Young Writers Society

Hi everyone! I just thought I’d share an idea I’ve had with you –

Been trying for the last month to increase interest in my self-published novel through various means, twitter being the main one. I’ve quickly learnt with twitter that everyone on there is doing the same as me, trying to push their own work. Everyone’s selling and no-one’s buying. In short it’s a lot of effort for little return.

My latest wheeze courtesy of my brilliant literary advisor Steph is to write a short series of short stories, set during the time of my novel and with the same characters but not essential to the overall plot of the book. Unwritten adventures if you like – a bit like the appendices to Lord of the Rings (I know I’m tooting my own horn with that one!) My books are all supernatural in theme so there’s a wealth of stories I could do and it will give me a chance to just be creative and write some great little stories which I do love doing. Then I’ll post them for free around the net – on here for all of you lovely people to have a read and get your opinions and on sites like Booksie.com and Authonomy. Then hopefully I will capture some people with the short stories and entice them into reading the whole thing.

Does that sound like a good idea to any of you?

I’m thinking of writing five to start with – one a terrifying encounter with the ghosts of dead plague victims on the London Underground who are hungry for the bodies of the living and another one involving the mysterious disappearance of all women from the world as a creature from beyond the veil has a horrific plan for the men left behind. The others I’m still working on!

Thoughts much appreciated!

Sounds like a plan.

When it comes to self-published works, the idea is to generate interest. Social media marketing almost always has to provide something in return. If you can provide us snatches of the story and world to have us see what's in it for us, then you're at an advantage.

Just remember that people are selfish. They want to know what they'll get in order to give.

I agree with Rosey Unicorn. I love, love, love it when authors have extra content on books, and its also a good way for a reader to decided whether or not they like the story. Just make sure people know about the short stories. Twitter, Facebook, try doing interviews and guest blogs, maybe, or giveaways on well known blogs. That's how I've found a lot of authors and books I've really liked. I think Pub(lishing) Crawl (http://www.publishingcrawl.com/) would be a great resource. They do a lot of posts about self marketing.
Best of luck!

That sounds like a pretty cool idea, I think. Just remember though that there are already authors publishing novellas and novels for free in order to get their name out there. Readers are getting used to expecting low quality from low priced or free works.

The issue with social networking is that it worked for the first few because they were on the forfront of technology- then everybody else followed. Like you said, it's a lot of effort for a little return. If you get an agent however, they'll take care of the all networking stuff for you anyway so that wouldn't matter.

I think it's a good idea to have your own website prepared simply so that when someone decides they want to be your fan it's easy, or you'll lose them.

Also, don't underestimate the power of regular installments. Speaking from what I know about webcomics, the ones that randomly publish twenty pages over a month actually end up with less fans than a comic that publishes three pages every sunday, simply because the readers have that promise and anticipation of waiting for a page, rather than being randomly given them.

Thanks for all the positive comments guys - I'm starting work on them this evening to get the ball rolling so I'll keep you posted with progress!