Friday, January 04, 2013

A Little Push to Start the Year


Someone new came to our writing group yesterday, although she is someone I’ve known for a number of years. She brought along a copy of Write With Fire, my book on writing, and asked me to sign it. I was surprised, flattered, and probably a little bit flustered since that doesn’t happen to me often. I had actually been thinking about Write With Fire for a while and trying to think of some way to give it a push since sales have pretty much flat-lined for it.

I decided last year to write a few “tip” articles and put them up for the Kindle as a way of promoting Write With Fire. I completed the formatting for these and did the covers over Christmas and they are now up at Amazon. There are three of them, each with more than 4,000 words of material, and I’m calling them the “Fiction Techniques” series.

The series includes:
Fiction Techniques #1: Creating Suspense
Fiction Techniques #2: Characters Wanted
Fiction Techniques #3: The Twist Ending

The first two, “Creating Suspense,” and “Characters Wanted,” are substantial expansions on material that actually appeared in Write With Fire. The “Twist Ending” piece is brand new. If they do what they are supposed to do, I’ll probably write more for the series. I enjoy doing this kind of thing and it really helps me clarify my own thinking and understanding about the writing process.

If you’re not a writer, these are almost certainly not of interest to you. I will make both #1 and #2 free for a few days at some point in the next week or so. (I’ll announce it here and on facebook.) That’s why they are published exclusively on Kindle for now.  So if you’re a writer and want to get them you don’t need to buy them. (I would appreciate some “likes,” though.)  I probably won’t make the third one free since it’s brand new.

As for the covers, I thought to do something to reflect our modern world of “Direct to electronic” publications and the ebook revolution. They’re basically screen shots of the works in progress. (I kind of thought it was inventive.) You can see the covers below, although not very well. If you click on the links, without having to buy the piece, you can see the images much better, and can use the "look inside" feature to get a flavor for the works.





Have a good un!
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17 comments:

  1. She wanted you to sign your book? Now how cool is that?
    Will go onto Amazon this evening for those.

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  2. Count me in for the 2 free-bees and I'll certainly purchase # 3. Very much looking forward to them, and will def write a review / like them once finished. Thanks!

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  3. Alex, yes it was pretty cool. Gotta like when that happens.

    Sean, the first one should go up free tomorrow sometime after noon.

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  4. Not bad this idea ;)

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  5. As I prepare to e-publish on Kindle, you are a beacon of encouragement and good directions. Thanks, Charles



    Aloha
    from Honolulu,
    Comfort Spiral
    ~ > < } } ( ° >
    > < } } ( ° >
    > < 3 3 3 ( ' >

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  6. It's a nice new year's surprise to be asked for an autograph. I believe in good Karma. :)

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  7. Cloudia, thankee.

    Bernard, I hope for good Karma. :)

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  8. Cool idea! I'll check those out.

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  9. super stuff, thx charles

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  10. I am just curious Charles..do you ISBN your books when you publish through Razored Zen?

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  11. Charles, I look forward to reading your Fiction Techniques, free or otherwise. The "techniques" you have selected are very focused and certainly off the beaten track as far as tips on writing fiction are concerned.

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  12. Laughingwolf, :)

    Mark, no. they get assigned a similar kind of number from Amazon but I haven't ever done ISBNs

    Prashant, The first two, particularly, deal with some common problems that writers have. The third one might be more genre specific.

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  13. International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN's) are important because they can get your book into the Library of Congress, and here in Canada, The National Library.
    Heh-heh. I've got Mark Durfee (The Walking Man) almost listed as a Canadian writer, though he is Detroit all the way.
    The National Library was pleased to hear that for about the second time, I was blowing somebody else's horn, an American, and not blowing my own tooter.

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  14. Charles, altho I do not consider myself a writer, I loved 'Write with Fire', as did my son when he read it. The insight it provides can make reading more interesting.

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  15. Ivan, I will eventually get around to doing ISBN's. Haven't had a chance yet to worry about it, and these are still just ebooks at current.

    Jodi, thank you very much. I appreciate that. You made my day!

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