by Lynne | Oct 28, 2013 | Uncategorized
Can Your Blog Drive Book Sales?
My last blog hit a nerve with many writers. The dilemma of spending time marketing your books vs. writing your books clearly resonated and drew lots of responses. I’ve tried to practice what I preached in that post and have cut down my time on social media. Some. Yet, here I am writing something that is not my next book. How effective is this use of my time?
There are two sides to this new dilemma of blogging. Both sides take time from writing your book. The first is writing blogs. The second is reading them — other writers’ blogs, that is. Writing them takes a great deal more time. Is it worth it? Actually, yes. It’s difficult to know whether my blogs drive sales, but I do know it drives people to my web site. I can measure the number of hits on the actual blog. That’s a good thing.
The other positive about writing blogs is that I actually learn from my own blogs. When I write about characters or scene or POV, I am focusing on the good, the bad and the mediocre. I am reading and re-reading other writers’ to see what works and what doesn’t, which characters shine and which fall flat, which scenes and settings have atmosphere or how point of view affects the story.
One of my blogs was about how to use animals to give your characters character. The topic forced me to think about my animals. How does my character interact with her dog or his parrot? What does it say about them if they leave them alone for days at a time, or if they are constantly worried about them? Great device for character development.
Another blog dealt with the forensics of fire. The fire took place in 1911. What was arson forensics like then? The blog helped me organize the details of my research so I could determine what was missing in the mystery.
So, the answer to the first side of this dilemma, is yes, writing blogs can be very valuable to the writer. After all, it is writing. However, I have no hard evidence that it drives book sales. As to the second part of the conundrum, reading blogs can also be a valuable use of time. There are some blogs I find extremely helpful. A good blog has a message that is of particular interest to me as a writer. I probably won’t read a blog about cookbook recipes, auto mechanics or pit bull fighting.
I will definitely read blogs on forensics, crime-solving, digital photography, art, and many historical subjects. Once the topic is of interest to me, I will take the time to read a well-written blog (yes, that’s important), and hopefully, one with a sense of humor. I will often share those with writer friends. Here are a few I can share right now:
http://barbararogan.com/blog/?p=711#! Specifically on how to create a good scene.
http://writersforensicsblog.wordpress.com/ Great, knowledgeable forensics Q&A and more.
http://www.blogher.com/bloggers-beware-you-can-get-sued-using-photos-your-blog-my-story How not to get sued as a writer using photographs. Handy info.
For the moment my dilemma is solved. I’ll keep writing weekly blogs as long as folks keep reading them. I’ll keep reading blogs that can help me write better. In the end, I hope both of these activities will help drive book sales.
by Lynne | Oct 21, 2013 | Uncategorized
Tracking a Van Gogh is Not Easy
I have trails on my mind since I recently returned from a trip to the National Parks and Indian Reservations in the Four Corners area. I kept my eye out for my beloved missing Van Gogh, but, alas, spied only (only?) 
petroglyphs and ancient cave dwellings dating back to 1200 A.D. 
No “Vase with Oleanders.”
If you’ve read my blogs in the past, you know that research into my last book about the Nazi confiscation of art and a missing Van Gogh painting led me on a hunt for the missing artwork. Along the way I crossed paths with many people in several countries who gave me advice and guided me to web sites and other contacts to pursue. No luck to date.
I’m not giving up, however, and am now working with a dear friend who is German and has close contacts in Germany. Happily, she will help me with the language barrier. The trail has now led me to a “lost art” web site and the coordinator of archives in Magdeburg, a medieval city on the Elbe River in Germany.
At this juncture I have been asked by German officials whether I have authorization from the claimants. These would be members of the Bernheim-Jeune family to whom the painting belongs. I have tried several times to contact the Bernheim-Jeune family in both English and French, through their website (they still own an art gallery) but have had no response. I will try to find other avenues to reach them.
I have also been fortunate to have made contact with two notable authors in this area. Lynn Nicholas, author of “The Rape of Europa,” and Jonathan Petropoulos, author of several books about lost art, have been very helpful. For the most recent updates on my search check out my web page: https://lynnekennedymysteries.com/the-hunt-for-the-missing-van-gogh/ A brief aside on books: “The Monuments Men,” a fascinating book, will premiere as a movie on December 18.
My last blog dealt with my dilemma with marketing. A second dilemma is this time-consuming search, which cuts into my writing time. Perhaps hunting for this painting falls in the marketing category since I’ve had quite a bit of publicity on it. The difference is that this is such a fascinating way to spend my time, while social media marketing and publicity are, well, not. Here I am, stuck again. Do I spend time reading, searching and researching for a lost Van Gogh? Or writing my next book?
Why is nothing ever easy?
by Lynne | Oct 15, 2013 | Uncategorized
Don’t Let Social Media Take Over Your Life
I attended an all-day Mystery Writers of America conference last Saturday. Got all sorts of good tips and ideas, met fellow writers and, overall, enjoyed the day. The best tip came at the very end, however, when the speaker, Hank Phillippi Ryan, told us to be careful not to let the “marketing” of your book overpower the writing.
It dawned on me that that’s exactly what was happening to me. I’d been so wrapped up in social media, blogging and publicity that I haven’t made a dent in my next book. What’s wrong with this picture?
Even when I made the cover of the San Diego Union Tribune about my search for a missing Van Gogh (and my book, of course) — imagine, front page, above the fold –I still had not very impressive results in the sales department. Ironically, I’m not even in this business for money or fame. This is a second career, one that was originally a hobby I adored. Now much of the time I feel stressed and guilty about how to best spend my time.
As I was about to sit down and write this blog, I chanced upon another writer’s take on social media and wanted to share. Randy Ross has some very interesting statistics about his experience with social media and how much it did not help his sales. Here’s his blog:
http://www.theloneliestplanet.com/2013/10/18-months-of-social-media-one-writers.html#!
The conference session and Randy’s blog were a wake-up call for me. It’s so easy to get sucked into spending time on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, et al that there’s little time and energy left for actually writing.
So, I’m going to take Ryan’s advice. I’m allotting only a few minutes, several times a day for social media connections. The rest of my day will be spent writing my next book. Blogs are important to me, so I will try to continue those weekly. I hope they offer something of value to other writers. For now, I’m off to meet with the witches of Salem and my next mystery.
by Lynne | Oct 7, 2013 | Uncategorized
Writing From Different Gender POVs
I just finished an excellent novel called “Help for the Haunted.” It’s about two sisters, ages around 14 and 18 and their parents who make a living by helping expunge demons from haunted individuals. Hmm. Well, never mind the plot – it actually works quite well.
When I was about halfway through I happened to notice the name of the author. Isn’t that awful? I didn’t even pay attention to the author’s name until then. Shame. Anyway, the author’s name is John Searles. A male . . . writing in the point of view of two young females. The characters were so well-formed and realistic I was surprised to learn they were created by a man.
I began to wonder how many other books I’ve read had characters developed by an opposite sex author. One that came to mind immediately was “Memoirs of a Geisha.” In this book, the author, Arthur Golden, does an excellent job of portraying the opposite sex main character. (Not to mention all the cultural differences that required a great deal of research.)
The other book I recalled was “She’s Come Undone,” by Wally Lamb. Also an excellent portrayal of a female character by a male author. Here the protagonist deals with rape, the death of her mother and suicide. How much tragedy and trauma can one woman deal with and how can the male author empathize so poignantly?
In “Help for the Haunted,” clearly I assumed the author was female. I applaud John Searles for getting into the heads of two young women so artfully. But how did he do it? Does he have daughters? Does he teach high school girls? Does he vet his characters through other young women to see if they are, indeed, realistic?
In my novel, “The Triangle Murders,” I attempted the same thing. The main character is a male homicide cop. But in this case, Frank Mead had been developed in other books with the help of a female character. In this book I simply let him fly on his own. The point is that Frank “grew” around my female protagonist in other books and I felt I knew him well enough to give him the lead. But how well did I know him compared to my female lead? As a woman, how well can I know any man?
Is it enough to be married, teach, be a CASA for teen foster youth, have brothers, sons, uncles and cousins of the opposite sex, to claim to know what goes on in their heads? Is writing about characters from an opposite gender point of view different from writing about characters in a different time zone or location?
I think it is.
What do you think?
For the moment my dilemma is solved. I’ll keep writing weekly blogs as long as folks keep reading them. I’ll keep reading blogs that can help me write better. In the end, I hope both of these activities will help drive book sales.
