Nothing whatsoever to do with writing, I know, but it’s almost Christmas, so who wants to be at their computer reading a serious post? Nah!! It’s silly all the way now until 2015.
2014 has been a good one for me, writing-wise, so here’s to an equally (or even better!) fantastic 2015.
Happy Christmas/Holidays, and Happy New Year!
Lucy
*****
Author Bio:
Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and
erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over 100
publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several
editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic
Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and
co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house.
She owns Erotica For All, is book
editor for Cliterati, and is one eighth
of The Brit Babes. Find out more
at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk.
Join her on Facebook
and Twitter, and subscribe to her
newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9
This post has been reblogged from my website, but I thought it was incredibly fitting given the month we’re in š
If youād have said to me two years agoāmaybe even just a
year agoāthat I would āwinā NaNoWriMo, Iād have laughed at you. For those of
you that donāt know, NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month, is a yearly
challenge which takes place in November. Writers sign up via the website and
challenge themselves to write 50,000 words in a monthāin order words, a novel.
Or at least a good chunk of one. Sadly, I haven’t been able to take part this year.
Iām not a fast writer, but then nor am I a slow one. I sit
comfortably somewhere in the middle. But for some reason, last year I decided I
was going to give NaNoWriMo a go. Iād already done a ton of research for the
novel I intended to work on next, all I needed to do was getting the planning
done and Iād be ready to go. And so, having worked out that Iād have to write
2,500 per day for twenty days (I donāt work weekends, so I had to remove
weekend days from the equation), I figured it was still achievable.
Come the 1st of November I was signed up, had
everything planned out and once I opened that Word document, I quickly started
to fill it with words. Iām a bit of a word count watcher when I write, anyway,
so the only difference was, rather than simply updating the widget in my
websiteās sidebar, I would also update on the NaNoWriMo website. I started off
really well, and was achieving my target each day. Of course, I dropped behind
my ābuddiesā at weekends, but soon caught up again on weekdays.
I have to admit, it was addictive. Granted, Iād already done
an awful lot of hard work before opening
that Word document, but it didnāt mean the writing was easy, especially as it
was the most complex piece of work Iād written to date. But somehow, come the
29th November (the 30th was a Saturday, and so the 29th
was my finish date), I did it. I hopped over that 50,000 word mark, copied and
pasted the text into the NaNoWriMo site to get it validated, and received my
winnerās certificate and badge. It was a fantastic feelingāIād done it!
However, the novel was far from finished. The challenge had
really broken the back of it, but I knew I still had a long way to go. I didnāt
stop writing, but I admit from the 50k mark until the end was a lot slower
going because I didnāt have that urgency pushing me to write faster. Not to
mention during November, Iād rejigged my days to make writing my priority.
Finally, in the New Year of 2014, I finished the book. It
was almost twice the length it had been at the end of Novemberā95,000 words. So
personally, I still think I did pretty damn well to write it in that period of
time, and Iām delighted to see it out there for people to read and hopefully
enjoy.
The book has been incredibly well received so far, with lots
of four and five star reviewsāso if youāre a paranormal romance fan, I hope
youāll check out Pack of Lies.
*****
Author Bio:
Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and
erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over 100
publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several
editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic
Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and
co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house.
She owns Erotica For All, is book
editor for Cliterati, and is one eighth
of The Brit Babes. Find out more
at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk.
Join her on Facebook
and Twitter, and subscribe to her
newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9
Iām sure some of you have seen messages and notes about Thunderclap floating around the web and wondered what it is. I know Iāve had several clients ask me about it, which is why Iām writing this post.
Basically, it is a free promotional tool (though there are paid options you can explore) to help you get the word out about something. For the purposes of this post, Iāll use books as an example, as itās what I deal with.
You sign up for a free account at Thunderclap.it, and follow the simple instructions to set up your campaign. Use graphics from your book if you can, as that way youāre increasing visibility of your book to those that click through to support your campaign. Spend some time crafting your message, adding some relevant hashtags if youāve got room ā bear in mind that this message will go out once and hopefully to an awful lot of people, so you want it to have punch, something to really make people want to click on the link youāve provided. Iād also recommend only opting for 100 supporters the first time around ā it sounds like a small number, especially if you have lots of social media savvy friends, but itās tougher than you think to get people to click that link.
Once youāre happy with what youāve done, submit your campaign and wait for Thunderclap to approve it (you can speed this process up by paying, but Iāve never done this). Then, when approval arrives, the really hard work begins. You have to get supporters.
Supporters are the whole point of Thunderclap ā theyāre the ones that are signing up to send out your message on the date and time youāve selected. I think, since Thunderclap is fairly new, that people may be shying away from supporting Thunderclaps as they donāt fully understand what it means. So, in a nutshell, here goes: supporters are pledging to help you, by donating a Tweet, a Facebook status or a Tumblr post (or indeed, any combination of those three). Thatās all. Theyāll see the message theyāre pledging to send out, hit those support buttons, and, providing you get enough supporters to ātipā the campaign, their social media account/s will automatically send out the message on the date and time youāve selected.
The point of all this? Well, since weāre talking books ā itās to drive sales. If you have an upcoming book, you can set something up in advance to go out on your release date ā then youāve got a while to promote the Thunderclap, get your supporters and then youāll get a big boost on social media on the day, which will hopefully get people clicking those buy buttons and pushing you up the respective retailer charts. Cool, huh?
There is more to it than just getting the supporters, though. Sorry to complicate matters š Ideally you need supporters that Tweet/share/Tumble about books in your genre ā so in turn their followers/friends/etc are more likely to be interested in your book. Also, it goes without saying that the more followers/friends/readers your supporters have, the more people are likely to see your message once it goes out. So if you can attract people with a large reach on social media, all the better.
But to keep things simple, maybe start out small, and once youāve dipped your toe in the Thunderclap water and seen how it all works ā you can be more adventurous next time.
Bottom line: make sure youāve crafted a powerful message to go out, that will catch peopleās eyes and make them want to click. Then sit back and (hopefully) watch your sales increase.
Want to see how it works from a supporterās angle? Here are three Thunderclaps you can sign up for (and Iād be grateful of your help):
I hope this has helped you. Feel free to share far and wide on the web, to help people gain an understanding of how it works. If I get lots of questions and queries, I may do another article at a later date with more specifics.
Happy Promoting!
Lucy
*****
Author Bio:
Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and
erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over 100
publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several
editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic
Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and
co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house.
She owns Erotica For All, is book
editor for Cliterati, and is one eighth
of The Brit Babes. Find out more
at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk.
Join her on Facebook
and Twitter, and subscribe to her
newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9
It’s a sad fact of my life that in terms of work, my writing comes last. Not because I want it that way, but for the time being, because it has to be. Running my own business means I can work from home and have flexibility in my schedule. In turn, this allows me to squeeze writing in wherever I possibly can. But of course, paying clients (as opposed to writing books that may or may not be contracted, and may or may not sell), must come first for me to survive.
Therefore, distractions from my writing, when I get to do it, are not welcome. I’m not talking about the emails-coming-in, social-media type stuff, as they’re distractions that can be avoided, or at least ignored until you’ve written so many words. I mean the unavoidable distractions; personal ones, health ones, family ones, and so on. Stuff that demands your time, with no exceptions or workarounds.
It can be very hard to stay focussed on creativity when there’s something on your mind. Or it is for me, anyway. If I’m not in the right frame of mind then I tend to just stare at the screen with not much going onto the page. It’s frustrating, but it can’t be forced.
So, what to do when distractions are around? Well, that’s easy, isn’t it? I’ll do client work, I’ll do my freelance editing, I’ll shout about the books I already have out there – there are lots of tasks that make up my average day, and for that I’m grateful. I’m not sure how I’d cope with being a full-time writer, as when distractions come along, I’d be achieving very little. At least this way, I’m still crossing things off a to-do list.
What about you? Can you write through certain types of distractions? How do you cope with them?
Happy Reading,
Lucy x
*****
Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and
erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over 100
publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several
editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic
Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and
co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house.
She owns Erotica For All, is book
editor for Cliterati, and is one eighth
of The Brit Babes. Find out more
at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk.
Join her on Facebook
and Twitter, and subscribe to her
newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9
As a self-employed person, I do get annoyed by people that assume I can just take time off whenever I like, and do whatever I like. Of course, this is true – but they seem to forget one very important thing – if I don’t work, I don’t get paid. It’s a simple as that. If I spend hours per day walking the dog, or lounging in the garden, I’m not working, therefore nobody is going to give me any money. As a result, I work damn hard!
On the flip side of this, however, I do think time off is important. I don’t mean time off as in the aforementioned walking the dog and lounging in the garden, though. I mean not working all the hours under the sun, having proper days off. Which is why, although I do work longer hours during the week, especially if my workload is particularly heavy at the time – I take weekends off. Always – with the very occasional exception.
For starters, if I didn’t do this, I would literally never see my other half. We don’t live near each other, so we can only see each other at weekends. Therefore we make the most of the time we have together, and that absolutely does not include me sitting there tapping away on my laptop! Granted, if something akin to an emergency comes up, I’ll do something about it – but generally, there’s nothing, no email, that can’t wait until Monday.
Other half, important though he is, isn’t the only reason I take weekends off. It’s because I work to live, not the other way around. I’m very lucky in that I enjoy my job – well, most of it, anyway – but that doesn’t mean I want to work every single day. It’s bad for your health, and I tend to find if I’m doing too much, pushing too hard, with no time off, then I start to burn out. I slow down, physically and mentally, become much less efficient – and what’s the point in that? I’d rather make sure I’m well-rested, having time off and having fun. That way when I come back to work I’m energised and putting work out to the best of my ability. Otherwise, I may as well not bother.
*****
Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and
erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over 100
publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several
editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic
Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and
co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house.
She owns Erotica For All, is book
editor for Cliterati, and is one eighth
of The Brit Babes. Find out more
at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk.
Join her on Facebook
and Twitter, and subscribe to her
newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9
Writing is a very solitary thing. Something you have to just sit down and do, all by yourself. Yes, you may have other people involved in the research stages, and you may have beta readers once it’s finished, then editors, publishers, cover artists… the list goes on. But the specific act of getting words down on the page is a lonely task. Nobody can do it for you, and unless you’re super-talented (and if you are, I’m very jealous), you probably can’t talk to people while you’re doing it.
Which is why it’s nice to have writer buddies. Whether you know them in real life or just online, they’re a valuable bunch. There to encourage, to rant with, offload on, ask questions, sympathise, celebrate, commiserate… as much as friends, partners and families may try to be and do all of those things, it’s really only other writers that truly get it.
I’m very lucky in that I have writer buddies living locally, ones I see on a fairly regular basis, as well as ones I chat to pretty constantly online. Some of those I get to see occasionally, too. One such example being last weekend (not the one just gone, the one before!). A whole bunch of erotica and erotic romance writers and readers descended on Scarborough on the east coast of England for Smut by the Sea, a day of smut, workshop, socialising and fun. And fun it was! There was lots of chatting, giggling and all of the above supportive-types things going on. It’s so nice to be reminded you’re not alone as a crazy writer that’s battling away on something that’s bloody hard work, often for very little reward.
Now it’s all over, I’m already thinking about the next such get-together. Which is in November. I’m sure it will be upon us within the blink of an eye. So if you’re in the UK and can get to Manchester… it’d be great to see you there!
Happy Reading,
Lucy x
*****
Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and
erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over 100
publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several
editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic
Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and
co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house.
She owns Erotica For All, is book
editor for Cliterati, and is one eighth
of The Brit Babes. Find out more
at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk.
Join her on Facebook
and Twitter, and subscribe to her
newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9
So, as this post goes live I’m actually out of the country. In Paris, France, one of my very favourite places on earth… so far š
I’ve gone researchin’. For some reason, ever since my very first visit to Paris back in 2010, I found it beautiful, fascinating, interesting and inspirational. Since then, it’s spawned several stories which have been set there, all very different and all so much fun to write. And yet, I’m not done! One of those tales has been begging for a long time to be extended into a novel, but my hands were tied due to a shitty publisher, who shall remain nameless. Since then, I’m glad to say the publisher is no more (yeah, seriously, they were that bad), so I have the rights to that short story and the characters back, and I can work on the novel. I’m really looking forward to it because I love the story, the plot and the fact that my crazy little brain actually figured out this could be turned into a series. It’s been languishing for too long, and I’m hoping that another research trip to Paris will inspire me all over again and I’ll be bubbling over with ideas, new settings and enthusiasm for the project š
Happy Reading!
Lucy x
*****
Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and
erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over 100
publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several
editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic
Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and
co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house.
She owns Erotica For All, is book
editor for Cliterati, and is one eighth
of The Brit Babes. Find out more
at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk.
Join her on Facebook
and Twitter, and subscribe to her
newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9
As you know, lots of the other regular contributors to this blog pen some fabulous posts about the technicalities of writing, how to do it, how to improve, how to get inspired, and so on. A couple of recent examples being Three Workouts for Erotic Writers and Writing exercise – the canzonetta.
I don’t tend to write posts like that. I’m not one for the technicalities. Yes, I’ve got a degree in Creative Writing, I know how to write, I know how to spell and I know how to use an apostrophe (though I still occasionally wrestle with them). As long as I get to the end of a story, a novella or a full-length book and it’s correct and I’m happy with it, I don’t worry about anything else. That’s not because I don’t care. It’s because I’ve gotten to the stage where I have to trust myself, trust my ability to write. If I get bogged down in the technicalities, the many, many tiny elements that make up a piece of writing, I’m at risk of sinking into that bog and never finishing anything.
So I write what comes into my head, or from an outline I’ve sketched out, and I let the words flow naturally. Let my characters and the situation dictate what is said or done next. I put my backside in the chair, my fingers to the keyboard, and hope that what arrives on the screen isn’t a load of crap. And when it’s finished, I edit, tweak, polish and improve until it’s the best I can possibly make it. Then I hope like hell that someone will accept it.
So, what do you think? As long I’ve done my very best work, is it okay not to be worried about… everything?
*****
Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and
erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over 100
publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several
editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic
Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and
co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house.
She owns Erotica For All, and is book
editor for Cliterati. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. Join
her on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to her
newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9
Iām writing this post due to popular demand. Iāve had several clients ask me about Triberr, what it is, why they should be using it and how much time it will take up. Iāll do my best to answer these questions, and probably more, without writing a blog post that will be the same length as my latest novel š
Here goesā¦
1. What is Triberr?
Triberr is a type of social sharing site where a user will join ātribesā that are relevant to the content they create on their blogs. So, for example, Iām in several writing, erotica, erotic romance and romance-type tribes. Once a userās account is set up correctly, their blogās RSS feed will automatically add each new post into the streams of people who are in the same tribes as them. The idea of this is that because people in tribes share similar interests, the posts they will see in their streams are things they will want to share with their own followers. Which brings me neatly onto point #2.
2. Why should you be using it?
Because it increases your reach. Massively. At the time of writing this post, I have 5,653 Twitter followers. So when I go into Triberr and approve other peopleās relevant posts (this is key for me. I donāt want to alienate my followers by Tweeting stuff about childrenās books or young adult), they will automatically be Tweeted onto my account. Not all at once, but at intervals set by me, which are half an hour.
Imagine this reversed. Because each of my blog posts are fed into Triberr, theyāll appear on my tribematesā feeds and theyāll share them. So without Triberr, my Tweets would be seen by 5,653 people and probably then by others because my followers have Retweeted me. But with Triberr, my blog posts are automatically fed to the Twitter feed of every tribemate that approved my post ā and because Iām in tribes that are relevant to my work, this is most of them. So, depending on how many Twitter followers each of my tribemates has, you can see how much my reach increases. The biggest reach of the tribes that Iām in is 452,533 people! Thatās HUGE!
3. How much time will it take up?
Not much is the short answer. If you simply join us as a member and donāt have a tribe of your own (there are currently enough tribes out there that you donāt need to worry about setting up your own), itās a quick and easy thing. Now I have everything set up correctly, I probably spend ten minutes per day approving relevant posts. I know weāre all busy people, but this is a tiny portion of time compared to the potential benefits. Because if youāre seen to be active, to be approving other peopleās posts, then theyāll approve yours, too. So where your blog posts might have only reached 6,000 followers beforehand, with Triberr this is multiplied many fold with a small amount of time on your part.
I realise this is a really, really short piece which doesnāt go into the nitty-gritty of setting up Triberr, finding tribes and so on, but as I said I didnāt want to write a novel in a blog post š . Ultimately, even if youāre not technically-minded, once Triberr is set up, itās just a matter of going in once a day, going to your stream and hovering over that share button for each post you want to share. Technology does the rest for you. If you donāt want to share a post, then click the hide link. Youāll soon get into a rhythm. Once your stream is empty, give yourself a pat on the back and move onto the next item on your to-do list. But donāt forget to watch traffic to your site increase, especially if youāve taken the time to write engaging blog post titles ā something I personally am working on improving, and am already seeing results.
So, thereās Triberr in brief. If I end up with lots more questions and feedback on this post, then I may well write another article in a couple of weeks about the more nitty-gritty side of things.
P.S. If youāre an erotica or erotic romance author and want to get started ā come check out my tribe.
For just under a year now, Iāve been part of a group called The Brit Babes. We are eight British erotica and erotic romance authors that have clubbed together for several purposes. One, to promote all of us as a group, rather than just ourselves as individual authors. Two, to have a street team that reads, reviews and promotes all of our books. Three, to stand out from the crowd and establish a benchmark for quality. Four, because weāre good friends and itās nice to have seven other women to rant with, exchange ideas with, ask favours of, and so on.
So far, it’s been fantastic. The workload for administering the street team has been divided, and the reach of us, our books and our members has increased many fold. The street team itself is fantastic, as they read and review our books, spread the word and are also a lot of fun. There are some extremely fun conversations that go on in our private group, let me tell you!
Aside from that side of things, though, it’s been fantastic having a group of like-minded women just at the other end of an email. Of course, they were always at the other end of an email, but now we have this official group, it’s made us more, well, official. We don’t just talk about books and the street team, but we exchange ideas – writing related and not – life news, rants, good news, bad news… the list goes on. It’s a support team that totally gets it. Yes, our personal lives are different, but we all have the same struggles writing-wise that only fellow writers truly understand.
So, as we draw closer to the anniversary of The Brit Babes Street Team, I want to say what a brilliant experience it’s been for me, one I’ve appreciated in so many different ways. Here’s to many more years, ladies.
For any writers out there who have been toying with the idea of a Street Team but are worried about going it alone, I’d definitely recommend getting together a group of other writers in your genre that you trust and having a group street team. It’s benefited us in so many ways.
The Brit Babes are: Lucy Felthouse, K D Grace, Kay Jaybee, Victoria Blisse, Lexie Bay, Lily Harlem, Emmy Ellis and Tabitha Rayne.
See you next month!
Lucy x
*****
Lucy Felthouse is a very busy woman! She writes erotica and
erotic romance in a variety of subgenres and pairings, and has over 100
publications to her name, with many more in the pipeline. These include several
editions of Best Bondage Erotica, Best Women’s Erotica 2013 and Best Erotic
Romance 2014. Another string to her bow is editing, and she has edited and
co-edited a number of anthologies, and also edits for a small publishing house.
She owns Erotica For All, and is book
editor for Cliterati. Find out more at http://www.lucyfelthouse.co.uk. Join
her on Facebook and Twitter, and subscribe to her
newsletter at: http://eepurl.com/gMQb9
