Writer's World

DemelzaCarlton

Outside Wattpad? Well it's funny, really. I think the two tools that I've been most successful with for marketing my published books are Twitter and Wattpad. Most of my contacts have come from people within Wattpad and so have my best reviews; people here give a lot of good advice.

 

Question 4. Do you create storyboards or character profiles for your stories? Do you plan?

 

I've heard of storyboarding…I think I was forced to do that at school once. Haven't tried it since…

As for a character profile…did you see the video on Joe Fisher?Saw it. Another great video with your wonderful narraiton. But that was after I'd written two books with him and introduced him to frozen raspberries. Mmm, no. They seem to decide what they'll do and all I can control is the setting and sometimes the situation.

When asked to write a short story scene that took place in a kitchen, I sat down and wrote 10,000 words in around 36 hours. I even called it Water and Fire, a good title for a story to do with cooking. Try as I might, I couldn't get those characters to spend more than about 15 minutes in the kitchen. He couldn't cook and she didn't want to.

I do plan my stories a little. In fact, I won't sit down and seriously write it unless I know the ending. Or at least I think I do. Honestly, the only time I write summaries for chapters is when I'm supposed to be writing something else and I just need to get the scene out of my head, or when my book's 90% complete and the chapters are just supporting detail to make sure it flows.

 

Question 5. Can you talk about publishing on sites such as Amazon and your experience with that?

I worked with Amazon to create the cover for my first book – Ocean's Gift – and I found their paid cover design options incredibly difficult to work with and overpriced. The design took three months longer than expected and it was…awful. When I told one of my friends here on Wattpad, she kindly did a mockup design for me that was incredible compared to the one the professionals had done. I sent it to them and told them to do better. Honestly, I still think her design is the better one…

The formatting on Amazon is easy but the upload is slow. I found the opposite with Smashwords – their formatting is time-consuming but their upload is easy and fast.

Once your book's up, though, both have their advantages. I created my author pages, with a short biography in third person, and I've been learning to use Twitter and a blog to make sure there's more than just the static bio on my pages.

There are so many other books on those sites though, so you really need to advertise to make sure your book is seen, plus give away a fair few copies to reviewers and kind fans.

I've reached the point now where I don't intend to submit my books to any traditional publishers, because I believe that self-publishing is more effective. As for writing submissions…ah, "submission" isn't something I do very well. I like the control I have over the whole publishing and distribution process, plus the marketing can be fun.

 

Question 6. How important is multimedia to you now in regards to writing such as book covers, video, advertising?

Book covers make a huge difference in whether people read it or not. A good cover is worth paying for. Have you seen the one for Water and Fire? Seriously, that one makes people click on it. Yet Ocean's Infiltrator, which has some even raunchier scenes that surprised me, has a much tamer cover and isn't as well known.