In The Demon's Head #49/50: Special Duel Edition

In The Demon's Head #49: How Stereotype Can Limit Your Writing

August 10, 2012

This is the first of a duel edition of “In The Demon's Head” I was a bit behind when it came to writing this blog. I had personal things that prevented this post on Tuesday so I thought that maybe I would just add both post together and give you a two for the price of one scenario. We'll start first with How Stereotypes can limit your writing.

Recently I've been reading a lot of blog post and books about how writer's think, how self-publishing authors continue to have problems with getting their name out there, as well as a number of other things that I've read about in the last few months, and now I feel like I should share some thoughts on the situation.

One post I read was on a blog that I found through a circle that I belong to on Google Plus and was by a man named Dean Weasly. If for some reason he reads this and takes some words to heart or doesn't that's fine. First and foremost, I think he's someone who has a lot to offer writers of all experience levels however, his post that I read recently rubbed me in all the wrong ways, mainly because he used a lot of generalizations and stereotypes of writers that I was far from pleased over.

The two post were about how self published authors shoot themselves in the foot and kill their sales. While a few of the tips I read made sense there were a couple that seemed like out there cases where someone might find themselves on the horrible end of a good situation. One of those cases was that Indie Covers don't work or that Photoshopped Covers weren't that great. However, I want to step in and say that I don't think that's particularly true. I've seen quite a few covers designed by amateurs and self publishers that looked fantastic.

The one point on this that he made that was true is that you can't have just random slop thrown together and expect it to attract attention. My very first E-Book I attempted to publish was “The Text Message” and among other things that I should have done (like editing) the cover that I designed for this book was complete shit. It was a very poorly thought out idea that went absolutely nowhere and attracted no one in the slightest.

Another thing that he said was that you should have a brand new pen name for each Genre of writing that you do. I highly disagree with this, now yeah I know you could argue with me that I have no clue because let's face it what have I done, (and I expect that) but let's face the facts here. Authors don't have to have new pen names for each genre, I've seen quite a few Authors successfully jump genre to genre using the same pen name. 

 

Now I'm not writing this post to smash another writer. Far from it in fact. As I said earlier in this post I really believe that Dean has a lot of insight to offer writers and I will likely continue reading his post from this point forward, BUT I wrote this to say that writers who might be new to the game and read these post could see themselves in the group that would or does make mistakes.

I know that when I was first starting out had people criticized my every move I would have likely given up writing and never learned the joys of this great craft like I have in the last decade. So I wanted to say to anyone who may be reading criticism that way, learn from it but never expect to make those mistakes because if you learn from the mistakes of others you won't have to worry about making those same mistakes in your career.

In The Demon's Head #50: 6 Months and Counting

August 10, 2012

Well this is the second post in the Double Header that I promised you. This is the normal Friday general writing update but I thought I'd take a chance to celebrate with this edition of “In The Demon's Head” I'm on edition #50 and I'm celebrating 6 months with this blog and you my readers. I know this isn't the worlds greatest accomplishment but I'm very proud of myself for having made it this far and look forward to going so much further this this over the next few years.

The last six months have been a roller coaster and I have a lot planned heading into next Febuary which will mark the 1 year anniversary. Including 2 series about platforming and story art, in case you missed it I have the entire Promotional Techniques as a free E-book on my website.

As far as the update goes for this week, I'm very happy to announce that I have finally sat down and planned out a 10-story arc. What this means is that I'm looking toward writing a Short Story Series. I don't know the name of it or any of the stories yet but I have a general story arc for the entire series which I'm very excited about beginning to write here soon.

Also, I'd like to say that there are updates to the website. I'm taking down the tout page because trying to keep up with the videos as well as other things was just a lot of work that right now I couldn't do. However, on the flip side I will be putting up a specific “More Than Memories” page that will showcase the artwork and current table of contents for the book, this is by no means final but we're taking the steps to get there. Also, any news concerning “More Than Memories” will be posted there.

I'm very excited about the process moving forward. I can't wait to share the completed product with you. I'm aiming for “More Than Memories” to hit shelves sometime in late October. With the first edition of this new short story collection to follow in December. But there will be more on that later.

That will conclude my Duel edition of “In The Demon's Head” I'll be hard at work over the next few weeks to get everything in order and start writing the next project. In the meantime you can follow me on all aspects of social media by going to my website and clicking the meet me on social media page. Also you can receive a free copy of “Promotional Techniques” by signing up with your email address. There's also a section above to provide your email address and get “In The Demon's Head” sent to you directly. As well as a donate button should you feel generous.

Until the next time that you want to take a trip through the gates of hell and into the demon's head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.