I would really like to hear from writers and readers who have found this website of value or interest. (In the past, I have left my blogs open to comments. But, after receiving mounds of span and trash, I have decided to encourage those who have “legitimate” comments–comments assured to be of interest and/or benefit to me–to send them to my email address: david@davidrchristensen.com.)
That said, I hope you all are ready for Christmas and the Holidays. My shopping is done as is most of my gift wrapping.
I took a pause in book marketing last week and drove around town as I donated dozens of my books to the Christmas Box House, Primary Children’s Medical Center, Schriner’s Hospital for Children, and the Ronald MacDonald House. It felt good to return something to the community.
As for next year, The Mystery of the Haunted Lighthouse is scheduled for a June 2011 release. And it seems that Interviews will be done sometime in the autumn of 2011. We’ll see.
Now that my book-marketing is done for the year, I will be turning my attention to polishing off the two books mentioned above as well as being more regular with blog postings.
Today, I took autographed, personalized, gift-wrapped copies of my first book around to my former clients (architects, contractors, etc.), my dentist, business friends, etc. I thought it would take a couple hours. It didn’t. It took six hours. I hadn’t anticipated the fun-filled reunions. It is marvelous to see my former business friends after so many years. It paid off to have a Christmas book I could share with them. Each of them was excited about what I was doing with my retirement years. I am grateful I began developing writing skills twenty years ago. Only in my wildest dreams did I ever imagine I would really find any of my books in print.
I hope everyone who reads this blog has something, besides a full-time job, to look forward to after they retire. During the second summer after I graduated from high school, I worked for a man who was nearing retirement. As I understand things, he had so little to keep him busy after he quit working that he simply withered away and died within a year. That experience has always motivated me to stay busy doing what I like to do.
This blog isn’t so much on how to do things or what I’m doing, but I think there is a message there, nonetheless.
One of my favorite “mental” things is when I experience a “paradigm shift.” Right behind that is when I have a sudden insight. They are similar, I know, but for me paradigm shifts turn me into a completely different attitude or view point. Those sudden insights tend to expand my understanding–and sometimes lead to a paradigm shift.
I had an expansion of my understanding this morning. But, before I share it, let me give you some background. I had my first “book” idea about 35 years ago. I decided to write it down???? It was double spaced on EZ-Erase (sp) paper and by the time I reached the bottom of the first (and only) page I was in chapter two. Go figure. Fourteen years later I was talking to my sister on the phone and she mentioned that she was taking a correspondence course (from The Institute of Children’s Literature–highly recommended for everyone who wants to learn more about writing for children). I applied to take it shortly thereafter. I took it and enjoyed it, even though I struggled with each and every assignment. And an interesting thing happened.
Have you every read any of Napoleon Hill’s book? I recall once reading that when you are ready for something, it puts in its appearance. As I neared the end of the course in writing for children, they modified the program. One could either use the last two lessons to submit short stories or one could write a short book (8,000 words or less).
Wow! Here was the opportunity of a lifetime! (As I look back, some 20 years later, I am certain had I not had the opportunity to write that book with a personal tutor, not only would it never have been written, but none of the five books I have written since would have been written.) Of the six books I have written, three are in print and the fourth is scheduled to be released in June 2011.
So, this brings me to the insight I experienced this morning.
First: Thirty-five years ago I dreamed, longed to be a writer
Second: After writing Tivoli’s Christmas I longed to be in print.
Third: After Tivoli’s Christmas was published I could say, “I am in Print.” It felt good, but not totally satisfying.
Fourth: After The Mystery of the Grinning Buddha was published, I saw myself as a writer.
Fifth: After The Mystery of the Ugly Bottle was published, I saw myself as an author.
Sixth: Yesterday evening, after visiting with the husband of someone I had recently sold my books to and upon hearing that his wife just loved such-and-such book, I began to realize than in a wayIpart of me now belonged to my readers. I suppose the next experience will be when my readership is large enough I will, in a way, belong to my fans????
My point is that for the aspiring, learning, trying, coping, discouraged-one-day-and-enthused-the-next-day, student of writing…hang in there. The future you dream about and want so much is out there. Don’t give up. And, as I often write in my books when I autograph them: Dream Big. Work Hard. Be Grateful. Joy in the Results!
My Christmas book, Tivoli’s Christmas, was released by Prismatic Publishing in late November, 2008. Sales were good between then and the Christmas holidays, that year. Then things slowed down as the book went out of season. But the following September the first book in the Millerville Mysteries series, The Mystery of the Grinning Buddha, came out and there were more sales as friends and neighbors and book stores took an interest in books that most 8 to 12 year-old children enjoy–a good mystery. Sales picked up around the holidays of 2009 with the two books feeding on each other and discovering a broader audience. What really set things on fire was the release of The Mystery of the Ugly Bottle. This season, in addition to new people discovering my Christmas book, those who bought the first mystery are purchasing the second one. And, next June the third book, The Mystery of the Haunted Lighthouse, will be released. I can hardly wait until the holiday season of 2011, not that I enjoy wishing my life away.
I have been discovering, or creating, more and more ways to market my books. Last year, I thought I had come up with everything and was feeling a bit discouraged (or challenged, in reality). It’s too late this year for a lot of my marketing ideas, but I am writing them all down on 3×5 index cards. I will place all the ideas on an action-plan chart that extends from now all the way through the end of 2011.
The other thing I will be adding next year is copies of my music for piano. Individually, they won’t cost a whole lot, but each one will be one I enjoy playing myself.
WHEN I first had an idea for a book and began planning for the day it was published, I had this false belief that all I had to do was produce a marketable manuscript and the world would quickly find its way to my front door (and pocket book, for that matter). It took 33 years for that first book idea to find its way into print. Then came the eye-opener. Publishers, for good reasons I now understand, have a limited budget for promoting books. Established, best-selling authors and their new books get the bulk of that money. A small amount might be put toward a new book with “possibilities.”
SO, for the past two years I have been promoting my own books. They are available for purchase as electronic downloads or as paperbacks through simplieindie.com. Some are bought that way. But for the most part, I am doing my best to market my books to small, locally operated business (not necessarily bookstores). All my books come autographed with an offer to personalize them in an appropriate setting. I sell them to my friends, and their friends, and their friends’ friends. I sell them to businesses (the Christmas themed book, that is…Tivoli’s Christmas). I make myself available to schools for a presentation on writing fiction and non-fiction.
MY second and third books (The Mystery of the Grinning Buddha and The Mystery of the Ugly Bottle) are the first two in a series of mysteries geared for 8 to 12 year-old readers. The third book (The Mystery of the Haunted Lighthouse) in that series (The Millerville Mysteries) is written and scheduled for release in June of 2011.
IT was no co-incidence that I chose a seasonal book and a series. Each year Tivoli’s Christmas becomes more popular (locally) and the mystery series helps build a following as each year I approach those who have purchased one of the earlier books with the latest in the series. I have a second series, the first book of which is written, that I hope to make available for publication within the next few years.
I also have several stand-alone books on which I am working.
Today, I get to begin re-writing a book. I do not look forward to it at all. I wrote the first draft of this book nine months ago, strictly for fun. My publisher is convinced that it has great market value, but I need to change this and that and add this and that. I agree with him, but am having a hard time starting. You see, I don’t write in the same way as many other authors. My sister, for example, plans her books (connieawalker.com) from beginning to ending. She outlines the book, she defines the characters, she develops the settings, etc. Then there’s me. I know where my books begin and where they end. I have confidence that I can create and interesting middle, and I define my characters. From that point until I finish the first draft, the characters write the book for me. So far it has worked. I have written six books this way. Three of them are in print and I am pleased with how each one turned out. Most all of my readers are too.
But to take a book that wrote itself and now shape it into a book that goes somewhere else, even though there is probably more money in the revised book, is difficult to undertake. But, I will begin today. I am not closed to new experiences. Most likely, I will discover that the process was fun and not nearly as difficult as I had anticipated.
My name is David R. Christensen. I am new at blogging, and for those who check my website, I would like to welcome you. I am not new at writing books. As you click on the headings above you will come to learn that I have three books in print. If all goes as planned, books four and five will make their way into print in 2011. These two books are already written–just going through the final phases of polishing and refining. A sixth book is also done. It is the first in a series of three books. I won’t let it go to print until the second in that series is written. I wouldn’t mind having the third book written as well. It makes it a lot easier to maintain continuity throughout the series.
I understand there are bloggers who develop followings. I would like to post blogs that are interesting and helpful to the reader. One idea comes to my mind that I believe would interest those who are learning to write and those who already know how. And that is a step-by-step posting of an author taking a new book idea from first thought to completed book.
I have a three-ring binder that contains enough marketable (my opinion, of course) ideas to keep me writing for the rest of my life, assuming I live and can write until I am at least well into my 80s. My next blog will be a short blog, but will let you know how the process is going.
If you find the blogs interesting, please let me know at david@davidrchristensen.com.
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Comments
I would really like to hear from writers and readers who have found this website of value or interest. (In the past, I have left my blogs open to comments. But, after receiving mounds of span and trash, I have decided to encourage those who have “legitimate” comments–comments assured to be of interest and/or benefit to me–to send them to my email address: david@davidrchristensen.com.)
That said, I hope you all are ready for Christmas and the Holidays. My shopping is done as is most of my gift wrapping.
I took a pause in book marketing last week and drove around town as I donated dozens of my books to the Christmas Box House, Primary Children’s Medical Center, Schriner’s Hospital for Children, and the Ronald MacDonald House. It felt good to return something to the community.
As for next year, The Mystery of the Haunted Lighthouse is scheduled for a June 2011 release. And it seems that Interviews will be done sometime in the autumn of 2011. We’ll see.
Now that my book-marketing is done for the year, I will be turning my attention to polishing off the two books mentioned above as well as being more regular with blog postings.