Month: June 2019

I just finished reading a novel by my friend Alethea Shenea Cook called Just Wing It. This is the brief review I left on my goodreads page.

Just Wing It by Alethea Shenea Cook

I wasn’t sure that I would be in the target audience for this book, but I gave it a try. By the time I neared the end, it was hard to put down. There were definitely some good surprises. The characters were well developed and it was really easy to hate the bad guys while still understanding why they were bad guys. Very good job, Ms. Cook (the author).

View all my reviews

My day job involves a lot of writing, though it is mostly educational materials for the classes I teach. Sometimes, though, I contribute a little something to my community. To see an example of this, take a look here:https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/you-may-only-need-data-analytics-technician-bob-trapp

The point of this piece is to spark the discussion that will lead local employers to seek out my students. Though I teach at a community college, my students come out with awesome technical skills and can hit the ground running in the data and software world. Our program has a great reputation in the region, but technology changes. Some of our industry advisors wanted Data Analytics as a program, so that is what we are giving them.

During the early stage of a new Career and Technical Education (CTE) program, there is often a disconnect between employers and graduates. Part of my job is to help make those connections. Once established, the program will produce capable graduates that feed into the employment needs in the area.

As it says in my article linked above, community colleges around the country are starting programs for these day-to-day data workers. It’s just the way things are going. It will be no time at all until my little program will be a big program with multiple instructors and too many students. The people will look at it as though it is just another program and “of course you would have such a program; it’s normal”.

Now that my novel Hour of Consequence is out in both eBook and paperback versions, I need to start the marketing. I already did the simple stuff, like announcing the books on social media. The more professional stuff is next. It will be my first time with an all-out marketing activity; what wonderful mistakes will I make?

One of the first steps is to send the book to professional reviewers. These are people who review books and then print their reviews in magazines or websites. If a good reviewer can recommend your book to their audience, it can drive sales up quite a bit. When you get several good reviews, it really sets things off.

The trick is to find the reviewers and determine their requirements. You don’t want to get on their bad side by violating their rules. Then you create an appropriate introductory letter and send it along with a copy of the book. Finding them will require an Internet search.

In the past, publishers would send galleys (essentially a copy of what a book would look like after publishing, but made before actual publishing). Today we have print on demand; by the time you have a galley the finished book is only a couple of days away.

If this part goes well, I will have to document all of it for the next time I publish a book. I may even offer it as a service to acquaintances who self-publish.

The next step is to send press releases. This is new to me also. I’m not good as self-promotion, tending toward the subtle side of things. This involves both writing the release and getting a list of targets. The obvious targets are for newspapers and similar from the immediate region. “Iowan author releases second novel” should be the theme.

The purpose of the press release is to get the attention of these publications in the hope that they will want to produce an article about me and my writing. Such articles are free publicity. That’s way better than paying for advertising.

The final and least happy step is looking into buying ads. What does it cost to buy ad space in the major newspapers in the region? Would it do any good? What will it cost to have a graphic designer make the ad? This could quickly turn expensive and may not be worth it in the long run. If the advertising does not generate enough revenue then all the money spent is lost. I wonder how much of that can be written off as a business loss come tax time? I wonder if writing can be more profitable that way.

Those are my next steps. I will let you know how it goes. It would be better still is some reviewer in your favorite periodical lets you know how it goes.

My new novel, Hour of Consequence, has gone to press. There will be some processing time before the print version is available. However, the eBook version is ready right now. Get it here.

In my first novel, Cordell’s Rebellion, one will find the lyrics to three songs from one of the characters. Since I had written the songs anyway, so I could include snippets in the story, it seemed like a nice thing to append. Now I have the question: should the second novel also include song lyrics or poetry at the end?

The thought behind the question is that such a thing could become a normal part of any novel I write, a sort of trademark. I write poetry and lyrics occasionally anyway; it would not be difficult to knock something out that fits the book. If anyone ever recorded a performance of the songs, it would help to promote the books. As long as the lyrics were good, I couldn’t see anyone complaining.

However, as I thought about it, there is no direct tie-in with the story. In the first novel, one of the characters likes to sing when he is under stress. He also fancies himself a song writer. This gives a story-related reason for there to be song lyrics. This character does not appear in the second novel, nor are there any others where a musical bent is important. This means lyrics in the second story would seem forced.

I’ve looked through the story of the second novel and cannot find a place where music would be appropriate. There’s no part where the characters or plot are enhanced that way. I can’t really think of the right kind of music for this story, not anything easy to describe.

In later books, poetry and music may come to play again. In those cases, it would be reasonable to append the verses to the end of the tale. It would be a natural thing. For the second novel, the prose will have to stand on its own. Isn’t that always the case.