Here are the survivors I use to make money.

Scrivener – Windows and Mac

I now use Scrivener for everything having to do with creating words. I’ve mentioned this programme before but the more I use it, the more I understand the power in it, the deeper I fall in love with it. (Yes, this is being written on it) Scrivener simply works the way I want a tool to work.

Everything is easily accessible when I’m working so for example, when I’m working on a book, my research and notes sit in a file that’s one click away. When I want to rearrange the outline, I don’t have to cut and paste but merely drag and drop the relevant sections into the new order and I can tell you this is coming in really, really handy as I work on my newest fiction project. Rearranging an entire project is very, very easy and makes a traditional word processor seem quite antiquated and cumbersome for writing books and managing complex documents.

I could go on and on about my regard for this bit of software but let me simply say that if you write, you owe it to yourself to give it a trial run testing out its simplicity and power.

Scrivener also exports files in a multitude of formats so file sharing and even ebook compilation are part of its feature set.

Try the free trial version – and if you’re disappointed, I’d would be too.

Scrapple (Mac only)

Now, I wasn’t sure how I was going to like Scrapple, a brainstorming, organizing, graphic outlining bit of software but given my brain is working more and more in a visual mode, this one has earned a place on my desktop. I was sold when I started organizing the fiction proposal on it, sorting out the different story lines and how they all worked together. Boxes hooked up with other boxes and placed anywhere on the page you like (far different than other brainstorming tools) with a simple drag and drop mouse click.

At $14.95 it’s a steal. But do get the trial version in case it’s not for you. Also from the Literature and Latte folks who brought you Scrivener (and it syncs with Scrivener so after you’ve brainstormed and put it together, you simply insert it into your working notes.) Very slick!

Index Card (iPad)

Mentioning Index Card is a bit of a cheat because this is an iPad app. The beauty of it is that it talks to Scrivener and syncs through Dropbox. So I can write on my iPad (I use a Logitech thin keyboard) and sync it to my desktop machine and Scrivener. Or I can send my desktop work to my iPad.

I’m told Literature and Latte is working on an iPad version of Scrivener so I’ll be replacing Index Card with that when it arrives for seamless sharing but for the moment, this is a go-to bit of software. But if you use Windows, you could still sync Scrivener and Index Card for a very workable partnership.

Pixelmator (Mac)

And yes, images are a critical part of our work even it you’re purchasing them. Pixelmator is simply the easiest and best bit of image software available – so simple a Doug can use it and so powerful he’s never going to use it all.

Sigil (multi-platform)

This bit of freeware saved my writing sanity. It makes epub files for uploading to various publishers for my ebooks. I was getting to the point of tearing out whatever hair I had left trying to make the Smashwords Meatgrinder work for me. I need Smashwords for getting ebooks into Barnes and Noble so I was getting more and more frustrated with the inconsistent results their software generated.

Drop a text file into Sigil, format it with the simple and familiar buttons (B for bold etc) , insert some images (use the Insert file command for this) and it automatically creates the Table of Contents. It took me an hour or so to master the technique of using it and after that I was outputting perfectly formatted ePub files (there’s even a code checker system inside this) that were accepted within 24 hours by both Smashwords and Apple.

You may have others and you may use traditional word processors (I do have the Mac Pages on my machine still) but these are my five must-have writing tools and the ones I use to make my living

Almost 20 years ago now, my first agent taught me how to write a book proposal. In retrospect I couldn’t have bought the kind of education she passed along but nobody said it came easy. I would write a proposal draft, she would critique it and return it. I would rewrite the entire damn thing, she would critique it, return it and I’d start all over again.

I can still remember the day I got her letter (this was before email) telling me, “Now we have something I can sell.”

I have no idea what she saw in my writing but we worked for the better part of 2 years in order to get me into the groove. (Before you ask me why it took so long, let me point out I had a nursery to run, four kids to raise and I wrote for an hour before work every day to figure out this “writing stuff”.)

The lesson burnt into my writer’s brain was that I had to use a rifle instead of a shotgun when it came to writing. The finer tuned I could make the subject, the better. It wasn’t so much as a brain-dump, it was about meeting specific reader needs in as tight a way as possible.

And What’s That Got To Do With Anything Now?

I received the initial report on my fiction proposal and got high marks for the contextual analysis I created. In other words, I had create a great background and situation for a story.

But I needed to hone in on the story. I needed to get a lot more specific about what was going to actually happen in the book – what the specific objectives were for each character. It’s like saying, “I’m going to have a date with a woman” instead of saying, “I’m going to ask Mayo out to dinner” The first is the context and the second is the specific action. Stories are about specific actions and I hadn’t quite got that message completely down on paper.

It was a repeat of that all-important first lesson. I needed to get quite specific in my story-line, I needed to focus in on the important actions.

And with any luck, it won’t take me two years to get the message this time.

Last November, I decided and then undecided to write a novel as part of the NaMoWriMo. It seemed like a good idea at the time and I launched into the planning stages with enthusiasm. But I quickly bogged down in my ignorance of how to write fiction. This meant an abrupt change of plans.

First of course, I had to figure out what a novel was and how it was structured. In my world of professional non-fiction writing, it helps to know what you’re doing and where you’re going before laying down a bunch of words. I assumed this was true of writing a novel as well.

Turns out there’s an entire range of opinions on this among novel writers. Some who simply “launch” and start writing. Some who outline meticulously. Some who write about characters and believe if you have a great character, you have a great story. Some who write about stories and don’t worry about characters. In short, there’s a theory out there for ever starting writer on which to hang a hat and I suspect most beginners will gravitate to whatever is most comfortable for them.

I know I did. I had already done some reading about stories in films by skimming Robert McKee’s classic book Story: Substance, Structure, Style and the Principles of Screenwriting and I assumed books had a similar structure. Turns out the successful ones do. So I started reading about story structure in novels and how they were put together. I even started doing some outlining and deleting, outlining and deleting and even outlining and deleting of my own.

As an aside, understanding the story process is very much like being able to read a road map. Understanding the concept is similar to using the road map to find and get to one particular location on that map.

What I’ve done between last November and now is learn to read a road map and in another day or two, I’ll get the feedback on whether I’ve learned how to apply it (or whether I’m back to the drawing board) It’s like Christmas exams. (and yeah, I’m a bit nervous about the results)

But the important thing is that I delivered the first phase of this project. In Seth Godin’s terms, “I shipped”.

And in my creative world, getting it out the door is the first step.

As a writer, I still find this seasonal work to be critical for what I’m doing and I do spend time drinking far too much coffee and dreaming.

I got to thinking about how I used computers and how other folks use them.

For example, I use it for information searching. When I want to know something, I search for the answer. I don’t care whether I’m using my laptop, iPad or phone, I want the answer and I want it now. If it pops up in the search results so I don’t have to click through to the site, all the better. But I scan those results before I click to evaluate the chances of finding that information without too many tries.

I also use it for some socializing with my peers and with friends. While these are two separate content groups, I do have some overlap here. And I do use it every now and then for entertainment – watching videos or reading something.

The important thing however is not what I consume but the how I consume it.

The Net for me is not like a long novel or how-to book, a connected series of information strung in a logical order. The Net is a spider web of connectivity where every intersection is an information node. I do not consume the Net in a longitudinal way, I consume it by jumping from node to node depending on what I need when I need it.

I also rely less and less on individual bits of software residing on my laptop. When I’m in consumer mode, I tend to use my iPad or iPhone and most importantly the apps on it.

My world is now determined by the apps I use and the use I put them to. And I determine what nodes I want to use. This article was written on my iPad on the Pages app and uploaded via the WordPress App.

The better analogy then is not that we are recreating the old world with software but that we should be imagining the new world and its publications as a spider web of information and entertainment rather than in a serial one page follows another mode. And instantly available to us no matter where we are.

And my objective as a content creator then is to be creative enough, informative enough and entertaining enough to stand out like that blue jar and be worth a place on that spider web.

For Canadians who don’t get it – in the bulk of the US, you pay first and then pump your gas. And yes, the pay first thing will quite likely expand its way across the border but for the moment…

I’ve been a massive fan of the online publishing model for writers and have indeed made my living doing this since 2004. Between websites, ebooks and some other projects, I’ve kept the wolf away from the door and indeed, managed to build a better door.

But my sense of the online reading experience has been shifting in the last few years and over the last two months, it has landed, “Plunk” into a totally unexpected (for me) kind of pattern.

I really like reading modern fiction – the easy to read action or sci-fi stories that can be best described as “dock books” on my ipad or ereader. I still see the odd print one roll through the house -mostly presents – but anything like that I buy, it’s now electronic.

Deeper fiction or more involved thinking works (anything by Joyce for example ) are now best served up in paper. Good non-fiction falls into that category as well – I’m currently reading Al Gore’s “Future” and it works well in paper given the copious notes in the index.

Informational reading – and let’s use garden writing as an example – falls into both camps. Anything I want to know “how-to-do” is an electronic task. Look up, read, watch, browse, flip, and the skill or info is readily available. Subjects normally covered in magazines belong online in my new world as the information is normally easily digested. (Whether magazines should try to be more like online content with the short info is a subject for another time)

More complex subjects deserve print and paper.

This was brought firmly into my worldview when I tried reading a Timber Press book on my iPad (I’m a huge fan of their high-end line and not so much one of the newer consumer direction) that is laid out with multiple pictures on each page, It was the absolutely worst reading experience in my life.

Each image had to be expanded and contracted individually, the easy flipping through pages wasn’t easily done simply because of the layout – resembling a print book. I was supposed to be reviewing the book and found the chore of getting through the content to be one step too far and I never did finish reading it (much to my regret because I wanted to read that book)

The bottom line here is that I now believe each “book” and the distribution system for it will have to be determined by the contents of that book.

Having said that, I will hedge my bets about what the generation being raised on ebooks is going to think or do.

As refresher, I was tired of Feedburner sending out multiple messages and then vomiting out everything from the past few months (and doing it regularly) on one big blast of email links. And given that Google now owns it, the support system has disappeared except for a forum setup where you can’t find answers or get tech help.

Combine that with Google killing the popular Reader software they were running, I decided that if they were getting out of the RSS reader business, the RSS distribution business wouldn’t be far behind so move now rather than later.

I use Aweber for my newsletter and they have a blog distribution system so I’ve now moved 5 general feeds via email.

On average, I’m looking at a 60% move rate.

So of those who were on the list, 60% agreed to move with me. I think that’s rather high given normal open rates for larger, older lists (the larger the list, the smaller the normal open rate) This site was a bit higher than that and simplegiftsfarm.com was a bit lower so it all pretty much evens out in the wash.

To explain that “open rate” a bit. Just because somebody signs up for your newsletter or feed, is no guarantee those people will actually read it. You probably have newsletters you file and “will get around to them” someday. Well, so do other people and the bad news is that we’re all doing it and all being done to. Open rates measure the percentage of people who actually read / open the email (a code is sent back to the servers to measure this). I see seasonal fluctuations as well as by headline and contents.

So not to belabor a point but given that 60% of subscribers moved with me is pretty good in my opinion. I hadn’t thought the open rate would have been that high and the conversion rate (number of people actually clicking) must have been pretty good. In other words, if they read the request, they clicked.

But if you decide to move your mailing system, know I got 60% and that gives you a target.

Update: 90% of this list moved with me – two days after sending out the “we’re moving” email. Thanks for your support.

The “life of a copyright” is now the life of the author plus 70 years. So if I accepted this contract, I was giving away the rights to this book for my life, my children and quite likely my grand-children’s life.

Luckily there were other clauses that prevented me from even having to consider this contract seriously.

What is interesting though is that if I were a first-time or beginning-author, would I give away the baby to get into print or would I have the guts to call them on this ridiculous larceny and walk away?

Here’s the deal

I don’t need a publisher anymore. I make more money on Amazon every year than I ever made from any book – even in the good times. It feels strange. To have been “brought up” in an old culture and then to strike out in an entirely new one.

But even when I look at the balance sheet, I “want” a hard copy book to wave around and say, “See! See! They published my book!”

Now, all I get is a note from Amazon saying, “transferred your money.” One is good for the ego and the other is great for simple things, like eating.

Publishers Need Writers

Ever thought about that? If you’re a good writer with a decent social platform, and can sell books then publishers need you. They need writers who can sell their books. Plain and simple because as any writer knows, the majority of publishers don’t do much with a book after the first few months it’s in print.

In fact, in the future, publishers will need you more than you need them. (probably not right now though as there are a lot of folks still holding on to the status of having a hard-copy book printed)

If your objective is to make money and live from your writing, then you don’t need a publisher. If your objective is to get status, then you need a publisher.

Do not confuse the two – I still do and I’m deeply into the e-publishing world (that’s one of those easier said than done things)

And Don’t

And don’t – however tempting it may be – give away your work with contracts that screw you with clauses such as “for the life of the copyright”.

Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But it is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us.

Tolkien
Lord of the Rings.

There have been times in the past year when I was ready to toss in the towel of this entire writing “thing”; indeed I was more than ready to start my own specialized nursery again and had I had property with decent soil instead of the shallow, clay crap I do own, I may indeed be back propagating interesting plants instead of tapping on a keyboard.

Some of you may know that Google looks at links coming to your site as a measure of the value of your site. If good sites link to you, those are good brownie points but when bad sites link then you are penalized.

I used to give away ebooks to readers – one on perennial growing and one on beginner tips – and they had some links in the book to my site for further information. Some spammers decided they would give it away as well, added their links and left mine. And then some enterprising Polish spammer took one or more of my sites as “redirect” sites to a multitude of porn sites. (Technically, my stolen site was only seen by Google and visitors were immediately redirected to porn pages) They then got inbound links to those from their other porn sites so my gardening sites were under all these but part of a porn network. As it turns out 11.5% of all incoming links to my sites were from these porn sites and this was enough to finally get the Big G’s attention. If you can say, “screwed” you have the sense of what happened to me.

Technically, the only recourse now is to use Google’s disavow tool where you say, “I don’t know that link” and this is now part of my ongoing weekly work. I also added G+ author verification (recently available) to all sites and I’ve rebuilt almost all of my sites (and will finish this up this year) to upgrade the code, pictures, headlines etc across all sites. I gave up one of my sites (the worst hacked) and rebuilt the entire site on a new URL because there was little chance it would ever be rehabilitated given the extent of the damage.

So yes, it’s not my fault. And yes, it’s only a mechanical process used by Google. And no, it’s not fair to have five years of work wrecked by a spammer. But, to paraphrase Gandalf, it was up to me to decide what to do with such times.

I was involved in a bitter conversation the other day that involved several individuals acting as Frodo, complaining about the changes that had swept across their industry to change the landscape under their feet. I did my best to explain what was going on but they weren’t as understanding as Frodo and I fear they’ll fall to their industry-Orcs chasing close behind.

I also had the pleasure of meeting some publishing folks who had decided there were two demographics that were purchasing gardening magazines and they were working hard to meet the needs of these two groups. The fact they were still in business after 5 years speaks loudly.

Between these two extremes sits a vast wasteland of writers struggling to figure out a way out of their own cave, trying to find a road around the curve. “Afraid to move forward and afraid to stay where they are” pretty much sums it all up given the uncertain route and future we all face.

Your choice is simple. Every day for the rest of your life, you get to make a decision about what to do with the time left to you.

And not to decide is to decide.

I decided not to open that nursery but to stick with a creative life I love. And I decided this freed me up to do other creative things as well and those are well into the planning and working-on stage.

As I write this, 9 months after the crash, some of my sites have started showing signs of stability. I’m happily planning spring in the garden, looking forward to non-freezing weather so I can get back into my unheated garage/shop/studio for some creative work, and working on expanding my reading and writing range. I’m almost back to writing full time instead of being a repair-guy and this feels very good as well with increasing output and enjoyment of life.

I may not be fully out of that cave, but I can see the light around the corner of this pathway and it’s a clear bright one.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on this but the lights are slowly coming on in my world.

The short version of this is we’re now in an infinite universe of channels where there is an almost infinite number of interest groups organized around their preference for information in any given channel. And the interaction between channels is minimal.

Multiple Channels of Choice

Let me give you an example. If you happen to be interested in gardening, you have multiple options in channels. From list servs (email lists) to forums (still existing on bulletin boards) to social media groups across any number of platforms from Ning to Facebook. Toss in those who prefer Twitter and Youtube to those who hang out at magazine channels for even more options.

Then you can break each of these areas into garden interest-groups. So the rock gardeners have several functional areas, the Facebook garden groups are legion and there are a growing number of them on Google+ etc etc.

Each interest area generates a social group on the preferred social media channel of choice. And individuals gravitate to those interest areas on their preferred social media platform.

And any individual can find kindred spirits to talk about their topic in gardening (containers, perennials, writing etc)  no matter which social media group they prefer.  And there is little reason for them to change channels if they’re happy (social inertia)

But while it may not be actually infinite, it’s large enough and diverse enough that a single individual can’t participate in them all.

My Experience

My own experience with the reluctance to move across social media platforms has me rethinking the entire nature of social media and how I interact with fast moving information streams. I’ve found readers want the information in their preferred stream and want it “now”. So Facebook users want information delivered personally to them when they ask the question – they don’t want to be referred to a web-link to either ask the question or get the answer.

And while many folks say this this is not true for them, my own experience is there’s enough people operating in this way to make it an operating rule of thumb. It’s the old Fritz Perls “I want what I want and I want it now” thought operating in real time.  (I want the perennial flower information on the social media channel of my choice and I want it now)

The issue of course is where a creative spends their time – which platform and which group – to both socialize and market their products.  And that’s what I’m rethinking now

I would really love to know how you folks look at social media differently or the same as I do. And how you handle it?

Care to share?