Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Discoverability is directly related to readers

New and seasoned writers alike read all the time about the importance of promotion and marketing. The necessity for discoverability. Of how to tap the readers’ shoulder and politely (hopefully) let them know of their presence.

Since I decided I wanted to publicise my work and earn money from my words, I’ve bookmarked and read tens of articles and advice on the process, what is needed, what should not be done, about the hurdles a writer has to overcome. And still, until recently, I couldn’t picture me actually doing it. I couldn’t put my mind around what it would be like. I expected it would happen at some point, regardless of the path I’d choose – self published or traditional. I wanted it to happen, to have people read my work, but when it came to picturing it, it eluded me.

Discoverability is directly related to readers. Vague concepts. Readers. Plural. Impossible to see their faces, impossible to reach them, yet, they’re there. I guess it’s one of those things that no matter how much you expose yourself to the theory behind it, you can never fully grasp it until you get your hands dirty with it.

It’s been a couple of weeks since I self-published my first short story on Amazon and let me be honest with you; since I did it, most of the time I feel like a Lilliputian creature, hopping up and down, waving my arms like a drowning man begging for help, squeaking in my barely audible tiny voice, for the readers’ attention. Tap on their shoulder? I can’t even reach their toes to get their attention. And you know what’s worse? The more I read and try to implement the theory to practice, the theory, the less sense it all
makes, and the less everything seems to work. For me, at least, since others are doing fine.

Then again, it could be the reason behind my seeming ineptitude in making marketing work for me, is because I expect things to happen instantly, even though I keep reminding myself that the publishing process is a marathon (if not a super marathon), not a sprint. I recently added myself to two author promotion communities; iAuthor and Allauthor. My flawed mindset told me I should witness results of some sort within the first couple of days. My rational side said, “nah. Not the way it’s going to happen.”

Guess which one won?

I’m not sure if it’s my educational background to blame. Hard sciences (Geology is part of them, or so I was told) deal with experiments, observations, and results (yes, even though geologists can’t exactly experiment – when was the last time you moved a continent to see how it collided with another? – we do come up with observable results). You do the math, you apply the theory, et voilà! You get the answer, the result, the number within the little square of an Excel sheet, or a blown up lab (hello, chemistry folks!). To a certain extent, even Management and Economics (my postgrad education) made it sound as though all I had to do was to apply the theory to practice, and the results would be measurable immediately. Especially in the case of Economics (cut down salaries and pensions, see how fast people starve – it made sense).

Perhaps part of the blame lies with how our demands are met nowadays; we sit behind our screens, click a button, clickety clack, and boom! We just bought a book, just downloaded a movie, just bridged the gap between
Europe and America and talked to our friends. Click, click, click. Results, results, results. All before our eyes before we blink them.

Somewhere at the back of my mind, the tiny squeaky voice, this small part of me that flails his arms to draw my attention, reminds me that it’s a marathon (a super, duper, freaking long marathon), not a sprint. But the voice is faint and the clicks happen one after the other. So fast.

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Discovering the power of Pinterest

For the past week, when I announced the publication of my first short story on Amazon, I’ve been tinkering with Pinterest in an attempt to divert some traffic to my blog. I wanted to see if using Pinterest as a form of getting my name out there and making my presence in the world wide web known, would have any impact.

I’ve been using Pinterest for some time now, but mostly through my personal account and usually for things that ended up on my hidden and private boards. At the time, there were only three public boards, two of which were for inspiration to fellow writers (with images and text), and for tips on writing that might be helpful.

I decided to change my account from personal to business. Nothing fancy or hard or expensive. Just a click of a button that converted the account. Simplest conversion ever. I did that to make sure Pinterest mods wouldn’t delete my account or take any action against me once I started advertising my work through their platform. Not to mention that a business account gains access to analytics that personal accounts don’t have.

Then what I did was to join some group boards that are related to writing and were accepting new contributors. For that, I used Pingroupie. Once I found the ones I thought I could fit in and contribute, I sent the creator a message and asked if they could add me. As it turned out, that was the most important step; group boards.

Some of those boards have literally thousands of people following them, which means a few people are bound to see your pin and either follow the link to wherever it leads them (amazon, blog post, etc) or repin it to some of their own boards for others to see and share. The combination of Pinterest and Pingroupie is powerful for this kind of thing.

Since the transition (I think it was Monday or Tuesday), I published three original pins (plus several repins, but they don’t redirect to my blog) and waited for the outcome. Now, my blog is not very popular nor have I ever tried to make it as such. That’s not why I started blogging in the first place. Still, take a look at the number of visitors for March 2017.

Which basically corresponds to these numbers for diverted traffic

Pinterest is at the very top, with only a week of promoting one previous post and one pin about the upcoming story, plus a third about publishing contracts that directed to another site.

Simply put, I’m amazed. Of course, that doesn’t mean that all these visits would translate into sales when the story goes public. I’m not walking in the clouds. Perhaps, one out of all these visitors would click to buy it, and that’s probably stretching it. But that’s beside the point of this post. The point is, that Pinterest does help to put you out there and make your content (and, why not, your stories too) known.

In the next few weeks, I’ll go over some of my older posts, and try to find the ones that could be interesting to readers outside wordpress. I’ll enhance them with Pinterest-friendly images, upload them there, and see what happens.

Though too early to reach to any definitive conclusions, it seems the visual power Pinterest has and its ease of use, might be a good way to draw attention to your blog, if that’s what you want. It may also help promote some of your work. If you haven’t tried it already, give it a go.

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos · 2 Comments

Better ways to say

During draft, we are allowed to do anything, write our stories in whatever way we want, how ever they come natural, without paying attention at anything other than putting words down. Which means when it’s time to edit that first draft we will have used several words that are bland, repetitive, and are cliché. We’re supposed to weed those words out and make our work shine. For those of us that such a task doesn’t come easy, and have to spend a long time searching for that one perfect word in a their thesaurus (you all have one, right?), the link and the image I provide may be of some help.

First, this post will help you with some overused adjectives. At least the ones you absolutely need to keep in your MS.

You may also find this image helpful.

(image originally taken from http://imgur.com/UHjZ4Ra)

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos

Productivity tools

In the midst of a heat wave, with temperatures expected to remain high throughout the following week, I find my motivation waning, and as a result my productivity in decline. I’ve been working on my cellphone for a reader little over a month, instead of my pc, and I can guarantee you, it’s not ideal. For those who don’t know, I don’t have an A/C unit, and I’m incompatible with heat. Give me winter and I thrive.

If you are one  of those who find it hard to concentrate and work on their novel or short stories, the following article from Now Novel may prove helpful. I haven’t used any of the things suggested, but if you have or are already using one, please let the rest of us know about it in the comments below.

Posted on by Chris Sarantopoulos · 1 Comment

7 point story system

Today’s post deals with another way to structure a story and it’s called 7 Point Story System. According to writer Dan Wells, who made a presentation of it a while back, this particular structure system can be applied to almost any story. He doesn’t take credit for it (nor do I), instead he said he found this structure from the Star Trek RPG (trekkie fans, rejoice!). Without any further ado, here it is:

Hook
Plot Turn 1
Pinch 1
Midpoint
Pinch 2
Plot Turn 2
Resolution

The interesting thing about the above structure is that it works backwards (you’ll see that when you watch the video). For this structure to work, it is essential to know how your story or character arc ends, in other words you need to have a Resolution first. I should stress here that the Resolution isn’t the end of your book but rather the tidying up of your arcs (character and story) and in the case of a novel it may well span more than one chapters.

Once you have that, you then move to the Hook of the story. Mr Wells says that what the Hook and the Resolution show in terms of the story or the character are usually directly opposite to one another. For this example he uses the first Harry Potter book and compares Harry’s initial state (Hook) with what Harry has become (Resolution).

Once these two points are established, the writer then identifies the Midpoint. In my mind, the Midpoint acts as a transition between the character of a story being reactive (from Hook up to Midpoint), then changing to active (from Midpoint to Resolution). When I first saw that, I thought the Midpoint and the inciting moment are related but once I started working with this system a bit, I realised I was wrong. The Midpoint doesn’t also need to be in the middle of the story. The Midpoint is that one thing that connects to your Resolution and gives meaning to the story. It is the one thing your protagonist finds out about something and propels him/her into doing something about it, using everything he/she has picked up along the way (from Hook to Midpoint).

Once that’s done, Plot Turn 1 needs to be addressed. This is a another transition, one that exists between the beginning to Midpoint. This is the part where you have to introduce the conflict. It’s also the part where something happens that changes things around your main character. In the two short stories I’m writing at the moment, this is where my protagonist realises how important a waitress is for him (for the first story) and for second one it’s where the main character gets debriefed by his superiors and thus telling us what has happened.

Following that, Plot Turn 2 needs your attention. This is the point where everything leads to the Resolution. If your story is about your character having to do something, then this is the point where he/she will decide to do it. It’s what launches things towards the Resolution. In Poe’s short story Tell-Tale Heart I recently read, this is the point where the main character still hears his victim’s heart beating. That will propel him to the Resolution. If your Resolution is tragic and negative for the protagonist (as is the case with one of my short stories), this is the point that enables that tragic ending.

You then have to deal with the two Pinches. Pinch 1 is something that forces the character or the situation into action. It’s what leads to the Midpoint. Sometimes a villain is introduced or a problem inflicts the character that will push him/her forward. In the first Harry Potter book, that something is the appearance of the troll and that there’s no one around to deal with it, so the kids have to gain enough confidence in their abilities to deal with it.

Pinch 2 is all about applying even more pressure to the character. Either the problem will look impossible to solve or a supporting character will die or the character will realise he/she is left completely alone. Whatever you make it to be, it has to up the stakes significantly in order for your Resolution to have the maximum impact on the reader. It doesn’t matter if your story is going to be a sad one or a happy one (I prefer the first), as long as the stakes have gone so high that the Resolution is satisfying.

Naturally, there’s a lot more to a story than just this outline, things like well-developed characters, good environment set up, using all the senses for the reader to be fully immersed in your story and of course subplots (if you apply the system to longer works).

I have only used it twice so far, both times for short stories, one of which I’m in the process of writing and appears very difficult even with this system. But I’ll make it work one way or another. For my longer works I prefer to work with the snowflake method BUT the 7 point system can help tremendously in identifying the key elements of a story and space them properly before using a more detailed structure system. I find it very handy and very helpful in arranging my thoughts in the right order and I like having a guideline when I write.

Next week I’ll either start giving writing prompts or, if I’m still stuck with my second short story, beg for your help. I’m really stuck 🙁