Strephon Hello! My Writer's Story

Hello Everybody!

I hope this new joining here works out. Looks like a well-formed site in design with a lot of good author-people on it.

The web is so big now in 2008 I don't easily know where to put my ore.

I'm here because I believe that information sharing is moving to the World Wide Web.

I have just written about this and Web I, II, III.

I am studying web marketing with all the low cost or free reports and services from the Internet Marketing people.

I have been a non-fiction writer to get my books out in Jungian and dreamwork psychology. My best seller through Simon and Schuster was in 1991, The Dream Cards. Yes, that was a best seller at 110,000 copies sold in eight languages.

Almost no book published sells over 100,000 copies. Seven out of ten books published fail even making back the money spent to publish.

Whose fault is this? I say it is the editors and other staff who make the decisions at the publishers who do not know their trade and marketing well enough to pick books that will sell.

If I went in for surgery I would be frightened to death if I knew the success rate was only thirty percent. What is the success rate for surgery, by the way?

So I have been studying how to write fiction now for eight years, and the results have been my interactive file of The Writer's Interface at http://www.TheWritersInterface.com.

The result is my learning craft.

My contention is that the best thing a writer can do is learn writing craft. Editors at publishers should do likewise so they don't fail so often picking winning books.

The Writer's Interface has over 2000 craft ideas and structures to choose from in planning your book. My study of around fifty writing craft books showed they made promises for success but only included a few writing craft tools, with about two exceptions.

You have to plan your book, you have to craft it for writing success. You have to use writing craft tools that are effective.

What is this world coming to when people make promises that do not fit reality?

I don't promise success but I do say, that like in any field, learn your writer's craft so that if you have the talent and the writing issues right you are more likely to succeed.

Another thing writers do, as seen on their sites and blogs, is assert success by saying they got published or awards, but never stating the numbers of actual sales for each and every published book of theirs.

This I consider dishonest in making assertions of success and not giving numbers?

Got into a fight with an author site on that one. He talks about snowflakes in his hype.

So, as I participate in this site I will be honest and knowledgeable from the point of view improving writing craft. This is my focus.

By the way, even though I have had sales of over 350,000 in my non-fiction dreamwork psychology books, I have yet to prove myself in memoir and fiction.

It takes years and years of study and writing to write well in these genres. Wish me well in this. I am putting in my eight years time so far.

I have just completed my fifty thousand words, My Greatest Loves, if anyone wants an ebook review copy, good or bad, but interesting, ask me.

Am I good enough yet to succeed in getting at least 50,000 readers per book? Without readers you are not a successful writer.

My goal this year is to keep studying web marketing and publishing, and to write a short book a month for POD publishing.

Books done so far: The Writer's Interface, Memoir: My Greatest Loves. Coming up in a Memoir Series: The Life And Death Of Oscar Williams My Father, My Life As An Aikido Warrior, My Life At Boarding School, Resident Therapist St. George Homes, Inc., The Jesus Community, The Dreamwork Teacher, Gene Derwood My Mother And Poet.

Yes, these I know well as my life. Also writing The Writer's Interface Memoir, to set the craft knowledge stage to do the best job I can here.

I love the idea of getting the 50,000 words books out, all backed up with their own web site in POD because that is quick and now, and having Amazon.com sell them as the best outreach bookstore. I love the idea of my marketing. My partner and I are working together on the sites and everything. This also is wonderful creativity.

Best to all of you with your author stories! I have affirmed mine!