Tag: Writing

Life

Marketing for Writers?

katjorgensen

In May I published two novels. One was actually a second edition with some reformatting and a pretty new cover. But the other was brand new. And then the real job started. Marketing. I almost say it like it’s a dirty word and that’s because I have quickly found out that I have a lot to learn.

And it is humbling. My learning curve is steep. I’ve been trying things one by one to see what works. So far, I’ve been coming up mostly blank with a lot of back to the drawing board for me moments. And a few successes here and there.

It’s largely made me feel like a creative mess. I have notes everywhere and lists of things to try. Things crossed out and others inserted. Big black Xs by the things that didn’t work. My excel marketing sheet is looking like the loser in some intricate military campaign. Arrows everywhere. Little notations. But not a lot of success as far as reaching new readers.

I’m using social media as much as I can. Not sure how effective that is either. But I’m still very much trying out different things. The very last thing I want to do is look like I’m asking friends and family to buy my books over and over again.

I’m trying to alert them to where I am doing promos and inviting them to take a look – not just at my book, but at the other books offered from the other participating authors. It’s hard for someone who is an introvert to do these kinds of things.

But I do want to succeed as a writer. So I will keep trying to come up with a solid strategy.

If you’re a writer, how do you handle the marketing end of things? And is there any advice you would offer someone trying to learn? If you’re not a writer, and have a good idea for me, I’d like to hear from you too.

As always, I’m focused on my goals. I will keep writing books. And keep trying different things. We learn from our mistakes and sometimes we actually figure things out. Never give up on your dreams.

Kat

Life, Motivation, personal growth, Positivity, Success, Writer, writer's block, Writer's LIfe, Writing

Writer’s Block

katjorgensen

How many of us have sat in front of a blank sheet of paper? How many of us can identify with crumpled up pieces of paper? How many of us have suffered from writer’s block?

I have. I went through years of writer’s block. I tried and tried to get words down on the page. For the most part unsuccessfully. It was brutal. Ideas were in my head. Characters were talking to me. But there was a huge disconnect going on from my brain to the keyboard. Can any of you identify with that? I hope not, but I suspect I’m not alone in what I went through. Sad to say, but it happens to most writers at one time or another.

But I continued to try to write. There was a lot more crumpled and discarded paper going on.

Oh, I’d have brief moments of success where I’d start a new project and get maybe 50 or 75 pages into it before doubting myself and my abilities and putting it aside. The inability to write was painful. And frustrating.

It’s heartbreaking to have a passion for something and you just cannot sustain it. I had gotten to the point where I had almost resigned myself to the fact that I’d never write again.

Almost.

But before giving up, I decided to confront my demons once more. Could I beat this thing?

I’m happy to say I have.

So how did I do it?

First, I searched for a writing coach/mentor. Someone who would hold me accountable. Someone I’d pay for the service. I’d tried to do the whole accountability thing with friends, but I had no penalty factor in play. With a paid coach, if I wimped out, I’d lose money.

Second, I set goals. I know I harp on goal setting a lot. But if you set realistic goals for whatever you’re trying to accomplish and steps to reach those goals, it really does work.

Third, I paired with a dear writing friend and asked her for help and accountability too. And this time this did work for me. We do daily check-ins on what we actually get accomplished. We also review our monthly goals with a FaceTime meeting and assess how we did for the past month. And declare our goals for the coming month. This helps to keep me pushing forward.

Because my writer’s block was so strong and of such a lengthy duration, my final step was to work with a therapist to get to the root of my problem. My issue stemmed from the loss of my husband. Things are sometimes connected in ways we’d never think they could be.

And all of my efforts have paid off. I now write every day without fail. I’ve completed two full length mystery novels already this year. I have plotted out two more. And I have concrete ideas for several more books and series. My goal is by year end to have five books for sale. I’m well on my way.

My latest novel is the second book in The River City Mysteries, set in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia. Your Time is Up. It gives me great joy to see readers buying it and to hear from many who take the time to write to tell me how much they are enjoying it.

The first book in the series, Your Eight O’clock is Dead, is enjoying a new cover and new life as readers discover the story and the series all over again.

What’s stopping you today from pursuing your dreams? I suggest you sit with that for a bit and see if you can write down anything that comes to mind – no matter how far-fetched it might be. I know I discounted a lot of things that really were connected if I’d only taken the time to figure them out.

Do you set goals for yourself? Do you have someone with who you are accountable? Do you review your goals and revise them as needed to get where you want to go? Are your goals realistic? Unrealistic goals will sideline you quicker than anything. Are you prepared to do the hard work? Perseverance can take you far in writing and in life. Giving up or giving in gets you no where.

The key to your success is waiting for you. Pick it up. Figure things out. Get a plan. Implement your plan with concrete actions. Reach for your dreams each and every day. And never give up.

I wish each of you success and happiness in whatever you do.

Kat

Life

The Pandemic Has Turned Me Into Aunt Alice

katjorgensen

Growing up my father told me many times about his mother’s aunt, Aunt Alice. She lived down in the country in a very little place on some family member’s property. Aunt Alice was a committed recluse – I suspect she suffered from some sort of anxiety condition that left her unable, or unwilling, to venture out.

I asked my grandmother about Aunt Alice. She wouldn’t tell me much, but what I was able to piece together was that this poor, sweet woman had suffered a lot of sadness and tragedy in her life.

Each Sunday, my grandparents would pack up my father and his sisters and take a basket of food to Aunt A. They’d leave it on the porch and then go visit other relatives in the area. But all of the kids were cautioned not to make noise or do anything to upset their great aunt.

I write mysteries. Aunt Alice has always been a mystery in my family tree. I’ve done genealogical research, but I haven’t uncovered anything more than I knew before. She died when my dad was a little boy.

When it was announced earlier in the year that those of us at high risk for Coved-19 should shelter in place, I was very concerned. I’m a fairly social person and I was worried that I may not be able to do this. But I have to say somewhere along the way, I have embraced my inner Aunt Alice. I have hunkered down. And I have enjoyed it on some level. Sure, I still miss all of my family and my friends. But I do not miss the endless appointments I had or the many errands I was forced into doing on a daily basis before the pandemic hit.

I have used my time wisely. I’ve rereleased a book that I’d written several years ago. And I’ve just released the second book in that series – Your Time is Up. That book had just been waiting to be revised and published. I’m hard at work on edits for the third book in the series. I’ve been VERY busy. And it’s felt great.

And as I’ve been safely ensconced in my little sheltered world, I’ve often thought how different my self-imposed reclusive life has been from Aunt Alice’s. What would she have done with a laptop and her imagination? How would her life have been different? Would it have made a difference? I really hope so.

But I have no idea and I wish I knew the answer. One thing I do know is that Aunt Alice will turn into a character in one of my books. Loosely based, of course. I’m a writer. It’s what I do.

I hope you’re using your Pandemic time wisely and are getting a lot accomplished.

Kat

Life

It’s Up

katjorgensen

My book, Your Eight O’clock is Dead is published on Amazon in e-book format. And it is in the process of being published at other retailers.

Click on the image to be taken to where you can purchase the book.

I’ve overhauled my first book in the River City Mysteries, Your Eight O’clock is Dead, and given it a new cover. And I’ve revised the long-awaited second book in the series, Your Time is Up. It will be out very soon. The third book in the series, Your Lights are Out is in the revision/editing stage and awaiting a cover. But I hope to have that published this summer.

Additionally, I’m writing a prequel to the series since so many readers over the years have inquired about my main character and what happened in her life to bring her to her current circumstances. That book will be entitled Your Jig is Up and will be free to anyone who is on my mailing list when it is published – or who joins the mailing list later.

Also, I have ideas for more stories in the River City Mysteries. I’m looking forward to writing these.

Ideas for two other light-hearted mystery series have also come to my imagination. They surround my passion of knitting. So that’s exciting as well.

I feel like rushing water that has been held back by a dam for too long and has broken free. Or as someone said to me recently the genie is out of the bottle and is not going back in.

Writing

Listen

katjorgensen

All month long I have been fighting my writing.  In my heart, I knew something wasn’t right with this latest book, but I could not figure out what it was.  I hate that.  After all, I had carefully plotted the book and was happy with both the plot and the characters.  Or was I?

By asking myself some questions, I got a glimmer of what was bothering me.

I didn’t want to kill off my intended victim.  I’d grown to like her.  And because I didn’t want to bump her off, my scenes were suffering and my pacing was off.  I was going to the computer each morning practically kicking and screaming.  And procrastinating about murdering her on the page.  Of course, I didn’t know that that was what I was doing.

But once I figured out that I didn’t want to kill her, I had to figure out what to do.

Was this just a whim on my part, or did she really have a place in the story other than as the murder victim?

When I’m in a dilemma like this, I don’t do anything rash.  I turn it over to the characters.  So I posed the question to them and asked them to come up with reasons for her to stay among the living.

And they came through.

I woke up the next morning and the answer was clear.  She gets to live.  And the characters (or my subconscious) came up with all of the answers.  I knew why she had to live.  I knew who had to die in her place.  And I knew what plot complications I could make based on letting her live.  I was delighted.  The story was going to be better than ever.

What if I’d ignored that nagging feeling?  I would have continued to write.  That’s a given.  But I would not have enjoyed the process.  The book would have been completed, but I have a feeling it would have been flat.  I wouldn’t have been happy with it.  And ultimately the reader wouldn’t have been either.

I’ve learned to pay attention to those “something isn’t right here” feelings – whether they’re with my writing or with other aspects of my life.

We are amazing creatures.  We know more than we think we know.  But we need to train ourselves to tune into the things that we know but routinely don’t listen to or ignore.

Inner feelings are there for a reason.  Sometimes they steer us wrong.  But frequently they have merit.  Be still and listen to what your body is telling you about your writing, your hobby, your health, your relationship, your whatever.

We’re always so busy doing that often we forget to just sit and be.  The answers are always there.  We just need to listen.

Are you listening to your inner voice today?

Writing

Writing

katjorgensen

If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others; read a lot and write a lot.

Stephen King

If you haven’t read Stephen King’s excellent book “On Writing” I urge you to check it out. Originally published in 2010, it’s now out as a 10th anniversary edition. I’ve just ordered it and plan to reread it.

It doesn’t matter in what genre you’re writing, his book has a lot of good information in it for writers of all levels. But it’s especially beneficial if you are a new or aspiring writer, or someone like me, taking up the craft once again.

Years ago, a friend of mine, who is a New York Times Bestselling writer, encouraged me to read widely. And not just in my genre. I’m a firm believer in this and have done it for probably the last twenty years or so. You learn a lot from stepping out of your genre and your writing will benefit from it.

Primarily, I write mysteries and a bit of non-fiction. But I read romance, science fiction, historical, biographies, all sorts of non-fiction, women’s fiction, the classics. Whatever I happen to find interesting at the moment. It not only gives me the chance to study other writers that I would not ordinarily be exposed to, but it keeps me fresh and abreast of what’s being written by other writers. I also read current events and try to stay up on news stories. Being current is important even if you’re writing historicals. As writers we learn from everything we read.

What are you currently reading?

Life, Motivation, Writing, Your Best Life

Time For Change

katjorgensen

It’s a new month. Are you making important changes to your life yet in this new decade?

Or are you complacent? Content with your lot in life. I hope not.

Change can be scary. People like their routines. They are familiar. And comfortable. But we need to constantly push ourselves in new directions to be our best selves and to live fully.

Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

This year I’m resurrecting my writing career. I put it on hold seven years ago when I lost my husband after a very brief illness. Life descended on me. Suddenly I was in charge of keeping everything going. Talk about pushing me out of my comfort zone. But I did what I needed to do, and I learned a lot. However, there was no time to write. Only to do. To stay afloat.

But now I’m ready to stretch myself again with my writing. Yes, it’s scary. I’m rusty. Really rusty. Technology has moved forward in those seven years and things which were once fairly familiar to me have changed drastically. It’s a learning curve to get back up to speed. New writing packages. New ways of reaching readers. New resources which weren’t available years ago. It can seem daunting at times. But it’s also exciting.

Don’t let your fears sideline you. You are capable of achieving your dreams and desires. But you have to be willing to try.

If these last seven years have taught me one thing it is the fact that none of us are guaranteed the next moment. Life changes in the blink of an eye, the sigh of a breath. Why live a life of less than you deserve or want? Decide what will push you out of the familiar and into uncharted waters. Take that first step. Then push yourself further. It all starts with a dream. And idea. A goal. You can do it.

I challenge you today to make a commitment to yourself to try something new or to pick up something you put aside and give it another go. Don’t be satisfied with where you are in life. Reach for your dreams.

Life

What doesn’t kill you ma…

katjorgensen

What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.

Talk about your dog days of summer.  This summer has been nothing short of scorching!  I’ve tried hunkering down inside the house as much as possible.  So what have I been doing?  A little bit of everything.  And a lot of writing related things.

I’m still working on the second book in my mystery series.  : (

Lesson learned: never say when a book will be out until it has been edited and proofed and is ready to go.

I was naive enough to believe that I’d write two books in the series this year.  Life intruded.  And it didn’t happen.  I put all kinds of pressure on myself to produce this book before it was ready.

Even though I was reasonably happy with the book, the editor wasn’t entirely.  She knew I was capable of putting out a stronger book.  And that’s what I’m doing.  Fixing it to be the best it can be.

Lesson learned:  Hang in there to produce your best product and retain your readership.  A book not up to par can turn off readers.  We work hard enough to entertain in the first place.  Don’t do less than your absolute best.

Part of the “problem” – if you can call it that – with this book is that I was facing some life issues when I wrote the first part of the book.  Nothing serious, but just enough to mess with my muse.  Evidently my voice went into hiding for the first 75 pages or so.  But then, it reappeared and as the editor said, my writing sparkled.  So now I’m trying to put that sparkle into the first 75 pages.  To do that, I had to slash those pages, start the story in a different place and now I have to weave in storylines to go with that revised beginning.

Lesson learned:  Protect my voice. Don’t let life take the joy out of my writing.  And that’s a huge lesson to learn.  Life is hard enough without losing your joy in anything that you do.

I pride myself in trying to stay upbeat in all kinds of situations.  And I can usually do it.  But I couldn’t fool my inner voice.  She took all of my stress and ran with it.

Bottom line:  The book will be done when it’s done.  I’m not even speculating when that will be.  It is what it is.  And I’m hoping the third book, which is plotted out and ready to be written, will be patient with me while I revise the 2nd book.

Life

Perserverance

katjorgensen

It’s been a busy week here.  But I did squeak in some knitting time.  Knitting is how I relax.  In these stressful times where more and more is demanded of us, I think it’s vital that we have something in our lives that brings us relaxation and joy.

For me, that’s knitting.  Over the last month I’ve been working on an intricate lacy shawl, and Tuesday evening I finished it.  This is a shot of it fresh off of the needles and not blocked.  I’m very pleased with how it turned out.  It’ll look better once it’s blocked.

Tonight, I gave it a good soak and rinse and then blocked it to stretch the lace out.  When it’s dry, I’ll get some more shots of the completed work.  The finished measurements are 23″ x 66″.  I think it’ll be a great springtime shawl to thow over my shoulders.

But as relaxing as this project was, it was not without a challenge or two.  I think this is part of my process.  Here’s what happened.

Halfway through the shawl, I grew tired of it.  The pattern wasn’t progressing quickly enough. The lace took too much concentration.  The yarn was too thin.  The moon wasn’t out.  You get the idea.  Nothing suited me.  And I was not relaxing.  I was working, not playing.

I think a lot of us experience this “it’s too much like work and not enough like play” as we do things – even things we love.

I stepped back from my knitting and realized that in a long project, I reach this point, whether it’s in knitting or in writing.  I reach that point where I just want to be done.  I don’t want to put the work into the project that it requires.  The feeling doesn’t last, thank goodness.  But it is there for a brief period of time.  And this is the point where I could give up or change projects.

In writing, no matter how pleased I am with the book I’m working on, I invariably reach a point where I want to be done with the book, too.  It’s too hard.  The characters aren’t cooperating.  The plotting has stalled.  It’s work.  It’s too hard.  Boohoo. Whine.  Moan.

Thankfully, I get past this in writing, as in knitting.  It’s part of the process for me.  But as with the knitting, it is a point where I could scrap the story and be distracted by a shiny new story.  But I don’t allow myself to do that.  I persevere.  And it always pays off.  Always.

To be honest, my pretty Squall was not hard at all.  The pattern was well-written, the design was a dream, the yarn was extraordinary.  And in fact, while knitting this project, I learned a lot about how a shawl of this shape is constructed, and I learned more about repetitive motifs and how they work in knitting.

Life is full of humps.  Do we give up or do we perservere?

The successful people perservere.

But a lot of people get derailed by bumps in the road.  If they would only stick with it, whatever it is,  for that short period of time where it feels problematic they would discover that the bump in the road is relatively short in duration.

So my advice to you, and to myself, is to stick with whatever you’re doing and ride it out.  Soon the bump will pass and you’ll find yourself back enjoying what you were doing.

Perserverance.  It works every time.

Uncategorized

Learning to Promote

katjorgensen

I love to write.  A lot.  In fact, I can lose myself for hours writing.  Time ceases and I enter the world of my characters.  It’s just the best feeling.

I hate to promote.  I’m new to promoting. In late October, my first book was published in electronic format – “Your Eight O’Clock Is Dead” – it’s the first in a humorous mystery series set in my hometown of Richmond, Virginia.  I realized that to reach potential readers I’d have to promote not only the book but myself.  And I’m just such a neophyte where this is concerned.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’ve done bookstore signings with a non-fiction anthology I had published in 2008, and I absolutely loved that part of promotion.  I’m good with people in person.  To chat with someone about books or writing is a treat for me.  I’m interested in people and what they think.  So that was all very comfortable to me.

But enter the e-book market.  And I realized that I was totally unprepared for the promotional end of it.  Sure, I’d watched my writer friends go down that road, and I’d kind of paid attention to what they were doing it while I continued to write.  Often, I’d hear complaints about how difficult it was to connect with readers in this new virtual world we live in.  But the full magnitude of the situation didn’t sink in until I had to do it myself.

After the book came out, I realized no one knew who I was.  I had zero name recognition. What could I do to get my name and my book to readers?

I belong to a wonderful online community of knitters on Ravelry.com.  They are the best people and have seen me through a lot over the past several years.  They’re my friends.  In fact, I spend so much time on the computer either writing or connecting with my peeps in the knitting world, one of my friends gave me a magnet that proclaimed that all of my friends live in the computer.  And it’s true.  I have good friends all over the world thanks to Ravelry.

So it seemed logical to start with announcing to my online friends that my mystery was published.  Before I could do it myself, my dear friend Kim Tyler shared the information for me.  I was simply overwhelmed with the love my knitting friends poured out to me.  They have been staunch supporters of me and my writing, and I’ve received so much positive feedback from them.

Then another dear friend, Anne Hanson, a designer extraordinaire, used her Knitspot blog to alert her fans about my new book.  I was totally blown away by her generosity in doing this for me.

I contacted family and all of my non-knitting friends, and they’ve also helped me get the word out.

Sales have been steady, and I’ve been very pleased that 8 O’Clock has been so well-received.  But I want to reach more people.

So I’m trying a couple of things.  Yes, I’ve alerted my Facebook and Twitter peeps about my book.  But I went beyond that and signed up for some guest blog spots. This is kind of scary to me.  I’ll let you know how it goes.

My first guest blog was for a sweet lady who used to own an independent bookstore in Richmond, Lelia Taylor.  I blogged with her after Christmas.  It’s nice to start off with people you know.

For the other blogs, I hired a company to help pull this together for me.  I’d heard that doing it yourself was very time-consuming.  The price for the service was very reasonable.  I think you have to make a judgment call on what you need to do vs. what you can effectively delegate both in monetary and time savings.

I’ve also tried to make myself and the book more visible on Kindle-friendly sites, since that is where I sell most of my books.  Kindle Mojo and the Frugal Ereader are two that come to mind.  I think the added exposure has definitely helped.

It’s been quite the learning curve, and I know that there’s still so much more to figure out.  I’ll keep you posted on how I’m doing with promo.  And maybe I’ll learn to like it and feel comfortable with it.  We’ll see.

What’s that old saying – nothing ventured, nothing gained?