Mae Archer
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A new direction

17/4/2015

4 Comments

 
I had a plan. Write at least five romance novels over the next five years, build an audience, and hopefully work toward making my writing a viable career option so that I can at some point reduce from full time work. The plan was moving forward. I submitted the first book I ever wrote, eleven years after it languished in my bottom drawer, and got two publishers wanting to publish it. I picked a publisher and moved forward.

I made a commitment, more to myself than anyone else, to write one book a year so I completed my second book and sent it off. It was accepted and published. So far so good. I wrote my third book and sent it off, and this is when things got tricky, it was not accepted for publication. My sales were not strong enough for the publisher to want to pursue other titles.

While I had been looking at my meager royalty statements and feeling disheartened, I had a plan and I was sticking to it, but it was not to be. I don't know why sales of my books didn't go well.

  1. Was it because I was using a pen name, and therefore had to begin again as a new entity without the platform I had established as a published young adult author?
  2. Was it because I wasn't proactive enough with social media to remedy this fact?
  3. Was it that my publisher wasn't doing enough to promote my titles?
But for some reason sales of my two romance novels didn't go well. Now I had to decide on a direction to move forward. There were a few possibilities:
  1. Seek another publisher.
  2. Self publish my third book.
  3. Wait and do nothing.
  4. Do something completely different.

I decided not to seek another publisher. Maybe I would have a better outcome, maybe not, what I know is that I want the space to decide on my future direction.

I could self publish, but I would have to pay for professional editing and chances are that my sales would not be much better than where I am.

Waiting is not an option. I want my book out there and to see what happens.

So I decided that if I'm not going to make money from my romance novel at this point in time, then I want to have readers. I read about Wattpad a while ago, and this seemed like a good option. It gets my book out there, maybe gives me the opportunity to get some feedback, and I might even develop a readership that would help me with future directions.

After my social experiment I can self publish my title and it might sell, or it might not. Either way I'm moving forward in some way and doing it on my own terms.

So I'll be posting a chapter a week for the next 24 weeks and blogging about it. This will give me the opportunity to develop a social media platform and hopefully have my book read and critiqued by readers.

You can find the first chapter of my new title here.

http://www.wattpad.com/myworks/37518719-vintage-dreams

You will have to join Wattpad, but you can easily do that through whatever social media platform you have.

So have a read, or don't. This could be a failed social experiment or not, but I'll just enjoy the ride and hope that you come along too.

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4 Comments
Georgia Carter Mathers link
25/4/2015 12:11:17 am

Hi Mae,

You should read this http://www.sfwriter.com/promote.htm I'm not sure what kind of promotion you were doing, but his story sounds a little like yours. I just thought it might help.

I've started reading your first chapter and will leave a comment when I finish. I do a lot of reading and writing so sometimes it takes me a little while :)

Good luck with the experiment. I've often thought of doing the same thing, but I am rushed enough just putting content on my own site. I think once I am happy with how the site is going, I'll get over there.

I can't quite remember where I read it now, but another author found success through uploading portions of his book to Wattpad. I hope you find it too.

Be careful though of giving away too much for free. That is something of which I'm always conscious.

Reply
Amra
25/4/2015 01:02:43 am

Thanks Georgie. I just read the link you left and Rob Sawyer sounds absolutely amazing. I have to say that one of the things I really suck at is promotion. I kind of did leave it all to the publisher, and they expect the writer to do all the work, so it's all kind of fallen flat. Now I'm kind of finding my way and figuring out what I'm going to do in the future, but being proactive is one of the most important things I'm sure.

Reply
Georgia Carter Mathers link
25/4/2015 01:17:45 am

Yes, I suck at promotion too. I really suck at it. But we can learn.

I found where I read it. Darrell Pitt self-published his own books, leading to an eight-book publishing deal. One of the things he did was put his first two novels up on Wattpad as free downloads and he had over 50,000 readers per book. But--here is the but--he writes YA, which is apparently big on Wattpad. I guess, if your demographic isn't there, you might not see the same kind of success. (Reference: Newswrite issue 216 (2014) p. 9.) I'm not saying don't do it, but perhaps get involved with the community there and see if your writing fits.

Reply
Amra
25/4/2015 04:44:34 am

Apparently there is a romance community there, but I'm unsure how big it is. I have heard that young adult is the much larger community. I'll just keep treading my toes and see what happens.




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    Author

    Author of Return to Me, Hollywood Dreams and Vintage Dreams. Short story is published in the anthology Little Raven Two by Little Raven Publishing. Pen name for Amra Pajalic.

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  • Home
    • Return to Me
    • Hollywood Dreams
    • Vintage Dreams
  • Blog
  • About Me
    • Media Kit >
      • Hollywood Dreams Media Kit
      • Return to me Media Kit
  • Amra Pajalic Website
  • My Shop
  • Grant Writing Course