On Writing & Storytelling: Marketing-Averse Author Makes an Unexpected Sale on Twitter!

Late Afternoon/Early Evening, Sunday, August 13, 2023, Lithia, Florida

Hi, there. I’m back with a quick update – a bit of happy news – on this otherwise scorching-hot Sunday afternoon in west-central Florida.

First, of course, let me say that even shortly after 5 PM, the temperature in my neighborhood is still unbearably hot. Outside the house, the current temperature is 97°F/36°C under sunny skies. The heat index, of course, is higher than that – it feels like 100°F/38°C, which curiously enough is cooler than it was when I published today’s first post. The wind has picked up a bit, and the humidity has dropped to 37%, so that’s why it’s not as excruciatingly torrid as it was several hours ago.

I Made a Sale…on the App Formerly Known as Twitter

Now, for the good news, which, of course, I’ve already “spoiled” with the headline and the section header above.

My Achilles Heel – The Business Side of “Authoring”

As I so often say when I write about writing and storytelling, one of the things that I dislike about my chosen profession – and the whole self-publishing thing – is the purely business side of things. I love writing (except on the days when my body and mind aren’t at their best), and I think I’m good at what I do. Not great, you understand, but I do have several years of journalism training and even more years of experience writing for the occasional individual client or for online venues, such as the now vanished Epinions, Associated Content/Yahoo! Voices, Ciao, and Examiner, under my belt. If you catch me on a good day, I’ll dare to profess that I’m a good writer. On most days, I’ll concede that I’m a decent one – no more, no less.

Anyway, I love the intellectual/creative challenges of writing, but I dislike the “money” side of it, especially since I am intimidated by the labyrinthine process of getting a book published via the traditional publishing industry.

In the Land of Ago, around the early 2000s, I used to have a huge hardcover book from Writer’s Digest that was geared solely to telling writers – especially “newbies” (or “noobs”) like me – how to find and connect with an agent, how to “pitch” a story or book idea to a publisher, and all the do’s and don’ts of following the paths of Edith Wharton, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway, Virginia Woolf, Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, Stephen King, Carl Hiaasen, Patricia Cornwell, Tom Clancy, and other famous authors.

I liked that book because it was informative and answered many questions that I had about getting published. It had the addresses of all the major publishing companies and literary agencies, plus oodles of advice on how to – and how not to – submit manuscripts, write query letters, deal with rejection letters, and the ins and outs of negotiating contracts.

As helpful as this book was – it was a Writer’s Market Guide published in the early Oh-Ohs – and as much as I wanted to follow its advice, my shyness and risk-averse nature proved to be my Achilles heel. I was – and still am – intimidated by how complicated everything seems. So, I never dared try to get Reunion; A Story published by, say, G.P. Putnam’s Sons or Ballantine Books while my mother was still reasonably healthy, and after her health took a nosedive in 2010, I had enough on my plate as her primary caregiver that I could not focus on anything more complicated than writing content for Epinions or – after 2012 – going the far simpler but more unpredictable path of self-publishing.

I’ve already written about my experiences with Kindle Direct Publishing – especially my recent odyssey involving edits, revisions, and reissues of Reunion: A Story – so I won’t delve into the topic at length here. I’ll just say that unless you have deep pockets and can afford to pay KDP for an advertisement package, you’re on your own with the “money side” of the business. Not only must you do your own writing, formatting, editing, proofreading, and pricing (Amazon has some guidelines for the formatting and pricing, but the final decisions are yours.), but when it comes to marketing – the “selling” part – KDP gives you a few free tools for self-promotion, but aside from that….

I’m not – as you can tell – a natural salesperson. That’s why I never got hired in the retail industry when I looked for jobs at the Miami International Mall – the closest major mall to my former home in South Florida – when I was young. Hell, I couldn’t even convince the publisher of one of those community newspapers to give me a job as a copy editor the last time – circa 2000 or so – I tried applying for a job that wasn’t a one-on-one writing gig with a client. I’m a decent writer…but not a savvy self-promoter.

Of course, sometimes I do get lucky when, if I’m having a conversation with someone on social media about a writing-related topic, I can promote Reunion: A Story without being pushy about it. And that’s what happened today on X (formerly known as Twitter).

My Twitter handle is Guy Who Writes Scripts…Sometimes, so this lady from New Jersey asked me how I was faring with the strike. I explained that I am not a full-time screenwriter or a Writers Guild of America member, so I’m not directly involved in the strike. I did tell her, without getting into detail, about my friend Juan Carlos Hernandez and how I sometimes collaborate with him and his wife Adria on short films.

I also explained that I had not written a script this year cos I’m writing a novel – Reunion: Coda – and that it’s a follow-up to an existing novella, Reunion.

“Was Reunion published?” my new Twitter follower asked.

“Yes, indeed!” I replied, and I posted a link with a free sample – three pages from the novella’s first chapter, plus the cover, title page, and other “front matter.” I didn’t ask her to buy a copy, but I did want to prove I wasn’t telling her a tall tale.

A few minutes later, she sent me another Direct Message on Twitter:

“Thank you! Definitely going to read it!” she wrote.

And, two minutes later, she added, “Just ordered it on my Kindle app! 😁”

Of course, I was over the moon when I read that, so I wrote back: “Thank you! I appreciate the support and confidence in me. I hope you enjoy it!”

So, it’s as hot as a furnace outside, but my Sunday was made a lot happier by the kindness of another human being, one who likely I will never meet in person.