How to Lose Fans

Do you have an infestation of Fans? Have no fear. Follow this simple guide and you’ll be rid of those pesky Fans in no time! 

Fans find you in many ways...

TIP #1 

Be sure that your website is very hard to find. Don't use tags or labels that people might think of to search for your stuff.

Blast! They found you? Don't worry.

That first moment of contact is easily broken.

Tip #2 Be Paranoid and Accusatory.

Still a fan? No worries. Tip #3

Become a cyber-stalker. 

TIP #4:

Publicly argue with them over their opinions.

TIP #5

Be Really, Really, Really Negative.

Tip #6:

Ignore ALL Deadlines.

Keep them waiting as long as possible!

TIP #7:

Don't Deliver What You Promised.

Plot lines? Pfft. Just make it up.

Tip #8

Follow Trends.

Be sure to crank out the same stuff everyone else is doing.

TIP #9

Make Sure Your Fans Feel Unappreciated!

Fans are a dime a dozen. Make sure they know it. 

Tip #10

(This is crucial!)

If you've been rude to a fan, or hurt their feelings, NEVER say you're sorry! Let them wallow in their own little world of miserable disillusionment.

Wait for it... 

Success! You've officially lost a FAN. 

Whew! That was close. Fans can breed like cockroaches, spreading their fan-ness from one to another by word of mouth until a whole mess of them clamor for your attention and--I shudder to think--purchase your stuff. 

Just follow these ten simple steps and you will never have to worry about Fans again! 

Good luck!

*Have you ever seen/experienced a meltdown from an artist/writer? What's the fastest way people can lose you as a fan?*

When the Setting is Your Hometown.

My latest completed novel is a dark YA suspense called FIREBUG which takes place in my hometown. I chose to use my town as the setting for a couple reasons. First of all, there had been several cases of arsonists here over the last several years. One summer about three years ago, we got a call in the night because the haystacks on both sides of the farm were burning. It turns out that an arsonist was walking across country and setting fire to any stacks he ran into. Fortunately for us, he missed our stack, though many of our neighbors lost their supply of feed for their cattle.

A bonus to setting the story in your hometown is that people who live there often know things that an outsider might not. It’s easy to set the scene at a high school where I walked the halls as a student.

It surprises me that I've had several beta readers say that they would never write a story about their hometown—that the bad things that happen to the characters feels too close and too real when the setting is just down the road.

They also worry about offending people. If the story calls for a dirty cop or an unethical mayor, then they worry that the real mayor or police of the town will be bothered by a story written about them.

Here’s the part that intrigues me: Why does it make a difference if the crooked cop is in your town or another town? Whatever town the story is set in will have things made up about the people living there, be it bad or good. Does distance from the made-up corruption make it easier to handle?

Sometimes our stories require the setting to be somewhere far from where we live, but if your story COULD happen in a place like your town, would you set the story there? Why or why not? Does writing about your hometown bring things too close to home?

Plot Twist

Truth.

 

In my world, harvest is in full swing, but I'm working with one eye to the future. More specifically, November 1st, my most favorite day of the year. Winter is my writing season. Bring it on.

Trying to Cope

Why the delay on posting the reviews? Well, we had a tragedy in the family. An uncle died suddenly at the end of April and it has thrown my world for a loop. He was the one who farmed the neighboring farms with great grandpa. Our regular plans for running our farm were tossed aside as we went into crisis mode trying to farm two farms instead of one. We’re getting used to the long hours and learning curve, but everything is harder this year. I use the precious few minutes I get at the computer to work on prepping Firebug for submission. Any blog posts or reviews are on hold until the current crisis is under control.

We’ll be okay, but for now this is a tough time for us. The good news is that I’ll still have my writing time this winter.

Hopefully I’ll have time to sit and blog before then.

Have you ever had a tragedy that changed your life at a moment’s notice?

Upcoming Book Reviews & Interviews

Happy spring everyone! I’ve spent the winter months furiously writing my current novel, FIREBUG. I’m really pleased with the results and hope to be deep in queries for it by mid-summer.

In the meantime, I’ve fallen way behind on book reviews lately.  Some of the books I’ll be discussing soon are:

Million Dollar Diva by Tristi Pinkston, Brett Kitchen, & Ethan Kap

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rumplestiltskin by Jenni James

 

 

In The Bones by Renee Miller

 

And

 

Daughter Of The Goddess by Rita J Webb

 

I'll get the first up in the next day or so. What was your favorite part of this last winter? Or are you more of a summer flower?

 

Happy Writing!

Share the Love contest

The first year I went to Storymakers, I won the Share the LOVE contest run by the storymaker's blog. This turned out to be a wonderful with James Dashner, Jessica Day George, David Farland, and Krista Marino. I blogged about David here. This year, I'm entering again in hopes that luck might shine on me again.

So, share the love! And good luck to everyone who is going to conference! I'll see you there.

Storymakers 2013

This year Storymaker's writer's conference (May 10-11th) will have international best seller, Ann Perry, as a Keynote speaker. Here's her bio from the storymaker's website:

"KEYNOTE: Anne PerryAnne Perry is the bestselling author of two acclaimed series set in Victorian England: the William Monk novels, including “Dark Assassin” and “The Shifting Tide,” and the Charlotte and Thomas Pitt novels, including “The Cater Street Hangman,” “Calandar Square,” “Buckingham Palace Gardens” and “Long Spoon Lane.” She is also the author of the World War I novels “No Graves As Yet,” “Shoulder the Sky,” “Angels in the Gloom,” “At Some Disputed Barricade,” and “We Shall Not Sleep,” as well as six holiday novels, most recently “A Christmas Grace.” Anne Perry lives in Scotland."

This year, they are offering tickets to the keynote speach even if you don't want to go to the entire conference (which is awesome BTW, you should totally go).

There are just under 70 days till the conference. I'm so excited!

Storymakers have a fun blog and do a contest every year to share the love. You can find the blog here.