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A Life Less Ordinary

Tag: Itchy Feet

Writing Update November 2021 – The Importance of Word of Mouth & Influencers for Book Sales

Every first Wednesday of the month, the IWSG (Insecure Writer’s Support Group) engages writers to share their fears, thoughts, progress, struggles, excitement, encouragement, or anything really, about their writing. A different question is posed each month as a writing prompt. Answering it is optional. For November, the question is: “What’s harder to do, coming up with your book title or writing the blurb?”

This amazing, supportive group of writers was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Today, the co-hosts are Kim Lajevardi, Victoria Marie Lees, Joylene Nowell Butler, Erika Beebe, and Lee Lowery.

My answer to the question – What’s harder to create, your book title or the blurb?

What a great question! I think most authors struggle with both. If not, I envy them. The title (and subtitle) is of the utmost importance and is not easy to change once you commit to one. For Plunge – One Woman’s Pursuit of a Life Less Ordinary, it took me years until the one-word, punchy title popped up. I loved the fact that it was short and catchy and that it described my personality.

The subtitle was a different story – I’d made a list of about one hundred potentials and eventually boiled them down to three or so (at which point, I involved others to “vote”). None of these made it. As I hit “send” on the email with crucial information for my cover designer, I impulsively changed the subtitle to the current one. There was no turning back.

Writing a blurb is hard work; much harder and less fun than coming up with a book title. I did not enjoy this process and was glad to receive help from fellow authors, whom I thanked in my acknowledgements. It was a work in progress. I ran the drafts by many people. While it took less long than eventually creating a title for my book (one month versus years), it certainly involved more focus, frustration, and actual keyboard time to put the final blurb together.

My book news

Mark, Maya, and I have been traveling, exploring, and camping the entire month of October. As expected, not much promotion work has happened for Plunge.

  • I post the occasional promo spiel, when allowed on specific Facebook groups I’m a member of. Once in a while – even though the guidelines indicate promotion is allowed once a week (on Sundays in this case) – I get booted and my post is removed, even before it goes live. Often, these posts have to go through moderation first and either get ignored or go unnoticed. Oh well.

  • I played around with a free quotes program, but haven’t used anything yet for marketing. All Author offers free banners for certain occasions. I’ve posted a few of those in the past; most recently a Halloween one. These are fun but don’t create sales.
  • Talk about fun, look at this email I received in my inbox recently… For a company that keeps a close eye on who reviews your book and blocks/deletes what they think are inappropriate ratings (always 5-star ones), I find this hilarious.

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Writing Update October 2021 – Reducing Promotion Efforts and Book Dedication Soon

Every first Wednesday of the month, the IWSG (Insecure Writer’s Support Group) engages writers to share their fears, thoughts, progress, struggles, excitement, encouragement, or anything really, about their writing. A different question is posed each month as a writing prompt. Answering it is optional. For October, the question is: “In your writing, where do you draw the line, with either topics or language?”

This amazing, supportive group of writers was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Today, the co-hosts are Jemima Pett, J Lenni DornerCathrina ConstantineRonel Janse van Vuuren, and Mary Aalgaard.

My answer to the question – In your writing, where do you draw the line, with topics or language?

This is a toughie, especially with memoir, as the idea is to represent the story as truthfully as possible in this genre, even the dialogue parts. That being said, it is easy to omit curse words or swearing. Yet, when the situation allows it or “asks” for it, I am tempted to and I do leave some of these words in the prose, since they are important to the context of those situations. Finding a balance is the solution, I think. You don’t want to put readers off, but you do want to draw them into these real-life scenes.

An author ready for the road…

My book news

Another month has passed. Can you believe it? Even though I swapped my comfortable “home base” in Massachusetts for the confines of a truck camper mid-September, I still managed to get a lot done, book-wise and otherwise.

The goal was to come to a stopping point with a few promotion tasks I still had in mind for my travel memoir Plunge. Once I moved into our new home on wheels, I knew my focus would (and should and did) shift to a life on the road, driving, figuring out our new set-up, sightseeing, hiking, taking it slower, and not being a slave to the internet and the computer anymore. But all that is for a different blog post. This one touches on what I was up to lately, regarding book stuff.

  • I finally created a book banner for Facebook and my blog, based on my Yankee Homecoming banner, leaving space for default images in the middle.

These are the quotes I decided to pick excerpts from:

Amazon editorial reviews

Here are a few photos that vied for the background:

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Writing Update September 2021 – An Eventful Month

Every first Wednesday of the month, the IWSG (Insecure Writer’s Support Group) engages writers to share their fears, thoughts, progress, struggles, excitement, encouragement, or anything really, about their writing. A different question is posed each month as a writing prompt. Answering it is optional. For September, the question is: “How do you define success as a writer?”

This amazing, supportive group of writers was founded by Alex J. Cavanaugh. Today, the co-hosts are Rebecca Douglass, T. Powell Coltrin @Journaling Woman, Natalie Aguirre, Karen Lynn, and C. Lee McKenzie.

My answer to the question – How do you define success as a writer?

This is an excellent question and answers will greatly vary. As a matter of fact, this question is so good and insightful that I could write an entire post as my answer. Don’t worry, I won’t. Being a perfectionist (when it comes to work) with an A-type personality (I think that’s what it’s called), it is very difficult for me to reach what I would define as success. I always want to do better, reach more readers, inspire more people, engage a wider audience.  

Each writer has their own goals. I set mine six months after publishing Plunge and I will revisit those on my first book birthday. In short: success to me as a writer is first to have my work published – in magazines, newspapers, anthologies, or books. Next, it would be to touch/inspire readers. I also aim to get some kind of recognition (positive reviews, write-ups, feature articles, awards, prizes) and – eventually – make a little bit of money with Plunge, once I break even. All this requires a lot of time, effort, and focus.

My book news

August was an incredibly busy month – in life, with our truck and camper projects, a summer-long noisy condo deck project, helping out my in-laws, writing, editing, and translating commitments, and with book stuff! In this post, of course, it’s all about the book action.

  • I finally created a banner for Plunge.

  • In the beginning of August, I did my first in-person “book event” by manning a (shared) booth during the annual Yankee Homecoming Festival in Newburyport, MA. Fellow travel author Marianne Curcio (find her book here) and I split the cost and the space on Craft Fair Day, which is where the organizers thought we’d fit in the best.
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