How writing isn’t all fun & games, but it’s all worth it.
Podcast Episode #33
My name is Naomi Shibles and I’m here to tell you Why I Need This Author Gig.
With each episode, I’ll share a little bit about my writing journey, sprinkled with some anecdotes so that we can share a laugh.
In this episode, I cover:
The Big Winter Storm
Editing sotware
Facebook ad fails
Author websites
Salutations Readers & Writers!
Today (yesterday when this posts) is The Big Winter Storm. In North Carolina, that just means that school is canceled but it’s too cold and rainy for kids go outside. Right now, it’s dark out and everyone else is asleep. I’m snug in my bed, chatting with you. And I have coffee, and a tiny dog. I kind of love it.
If you’re counting down with me, I finished expanding my YA cozy fantasy novel! It now sits at 60,000+ words for a nice spine girth. 😁 Now comes the tedious part—revising.
I’m spending a lot of time with AutoCrit these days, running the manuscript through that software to catch passive writing, repetition, etc.—and to smooth out the pacing. I already broke one chapter into three because I noticed that it was nearly 10,000 words while the others are between 2,000-4,000.
The Autocrit Pro membership was half off this month at $15, so I signed up. Even if I keep it, at $30 per month it’s still infinitely cheaper than hiring an editor. (Keep in mind that it’s my new material that needs to be checked. In other words, the editing is already half finished. Hiring a human editor with a professional reputation is always a good idea.) The platform is slightly clunky, but that’s probably because I’m using it on my iPad.
The other thing that I’m learning is how to create and run Facebook ads. After experimenting with Amazon ads, I’m going to focus my resources elsewhere. A lot of my traffic comes from Facebook, so why not try? My first attempt at building a FB ad was rejected by the platform—I think because I used a shortened url to link to the Counterblow ClemencyAmazon page. So this morning I replaced it with the full Amazon url, but who knows? Maybe I’m not allowed to link to Amazon at all.
This is another good reason to have an author website. You can quickly build a webpage on your own site for your book that links to Amazon or any other bookseller, and then that’s a url that you own and can use wherever you want. I remember starting my website during the pandemic lockdown and having zero clue what to populate it with.
I hadn’t published a novel yet, it took me years to build an About Me page as many of you know, and it seemed like there was nothing for me to share with the world—even with my blog. I just wanted to use it to demonstrate to agents and publishers that I could be a marketing partner. So while I knew that my site had zero visitors, I used that time to experiment with layout and design. Now I’m pretty proud of it.
If you’re a dreamer, it’s okay to not know what you’re doing to promote your work, or to not like a part of creating (like proofreading). Just keep chugging along little choo-choo train and see what wonderful place the tracks lead you.
I believe in you!