10 ways smart phones hurt writers

By Frederick Lee Brooke

1. Unless you have amazing self-discipline, watch out for that social media addiction.
2. Zap incoming notifications into the trash can instead of becoming a slave to them.
3. Up till the advent of the smart phone, it took a lot more clicks and infrastructure to check emails and surf the net; are you writing as much as you aimed to?
4. Not active but passive consumption is king with smart phones. Reading is active. Watching videos is passive.
5. Zoning out is good if it leads to reflection. At what moments in the day did you used to take time for reflection? Are you getting out your phone and checking stuff during those moments now?
6. Are you constantly switching from one thing to another rather than focusing for a period of time on one thing on your smart phone? It’s the antithesis of what we do when we read a story.
7. Might people accustomed to smart phone entertainment have less patience for long strings of words that make up a story?
8. Are we losing the gift of gab? Sometimes people are glued to their smart phone when they could be talking together. How is real-life dialogue changing?
9. Now smart phones have invaded the bedroom and the dinner table, the grocery line and the office chat around the coffee machine. These are places where we used to tell each other stories. Is the story becoming irrelevant?
10. Did you notice how smart phones bring Google ever closer, meaning we don’t have to remember stuff because we can always look it up? We have access to more memory, but our own collective memory is turning to mush.

“I fear the day when technology takes over our humanity. The world will then be a generation of idiots.” – Albert Einstein

Rant over. Let’s hear your thoughts — do I worry too much?

This post originally appeared in Fred's blog, My Two Cents.

Frederick Lee Brooke is the author of the widely-acclaimed Annie Ogden mystery series, which includes Doing Max Vinyl, Zombie Candy and Collateral Damage. A consummate jetsetter, he was born and raised in Chicago and has lived in Illinois, Massachusetts, Montana, France, and Germany. He has called Switzerland his home for the past two decades, and travels widely throughout Europe (at latest count, he has visited Italy over 50 times!). Brooke’s love of the written and spoken word is vast—not only has he taught English in various European schools, he also knows French, German, and Italian, and dabbles in Turkish in his spare time. This love of language led him to quit his day job two years ago and focus on his original dream: writing fiction. When not writing books, his three kids (and their homework) keep him busy. He is currently working on a new series of thrillers and, once that’s done, he might take some time to visit one of those Swiss chocolate factories (but only for the free samples). He can often be found chopping vegetables in the kitchen, and makes a mean lasagna. 

Why do you write?

By KD Rush

What do you need in order to make your life seem complete? Is there a single goal to accomplish, perhaps a lifelong dream that you need to achieve? If fame and fortune are on your bucket list, then I wish you luck. You’re going to need it, especially if you plan to accomplish this as a writer.

I know. You’ve heard it all before. Being a writer is hard work and the pay sucks. Why do it then? Do you think you’re different, that your stories are better than some of those on the bestseller lists? Have you already picked out the Ferrari that will whisk you from one book signing to another? In the immortal words of Aerosmith, dream on.

You probably have a better chance of being struck by lightning than writing a bestselling novel that will generate the type of income to buy a luxury sports car. So, I ask again, why even bother?

That’s always been an easy question for me to answer. I write because it’s a dream of mine to publish a novel. It’s my dream, and it’s not dependent upon anyone other than myself. Even if my book(s) don’t sell, then I will still have succeeded in accomplishing a lifelong goal.

If you write for a different reason, or hope to make an income out of it, that’s fine; but you should at least know why you write.

A relative of mine, at a recent family gathering out of state, asked what I had been up to since we last saw each other. It’s a typical question tossed about between people separated by time and distance, and I should have been prepared for it. I wasn’t. Without even thinking about it, I began to describe my dream of writing a novel, even going so far as to give a synopsis of some of the stories I’m working on.

It was great being able to share my adventure with someone that is an avid reader. What I didn’t expect though, after ten minutes of describing what the stories were about, was a puzzled look followed by, “Yeah, but why do you want to write?”

I thought I had mentioned the reason first before launching into my book report. Thinking they must not have heard me, I told them again, “Because it’s always been a dream of mine to publish a novel.”

No, they heard me the first time. They understood that it was a goal, but they wanted to know why. “Why is writing and publishing a novel your dream?”
I was stunned. That’s the first time someone has ever asked me to detail the reason for writing on a subconscious level. And it really was subconscious, as I can’t remember giving it a passing thought. Yes, it’s a dream, but why? I didn’t have an answer at the time, so, I told them I would get back to them on it. It’s not often that someone leaves me speechless. I didn’t bother telling anyone else at our family gathering what I’ve been doing for the past year.
The question was on my mind the rest of the day, and the next. With an eight hour car trip home I figured I would eventually come to a conclusion with that much time to think. I didn’t.

It wasn’t until later in the evening when I crawled into bed and opened the iPad to the current book I was reading that the answer finally came to me. The book, Death of a Kingdom, by M. Edward McNally, is the second in The Norothian Cycle series. About three quarters of the way through the story it suddenly occurred to me why I’ve always wanted to write a book. Not for fame or fortune, but for the emotion. That feeling you get when you’re reading a really good book, can’t put it down, need to tell someone about it, the wow factor.

The reason I write is to give that feeling to others. I want to take them on an adventure they will never forget. So, I ask you again. Why do you write?

KD Rush is a "writer on a journey of self discovery, chasing a dream. WIP: The Guild Inc., a supernatural thriller."

This post was originally published on KD Rush's blog, The Rush Room. Visit the blog, and follow him on Twitter @KD_Rush.

Detective Visibility and The Mystery of Amazon Categories....

By Terry Tyler

...... I've read a bit recently about getting my books more visible on Amazon, because we all know that "discoverability" is one of the best ways to get people reading your books, right? 

I know that genre charts are massively important, probably THE most

important thing in this. The trick is to find categories that will be searched for by book buyers, but are not too extensively populated already. Both my last two books, Dream On and Full Circle, got to about 2000 in the chart at their highest point, but were not in any genre charts because I'd chosen massively over-used things like contemporary fiction, so I knew I had to sort that out before I did the 77p promotion for them this weekend.

Dream On and Full Circle are both centred around two things: musicians wanting to hit the big time, and love relationship/parenthood tangles. In Dream On my character Janice is a single mother; the book features much about her day to day life. In Full Circle, three of my main characters have small children - the fatherhood thing is one of the central themes. In this book the subject of alcoholism is also prominent, but I couldn't find a fiction category that deals with this...

.... and, furthermore, there is, apparently, no such Amazon genre as 'rock fiction'. I researched the subject of categories quite extensively, and eventually found the perfect one for Dream On: lad lit. Dream On has as many reviews from men as from women, virtually all of whom loved the rock band bits, saying that the banter between the men is so realistic (pssst!! - the two other main characters are women!!). Marvellous, thought I - really relevant to my book, and not highly populated - a real "Eureka!" moment! I emailed Amazon. No, can't put it in lad lit. Why not? Because that category exists for Books but not for Kindle Books. Okay.....

Now, this is interesting, and something that might be useful for us all to know: Amazon explained to me that the categories you see books in, on the books' own pages, aren't necessarily their own standard categories from which you can choose to place your book. They are decided by customer search; what the customer put in the search facility, and how often your book is clicked on after such a search. Which explains a lot, I think. Like why my psychological drama You Wish sometimes enters the 'occult' chart.... at no point have I chosen 'occult' as a genre for that book.

You may have read in a certain best-selling book about visibility that all you need to do is identify the category and chain leading to it, and email Amazon to ask for your book to be put in it (eg, Kindle>Fiction>Mystery>Victorian); I don't know if this was ever correct, but it certainly isn't now. Amazon assures me that it doesn't work like this.

After further extensive research I identified two other perfect Kindle fiction categories that would apply to aspects of both books - please note: I made sure they were both for fiction, and specified that the books should be in the FICTION categories first and foremost. Thus: Single Parent for Dream On, and Fatherhood for Full Circle. I emailed Amazon with my requests.

I am happy to say that both books are, this morning, in genre charts.
Dream On is in Non Fiction>Parenting & Families>ParentingFull Circle is in Books>Health,Family & Lifestyle>Families & Parents>Fatherhood

I give up.....

(I just hope that people are intelligent enough to read the blurb before going to purchase a self-help book about parenting and ending up with a philandering wannabe rock star getting hauled onto the Jeremy Kyle show....)

Terry Tyler is author of Full Circle, Dream On, The Other Side, Nobody's Fault and You Wish, and a member of Independent Authors International. Visit Terry Tyler's blog at terrytyler59.blogspot.com.

Cover reveal: Deadly Call by Martha Bourke

On August 22, the latest volume of Martha Bourke's New Breed series launches: Deadly Call. 

Deep in the shadows of Boston, Massachusetts, the Order—a secret brotherhood of New Breed warriors—is all that stands between a takeover by shifter supremacists.

Diesel, the most charismatic of the brothers, exudes a love for life all the while carrying a terrible burden. A veteran of the Iraq War, he is haunted by the traumatic events of a single night. Poisoned by shame and certain he is cursed, Diesel fears he is a danger to everyone around him.

Helen, the Order’s stunning and gifted surgeon, has a few demons of her own. Even as she and Diesel give in to the deepest pleasures of the mating call, something still holds her back. Destiny threatens to divide them, until, in the midst of unimaginable tragedy, they must banish the ghosts of the past to save their future.

Martha Bourke grew up in Burlington, Vermont, a magical place where street art meets cosmopolitan sensibilities meets nature. She is an accomplished teacher who has spent the last fifteen years creating Spanish language programs for elementary schools and traveling extensively. For most of her life, she has had a fascination with foreign languages, culture, and mythology – a passion that colors and enriches the world of Jaguar Sun, which now encompasses two series.

Martha and her husband of fifteen years have carved out their own little piece of Vermont in the Massachusetts countryside. When not writing, she loves spending time with her animals, listening to good music, thrifting, and adding to her Converse collection.

Website: http://www.marthabourke.com

Twitter: http://twitter.com/Martha_Bourke

FB: http://www.facebook.com/marthabourkeauthor