In The Demon's Head: What's New for 2013

In The Demon’s Head 73: What’s New for 2013

January 11, 2013

Hello everyone happy belated new year to everyone. I’m excited because this is the first post of the New Year, this post is going to be full of information on my plans going forward through 2013. 

First off, as some of you may know I enrolled in a writing class at the beginning of the year. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out but after doing just the first assignment I feel that I learned quite a bit already. This leads to some information regarding my debut novel. 

I started writing the novel a little over a week before the New Year. I made it about five pages in before beginning the class and I’ve realized that I want to wait until I finish this class before I began that novel. It may be a little bit but I do intend to begin the novel and finally release it to the public.

So if the novel is now on the back burner for the time being does that mean that my writing is also on the back burner with the exception of the class? Not in the slightest. First the writings of the months I intend to continue those. I’d like to do one a month and hopefully can hold onto that while doing the class.

Now what about the stories side of things since most of my free writings will be poems? First let’s talk about the Blackout Series. 

Originally my goals were to release the first story as a free download or read then put the others up for sale but I’m beginning to think that there may be a different system set up. I think that I will be giving away the stories for free for a while simply to help build my platform up as I work on the class and get in the process of writing my novel. 

 In the process of the class too I’m going to try to submit some short stories for publication to magazines. I’m aiming mainly to spend the next year or two as I finish the class to get my writer’s platform built up.  Hopefully by no later than the end of 2014 possibly I could have the novel done and ready for release.

Those are some of the goals for this year. Part of the reason that I put the novel on the back burner was mainly because I wanted to focus most of my writing energy on the course and that way I could finish it quicker and I would be able to focus on it and learn as much as possible. 

I will have some updates and information as I work through the course and hopefully come up with some new ideas for both stories and future novels. I look forward to this course and to sharing in the journey with you guys. 

Until next time another Happy New Year and until you decide to take another trip through the gates of hell and into the demons head, I’m Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface.

In The Demon's Head: The Blackout Continues

In The Demon's Head #70: The Blackout Continues

November 21, 2012

Hello everyone and first off let me wish you a Happy Thanksgiving, and for those of you who are crazy enough to go out on Black Friday, good luck. I myself will be working Thursday night so I won't partake in the festivities but that's okay because I don't really need to run over someone's grandma for a damn deep fryer. I have to share with you though, I saw a picture on Facebook that read: America, the only country where the day after being thankful for the stuff we have we almost commit murder for shit we don't need. Thought I'd share that interesting nugget with you. I've got a few updates on what's coming up with me through the end of the year and forward.

More Than Memories Price Drop

As I kind of expected due to the nature of the book the sales for More Than Memories hasn't been quite what I had expected. Due to that I've dropped the price from 4.99 down to 2.99. That's 50 percent off of the original price. So I'd like you to go check out the Smashwords page for "More Than Memories" and if you haven't done it yet download your free sample and I hope that entices you to pick up a copy.

The Blackout Continues

If you haven't heard yet I am knee deep in working on The Blackout Short Story series. I've condensed the once 10 story series down into five stories mainly because some of the individual stories by themselves weren't long enough to warrant being just one story. I'm excited about the continuing and editing the stories and working on getting something together so that you have the first one before the new year.

Website Updates

I've decided that sometime near the end of the year that I'm going to relaunch my website hopefully with a better set up. It's something that I'm going to work on heading into December and hopefully put into effect sometime near the end of the year maybe the beginning of next year one of the two.

The Future

My future post Blackout Series is currently up in the air. I have some ideas about where I'm going moving toward July which is when I hope my next book will be available but right now I'm looking at one of two options, one of them is the story version of my poem Viral which has garnered some good reviews through Wattpad. I've had a number of people tell me that I should consider turning the poem into a story. It's between this or a time travel style novel that I've thrown around the idea for quite some time. I got the idea after reading Stephen King's 11/22/63 and I think that idea is radical enough and interesting enough that it hasn't been tried before. If I can get lucky enough maybe both of these books will see the light of day before next year.

That wraps up this edition of "In The Demon's Head" I hope to be back post Thanksgiving with some more information and new ideas. I hope you guys have a safe and wonderful holiday and as always, until the next time 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 to the surface.

In The Demon's Head: Long Time No See

In The Demon's Head #69: Long Time No See

November 9, 2012

Hello everyone and happy Friday. Today is the first blog post that I've put up in quite some time. I have to apologize for that but I'm back today and I've got some information on the "Blackout" series, my progress during NaNoWriMo, and this blog in general. We'll start with my current goals and thoughts on this blog.

In The Demon's Head: Looking Ahead

As I said earlier I apologize for the erratic post here lately. They haven't been posted at the same time or even on the same day. Under the same token I haven't been posting twice a week for quite some time. There are two reasons for that, the first being that the work schedule that I'm currently keeping up is not allowing me to post as frequently as I would have wanted. Second, I haven't quite had the subject matter to post twice a week. That being said I'd like to tell you what I'm hoping for in the coming weeks.

My intention is to return to posting once a week, every Friday, I'd like to bump it back up to two times a week but this will only occur once I get the work schedule and material situations figured out and this may take a few weeks at the least for that to happen. Until then I will attempt to at least make the one post a week however, I will not commit to doing two post a week again most likely until next year.

The post that you will get though will be updates on subjects that include upcoming projects, progress on current projects things of that nature. Should I receive any emails, questions or other things then it's possible that I'll share those with you as well. If you'd like to send me an email just click here and send me whatever is on your mind. 

 

NaNoWriMo Progress

To anyone who has been following the Facebook Page then this may be some recycled information but if you haven't heard yet I've turned NaNoWriMo into NaShWriMo not that it makes as much sense. Basically I'm taking the month of November and attempting to finish or write a substantial number of stories in the "Blackout" series. There are 10 of them so it's likely that I won't be able to reach that goal with the other engagements that I have but I'm going to try that much I will promise you. I'd like to at least make it through 3-4 of them and that will free up enough time for me to get ready for the next projects on the agenda and set them up for publication. So far I'm just now into the second story but I feel that I can at least finish it and possibly much more should I be able to get over the sickness that I'm feeling here's to that hope coming true.

Blackout Series

Speaking of the Blackout Series there is some development in that department. With the current plans for November editing the first of the Blackout series is a highly unlikely possibility. With that said I intend to begin editing the stories the first week of December and I will gear them up hopefully for a late January/ Early February release for the first one which as I've indicated before will be free. It will be available throughout different areas including WattPad, Smashwords, Amazon and my website. Also I think I'd like to announce the first two volumes, they are "Life After Dark" and "Six Feet Under" I haven't decided on any of them after that. I thought I had three but looking back I didn't like the title of the third volume so that's gone.

New Ideas and Future Projects

So there's a couple of new ideas that have been circulating in my head here lately. One is for a novel that will likely come later rather then sooner but the other one is something that's likely to occur as early as next year. Recently I've found some mild success with my poem Viral on WattPad, if you haven't had a chance to read it yet click here. Mind you this is the first draft of that poem and the final draft is available in "More Than Memories" however a lot of recent comments and suggestions said that I should convert Viral into a story/novel and upon giving it some serious thought I may just do that. I couldn't tell you how long it will be but I think that I like the idea of taking one of my pieces and expanding on it even further so look for a Viral inspired story sometime in 2013.

That's all the updates and information that I have today. I hope to be back next Friday with some new information and some updates. I hope you guys enjoyed this week and 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.

PS: If you haven't heard yet, "More Than Memories" is available now for purchase you can check it out on Smashwords or Amazon pick up a copy and share your thoughts with the world.

In The Demon's Head: How To Measure Success

In The Demon's Head #65: How To Measure Success

October 4, 2012

First let me apologize for the lateness of this post. I know it's two days late and my main reason is because... well I didn't know what to write about to be honest. Now I read a few weeks ago, a post from someone who said write only when inspiration strikes and don't force it because it will cause your writing to suffer. I almost gave up writing this edition of “In The Demon's Head” then I read an article that I'd like to talk about today.

If you know me you know that I'm an avid reader of the “Writer's Digest” free newsletter and I'm trying all the time to read things left and right, I'm an avid believer of the more you know the more you learn. So when I learned that there was an article available that said “How To Measure Success”

I'd like to talk to you about what that means, at least to me. For me Success means happiness, it means that you enjoy what your doing everyday, it means that you have taken the necessary steps to reach your dream. For me I gauge my success like this:

It will happen when I am able to be home and writing on my schedule. I don't need millions to live, I hate everyone that says that unless your like JK Rowing, or Stephen King then your successful, the fact of the matter is that while that amount of money would be nice no doubt, but it's not something that is a necessity. I look at it like being able to make 60-100 thousand a year as something that would be the perfect amount of money for me to live off of.

Why am I bringing this up now? Because I want to get it out there that while the message of success varies from writer to writer, the overall message is clear that you don't have to be known worldwide, or extremely rich to be famous. Quite the contrary you can be moderately wealthy and your books never break the top 20 in order to be successful. I know not everyone will agree with that and that's fine but I think on a number of levels realistic goals that will provided some meaning of success is far better then shooting for ridiculous goals that few if any may ever achieve again. How do you measure success? Let me know in the comments section below. 

That's all for this edition of “In The Demon's Head” I'd like to thank everyone who has been reading me consistently since day one. I'll be back on Saturday, not Friday for a special update edition of “In The Demon's Head” then next Tuesday I'm finally going to sit down and explain the beef that I have with 50 Shades of Gray and it's writer. Until the next time 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.

In The Demon's Head: A Change In The Air

In The Demon's Head #60: A Change In The Air

September 14, 2012

Hello everyone on this rather chilly and rainy Friday afternoon, (at least where I'm at this is the case) and welcome back to the Friday General Update and edition number 60 of In The Demon's Head. As I'm sure you've read in a few places over the last week or so I've been promoting this very special post because I feel that it's going to be a big deal in the end.

First off I'd like to explain why the upcoming changes will occur. As I was posting things on blogger I started tracking both my reads, and my followers and subscribers. In the beginning all three of these stats climbed at a rather nice rate before leveling out a little over a month ago. I began to think of how I could improve these stats once again.

Then about a week ago I came up with an idea and since then I've come up with two more, all three of theme will affect the blog, the topics that are covered, and the overall feel of it, however it will remain writer and reader oriented. Let me explain the three changes.

Change 1: The Tuesday Posts

Of the 60 editions of In The Demon's Head, I've spent a little over half of them trying to teach people things. While there is a time and place and types of blogs for this I'm beginning to believe that In The Demon's Head is not that type of blog, while I would still like to do the occasional blogging series like I've done in the past starting this Tuesday and every Tuesday thereafter you will be seeing a new type of post. I'm going to be taking subjects in the writing world and talking about them and give you my thoughts and opinions on issues that are hot in the world of writing. I'm currently a member of a group on Google Plus that provides a lot of topics so finding them shouldn't be a problem. I may occasionally do some sort of post about the teaching side of writing but those will become few and far between.

Change 2: A Possible Third Post A Week

Now I say possible because this one really varies based on public response. I want to start having a guest post, one a week, and these can be anything that the guest poster wants it to be about. It can be a writing lesson, a review of some sort, even a piece of writing it's going to be something that the poster wants my audience to know or read. There are two reasons I really want to start pushing this, 1. Because it gives a new audience to aspiring writers. And 2. It gives more backlinks for this blog as well as my guest bloggers. I believe that this is going to be a huge boost to not only this blog but to anyone who would like to be a part of the guest blogging service, and this is open to anyone. If you want to be a part send me a short summary of whatever you want the post to be about to me via email here. If I like it and it fits (and it most likely will fit no problem) then I'll send you back an email telling you to send me the piece I'll read over it and send you back a date that it will be used.

Now I'm sure that this may take a bit to get off the ground so for a while it may be a hit and miss thing but I do believe that once it gets some attention we'll have great post week after week from some very very talented writers.

Change 3: More Interaction

One thing that I aimed for when I started this blog was to have a great interaction with my readers. For the longest time I didn't do anything about that then I started asking questions hit or miss and eventually it fell back off the map and I stopped doing it entirely. While I'll be the first to admit that this was my fault and was poor planning on my part it still aggravates me. So here's how it will work moving forward...

I will ask something every single Tuesday and I want you to weigh in, not sure what the questions will be yet and they may not even tie into the post but every Tuesday at the end of the post there will be a question that I would love your input on.

However, I'd like to make this far more then a one way street. I'd love for you to send me questions via email here. They can be about anything from my writing, to my opinion on something, or they can even be questions for one of my guest posters and I'll make sure to get their answers so you'll know them. I'm out to turn this blog into a talking point for a lot of writers and readers alike. But I can't do it alone and that's why these new changes will be going into place.

Also in conjunction with the blog post questions, I may start asking questions of my fans and likes on my Facebook page. This is on another level to stir conversation and get people talking. So by all means get the questions coming.

I hope that these changes will help push this blog and it's readers to a new level and I'm very excited about the upcoming weeks. Until the next time 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.

In The Demon's Head: Story Art; Your Middle, Your LIfeline

In The Demon's Head #57: Story Art; Treat Your Middle: Your Lifeline

September 5, 2012

Hello everyone and welcome to edition number 57 of In The Demon's Head, today we continue our journey into Story Art by discussing why the middle of any piece of writing is your lifeline. In case you've missed it we've already talked about the beginning of pieces, and how to generate ideas, so I figured in logical order we'd talk about the middle.

Now to clarify I recently read part of a book called the portable MFA in Creative Writing. It's a book featured on Writer's Digest.com and I would suggest picking up a copy because so far it's made me look at things a lot differently and one of those things is the middle of your story, not for how important it is, but how it's built so let's start there.

I was reading this book and they talked about how your beginning raises the question and how you end your beginning and merge into the middle. First off, the middle is usually built of three pieces where a beginning, middle, and end of the middle. The middle merges into the end and of course the end is your story conclusion.

Now onto the answer for the question I posed in the title, Your Middle; Your lifeline. The question is, is that a true statement with the answer being a resounding yes.

Why do I call your middle the lifeline? Because the middle serves as the lifeblood of your work, if it becomes boring your reader will skip right to the end of the book to find out the answers they seek, or worse they'll just stop reading period, then your repeat reader is lost and worse they'll pass the information along to their friends.

But just what makes the middle good? Three things, great writing, conflict, and something that ties the beginning to the end, and of course it has to be interesting. A reader wants to be attached to a story that carries them through the ups and downs and makes the characters 3 dimensional and fun to follow.

There are other elements that goes into the middle but if you can write a compelling middle to your story and help develop your character into something special then you'll have no problem writing a great book that many people want to read.

That's going to do it for me for this edition of “In The Demon's Head” I will be back on Friday with the final post about how to write a good ending. If you have any questions about any of the post please don't hesitate to ask by writing me an email here. 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 surface.

In The Demon's Head: Story Art: Getting Ideas

In The Demon's Head #55: Story Art: Getting Ideas

August 28, 2012

Hello everyone I hope everything is well for you this Tuesday, I'm very excited to be bringing you this edition of “In The Demon's Head” as it is a continuation of our new blogging series “Story Art” I did an intro this past Friday and today I'd like to start with our first conversation, Getting Ideas.

This is a topic that some people feel they should never share any light on, I'm not sure why but I've heard that. On the flip side there are also people who share a lot of information on this topic and none of it seems all that important. I hope that I can share some of my experience with you without boring you or you thinking that it wasn't worth reading.

First, I'd like to make something clear, while it's not this way for everyone for a lot of people the best ideas seem like they come from nowhere. It doesn't make any sense but they will be walking along and boom an idea hits them that leaves them unable to think about anything else.

I'll share a story with you, there's a story in “More Than Memories” called the “7^th Circle Railway” the idea came to me while I was riding along with Liz and we passed a railroad track that I had never seen before. I grabbed my phone and wrote a note down so I wouldn't forget it. Like that I had an idea for a short story.

Poetry tends to be a little different for me, ideas for them seem to come a bit harder. I think that those things come while writing. You start with a barebones idea and it evolves as you write. Now again these aren't things that are customary to every person but for me this is how it works.

Now how do you defer a good idea from a bad idea? First, before you say that you've never had a bad idea, this may be true for you however, you need to decide which stories you should tell. That's a hard thing to do when you just want to keep writing everything that comes into your head. This was something that I read in Stephen King's “On Writing” Not every story is yours to tell, so how do you decide which ones are yours?

You sleep on it.

What I mean is that if you come up with an idea that won't go away go to sleep. If you can sleep and wake up and the idea is still there then it's an idea that you should keep ahold of. Now if the idea won't go away then write it down somewhere, I keep everything in a journal, write it down then in a few weeks read the idea again or if you remember it think it over, if it still offers you the same amount of excitement that it did the day it was born then you have something you should write. If it doesn't make you excited then it's something that needs pitched because if your not excited to tell that story then it will come through in your writing and become one of those things that you should never have put out for the eyes of man in the first place.

For some people, ideas are hard to come by, for others it seems like the ideas do nothing but come to them time and time again. Those people may never use the ideas that they found, I've met a couple people like that, then there are people who would kill just for one or two ideas. In reality it's all about execution. You have to be willing to write the ideas that you have.

That closes out my Getting section of “Story Art” hopefully I didn't bore you. I'll be back Friday talking about where to begin a story. Until the next time 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.

In The Demon's Head: Why Patience Is A Virtue

In The Demon's Head #53: Why Patience is a Virtue

August 21, 2012

Hello everyone how are you this afternoon. I'm coming to you once again from the couch in my living room and highly enjoying the weather and this day off from my real job so I thought what a better way to spend some time today then to talk to you all of my readers about different things.

Before we launch into the full on of today's edition, I'd like to take a moment and tell you about the new free writing for August for your reading pleasure. “Mind of Madness” a short piece that will be complete with some artwork from Tom, my neighborhood art designer. I'll have that piece up later this afternoon.

Either way I'll move into the meat of this edition, I'd like to explain why patience is a virtue as it comes to your writing. There are a number of ways that I could explain this but it's mainly coming down to the final process, because let's face it writing doesn't require patience.

Now when I say that I don't mean that the writing process itself doesn't take patience, I'm not talking about formulating and plotting ideas because I understand that does take some patience and time, what I mean is when you sit down to write you don't want to take time to think, you write, write and write some more. Write until your fingers go numb and you forget why you started writing in the first place. What I'm referring to is everything after that.

Your editing is the first stop. I know a lot of people believe that you can just jump right into editing a book or story as soon as it's finished but this couldn't be further from the truth. The reason they say let everything sink away for a while before you begin editing is because they want you to take a moment to let everything disappear. This allows you to approach the piece with a fresh set of eyes that you wouldn't have had otherwise.

Another aspect, especially in today's world of self-publishing dominance is publishing before your ready. I made this mistake a few years ago and attempted to publish my first short story on Amazon with no real knowledge of what I was doing and without editing it first. This made the story not only bad, but it was bad and people knew it so it never sold a copy, on top of that I wasn't confident with it which made things worse. What I'm getting at here is that you never want to rush into the publishing aspect of things, should you tend to do that you will end up putting something up that isn't your best work and everyone will realize that.

Another thing where patience is a needed tool is in platform building. Now I understand that everyone wants to sell their books and understandably so, I do as well, but you can't do it without a platform. This was another mistake I made, I didn't have an established platform at all and it showed. The message for my story didn't get outside of the small circle of people that I knew and that lead to no one buying the story.

What I'm getting at here is that there are ways to go about things when it comes to your writing. But sit down, pace yourself, and slow down, you never want to rush into anything, it could cost you a lot more then you realize in the long run. You always want your best stuff out there and available and the only way that's going to happen is if you allow yourself the patience to give it your best shot. 

Have you ran into any problems where patience has cost you, or a situation where it's helped you improve your writing? I'd love for you to share that in the comments section below.  

That does it for this edition of “In The Demon's Head” I'd like to remind you that you can connect with me on all aspects of Social Media as well as have the blog directly emailed to you by signing up for the mailing list and receiving my free “Promotional Techniques” E-Book here or by signing up with your email address above. You can send me questions via email and I'll be sure to get back to you.

There won't be a general update this week as I'm starting a “Story Art” blogging series talking about how to formulate and put together a story and that starts Friday and will continue through next week. Until the next time 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.

In The Demon's Head: Which Social Media is a Bigger Help?

In The Demon's Head #47: Which Social Media Is a Bigger Help?

July 31, 2012

Hello everyone and welcome to what is the beginning of the end of Summer. It's been a real great few months and man it's flown by but we're about to enter the months of Fall. I for one am ready to get away from the 100 degree temptures but I'm not excited about the ice and snowing and all that stuff that winter brings.

Today's post is kind of an extension of my Promotional Techniques Series, which I'll share with you will be available as a free downloadable E-Book very soon, that was my big surprise. But today's post centers more around the Social Media Side and I strive to answer, which Social Media is a bigger help to your efforts as a writer?

When you sit down to figure it out, you realize there are four big name players in the Social Media world right now, you have Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, And Pinterest. But if your going to just sit down and spend time on a couple of these which ones should you choose?

The answer there is very simple, you should focus on Facebook and Twitter. Not taking away anything from Google, which has managed to become very popular in the short amount of time that it's been main stream. And nothing from Pinterest, whose only real draw is showing pictures with little to no text. Facebook and Twitter are the way to go when it comes to getting your name out there.

Now that's also not to say that you should just limit yourself to these two sites. In fact I'll go on record and state that you should have your name a social profile in as many places as possible. This is a good way to have the most eyes see you and it helps build your platform even sturdier and quicker.

Twitter's got it's followers but let me give you a bit of advice when it comes to Facebook. If your going to set up an author highspot for yourself then I suggest that you do it as a page and not a group. I had a group at one time and when Facebook changed it's formatics I went from having 210 people in this group to about 140 because so many people were tired of all the notifications they were getting.

I took a step back from the group page for almost a year a half and then finally this past February I decided that I wanted to refocus on my writing and got serious so I developed the Facebook Page that I have today as well as the twitter account. Setting up either of these things will only take you a few minutes but it's something that is completely invaluable when attempting to build your platform.

That's about all I got today, I'll be back Friday with my regular weekly update and I hope to have some very good news to share by then. Don't forget there's a box in the upper right hand corner where you can subscribe to these post, all you have to do is put in your email address. All my social media outlets, news and other stuff can be found on my website, if you want to add me, like me, or follow me, be sure to check out the “Meet Me on Social Media” section. You can also check out all my writing tips under the new “Demon's Head Writing Tips” section of the site.

Until the next time 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.

In The Demon's Head: Promo Techniques- Advertising

In The Demon's Head #43: Promotional Techniques- Advertising

July 26, 2012

Hello everyone and welcome back to our Promotional Techniques blogging series. Yesterday I gave an Introduction to the Series and then talked about Blogging, today we're going to talk about promotional technique number 2, Advertising.

Now in the introduction I talked about how Advertising was seen by some as a technique that was a waste of money that would never repay itself. I'm here to say that anyone who thinks like that likely has never had a successful advertising campaign. I'd like to explain to you first why I believe advertising is effective.

Currently I've only ever used Facebook to advertise and I advertised my own Facebook Page. I paid 50 bucks for a month of the advertising and it netted me almost another 30 likes on the page. It averages out to 1.67 a person. Now this is 30 new people that have never heard of me and now like my page, Now lets say those same 30 people buy my next book at 3 dollars a piece that turns into 90 dollars and I just made a 40 dollar profit, and those same 30 people could tell another 30 which would now double my profits and fan base and so on. These are some just estimate statistics but you see adverting can pay some massive dividends for your writing career.

The different types of Advertising that you can do include Radio, TV, Internet, Billboard and Direct Mail. While this may not be all of them I'd like to focus on these because these would be the most common types that you may encounter.

TV Ads

These Ads run on different programs on Cable and Satellite TV and are hands down the most expensive. In all honesty, unless you've got some good money stored away or get on with a major publisher that's willing to shell out the money it's likely you'll never use TV spots but if you do like all Ads you need to to the point because you have a lot of ground to cover with no time.

Radio Ads

Radio ads are considerably cheaper however, they are usually given to a much more limited audience. These are also easier to work with because there's less work involved with the actual recording of the Ad so one could be changed within an hour that's a positive to Radio Advertising.

Direct Mail

Direct Mail or “Junk” Mail as so many have called it is to me the second least effective form of advertisement while also being the second most costly depending on campaign size. I've studied how to write direct mail and I've learned that if you can't do it well then your better off not to do it, or hire someone who can. Granted should your campaign take off it could certainly pay off but the odds of that aren't on your side with Direct Mail. Unless you aim to write a non-fiction masterpiece I would suggest to completely stray away from Direct Mail.

Billboard

This to me is the most pointless of the advertising campaigns, granted this is just my thoughts but Billboards are only effective if your already an established person. Otherwise your message is limited to a small area and a small group of people and unless everyone of those tells someone else and buys some product then it's an investment that won't turn out in your favor.

Internet

This is my preferred style of advertisement. The cost versus the number of people you can reach is much closer together and in your favor then any other style of advertisement but to me the best thing about internet is that you can target your type of reader and the type of people who will benefit the most from your book. It's easier to funnel down to the right people on the internet then any other medium. You also have a verity of places to post the ad on the internet which offers up a good chance to shop around. I used Facebook but there are thousands of Internet Outlets for you to check out.

In Conclusion...

Advertising is something that if done correctly and the right medium depending on your goals then you could easily crack a brand new fan base that had otherwise alluded you. Like anything else it's a piece to the promotional puzzle that you need to decide that if you want to use or not. I think that advertising can pay good dividends as my math above has shown but if only done correctly.

Have you experimented with some kind of advertising in the past? Got another tip that you would like to share with Advertising then please post and share them in the comments section below.

Join us again tomorrow as we talk about Social Media Promotional Techniques, Saturday we will discuss Websites and then finally we will Wrap it all together on Sunday so be sure to check back with me daily.

As always you can find the latest up to date information and social media hangouts for yours truly at my website. Until the next time 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.

In The Demon's Head: Finishing The Office

In The Demon's Head #37: Finishing the Office

July 13, 2012

Hello everyone and happy Friday. I hope you've enjoyed your weekend starter as much as I have. Today's a good day for a number of reasons, the first of which is this post that your reading right now which in itself is nice. But that's not all that's been going on in my wonderful world of writing oh no. Read on below for some more interesting information.

As most of you know I had stopped doing these blog post close to a month ago due to the fact that me and my girlfriend Liz moved so we could be closer to her work and now mine as well, I managed to get a job at a local Veteran’s home. I'm so excited by this because it means that between the two of us we will be able to have enough money for me to start advertising the page again as well as the website that is likely on it's way.

You read that last sentence right, I've hinted at it in the past and I think it's finally time to start my own writing website. This website will be complete with press kit, home pages, contact section, schedule a few other things. Nothing is for certain so we'll have to see how everything goes but I intend to have this this finished or closed to finished by the end of the weekend.

On the blog front for this blog, I am intending to write all of the extra blog post that I fell behind on while I was in the move. I think there's roughly 5 that need to be done and that's also on my plate to finish up this weekend as well. Not 100% sure if I will manage to make it or not but I'm going to damn sure try.

Also, I've made a complete decision about what I'm doing with my book “More Than Memories” I'm going to be doing a self publishing route. I'm doing this for a number of different reasons but it's mainly because it's better to start out by taking this route and I've learned that by reading different things in the last few weeks.

To say the least it will be a very productive weekend hopefully, not really sure how much I will be able to finish though I hope everything will get finished. However, that about does it for me for this edition of In The Demon's Head. I'll be bringing special edition of this blog throughout the week until I get completely caught up.

Until the next time you want to take a trip into the demon's head, I'm Kyle Robinson wishing you a safe trip back to the surface. Until then you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

In The Demon's Head: E-Books: Future or Fad

In The Demon's Head #34: E-Books: Future or Fad

June 19, 2012

Hello everyone as always it's a nice enjoyable Tuesday night. It's been a good day and a rather productive one I must say. I didn't get nearly the list done that I had originally planned but I can't complain, I signed on for a new place and get to move in a couple of weeks, I have an application in to start training to be a C.N.A and will likely do that until I can get the writing off the ground. I can't complain the pay won't be horrible and the class can't be that bad. Either way that's enough of the general hoopla that's going on with me, let's move onto today's edition of “In The Demon's Head” discussing E-Books.

Unless you've been living under a rock then you know what an E-Book is, I don't think I need to explain to you what they are so let's move onto the question that I'd like to address today, are E-books the Future or just a passing Fad? Let's take a look at some facts below.

E-Books are cheap to make, in some cases for independent authors they are free with the right know how. What's great about this is that they're so easy and affordable so the profit margin on an E-book is so much higher then that of a print book.

We are in complete control. What's great about this especially for independent authors is that our books are always available. We can market them either on Amazon or Barns and Noble or on our websites, we can decide on cover images, release dates, everything from top to bottom we're in control of. It gives us as authors, a lot more control over our career.

E-Books are also far more portable. You can get books either on the I-Pad, Barns and Noble Nook, and the Amazon Kindle as well as a number of other generic E-Readers that are out on the Market now. You can carry hundreds of books on one device which weighs less then that of a paper-back novel.

Now I've given some great information as to what an E-book is and how they are very beneficial however, what does this mean for the publishing industry? Will E-Books stay around or will they slowly fade into the sunlight, given statistics of the last 10 years and understanding people like I do I'd have to think that E-Books are not only NOT a Fad, they could eventually completely replace Paper bound books. I know this is a broad call but it is possible.

So in my eyes, I think it would be a great idea to start learning as much about publishing E-Books as you can if your an aspiring author, the more you learn about the publishing industry and the parts of it then you will be further ahead then your competitor. I'd love to hear your comments about E-Books and your experiences in the section below.

Join me this Friday for a new general update where I will cover some of the new edits that I have been able to do for More Then Memories. Also, as always I do two updates a week, If you like what I do then I'd love you to donate using the button on the top of the page. You can also subscribe to the post by putting your Email Address into the box on the top right hand corner. Finally you can connect with me on Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus.

Until next time 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.

In The Demon's Head: Rejection Frustration

In The Demon's Head #31: Rejection Frustration

June 12, 2012

Hello everyone It's new release Tuesday. I hope everyone is doing well on this great Tuesday Morning. I've talked about a lot of different things since I started writing this blog back in February and as the blog calender shows, I'll be writing about a lot more things, including a platform building series for later this year, however I thought I'd take some time to talk about something that every single writer has no doubt experienced, Rejection.

If your like me if you receive a letter that tells you that your story or poem hasn't been accepted for publication a number of things run through your head. Regret, doubt, in some cases, fear can creep into your head. It makes you wonder if your good enough to be able to get something published. For me my first rejection drove me crazy, It made me think that I wasn't good enough.

I eventually came to my senses and started working on the book I'm working on now “More Then Memories” But as I worked on the book over the last six months, the thoughts and doubts came creeping back into my head. In fact it wasn't me that snapped me out of the horrible thought process that I was in, it was my girlfriend Liz.

Now That I've began editing the entire collection it's made me realize why I was rejected from the git-go. After going through the collection I've edited out a lot of excess stuff that wasn't needed and I was able to expand it other places and expanded throughout. It made me realize that editing is something that is going to be needed if I ever expect to make a living as a writer.

So what does this have to do with rejection you ask? It's very simple, it's a challenge that I want you to take. Find a piece, almost any piece that you've sent in and had rejected. Then I want you to edit it to the best of your ability and then go back through and look at all the marks and stuff that you've put down. Finally, actually edit the work and compare the two side by side, read the unedited version, then read the edit and I'm willing to bet that you will see how much better the edited version is.

Now I understand that none of this will help you get your rejections down but it could help you deal with the rejections, or stop them if you put in the effort and time to edit everything. It's something that I've learned will vastly improve your writing and how good your writing's final product can be.

That about does it for me and this edition of “In The Demon's Head” First, I'd like to ask you to join me this Sunday for a special edition of “In The Demon's Head” where I will interview Mr. Roland Clarke. Also, there's a donate button at the top of the blog and if you like what I do then I'd love for you to donate a little bit of extra cash my way. Finally, you can subscribe to the blog by putting in your email in the upper right hand side of the blog and have it delivered directly to your email. Finally you can follow the blog as well.

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.

Also, you can connect with me on your favorite social media website, either on Facebook, Twitter, or Google Plus.

In The Demon's Head: The Untold Fear and Hatred of Editing

In The Demon's Head #30: The Untold Fear and Hatred of Editing

June 8, 2012

Hello everyone and welcome again to another edition of “In The Demon's Head” Today as I usually do on Thursday night's I was looking for exactly how or what I was going to talk about on today's blog because let's face it just hearing some updates about what I've been up too can get boring especially when yours truly isn't living all that interesting to begin with.

But the more I thought about and the more I did it I realized that I wanted to talk to you today about the process of editing. Now I'm willing to bet that most everyone that reads this is either a writer who reads or a reader who writes or wants to. One of the biggest challenges an author faces is to edit his or her work and for most that seems to be a daunting task.

My favorite Author Mr. Stephen King gave a quote once about editing, I love this quote not so much because it came from him but because it sums up how most people feel about editing in general. It goes “When your story is ready for the rewrite cut it to the bone, get rid of every bit of excess fat. To some this is like murdering children but it has to be done.”

When I began editing this past Monday that's what I expected from my writing as well but that's not at all what I got. Instead beginning editing made me realize that it's one of my favorite parts of the writing process. It reunited me with characters I hadn't seen in quite some time in cases because some of the pieces in “More Then Memories” are a bit old but when I got to reunite with them, relearn what made them tick, and help improve it, it made the editing so much easier for me and it gave me a chance to clean everything up and make my writing stronger which is something that I really enjoy.

For me editing is just a way of reinventing yourself and regardless of whatever it is your doing the day you stop learning is the day that whatever it is your doing no longer becomes fun anymore.

Editing also opens a lot of doors to take your writings to a level that you never knew was there. You realize in some cases there's not a lot of information, in some cases there's too many words and just overall you can take a 7.1 manuscript on a 10 scale and bump it up to a 8.7 just by rereading and editing. To me it's amazing at just how much you can miss while your writing.

So now it's your turn if your afraid to edit, stare it in the face and do it. You'll feel great about it and you'll learn from it. If you've had editing horror stories I'd love to hear from you. Drop your stories in the comments section below.

Also as always there's a way to subscribe to the blog in the upper right hand corner you can put in your email and you'll get the blog sent directly to your email. Also, there's a Wattpad app you can use to become a fan of me on Wattpad, as well as share buttons for you to share the posts on your favorite social media website.

Finally there's a paypal button if you feel the urge to donate for the writings that I do. If not that's fine but plugging these things is how we get the word out so I wanted to make sure that you were aware they were there.

That will do it for me and this edition of “In The Demon's Head” join me again this Tuesday when I talk about something that all writers have faced, Rejection Frustration. Until the next time 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.

You can connect with me on your social media networks across the web on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus. And Email Me here