August 6, 2017

How authors can use CRM in their marketing

L. Penelope said: "Loving your blog! Maybe write a post on how authors can use CRM in their marketing. I'm intrigued."

Thank you, L. Penelope! Of course. I'm in the midst of setting mine up and going through 2,000+ of my subscribers (a combined number of subscribers to my blog, newsletter, Patreon, an excel spreadsheet of beta readers, and PayPal customers; this number doesn't include over 60K combined followers on all my social media channels whom I intend to also add, one by one, as I have time).

June 20, 2016

The freedom of doing NOTHING

by Ksenia Anske

It just now is hitting me that no matter how much stuff I do every day, there is always more stuff to do. I keep waiting for the day when there won't be any more stuff, when I can relax and do nothing, but the nasty thing just has this propensity to multiply like some kind of an alien virus, slowly and completely, enveloping me in this goo of "You better do it all, or else." Damn it.

I'm supposed to be taking three weeks off between drafts. Ha! You think I did that? Ha! Ha! Ha! I need to laugh here really loud. I took one day off, only one, maybe a couple, and that only when forced by other people to slam my laptop shut and shove it under the pillow and get my ass out of the house. The rest of time...imagine. I WORKED. Meaning, again the same routine when writing: no breaking for weekends, no nothing. And of course I had this huge to-do list that I kept for "later," for when I'm done with the current draft. And now, as I cross off one finished task, I add two more.

May 10, 2016

SHOW! DON'T TELL! Or I will kill you.

by Ksenia Anske

So, here we go again. I guess I just never say it enough. It's so easy to tell when you write, and so bloody hard to show. As a reminder, here is a wonderful write-up by Chuck Palahniuk about it, namely, about how to unpack your sneaky lazy telling into bold crisp showing, and it's hard work and you won't like me one bit for what you're about to read (and Chuck says the same thing at the very top of his lovely write-up, so it's okay, you can hate me too if you want).

Since reading theory is boring, let me slap you in the face with some examples so you can see what I'm talking about and start looking for these bastards in your own writing and kill the fuck out of them (this whole post, by the way, is as much for me as it is for you, because it's really me shouting at myself to be a better writer, and I figure you can benefit from my shouting too).