<
‘Postbox in Cambridge’
Not my bike – but it could be!
I’m hosting this post on behalf of Paul Story, author of Dreamwords,who came up with an excellent suggestion on the Kindle Community forum today. His idea is that a community of talented independent writers should seek out books which will ‘twin’ with their own. The twin would be in the same genre, might have a similar theme, would appeal to similar readers, and would maintain the same high standard.
There’s been considerable interest – follow this link if you’d like to see the whole discussion.
We’ve agreed that we now need to discuss the details off-line – so today, A Real Writer takes on a new role – it’s a gleaming, freshly painted postbox. If you’re interested in the idea or you’d like to learn more, just post a response to this post. I’ll then pick up your email address and forward it to Paul.
If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know that I’ve been an advocate of indie writers learning to hunt in packs for some time – and Paul’s idea has the virtue of simplicity.
There must be something in the air. Paul wasn’t the only one talking about collaboration today. I’ve been talking to Ali Cooper, author of The Girl On The Swing, who’s also keen to cross-review with other literary fiction writers.
What unites Paul, Ali and myself is that we’re all disenchanted with the constant beating of the self-promotion drum that seems to afflict indie writers. Yes, of course we all want to draw attention to ‘the best book you’ve ever read’. As a reader – a fan of indie books – commented on Paul’s thread today: ‘…a lot of writers shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to promotion.’ Better than self-promotion, we think, is building a strong community of talented writers, and reviewing the work of those we most admire. If we do so fairly, intelligently and professionally, this is surely an important step on the road to indie credibility and a wider readership.
Tags: ebook, Indie writer, marketing, reader, reviews, writer collaboration
-
I’m still not sure how exactly this will work but I’d like to know more.
-
Hi Alain,
Thanks for doing this. I will prepare an outline of my proposal to act as a primer for interested parties. For now, the biggest challenge will be getting this going. Initially, as a rag-tag group, more interested in writing than organizing, some will drift away when the passion cools and writing calls. That’s fine.
We probably need around a dozen people to start with. We should read each other’s books (where there are possible matches) and be honest if the twin is not right. I’d be surprised to find any pairing at this stage, but you never know. More importantly, we should actively change our reading habits to trawl Kindle Indies to learn what’s out there competing for the same readers we might like to reach. This is a good idea, irrespective of our other motives and could be fun.
On finding a potential suitor, the member should invite her ‘find’ into the circle. We need to think about this a little. Do you invite into the group based merely on the quality you observe? Or do you invite with an embrace that comes with strings (ie “Come in, my Dear… But only if you promise to kiss me”). The group would be better off with the first approach but the inviting member with the second. One of many details to work on.
Many of us are blind to the faults in our own work so we must expose ourselves to the honesty which will define our future invites. The founding members will be in a privileged position and it is conceivable that one or more might need to revisit their work. I hope that is not the case, but we need to be open to the possibility.
One of the most powerful aspects of the network will be the mark of basic quality membership infers. If we do not make sure that we start with that as a fact, we will be (rightly) dismissed as irrelevant.
My preferred name is Brightswarm Books or The Brightswarm Network. I have brightswarm.com and briteswarm.com and if others agree to the name and we get enough members to light the fire, I’ll set it up.
I do not envisage membership to be onerous. I doubt the group will be a hive, logging on – twitter-style – for every minute of the day to hear the latest. Rather, members will concentrate on their own selfish interest and the fun of finding and reading other’s work.
This way, growth will be slow at first but increase exponentially in the coming months and years.
If anyone has web design resources (or access to a young genius) and can help setting up the infrastructure, please step forward.
Now we wait to measure interest
-
Claire, Paul – I’ll be in touch with you off-line. Paul, also perhaps take a look at
http://www.arealwriter.com/rapscallion/the-rapscallion-framework/
The scheme I outlined there is not quite the same as yours – in yours, the assumption is that we work with books already published, so most of the services I described won’t be needed. However, the framework might be similar. A committee of ‘
elders‘ trusted wisers, helping to assure standards. (I like the idea of readers on this panel, as well as writers.)Still I think someone (or it might need to be a small team as the project grows) will need to be the project leader – the fulcrum. Still an onerous job – but not now a full-time occupation.
And Book Cells are the twinned groups (the Americans will no doubt want to call them fraternities
). The group leader’s work is now easier than I’d proposed in the post – but the objectives are pretty much the same. -
hi Alan,
work calls right now but please give my email details to Paul.
Ali.
-
Interesting idea. Very similar to Rapscallion. At the moment though (and for some time to come) I don’t have any work that would put me into these groups. I’ve finished my novel but it’s by no means ready for publication. So I’m just sorta following along until the time comes when I fit in somewhere.
-
Greta, there’s room for lots of different groups and lots of ideas. The important thing is to be involved in the conversation, so that you help to shape it the way you want it. Paul’s idea gives us a starting point for Rapscallion, and one which at this point, seems to be more manageable.
-
Hey, Alan,
I’m busy as a bee and away for a bit, but I see you’ve been doing the usual, getting out and about, researching and gathering information.
For some time, I’ve had a plan to find an agent and get my work out. However, too much of everything else and too little discipline has stalled that happening. Since you brought your idea forward, and knowing the experience that some talented writers have had – I’m thinking of Modo and Jedi – I’ve been re-thinking that plan.
You know that whichever direction you go, I’m in. I’ll go have a look at those posts your mentioned above.
-
I am interested in learning more about this project.
Kristie Leigh Maguire
-
“Better than self-promotion, we think, is building a strong community of talented writers, and reviewing the work of those we most admire.”
I couldn’t agree more Alain! I would love to learn more about this… -
Hi All,
A quick update. Alain and I have been discussing this in the background and have a working proposal which is almost ready to be thrown into the pot. There are a few things that I believe have to be firmly set in order for everything else to work smoothly. That said, I am keen for the result to be owned by its members – not just metaphorically but in reality. I am a writer and want to stay that way.
We will soon have a Facebook Group to discuss this behind closed doors. This is not a secrecy thing, but we need to be free to be messy and bold and to argue and risk suggesting things that might otherwise seem silly.
I look forward to thrashing this out with all of you who are interested in doing so.
Paul
-
And you can’t be ‘messy and bold’ on a blog?
Hogwash.
I thought the point was free discussion.
-
…And you can’t be ‘messy and bold’ on a blog?
Hogwash.
I thought the point was free discussion…
If you are a writer and want to join in then you can do so. Why the hostility?
-
There’s no hostility, if you’ve read any of my postings or my review of Alan’s book, you’ll see I’m fairly supportive of him. But I was under the impression that the blog’s purpose was to engage and to discuss the process and hopefully thereby promote the book.
Why not discuss in public? What’s so messy it can’t be done via blog posts? I don’t understand.
-
Dave – this is just temporary – as we set up, and try a few things out, sort out the basics. We’re inviting everyone who applies to join us in this discussion – nobody’s excluded. We’re just not going out to make it public yet.
And just to explain further – this is a separate project from Rapscallion and what I’ve been discussing here, although I see a close relationship between the two. Rapscallion discussion, and the progress of TLT as a crash dummy will continue here – and it’s a free-for-all!
-
I’m following along with rapt attention. Don’t know if/where I might fit in since I have a non-fiction book (but planning on fiction for my next project…). I think I would be in the category of having to go out and find a twin. Anyway, I do like the idea of banding together to distinguish a group of writers from the sea of people out there…
Sue
Reply
Don’t lose sight of Alain. Sign up with your email address to become an Associate and get:
- * Notification of each new post.
- * Big discounts and free gift vouchers for Alain’s books. (More details.)
- * Pre-release chapters from Alain’s next novel – and the chance to get involved.
15 comments
Comments feed for this article
Trackback link: http://www.arealwriter.com/activities/paul-story-finding-your-writing-twin/trackback/