Category Archives: Author Notes

Pictures, Dickinson Quote and Scrivener

The quote from Emily Dickinson in the photo below is typical of posts I started making this week in response to Shari Stauch of Where Writers Win, who suggested I post on Twitter at leastAlpine Lakes Wilderness by Scott Kranz Emily Dickinson quote once a day.

I was searching for content. I posted one of my book covers occasionally with a quote from that book. Too much of that is spam. I knew I had to look elsewhere for additional content. So I made my own.

People responded favorably to the posts. I began getting more followers on Twitter and likes and comments on Facebook. One person on Facebook ordered all three of my books in response to the posts on the day I used the Emily Dickinson quote.

The positive response is wonderful, but the most beneficial outcome from the effort has been the feeling I get from creating something beautiful and from the quote lodging in my mind as I approach my writing for the day.

Scrivener – I have been writing in MS Word. I wrote chapter descriptions, chapters and character descriptions in separate Word documents and kept them all in a file folder. The process was a little awkward, but it was working.

A few authors mentioned that they use software called Scrivener. I gave it a try. It doesn’t have all the features that Word has, but it has an organization scheme that keeps all those separate files in outline form on the left while you are writing.

It took a couple of days to learn Scrivener and to wrestle into a form that would work for me. I’m going to use it for my fourth book.

Emergence Promotion Dates Set

Emergence-by-CA-KnutsenI have been talking about the need for reviews to set the stage for a promotion of Emergence. Thank you for the reviews!   I have set the dates.  The Emergence eBook will be discounted from $3.99 to $0.99 from August 22 to September 5.

I have made arrangements with 20 services to send out a notice to their email lists on various day during that period.   People on these lists are eager to get free or discounted eBooks.  The combined number on these 20 different lists is several hundred thousand.

Besides sales of Emergence, this process will raise visibility of the Janus Unfolding series and possibly create sales of Factotum and Inheritance.  Also, there may be additional reviews which is always a good thing.  This is my first time through this.  I hope it yields fun results.

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Author – System Upgrade!

Chanticleer Author’s Conference 2016 like other CACs was very focused on helping independent authors be successful.  I’m in the process of putting the good ideas I received to work:

  • Book Covers – I went to Jeff Brown Graphics and asked Jeff to create new covers. Jeff is very creative and great to work with. They’re shown here and also make a fine new header image for the website.
    cropped-janusunfolding_final_web.png
  • Perfect the product – I asked Sara Stamey, award winning author of The Ariadne Connection and Islands for editorial assistance.
  • Social Media and Branding – I asked Shari Stauch of Where Writers Win to help me create a social media platform. This work is still under way. I also subscribed to the WWW Winners Circle which gives you access to a great deal of information about reviewers, book clubs and other helpful things.
  • Promotion Strategy – James Wells, award winning author of The Great Symmetry, made a presentation at CAC16 about marketing eBooks. It was clear and actionable.
  • Reviews – The services I will use to help with the promotion strategy look at the author’s online presence and the number of reviews. Some of the services don’t require any reviews, some require a minimum of ten and some require more. I had three at the end of May. The number is growing slowly and I value each new review. Thank you for the reviews!

Soon the new covers and interiors will be up on Amazon and B&N, and I’ll be ready to apply to the promotion services.  I’m optimistic about the possible results, and hopeful that I’m underestimating them…

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“Mimsy Were the Borogoves”

The 1943 science fiction short story Mimsy Were the Borogoves by Lewis Padgett is about a toddler and his infant sibling who do things that are quite unusual.

It is a story I am reminded quote-twas-brillig-and-the-slithy-toves-did-gyre-and-gimble-in-the-wabe-all-mimsy-were-the-borogoves-lewis-carroll-304308of this whenever I see young children playing, unfettered by ‘impossibilities’ that are so obvious to adults.  It’s not so much the specific story line as the concept that there is more to our existence than can be described by our senses and the associated four dimensions.

In my writing, I present characters with something that is ‘impossible’ and then ask them to find out how such a thing could occur.

I’m often surprised by what they come up with.