blog.david-oneal.com

This post has two quite different yet unique audiences. Allow me to clarify.

First, there are my readers and millions of prospective readers – mostly a big collection of individuals seeking to find mine and other fabulous online novels from authors they can begin reading in just a few minutes.

Second, there are a number of writer friends and associates just like me who seek to make a better offline living by selling original stories online.

I admit it. I’m just getting started with the Internet, and it’s a relatively new game for me. Over the past year, I’ve attended a number of high-priced, “getting online” workshops to explore and implement everything that’s needed to market literary products to the Internet World.

Each time, I stood in front of a well-known, Internet Guru and asked, “How does a person sell original fiction on the Internet?” Most were silence and then offered a variety of lame responses. None were ever really on point.

I remember asking Dr. Joe Vitale, “Mr. Fire!” His response became my mantra, when he said, “I don’t know.” Chatting a bit longer, as I discussed my plans for being online, he added, “I guess you’ll be inventing how it’s done.”

Most of the time, I can’t say I feel much like an inventor. Instead, I feel like I’m running all out, screaming, and terrified through a pitch-black night and no matter what I do, it won’t come to an end.

Okay, part of that is just the dramatics in me seeking to find expression, but I’m betting you get the message about feeling lost and going in an endless circle.

So, allow me to briefly discuss my strategy, and then, I’ll pose a number of Internet related questions for each unique audience.

I’m finding that selling “original fiction” online is a considerable challenge.

My current strategy involves a couple of really simple things I learned about life while in the process of chasing butterflies. First, place my literary product in plain view, and make them very easy to get. Second, turn my attention to other things, namely engaging readers in whatever conversation satisfies them.

For the moment, a variety of websites is the best solution for placing my literary work in plain view, and it’s looking like a blog is the best online vehicle for effectively doing the second part.

Here’s where the questions arise.

To my prospective readers, when you search and surf the web, what guides you? What do you feed the search engines? What kind of websites to you look for?

And here’s my biggest question of all. When you see a website with lots of text that goes on and on, will you stay and read it? Or just click onto the next one?

If you leave me a useful comment to any or all questions, I’ll send you a free gift just for sharing with me what you already know about “buying fiction online.”

To my writer friends and associates, if you’ve been doing this a while, what’s working and what’s not?

I know that getting connected in the retail world is a really big plus. Been there, done that, and plan to be releasing the new editions of my work in mid-2007.

My thinking is that the retail system takes too much of the pie from the small guy. Too keep my prices low, I have to settle for pennies per sale.

Once online, the rules are totally changed.

So, if there are creators of original fiction who have already cracked the “selling fiction online” code, I’d like to read your comments about how it’s done.

Technorati Tags: prospective readers, online novels, writer friends, getting started with the Internet, “getting online” workshops, market literary products, sell original fiction on the Internet, Dr. Joe Vitale, “Mr. Fire!”, selling “original fiction” online, chasing butterflies, engaging readers, free gift, buying fiction online

I’ve been creating stories since I was eight years old. So over those years, I’ve put considerable thought into what stories are about and into that classification label everybody refers to as genre.

Let me start off by flatly saying, “I don’t write genre fiction!”

I can hear all the literary types gasp, and then they lean a little closer, perhaps thinking, “What’s this guy going to say?” Seems to me that genre is little more than a bookshelf classification to help shoppers find a particular title.

I admit it; genre is helpful for doing that sort of stuff.

As a creator of fiction, this whole genre thingie looks very different to me.

Since I began writing professionally in 1994, I’ve attended a number of writer workshops. All were helpful in some sort of way, especially when it came to developing my literary craft. Most taught me what to do and then to do it better. A few taught me what not to do.

Presentations involving genre settled easily into that latter category. Somehow, genre simply didn’t fit well with how a new story appeared to me.

For me, ideas seem to rise up from unexpected places in the world around me.

Once an idea takes root and begins to grow, I put very little effort into molding or shaping it. At that point, I’m mostly a recorder of how the idea will form its own shape. Besides taking notes, I’m deeply thrilled by the whole experience.

It’s well-documented how characters often take control in a writer’s mind and move the story in directions the writer had not planned. Occasionally that happens with me, but what I’m saying here is that “that thing called genre” is not within my conscious control.

So, if I don’t control it, how can I write to its many demands?

Of the stories I’ve created, there’s action, suspense, murder, mystery, crime, romance, drama, violence, children, hit men, and the list goes on. Some of those are very definitely genre headings. I settled on calling them “thriller.”

Anyone notice how we’re seeing a lot more thrillers being created today?

Perhaps, I’ll need to do a much longer article on this topic.

Technorati Tags: creating stories, genre fiction, creator of fiction, writer workshops, literary craft, action, suspense, murder, mystery, crime, romance, drama, violence, children, hit men, thriller

As a published novelist, I’ve practiced my craft since 1994. Over the past month, I’ve moved my literary presence online. So, as an Internet newbie, I’m now exploring a number of writer and reader related blogs and websites.

The ones with the greatest impact on me in a literary sense are the ones you can expect me to post about.

“Storytellers Unlimited” is such a blog. It’s been online since June, 2005 and is staffed by a group of thirty authors, editors, booksellers, and publishing professionals. Each shares their view of the literary world in their own blog posts once a month. The posted material spans a wide range of interests, and that blog is now one of the links on my desktop.

This past Monday, Gerard Houarner made a post, “The Vision Thing,” that caught my attention. We’ve both literally on the same page. As he develops his vision thesis, he touches on a number of possibilities and ends up with one’s personal outlook on life. For me, that really takes the vision idea home.

Actually, what Gerard discusses is what I call passion. Among other things, he suggests authors ask tough questions of their characters and of their story, implying it’s really done of themselves.

Seems to me that questions of that nature seldom have solid answers.

Inside my own passion, I find most ideas being birthed as a complete whole. Often, I recognize its characters living comfortably around me and can easily feel the intended flow of the story. Usually, all that’s left for me to do is orchestrate its final literary presentation for my readers–finding just the right words to tell that particular story.

Technorati Tags: published novelist, literary presence online, Internet newbie, writer and reader, Storytellers Unlimited, Gerard Houarner, The Vision Thing, outlook on life, passion, tough questions, characters, story, literary presentation