PIMP MY WRITE

I LOVE this week's topic.
The reason I love this topic is that it gives me the chance to pass on the word of some books and resources that I use and find indispensable.

I'm not going to yank your chain here. This first book is the ABSOLUTE TOTAL FREAKING BEST BOOK ON WRITING EVER WRITTEN EVER IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE.

Seriously. I wrote my first book, BLOOD AND BULLETS and thought it rocked. I was gonna set the world on FIRE. I was querying it, getting requests for pages.....and a ton of rejections. My wife picked this book up at the local library. She flipped through it and said it was pretty good. I picked it up and read the first couple of pages.
The book then ate my brain for 3 days.
I read it cover to cover and when I put it down I realized one very important thing. The most important thing I had ever realized in my life.
My book sucked ass.
It's true. My book was awful. But I wasn't depressed or sad about it because Jessica Page Morrell had told me that I could fix it.
I took her advice, written in easy to read format, applied it, overhauled the book and then turned around and sold it in a 3-book deal from Kensington.

So go right now and order THANKS BUT THIS ISN'T FOR US by Jessica Page Morrell.

Next up is THE ROAD by Cormac McCarthy

I know, I hear you saying "but James, that isn't a writing book."
No it's not, but it IS a book chock full with some of the most breath-taking language I have ever read. This book touches my soul with its use of the english language. I read it right before making my revision pass on a novel. Just filling my mind with this heavenly wordsmithing makes me write better.

I also highly recommend Lilith Saintcrow's blog. Her posts on how to write made me realize that I could write a novel. Me. A guy who hadn't ever written more than some crap in high school and a TERRIBLE sword and sorcery thing during a late night gig being security at a downtown Atlanta jack shack. After reading her stuff I could and did write a novel that sold.

CLICK HERE FOR WORDS OF WISDOM FROM LILITH SAINTCROW.

So those are my fave writing tools.

GETTING THE WORD TO BE HEARD

I am a fairly new author. My first novel hit the shelves back in February and book two will come out in 2 short weeks. I also have a few short stories and two novellas that have already hit. Even with that I don't have a huge body of work to draw readers in.

So when I have a new book about to be dropped into the world I still have that need to get the word out. I need people to know that the newest James R. Tuck story is available and they need to buy it.

I have found that the best thing for this is a two-pronged attack.

One- Book Bloggers.
Now I LOVE book bloggers. I read book blogs. I am a bibliophile. (James, how many books have you bought in the last 48 hours? Ummmmm, 8) So when you give me a blog written by someone who loves books too then I am hooked like a mackerel and will spend a ton of time enjoying their opinions. That's as a reader.
As a writer I also see how important book bloggers are for my career. They are the CNN and FOX News of the publishing world. They get the word to the people. I mean really, if you are a reader and not an author do you read Kirkus or Publishers Weekly or any of the other publications that the industry cares about? Normally, no you don't. But I bet you have a favorite book blog you check out. Even if it's a weird, conglomerate blog like Goodreads it's still a book blog. That's because, like Jeffe said yesterday, we are all interconnected and we are all hand selling books now. We like to hear about new books from someone who loves books, not from a cold dispassionate news source. We want that person who is telling us about a new author, a new series, a new book to be trustworthy because of their love for stories.
This is why I will work my ass off for a book blog. If a book blog asks me for an interview, a guest review, a guest post I will kill myself on an overdose of caffeine to make it happen. I appreciate what they do, almost always without pay and never enough thanks from the publishing "industry".

Two- Conventions
Being a guest at conventions is one of the major highlights to being a published author. It's a lot of work, but it is a lot of FUN work. I love it. I am a social person, not shy, and really, really enjoy being around other authors and most of all, fans of books. Conventions are where I get to meet and mingle with the folks I write for. And the people I write for, they love books just like I do, so it's not a blah-blah lovefest for my writing, it's a group of like minded, interesting people in a group dynamic that is energizing as hell.
People love to meet authors, especially if they are real. I have sold a ton of books just by being on panels and doing my damnedest to entertain the folks there. I also know that at a convention I am there for the readers. I am always willing to talk about anything they want, not just my books.

So those are the ways I get the word out about my books. They are the two most effective ways I have found and, coincidentally, the two avenues I enjoy working the most.

Keep checking back all week though, I can't wait to see what killer advice comes out on this topic from my awesome co-bloggers here!