Three Hours a Day: Update and a Correction

Last week I talked about my plunge into the six-figure strategy proposed by an agent. This is a plan to reach a six-figure salary by writing three hours a day in the morning and marketing three hours a day in the afternoon. My report was posted on Thursday last week, when I was 4 for 4—four stories over four days. I finished the week with five stories. But I also finished the week with very little marketing, perhaps an hour or so in the afternoon. So where am I now?

Like many other writers, I keep notes on paper or on my computer (and sometimes my phone) of ideas for stories—novels, novellas, full-length novels. Over the previous two or three months I’d come up with and rejected a number of story ideas, but six or so remained, blinking at me from the page but never stirring enough interest to get me to start writing (or typing). But last week pushed me to write.

 

The psychological pressure to produce verbiage over three hours pushed me to take the risk of developing a story every day, of trampling doubt and hazy thinking to make an idea into a character with a plot. Each day I finished a complete story—beginning, middle, end. I might not be happy with parts of it, but overall the story felt finished.

 

Marketing was an entirely different matter. After editing in the afternoon I explored outlets for each story. Some journals are clear about what they want and don’t want. What they don’t want can be more important than anything else. If you send a noir story to someone who prefers humorous cozies, you’re wasting your time. But even then, as all writers know, a story that matches the guidelines of theme, etc., may still not catch the editor’s eye. So far I’ve sent out three of the stories.

 

What else did I learn?

 

In a composition class in college, a professor took me aside and pointed out that I had a habit in my writing that I should work on. Manuscript in hand, he pointed to the opening paragraph, which he approved of, and then the following paragraph, which he said just went around in circles. “That’s what you do,” he said. “You keep writing while you decide where to go next, and then you write on.” Under pressure to take an idea and complete a story in three hours I managed to break the habit of writing while I thought about where to go next. 

 

As you can perhaps divine, I didn’t take on the challenge for this week. I’m not writing a short story every morning this week. But the idea is worth adopting—writing according to time instead of scene or pages or words. I’m considering trying it again, perhaps once a month. I’ll let you know. Right now I'm developing story ideas--a sentence or two, perhaps a paragraph, that gives the general idea. I like having a known starting point even if everything that comes after that is totally different.

 

Correction: During NaNoWriMo, my total output was 40K words, not 48K. That was wishful thinking. 

Paths to Publication: Sisters in Crime, New England, Workshop

I used to go to Decorators’ Show Houses with a friend to marvel at the ways other people could spend their money. I never expected to have a room like anything I saw in one of the houses. I went just for fun. My friend, on the other hand, went to pick up ideas. She wanted to get one or two ideas each year that she could try out in her own home. I thought that was realistic.

On Saturday, March 29, 2014, Sisters in Crime New England held a daylong workshop on the many paths to publication—traditional, small press, self-publishing, or a combination of two or all of these. Writers on five panels talked about their experiences finding agents, working with editors, choosing to self-publish, learning the ups and downs of going it alone as an Indie, marketing, and more. They shared their experiences, discoveries, advice, and support.

I’ve been published in all three ways, beginning with a reference work in 1988 followed with 8 novels from commercial presses and 1 as an Indie, but I knew I would learn something. And I did. I picked up two or three ideas to try out in my own writing and publishing career. Not all of the ideas suggested would work for every writer, but there was, I think, something for everyone, the beginner, intermediate, and expert (whatever that one is). So, here are the ideas I liked best for my career and I plan to try them on my new Anita Ray mystery coming out in May 2014. For the Love of Parvati is set in the hills of central Kerala during the monsoon. The story features a family estate, a very lucky goat, a temple, and a leopard, along with the rains.

First, I liked the idea of a marketing giveaway. Many writers do bookmarks, so it’s hard to make mine stand out in the pile. One writer puts a miniature of her book cover on a matchbox. Another made small seed packets with her book cover and planting information. I decided to go back to an earlier idea I’d had and set aside, but this time approach more realistically—recipe cards. I can cards for the many dishes mentioned in the Anita Ray books. I love Indian food and I know I’m not the only one, so I think a few simple recipes on recipe cards might be fun.

Second, several writers talked about the groups they belong to, and how they can extend their advertising reach by getting a mention in the organization newsletters or magazines. I like that idea, so I’m looking at unconventional sites for reviews or mentions of the book. A dear friend has a cooking blog and plans to showcase the book along with a recipe for an Indian dish. He came up with the idea when I told him about the book, and I’m grateful to him for the offer and for sparking the idea.

Third, I’m used to handing out bookmarks whenever I do an event, putting them on chairs and sliding them into any book I sell, and leaving them with booksellers. All that is standard procedure. But I am now going to experiment with adding them to everything I mail—bills, donations, etc. I’m curious to see if that has any effect on sales or what kind of feedback I’ll get.

These are not very original ideas, but they will give me a new way to reach readers and, I hope, stimulate me to think of more ways.