Writers: Marketing Means Connections
Writers, stop thinking about marketing and start thinking about connections.
Intimidating and Overwhelming
The insecure, the nerdy, the introverted, the unproven writers among us (pardon me while I raise my hand for each of those) can find the concept of marketing to be intimidating and overwhelming, a mountainous thunderstorm of unknown looming in the distance, casting its ominous shadow over the our road we want to travel.
We hear “build a platform” to “market” your books. But maybe we need to rewire.
Marketing to Connections: Rewire and Rethink
Let’s rewire our brains. Every time you hear “marketing,” replace it with “connecting”. Or connections. Or connect. Or engagement. Or meeting new people. Or relationship. Or… you get my drift. Whatever word or phrase that helps you, that makes sense to you.
Connections: Be Intentional
And, let’s be intentional. You don’t have to blindly create a blog or post daily ramblings on Twitter or have a Facebook page or a presence on Goodreads or… whatever the next piece of platform advice tells you. It’s not about blogging weekly or tweeting daily. It’s not about joining every possible writing-related group online or journeying far to make a conference. It’s not about joining the “best” critique group or becoming a super-fan of the rock stars of our industry.
Marketing: Meaningful and Individual
It’s about doing whatever makes sense for you to connect with others who have something in common with you, with your interests, or with who you want to become. That’s your platform.
Your writing is meaningful and unique to you. Your marketing — excuse me — connections — will be as unique.
And that set of connections? It should be meaningful, as well.
Conclusion
Your time is precious. You want to spend the bulk of your available time writing, not blindly building a platform with pieces grabbed randomly on some pundit’s recommendation.
In the next post in this series, let’s talk more about being intentional. Let’s consider some of the factors in choosing connections.
Distractions of Today
Focus is a Writer’s Superpower
One of hardest battles I fight as a writer is the battle for focus. So many things pull at my attention, but I am my own worst enemy.
Distractions of the last hour:
Salvage Background: The Transit
Episode 1 of Salvage finds our protagonist on her way to another planet.
Spreading to the Stars
Interstellar travel has been around for awhile, about a hundred and fifty years or so, and now humankind is colonizing other planets. Space is vast, and suitable planets are few, but, in addition to the handful of colony worlds, man also has spread out in ships to build space stations, mining operations, fabrication centers, and more.
Humans are the only known sentient life form.
Kaylah’s Journey
Kaylah is traveling with her family to Perth, a new colony world. The colony founders, a much smaller group, are already on-planet preparing for the second wave of settlers, including Kaylah and her family, to arrive on the aging transport, Brio’s Hope.
Rate of Travel
The settlers are not wealthy by Earth’s standards. Most colonists are not. The wealthy travel on the large, luxurious starliners which speed across the inky darkness to tourist spots before zipping back to Earth. The settlers travel on cheaper, slower transports.
The Three-Act Structure Visualized
Whether the three-act story structure is new to a you, or a favorite, take a visual tour.
May these different images and links of the different ways to think about the three-act structure spark your creative juices.
This post is part of a series on visualizing your novel.
Straight Plot Over Time
Different Views
Copyright secured by Digiprove © 2020 Cindy Rae Johnson
My Favorite Women Characters in Science Fiction
Actually, a Partial List, a Very, a Very Partial List
It’s not a surprise the protagonist of my Salvage series is female. I like strong women characters. Some of my favorite women characters in science fiction, in no particular order:
- Heinlein’s Holly Jones
- McCaffrey‘s Sassinak, Killashandra Ree, Kristin Bjornsen, Moreta, Menolly, Damia, Helva
- Moon‘s Esmay Suiza, Herris Serrano, Kyla Vatta
- Bujold‘s Cordelia Naismith
- Dominic Green‘s Cleo
- Huff‘s Torin Kerr
- Miller and Lee: Mira Robertson, Aelliana, Theo Waitley
- Shepherd‘s Cassandra Kresnov
- Dr. Who‘s River Song
- McDevitt‘s Chase Kolpath
- Gould‘s Cent Rice and Patricia Beenan
- Weber‘s Honor Harrington
Kaylah: Salvage’s Protagonist
Character Notes on Kaylah
The protagonist of the Salvage series is Kaylah. Here are a few of my notes about her. Read more about her specifically in these posts or read more about Salvage here.
Naming Kaylah
Since Kaylah is part Cajun, I considered quite a few names for her:
Top Names: Ezelle, Zellie
Cajun girl names: Acadia, Adrienne, Alette, Alexandrine, Alexia, Ameline, Avoyelles, Cezelia, Edmee (Edmay), Eliette, Ezora, Karelle, Karine, Katia, Leonie, Marielle, Sidonie, Zeline
Other names: Kirra, Kira, Tyra, Tirra, Thea, Kyrine, Kireen, Zelelle, Kette, Cadia, Elonie, Zelia, Ezelle
Cajun Vs. Acadian
A Side Note
Wikipedia lumps Cajun, Acadian, and Creole folk in together a bit more than I would. While I believe southern Louisiana is a melting pot of ethnicity, subcultures exist even today.
A friend in college was offended if you called him, or his family, Cajun. They had been in Louisiana for many generations long before the Cajuns showed up.
I never heard him use the word Acadian, but I think that’s with whom he would identify.
Kaylah’s Description
Logically minded, yet not logical about her gift. She suffers from a delay in processing negative emotions, which causes her problems. Blind spots. Socially inept,
Short curly black hair. Petite. Voracious mind. Unsophisticated. Knows a great deal about space, especially astronomy. Easily blushes. Thin.
Likes to move sometimes when thinking or dealing with something. Awkward when watched. Quiet unless you know her well. Loner. Introvert. Anxiety issues. Processes emotions after the fact.
She sometimes offends people without knowing because of her emotional immaturity. Naïve. Gift of encouragement, tries to help others, likes to feel needed; loyal; unlucky; defends the innocent; persistent, courageous, kind, ingenius, loyal, weird sense of humor; doesn’t know how charming she is to other people (some of them, anyway). On occasion spunky.
Father is part Cajun, mother is a heartland mix of Irish, English, Scottish, German.
What Does She Want?
To survive. To be accepted by others. To be left alone. To study the stars.
What Lies Does She Believe?
People will reject her. She’s a freak and a failure. She’s not lovable. She doesn’t fit in anywhere. Space is safe. Her family is normal. She can be an astronomer even on the colony planet.