" should give you a good idea of what she says in her article.


I agree that some YA fiction is excessively vulgar, and I think the best way to deal with this is for parents to pay attention to what their children are reading. 
Whatever your position on this, post a comment so we can discuss it. Also, if you agree with me, join me on the WSJ site - I need some backup there!
Thanks,
Will

Free ebooks! My First Giveaway of Anabar's Run and Anabar Rises

Hi everyone,


I know other authors offer giveaways from time to time, so I decided to offer free copies of my books. Hopefully some of you will take advantage of my offer and enjoy read the books. If you post a reply here or send me a message on Twitter at my Twitter page  by June 23, I'll be happy to send you a Smashwords.com coupon code for free copies of both Anabar's Run and Anabar Rises.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Thanks,


Will

Profiteering Instead of Therapy in Vulgar YA Literature

There is an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal titled "Darkness Too Visible" (Link to article) by Meghan Cox Gurdon in which she includes the sub heading, "Contemporary fiction for teens is rife with explicit abuse, violence and depravity. Why is this considered a good idea?".  She makes the point that there is too much extreme violence and explicit sexual content in YA literature today.


I agree with her to a point. While I am not in favor of censorship and banning books, I think parents have the responsibility to know what their children are reading and to control it if they do not feel it is appropriate. It is also not responsible parenting to have no idea what your kids are reading. That is not permissive or enlightened - it is lazy parenting.


Some argue that Ms. Gurdon and others who agree with her cannot see that writers of such depravity are helping young readers by teaching them about what the world is really like. 
I say that it is a bullshit excuse to say that this extreme violence and sex is being written solely with our kids' best interests in mind. These writers are not some sort of quasi-therapists or inspirational figures who are seeking to enlighten our youth - they are simply profiteering and taking advantage of the market.
Still writers should write what they want, and they should do so to try to sell their books. You have to be honest if you want to be a writer. 
That's why I think it is the parent's responsibility to make the decisions about what is appropriate.

Editing complete on Anabar's Run and Anabar Rises!

Thanks to some excellent suggestions, I spent the last two weeks editing Anabar's Run and Anabar Rises. I fixed some grammar and spelling issues, but more significantly, I corrected some details and made everything a bit more concise and clear.

I enjoyed this process. It was fun getting back into my stories and getting to know my characters again. Try rereading something you wrote over a year ago - it is a unique experience.

I am confident both books are now in much better shape, and that readers will enjoy them more. Now that I am into my summer break from teaching, I have plans to do several things to build up my writing career.

First, I will move my Anabar website over to Blogger and plan to continue to add to the content. I want the site to be a very interesting and enjoyable place place for readers. My goal is to add a ton of content over the summer

I am also writing a horror short story that is vastly different that Anabar's Run and Anabar Rises. It is the story of a little girl and an old man who share a nasty talent. I have had the basic story in my head for some time, and I am enjoying finally writing it. Actually sitting down and writing is still the best part of all of this.

Major revision to Anabar's Run

I know I rushed Anabar's Run when I published it as an ebook. I had too many errors, and I know a writer establishes credibility by writing clean, error-free pages.

Now that my summer break has begun, I have the time to take a close look at the book and to fix the problems I found. They are mostly typos, but I am fixing a few details as well. I am confident readers will enjoy the story much more  after I clean it up. Thanks to those who already bought Anabar's Run. I will also scrub Anabar Rises and make it as good as I can.