Is Writing Work? Even If You Don't Get Paid?

Photo by Olena Bohovyk on Unsplash

I think a lot of writers are unintentionally modest. I know I am. I have a hard time mentioning that I have written a poetry book, even to people I know. I think maybe it's not that big of deal, especially since I know so many people have done it. But it is a big deal, and authors need to mention that they have written books in order to sell them. Part of the reason I don't mention that I write is because somewhere deep inside, and untruly, I think that writing is not work. The biggest reason I suspect I think that is because I don't get paid much for my work. Some authors may say writing is not work because it's fun. But it is work, work can be enjoyable!

I was at a family reunion and was asked the dreaded question, "so what do you do?" by my aunt. I mentioned taking care of my Autistic daughter, feeling inadequate because despite being paid to take care of my 22 year old daughter, I am her mother and am supposed to do that. I also felt depressed because I had to quit my job earlier in the year because of my health. I felt inferior. Then I mentioned taking a proof reading and editing class with my goal to get paid in that sector of English. My aunt then surprised me by asking me if I still wrote poetry. I was happy to say, "yes I do!" I suddenly felt better about myself because I realized I am doing something, I am working.

Photo by Markus Winkler on Unsplash

I also remembered that in my last job, I had put writer on my resume. I was hesitant to do that, but I had made a little money through freelancing on Upwork.  I felt that I could honestly put that as work experience on there since I got paid. I was surprised a few years later when one of my boss's said they were excited to hire me because I had writer on my resume. Even though I had trouble accepting it as an actual job, other people didn't.  You never know what is going to happen. In the case of looking for a job or making money, don't be modest!

Even if an author is not getting paid they are still working. They still spend valuable time putting pen to paper, and/or typing their stories or poems up. Then going back and making sure their work is polished.  Some people stop there, but all the time put in is the equivalent of an actual job. And then there are the writers who try to get published, either through traditional means or by self-publishing. It takes time to send out manuscripts and then a lot of waiting for rejection or acceptance. If an author gets rejected they have to send out their manuscript somewhere else. It takes time, and is work, to find who to send your manuscript to. Then there are those who may self-publish or who decide to self-publish after getting rejected. Now that's a lot of work! You have to choose which market you're going to publish with, and learn about their requirements. There may be a lot of tutorials or web pages to go through to do it right. Additionally, self-published authors have to market their own work. That truly feels like a job to me, yet, and contradictorily, because I've made so few sales my head tells me it's not a job. I may not be extremely successful but I am realizing, that yes I do actually work, by marketing and writing. I hope other writers out there proudly exclaim that they're authors, even if they're not making any money yet!

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Learning How to Publish and Promote

                                                         

                                                         Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

First, right now, 10/15/22, until the 18th of October, the "U)n-Clenched Emotion," kindle book version, is on sale for 99 cents on Amazon.  It normally costs $2.99.  It's always free on Kindle Unlimited.  If you haven't already found the link on this blog, it's at: https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Natasha-Gruss-ebook/dp/B01LZNVH4Y   This book is authored by Natasha Gruss, which is me,  even though I am now Natasha McKinley.  Amazon does not let people change the name of the author of a published book, which makes sense.

                                              

                                              Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash

I found some other interesting things about how I can edit and promote the books I write.  Even after it was published way back in 2016.  I have not yet had my 2 of the same books, (the kindle version and the print edition,) linked.  Hopefully this is in the process of happening.  I thought that I had messed up by not originally linking my books.  Well, I just found out it wasn't my fault.  Author's used to publish their books with Create Space.  That's where I published my print book. Now, you can not publish your books with that.  I had to go into Create Space and transfer the print book to Kindle Direct Publishing, where are where all book versions are published now.  I had published my delightful book when Amazon was making this change, so my linking got lost in the cracks.  I have changed the book descriptions, the subtitles, and the keywords to match.  Hopefully this will get my books linked in a few days; after my promotion ends.

                                            Photo by Possessed Photography on Unsplash

Kindle does not let you price your book at 99 cents all the time.  You have to do a promotion to do that.  You get one count down deal during a promotion period which lasts for a few months.  Hopefully I will be able to do another free promotion for Black Friday/Cyber Monday.  Amazon also added another way to promote my book.  I was able to nominate it for Prime First Reads.  That's where Prime members get to download a free book, out of a list of a limited amount of books, once a month.  I doubt they will choose my book, but it was an easy click to nominate it.  Doing is risk-free.  I hope I have given authors some good information on Publishing and promoting their books.  And if you are not an author, I hope this was still an interesting read.

What to do for Poetry Month

It is the month of April, and the month of April is poetry month.  There are many things people can do besides write poetry.  Most obviously, they can read poetry.  Of course, you can read the classics like Shakespeare or Dickon's, but you can read current day poets too, (like me).  If you read a poet's work on your kindle, they would appreciate a review or at least a star rating.  All you have to do is click a star.  I decided to read a poetry book for this April.  

This month I decided to read Misha Collins poetry book: "Some Things I Still Can't Tell You."  Misha Collins is not famous for being a poet.  He is famous for playing the character Castielle (an Angel), on the T.V. show Supernatural.  I was very excited when I found out he was into poetry.  I saw him recite some on my Instagram account, thought it was great, and asked my husband for his book for Christmas. My husband got for it me!  Misha Collins is a very good poet, and I am very glad that I have his writing in my possession.

If you are a poet, and are published with Amazon, you can give your book away for free for up to five days.  You won't get any royalties when you do this, but you might spread your work around the world a little more.  I chose to give my book away for 3 days at the beginning this month.  Four people took advantage of the offer.  I may give "Un-Clenched Emotion" more free days in following months.  It is on Kindle Unlimited, so if you have that, it is always free.  I found out that I do get royalties if someone buys my book that way.

Naturally, if you would like to, you can write your own poetry in the month of April.  There are many poetry challenges online where they ask you to write a poem a day for the whole month of April.  I have done this in years past, but did not do a poem a day this year.  I did write a few poems this month, which I plan to submit to publication.  They are speculative poems, poems that follow a fantasy or science fiction theme.  I have a title for the other poetry chapbook, (or perhaps whole book), this time, and some more of this book to put together. The theme for this book is the Seasons. I still have a long way to go to get this finished.

I challenge you to read and/or write poetry this month.  Promote what you have already written, or write a review for an author you have read.

Discovering the Marketing and Promotion of an Author

After the publication of my first poetry book in 2016, I became very discouraged when I didn’t make a sale, or seem to be able to give away my poetry for free.  I stopped writing poetry for a long period of time.  Last month, April 2018, I somehow got motivated to write poetry more.  I didn’t write a poem everyday, yet the month of April was still full of poetry.

Submitting Poems for Publication

I discovered many new things about the publication and marketing of poetry.  Back in March, I had checked out a couple of copies of “Writer’s Digest” and discovered a few publications that would pay poets for their poems if they were accepted.  I made it a goal to write poems that I was proud of and submit them for publication.  I succeeded in this goal and sent out two poems, one each to the publications “Contrary” and “Poetry Magazine.”  I probably won’t know until November if they’ve been accepted, and I don’t have much hope they will be, but I am proud I attempted to at least.  I know there still is a chance. 

I also joined the Goodreads “Poetry!” Group and entered a poem for the May contest.  I was not a finalist, so I will share it now:

If I Saw the Perfect Me

Another Past, an Alternate Dimension.

-Blink- She has everything I ever wanted.

Eyes of Ebony, Shimmering Hair in Shades of Gold,

and Skin like Tanned Cream.

If only I had fallen in Her Footsteps.

Walk softly with pitter pattering feet.

Our destinies tied together.

She thrums to the heartbeat of Her Love.

Eyes everchanging as the Ocean,

Eyebrows: dark drawing perfect curves to Gentle Face.

He is mine here, this dimension, something we share.

My love vibrates to my soul.

For a moment, I stop regretting being Her.

Rubbing dull brown eyes, I see She’s found a Purpose,

while I write resumés that blow away

to crumbling and quitting, never finding purchase,

while I stand precariously, Her Feet Perfected Toenails,

Rooted with Joy.

I hold glittering Fool’s Gold while Hers Sparkling Pure is Solid.

She bites it with Pristine White Teeth, doesn’t distort. 

Biting mine with stained teeth and too small lips, melts to glop.

Her green with Luck, me green with Envy.

I wonder if the Money God is really evil,

or if it’s just a matter of success.

-Blink- We both see an Empty Soul, green with decaying,

wearing poverty as pride. Her eyes also ebony,

but no life there, orbs glinting of malevolence.

Us Others release our benevolent breath,

taking comfort of Our happy dispositions.

Looking at Another’s problems through a looking glass of speculation,

I come to the realization:

It doesn’t matter how magnificent Her life is,

mine could be as the Other; much worse.

Reviews of Poetry

In March or April, I also became an Author on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15863356.Natasha_Gruss).  I’m not sure how I discovered I could do this.  I joined some review groups on Goodreads this April and exchanged reviews of poetry books.  I reviewed and got reviewed by four poets.  I didn’t review them, but I also read more poetry books that were listed for free on Amazon and twitter, just to celebrate poetry month.  I submitted my book, “Un-Clenched Emotion” to be reviewed on other websites as well.

Twitter

I discovered twitter by tweeting my blog posts and promoting my poetry book (@natasha_gruss).  Tweeting, liking, and retweeting things gained me a lot of twitter followers.  If other authors, or poets, (or just interesting people,) followed me, I followed them back.  I did tweet one old haiku of mine, and someone used it as inspiration to make a haiku page on their website.  On twitter, I found a book on marketing and used that for poetry month.

Amazon, KDP Select, and Giveaways

For Marketing, I really examined the Amazon page of my book.  Doing this, I learned that authors were allowed to give away their kindle books for free every 90 days.  I thought I had unsuccessfully done this one time, and that I couldn’t do it again.  I was happy I was wrong.  When I discovered I could give away my poetry book away for free again, I decided I would do that in celebration of poetry month.  To do this, I also figured out how to fix the kindle version of my book. (The formatting didn’t come out right the first time).  It felt good, trying to get my poetry book out there.  I didn’t know when I did my free promotion before that I could find out if I gave away any books.  This time I discovered KDP select makes a marketing graph of how many books were sold or given away.  I was happy six people took advantage of my giveaway.  Amazon’s Author Page (https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B01LZE8CKO) also graphs sales rank and author’s rank.  It only ranks sales, not giveaways, so my free book promotion didn’t affect rankings at all.

For the future, I tried to figure out how to help my rankings and studied print book giveaways.  Everyone said Amazon’s print book giveaways weren’t worth it, but Goodreads was.  I bought 6 print books of “Un-Clenched Emotion” (https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Collection-Poems/dp/1537725327/) which I hope to give away in the future.  I also wondered if doing a giveaway of an item, like a coffee pot, would help my Amazon Author ranking, if people were required to follow me as an Amazon Author.  What do you think?  If you could follow me for the chance to win a coffee pot, Edgar Allen Poe mug, dragon stapler, or tea basket; would you do it?  Which thing would you want?

I am proud of all I did in April to celebrate poetry and learn about the marketing of it.  There is still much more work to do.  There are many more discoveries I made on marketing and blogging, but too much to write in one post.  I may write about them in the future.

How to Write Reviews and the Importance of Them

The Importance of Reviews

Authors love to get good reviews.  Reviews of an Authors work should be honest.  If you don’t like something and review it, it might A: encourage the author to improve their work B: make the author realize they might want to take up something other than writing.  A review of a book lets readers know whether they might want to buy a book or not.  Personally, I look at reviews on Amazon if I’m considering a book or not and they are highly influential.  I might find out if the book is a stand alone or not.  I prefer stand alone books.  If there are a slew of one-star reviews, I know not to waste my time with a book.  That being said, some Indie authors (self-published) may not have many reviews and need to get some. 

Working with Goodreads 

I barely have any reviews on my poetry book, but recently I learned how to get some.  I became an author on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/) and joined some groups.  Goodreads is not just for authors, it is also for readers; in fact, it’s more for readers than authors.  That being said, being a Goodreads author has been very beneficial to me.  I belong to two reviewing groups, One is “Authors Needing Reviews” at: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/53280-authors-needing-reviews ; and the other is “Genre Specific Review Groups” at: https://www.goodreads.com/group/show/100482-genre-specific-review-groups .  I have done 2 reviews for the Authors group and have gotten 2 in return.  I have agreed to do 2 more for the Genre Group and will get another 2 in return.  Unfortunately, it’s undetermined how many will make it on Amazon, and how many will have to simply stay on the Goodreads site.  Amazon has rules where you must have spent at least $50 to write a review.  They also might not let you review a product if a product is for sale in a different country.  One of the reviews I did was for a lady in the UK and I’m in the USA so it wouldn’t let me post on Amazon.  One review was for another lady in the US and it let me review her book (I spend a lot on Amazon).

How to Do Reviews

If you’ve decided to do reviews, which I recommend, and need to know how to do them, the first thing you should do is read reviews.  Find the ones you like and use them as a guideline to write your own.  There are all kinds of books that need reviewing: fiction books, non-fiction books, and poetry books. Non-fiction and poetry reviews are different from fiction book reviews.  In non-fiction and poetry reviews, you don’t have to worry about spoilers like you do in fiction reviews.  Telling what these books are about, in detail, is desired.  In a fiction book review, you have to leave out some details to avoid spoiling the book.  In all book reviews, talking about the mood an author portrays is a good idea.  Saying what you like about a book is a good idea too.  Reading an explanation of how to do reviews might not be the best style of learning, so I’ll give you links to the reviews that were listed above.  One poetry book review I did was “Unconditional” by T.Renee, and is on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/UNCONDITIONAL-Just-Me-Scattered-Thoughts/dp/1634927761/  under the review title “A Collection of Poems Worth Reading.”  It should be noted that coming up with a title for your review is important, informing interested parties what you will be talking about.  I also posted this same review to her Goodreads page.  The other review I did was for “Moon Petals” by Jessica Ginting, which can’t be found on Amazon, but can be on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38469438-moon-petals without a title, but under Natasha Gruss.  Looking at the other reviews for these books is a good idea too.  The reviews that I have received for my poetry book “Un-Clenched Emotion” can be found on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Clenched-Emotion-Collection-Poems/dp/1537725327/ and on my Goodreads Author Page at https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32282264-un-clenched-emotion These are examples of Poetry Reviews.

A few more words.  I have agreed to do more reviews for the Goodreads Groups I mentioned above.  Right now, I’m scheduled for 5, so I will not have much time.  I also need to mention a free marketing book that I got over twitter: “The Self-Publishing Tools of Trade Every Author Must Know” by Lama Jabr, which has a lot of links for authors to market their books.  It could have had more information about why each marketing step is important and how too, but the links allowed it so I didn’t have to use search engines for things like finding places that do free reviews, and places I could advertise my free book.  It was all there in one place.  There are many more beneficial links in Jabr’s book, so if you’re an author, I recommend it.  The links for free book sites that I placed on this blog all came from Jabr’s book.  There’s a non-fiction book review example for you!  I hope this helps you want to support authors and review a book. 

The Cover Photo of Un-Clenched Emotion

I wanted to talk a little about the cover that's on my book, "Un-Clenched Emotion".  I believe it is awesome, and friends and family have told me that it is beautiful, so I know it's not just me.  It's a picture of the sun, and it is reflected in the ocean on a beach.

I thought maybe my book price as $5.50 might be high, for a little over 20 poems.  However, I think the photo on the cover is worth much more than that, even without the poetry.  I'm not a photographer in any way, but some of my family members are, and some friends too.  Their photos sale for $50 dollars and up.  I always thought I took good pictures, but I don't have a professional camera and I wouldn't know how to start to sell a photo for such a price.  I still think I'm good with a digital or phone camera though.  If I was selling this picture, I would not be ashamed to accept a reasonable amount of money for that breathtaking scenery.  Compared to $50, $5.50 is quite a deal!

The picture on the cover of "Un-Clenched Emotion" was taken in SeaSide Oregon. I was simply on vacation with my family and happened to be at the beach.  I was captivated by the scenery.  I wanted to hold onto if forever, so I did the next best thing and took a photo.  It's too bad I couldn't bottle the scent or record the sounds of the ocean.  It was such a great feeling to be in SeaSide  I had no plans for that photo except personal enjoyment.  The double sun, in the water, and in the sky really speaks of natures beauty.  It's a reflection of it self, and that is poetic all on it's own.  The picture puts you in a serene sort of mind, perfect for when your reading poetry.

I didn't write any poems solely about the sun in my book, but I definitely mentioned it once or twice.  I did write a poem entitled "The Sea" which makes the beach a perfect representative of what's in the book.  This poem also mentions the sun in it.  This is in the Enjoyment part of the book.  I placed it there because I love the ocean and find it enjoyable.  I do mention the sun later on in the book in the philosophizing part entitled "Seeking".  In this poem, the sun is more of a metaphor, but the imagery still helps me justify putting a photo of the sun on the front of the book.

I haven't made any book sales that I know of,  (Not until I simply see money in my account will I know if I did).  I'm not sure if anyone accepted my free kindle book either. (I will never know unless someone posts a review).  Perhaps reading poetry isn't that popular.  But even if you don't like poetry, you could still buy the book simply for the beauty of the cover!  I understand if you don't want to get the kindle copy for that, but the kindle price is $2.99 so you're not paying "extra" for the cover. https://www.amazon.com/Un-Clenched-Emotion-Natasha-Gruss-ebook/dp/B01LZNVH4Y/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1494455180&sr  I'm proud of my poems, and I'm proud of my creation.  I think everything about it is beautiful and everyone who has seen the book has told me it is too.  I just wish I was better at getting it out to the public!

Discouragement to Encouragement From "The Princess Bride"

The free book promotion is over.  I'm a little discouraged about publishing this poetry book, because as far as I know it's not getting out there.  I have no way of knowing if anyone choose to take care of this opportunity to get "Un-Clenched Emotion" or not.  The only way I have of knowing is if someone posts a review, and no one has.  It's disheartening that no one has paid money for the book except for me.  Not even my parents. they were hoping I would buy it for them and they don't have a kindle.  I'm still glad I published this book though.

I just finished reading "The Princess Bride" by William Goldman,  Yes, I read it, I didn't just watch the movie, though I have in the past and is one of my favorites.  That's why I got the book.  Anyway, I read a funny, encouraging passage on the poet Browning.  It goes like this:

"Did you know that Robert Browning's first book of poems didn't sell one copy?  True.  Even his mother didn't buy it at her local bookstore.  Have you ever heard anything more humiliating? How would you like to have been Browning and it's your first book and you have these secret hopes that now, now , you'll be somebody.  Established, Important.  And you give it a week before you ask the publisher how things are going, because you don't want to seem pushy or anything.  And then maybe you drop by, and it was probably all very English and understandable in those days, and you're Browning and you chitchat around a bit, before you drop the biggie: "Oh, by the way, any notions yet on how my poems might be doing?'  And then his editor who has been dreading this moment, probably says, "Well, you know how it is with poetry these days; nothing's taking off like it used to, requires a bit of time for the word to get around.' And then finally, somebody had to say it. 'None, Bob, Sorry, Bob, no, we haven't yet had one authenticated sale.  We thought for a bit that Hatchards had a potential buyer down by Piccadilly, but it didn't quite work out,  Sorry, Bob; of course we'll keep you posted in the event of a breakthrough." (Goldman, p. 227-228)

This of course, probably isn't true.  Part of the delight of The Princess Bride is it's funny b,s.  It got me thinking though.  Did Browning not sell his first book of poems? (According to Wikipedia he couldn't get a publisher at 12 so destroyed the book, but that's at twelve years old and who's published a book that young?.)  Knowing that this has happened to a famous poet (even if it happened fictitiously) gives me encouragement.  Sure no one has bought my book yet (that I know of)  But they may in the future,  And it may not be until I'm dead, but that's okay.  I just want people to get enjoyment out of my work, whatever the date may be.  I hope this inspires other struggling authors as well.  Some day you may be famous no matter how far you've gotten in your writing by now!

Published My First Book

Hi, I'm author Natasha Gruss I started this blog to promote my first published book, "Un-Clenched Emotion".  Doing this myself, there has been some problems formatting it on the kindle, though it is available on Amazon,  I have a hard copy of my book and that turned out great.  If you want to buy it the link is https://www.createspace.com/6580430   It's more expensive to buy on Create Space then Amazon, but the formatting is worth it.  There are all kinds of poems in this book on all kinds of different subjects.  Some are happy, some are sad (or you might say depressing), and some don't really fit into either of those categories.  These are my favorite poems I wrote through out my entire life,  I believe I should share them with the world.  This is my first published book, In the future I may publish more, we'll see how this one goes first.