So Far, So Good

That's what the guy is purported to have said as he passed the 15th-story window after jumping off the 30-story building -- but I digress.

Today is the one-month anniversary of the first day of my new life. For one month now I have been what I like to think of as "gainfully unemployed."

I quit my job because, quite simply, I couldn't stand it anymore. I couldn't stand waking up with my head full of ideas, and instead of pursuing those ideas, or at least writing them down, I had to rush off to arrive at work at the ungodly hour of six a.m. Except on the weekends. When I was so focused on trying to cram my entire life into two days per week of freedom, I couldn't figure out what I wanted to do first, and so ended up doing nothing. Except chores. Always the chores. Because being responsible was EVERYTHING.

Some thought that quitting my job without having another one to go to was completely irresponsible. To which I replied, "Having another job to go to would defeat the whole purpose of quitting this job." I needed a break. A Sabbatical. A chance to stop the madness and spend time examining what I really want to do with the rest of my life -- before it's too late.

So I decided to take some of the money I've so diligently -- and responsibly -- saved up and invest in myself.

It was my friend Niki who pointed out that my last day at my hated job happened to be the first day of Spring, in the year of my 50th birthday. She found that significant. I hadn't thought of it quite that way. I chose that date because it was exactly three months before said 50th birthday. And that seemed like a nice round amount of time to spend finding myself, as they say. But the whole "first day of Spring" thing is pretty cool, too.

All I know is, I want the second half of my life to be better than the first. To that end, I have shifted my priorities.

So far, the results have been positive. I am sleeping soundly through the night, for the first time in years. I no longer feel homicidal urges when I go to the supermarket and somebody who apparently has all the time in the world is blocking my access to the frozen peas. And my cats have never been happier, now that I'm available to serve them throughout the day.

Will I be able to maintain this new lifestyle permanently? I don't know. But I'm sure as heck going to try!

Marketing and the Art of Writing, or, Why I'm Taking This Approach

I've been looking into copywriting as a way to make money. I mean, who doesn't want to earn six figures? And to earn it for writing? Heaven!

To be a good copywriter, you have to know a lot about marketing:

• How do you convince people to buy something?
• What psychological buttons do you push?
  
• What do people want, and how do you give it to them?

As I was studying all this, I kept remembering all the times I'd read that non-fiction is a lot easier to sell than fiction. That if you want to actually make a living with your writing, you should write a book about a new weight loss plan, or a car repair manual, or a blueprint for how someone can open their own bed and breakfast. That a book about a specific and useful topic is, for example, a lot more likely to get PR coverage than some unknown writer's first novel.

In other words, it's a lot easier to identify the target market for a non-fiction book, and to convince those people that your book will give them the information they need to make their lives better in some way, than it is to sell a work of fiction, which tends to get lost among all the other thousands of novels out there.

This reasoning makes sense to me. But I wasn't satisfied that it was the final word. I couldn't stop thinking, "Why can't I apply this to fiction?"

I firmly believe that the world of marketing has a lot to teach a writer of fiction. If nothing else, the intelligent application of marketing principles can make your query letters stand out from the mountain of queries that all agents and editors receive every day. But there are already lots of books and articles on that subject. I want to go beyond that.

So I have decided to start exploring further, to see how many different ways I can find in which to get my novel noticed by as many readers as possible. Which will make my publisher -- not mention me, and my creditors -- very happy.

So stay tuned -- film at 11...

Welcome!

Welcome to my new blog. This is where I'm going to share the trials and tribulations of the journey to becoming a published -- and ultimately wildly successful, I hope -- author.

I write psychological suspense novels, but the experiences and tips I plan to share here, and on the For Writers portion of my website (coming soon), should apply to any kind of novel.

I'm exploring marketing because getting published, difficult as it can be, is only half the battle. According to a statistic I came across recently, something like 70% of novels published sell less than 5000 copies. The way I see it, there are two ways to take that. The first is, "That's terrible! I'm practically doomed to failure! I think I'll take up crochet as a hobby, instead..."

The other way to look at it -- and my first thought -- is, "Really? That's good news. How hard can it be to do better than that?"

Only time will tell whether or not I'm right -- or if I would have been better off spending my free time sitting in front of the TV crocheting.

In short, I am embarking upon an adventure, and I'm inviting you to tag along.

Join me -- let's see what happens.