Establishing an internet presence.

[Ray McCarthy]

Many people would need to be writing full time to do that. Others would manage one a year.

 

[Toby Frost]

Yes. To write an 80-90,000 word novel, and get it up to what I consider publishable standard, takes me 9-12 months, given that I have a full-time job.

 

[Dan Jones]

Create content.
LOTS of it.
Appropriate content.

Oh, you're lucky I've just had the one beer, Ray

 

[Michael Coorlim]

Nah.

Writing is rewriting, add some time for plotting and planning, call it 15 hours a week total. Doable with a full time job and small children if you're willing to sacrifice everything else on the altar of your writing.

So, yeah, put in 3 hours a day, five days a week, there's no reason that can't get you 4 novels as long as you're actually working and not "working".

Treat it like a full time job, 40 hours a week? Say 80k words each month written, revised, and sent off to a publisher? No reason you can't write 8-10 novels a year and have time to promote.

Is that optimistic/overly ambitious? Depends on you and your process. But anyone who tells you that you can't do it is just trying to infect you with their pessimism. Pessimism is boring. Don't be boring. Worst of all traits in a writer.

 

[Beth Wagner]

I'm going to throw in my $2 worth. Speaking as the daughter of a writer, who is in the process of being published even though he didn't have an internet presence. Trying to promote a book when you can't rely on someone's name is challenging.
The number of times that I've had to give the background of my situation....
All I can say is that before you publish, develop an audience for your work. It will make things so much easier. Even if you just have a blog where you type in your day-to-day routines (writing and mundane) guaranteed someone will find it interesting enough to follow.
Because attempting to gain an audience after you've published is difficult and when your publisher is counting on preorders to determine whether or not they keep you as a writer....you need a pre-established audience for your work.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Nah.

Writing is rewriting, add some time for plotting and planning, call it 15 hours a week total. Doable with a full time job and small children if you're willing to sacrifice everything else on the altar of your writing.

So, yeah, put in 3 hours a day, five days a week, there's no reason that can't get you 4 novels as long as you're actually working and not "working".

Treat it like a full time job, 40 hours a week? Say 80k words each month written, revised, and sent off to a publisher? No reason you can't write 8-10 novels a year and have time to promote.

Is that optimistic/overly ambitious? Depends on you and your process. But anyone who tells you that you can't do it is just trying to infect you with their pessimism. Pessimism is boring. Don't be boring. Worst of all traits in a writer.

We've had this discussion before. For some writers it's possible (although I've yet to come across anyone producing more than a couple of novels a year where I haven't felt corners have been cut somewhere), for others it's not. We're not robots. You like writing like this and find fulfillment from it. I like writing fast and find fulfillment for it (although I manage about 2 books a year). Others simply don't. And the vast majority can't. (Based on what's been said in other threads.) Putting it out there as easily acheivable sets people up to feel like failures when they can't, even though most writers can't.

It's up to every writer to do what works for them. One of the best writers here is a slow writer, and would say so himself. He also produces the most jaw-droppingly beautiful prose that has all his betas begging to read the next book, too. (I'm still waiting. Hmm. Must prod.) I doubt he could complete four such beautiful intricate books a year, and they'd be much the worse for it if he tried to.

 

[Michael Coorlim]

I'm not talking about fulfilling. I'm addressing the OP's questions about building an internet presence, and as far as your work goes, being prolific and of "good enough" quality is more efficient and effective than perfectionism. Just ask Voltaire.

"Fulfilling" can wait until you've ascended Maslow's hierarchy. For now, write to serve the purpose of where you're at in your career: maximizing exposure. Wow them with your deathless prose once you've gotten their attention.

Of course, if you're able to attract the audience you need to make your writing career viable in a slow and steady method, do that instead. Just don't forget: Daily wordcount = hourly wordcount x hours worked. If you can't write faster, write for longer periods. If possible, write without interruption; get into that trancelike creative fugue where your best work occurs and minimize the warm-up.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I'm not talking about fulfilling. I'm addressing the OP's questions about building an internet presence, and as far as your work goes, being prolific and of "good enough" quality is more efficient and effective than perfectionism. Just ask Voltaire.

"Fulfilling" can wait until you've ascended Maslow's hierarchy. For now, write to serve the purpose of where you're at in your career: maximizing exposure. Wow them with your deathless prose once you've gotten their attention.

Of course, if you're able to attract the audience you need to make your writing career viable in a slow and steady method, do that instead. Just don't forget: Daily wordcount = hourly wordcount x hours worked. If you can't write faster, write for longer periods. If possible, write without interruption; get into that trancelike creative fugue where your best work occurs and minimize the warm-up.

]

But that's only one model of writing success, and only one way of building internet presence. Pat Rothfuss has brought out two books in a decade (two very big books but, even so...) That's the one you've chosen to go and it suits you. But it's not the one that's viable for everyone, or sought by everyone. I know some people who have a very good internet presence without writing a lot of books (James Worrad comes to mind). I know some bloggers with a huge internet presence to launch a book from it.(Requires Hate?)

I have no problem with presenting how-tos and advice, provided it's not presented as the one-and-only-way-to-achieve-things, and make it sound like it you don't write enough, or for long enough (and, frankly, people do have lives), or in a trancelike fugue (never entered one of those in my life - I write best surrounded by chaos), or whatever. Because there are a lot of new writers on the Chrons at the moment, and I know when I first came here I soaked up advice left, right and centre.

There is no right path. There is no definitive path to a presence. Some writers churn out multiple not-very-good-books (because they rush each one and don't edit) and have a presence - and some don't. Some churn out good books, do all the right things, and it still doesn't catch fire for whatever reason (I was in a good discussion on an internet forum about that a week or two ago). Some manage to just get it right first time, and good for them. There's no formula to it. There's work, and luck, and loads of parameters.

 

[Toby Frost]

There is no right path. There is no definitive path to a presence.

Yep. It probably also depends a lot on whether you're self-published or not and, if not, how big your publisher is and what they're prepared to do.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

I can write 1200 words every twenty minutes if I so desire. Still I don't think I could have created Mayhem and Tendril in a month. Maybe these days one a quarter but those first five or six years as a writer have been a massive learning curve. Mayhem is well into a fourteenth rewrite and it's unrecognisable from the first rather bizarre draft of a book I wrote years ago. Although I can knock out a kinky piece in a weekend which I have considered doing every so often and putting on Kindle.

My most well received online presence was a blog about Sherlock Foam, the fire extinguisher with the long, fat, rather fine hose and his sidekick Dr Watt, the bankers lamp with a golden shaft and beautiful beam. They were spies in Mr Pecker's Drill Bits as they suspected he was about to launch a terrorist attack on the chain Knobs and Knockers who had opened a new store in town. Without any real effort on my part it got between 180 and 500 indvidual views the days it went up and on a normal day got about 40 or 50 views. Blogs about my characters and serialised children's stories have always done quite well.

 

[Michael Coorlim]

There's no formula to it. There's work, and luck, and loads of parameters.

That is the formula. Work * Luck, and "luck" isn't anything more than positioning yourself to take advantage of what opportunities arise. It's also not the factor you can control, so work as efficiently as possible.

And don't buy into the myth that writing fast is writing poorly, especially if speed is a benefit of having streamlined your process and outsourced your editing.

As for the rest... social media marketing has been studied to death, there are hundreds of free internet resources, and there are some methods that are better than others. Have at them.

 

[AnyaKimlin]

That is the formula. Work * Luck, and "luck" isn't anything more than positioning yourself to take advantage of what opportunities arise. It's also not the factor you can control, so work as efficiently as possible.

Luck is as much a part of writing as any other creative industry. And it is pure dumb luck you can't force it, change it or do anything about it -- you need a crystal ball. It's right place, right time with right people and that has not a much better chance than the lottery. I know a number of writers who have changed their minds on that over the years. However, I do believe the chances of a good book doing well with self publishing are better than with traditional publishing, because you're not at the mercy of a marketing department who has spent all its money on David Walliams new book.

And don't buy into the myth that writing fast is writing poorly, especially if speed is a benefit of having streamlined your process and outsourced your editing.

Michael, it's never a good idea to lecture someone on the internet when you have no idea of their qualifications or background.

I can write a good novel in two weeks. I wrote a sit-com that got the attention of a BBC executive producer in 24 hours. However, if I take three months and rewrite, rework and tweak that novel it's even better. If I leave it aside six months and rework it again then it's better again.

Speed is writing poorly because it's not my writing at its best. Jo makes Barbara Cartland and Enid Blyton look slow.

 

[C.E. Gee]

I am trying to get out of the invisible status on the internet. I am almost ready to release my first book. After a DOA (dead on arrival) crowd funding campaign, I realized that no one could find me on a general search. How do you cure this problem?

First thing, you should build a blog at Blogger (Google, blogspot.com). The reason for this should be obvious. Other blog sites take some time for your blog articles to show up on their search engine. but when you post a new article to Blogger, it's on their search engine in less than five minutes.

If you don't have a Facebook account, you should get one. Then, when you publish something, announce it on Facebook. Some of your Facebook Friends will "share" your announcement. Also, Facebook allows authors to have separate author's pages. Anyone, not just your Facebook Friends, can "follow" author's pages to get your announcements.

Establish an account at Google+. Make announcements there. Do the same with Pinterest and other such sites.

Die hard fans like you to have a twitter account. That way they get your publication announcements right away dumped right into their email account.

Have a "direct email" system where you send emails to old friends, family, etc.. Ask them to tell their friends who are into SF to read whatever you've produced.

You should be able to add your own ideas to the above listing. Promoting you're works takes some effort, but it's well worth it.

NAMASTE

C.E. Gee aka Chuck

 

[Beth Wagner]

I would add to this that once you've decided where you are going to establish your web presence all that you really need to do is, at least once a week check your social media sites, and put out a quick blurb. It can be something simple like what you've accomplished with your writing this week, or you can comment on something else. Just as long as you are updating it regularly, with relevant content. Relevant either to you or your audience.