WordPress or Website

September 11, 2013September 11, 2013 paulaacton10 Comments

I am only posting a short post today, partly as I am busy writing but also as I have not fully explored my subject matter for today, now I know you will be thinking why post on it then but I would actually love your feedback before I explore options more.

I have recently seen lots of my favourite blogger friends and authors begin switching from their sites here on WordPress as the main site to setting up websites which link back to wordpress via a blog button. Now obviously until Voices is realised I have no need of this but after seeing the Wix advert in my Facebook newsfeed around six times today I finally clicked on it and took a look.

First let me say I understand why people pay other people to build their websites for them after an hour spent playing on there earlier today. I am sure like here at WordPress once you find your way around it gets easier but the main difference I noticed was the price.

Now don;t get me wrong there are free options but it becomes evident from looking at the options the the web address unless you pay for the upgrade is a real pain, here on WordPress that is easily solved a one off yearly payment but with Wix it requires a subscription after a brief look at the packages it doesn’t seem that bad and there are some nice incentives for signing up for the year with Facebook Advertising credits thrown in.

I guess the question is when do you decide to invest fully in your dreams is it when that first book hits the shelves or once you have a collection of products to sell? I would love to hear back your thoughts on Website Vs Blog and your experiences with different sites

Magic Spread Sheet

September 4, 2013September 3, 2013 paulaacton4 Comments

As you all know things have been pretty stressful here at Chez Paula for the last month or so and my writing has suffered. In fact it would be fair to say my muse has retreated to the bottom of the garden and is hiding under the brambles refusing to come out. In short drastic action is required to kick my butt back into gear and get back on track get Voices out, the novel edited and start the vampire novella my daughter wants me to write.

I have mentioned before I love listening to pod casts, I take in so much through auditory stimulation so as you would imagine there are a couple of writing pod casts included. One of which is I should be Writing by Mur Lafferty where she has discussed the Magic Spreadsheet on a few occasions and it is a system she uses herself. Today I decided action was required and decided to take a closer look.

Rather than try to explain it all to you, I will grab an explanation from the actual Spreadsheet

You earn one point for every day you write at least 250 words, plus one point for every day in your unbroken chain (capped at 30). So, for instance, on day one you’d earn two points (one for writing 250 words, one for establishing a chain of length one), on day two you’d earn three points (one point for 250 words again, plus two points for a chain of length two), and so on. If you miss a day, you drop back to zero.

You earn bonus points for writing more words: 250 words = one point, 500 words = two points, 1000 words = three points, 2000 words = four points.

You will earn far more points for hitting your daily minimum consistently than from writing in bursts. Someone who hits the minimum every day for a month will write 7,250 words but earn nearly 500 points. Someone who writes 2,000 words every other day will end the month with 30,000 words but only 75 points. Big difference. Consistency is key.

So far I have tried this for two weeks and it has worked. Now this has been helped possibly be the fact I only have to write 250 at the minute to keep my chain going. Easy enough to do even on the busiest of days.

Different people do seem to include different things in their word count judging from posts on the Facebook and Google community pages I have decided to just include my blog and any fiction I am working on towards publication I was tempted to add my writing journal in but to encourage me to use it more but the idea of counting words didn’t appeal and not sure how you judge a scribble lol.

So far it is working for me I will let you know more in my monthly review at the end of September.

For anyone wondering where yesterdays Udolpho post was I decided to leave it until next week I had read one chapter and moved onto the next and I think it will be more interesting to deal with them together but it is starting to get interesting.

Research · WIP Wednesday

Funding Yay or Nay.

May 8, 2013 paulaacton8 Comments

First let me say I am in no way passing judgement here, rather I want to examine various options I have seen around WordPress and get your feelings on them. What is right for one person is wrong for another so please remember that if you use one or more of these methods I am not actually aiming this at you more just querying different things people have done and there effectiveness.

First let me explain where this came from I was catching up on a few posts when I read this one from the lovely Cristian Mihai A bunch of thanks and it got me thinking about all the donate buttons I have noticed around WordPress for various blogs.

This is one of several fund-raising efforts I have seen by Cristian to help fund his writing career, to be fair he does offer items or services in return be it a shout out or a review on his blog or as in the case of when he was raising funds for a new computer copies of his books. I have seen other blogs where they give away their book for free but place a donate button and ask people donate what they think the book is worth, others simply have the donate button there and gratefully accept donations.

From the posts I have read regarding these fund-raising efforts the latter two do not yield results Cristian’s method however does seem to be hitting the targets set. The thing is should he need to be doing this, shouldn’t he be able to earn enough from his book sales to allow him to consider writing as a full time job, and by giving away his books to those who donate does that mean he negatively impacts his potential sales? I don’t know the answers to this and am merely speculating and this is not having a go at Cristian I respect him hugely, as I say this is about discussing whether bloggers have the right to be funded for their blogging and if so how do they go about it.

Most of us blog to firstly improve our writing and possibly build an audience then once we have work out their we use it for self promotion, most of us would love to be able to give up paid day jobs to focus on writing but very few of us will ever earn enough to do so. Theoretically the donation method could allow this especially if like Christian you have a catalogue of work to give away as incentives, but it will only work short term, you cannot ask the same people to give over and over again so therefore it relies on you actually making enough of a success with your work to gain a sizeable new following. The other issue is of course it is not a reliable income unless you don’t really need the income ( but then why would you do it?), for those with a family it is not really an option.

Right I have to go get ready to head out to the day job so would love to hear your thoughts, is funding for the blog something you have considered, and if you have tried it how has it worked for you?

Research · WIP Wednesday

All Around the World

March 13, 2013March 14, 2013 paulaacton13 Comments

I very rarely look at my Stats now, when I first started like so many others I would check them daily looking for vindication for taking up your time by expecting you to stop by and read. As confidence grows you start to realise that it is the quality of those who visit not the number of followers that count, who hasn’t visited a site with thousands of followers yet noticed you are the only one clicking like! But there is stil one aspect of Stats that does fascinate me, no not search terms though of course they are hilarious and I love the fact if you type in Chappy Chopper to google search my dungeon post is top of the list, but what actually never fails to make me smile is the location statistics. I love the fact that okay they may have only visited once but to know that a person in Peru has heard my name in relation to writing rather than playing games on Facebook amazes me, there are countries where they read me that I never would have expected, and let me say I appreciate every single one of you no matter if you live down the road or across an ocean but the fact a few years ago this would never have been possible fascinates me.

It would be great to think that one day I could colour all the map in not just with people who visit my blogs but with people who I can visit theirs and build up a bond with people all around the world.

Country	Views
United States	8,732
United Kingdom	4,621
Australia	1,238
Canada	657
India	501
Norway	365
Belgium	203
Finland	161
Republic of Korea	135
Malaysia	122
Puerto Rico	98
France	77
Spain	75
Ireland	72
Kenya	65
Italy	54
Philippines	52
Hong Kong	51
Egypt	49
Netherlands	46
Germany	42
New Zealand	38
Brazil	33
Russian Federation	30
Turkey	30
South Africa	24
Mexico	23
Portugal	23
Serbia	22
Kuwait	20
Indonesia	19
Nigeria	19
Romania	18
Armenia	15
Singapore	14
Sweden	12
Latvia	12
Denmark	11
Viet Nam	11
Poland	11
United Arab Emirates	10
Greece	10
Hungary	10
Bulgaria	10
Czech Republic	10
Pakistan	9
Slovenia	9
Netherlands Antilles	9
Israel	9
Japan	9
Ukraine	9
Nepal	9
Algeria	8
Saudi Arabia	8
Argentina	8
Bahamas	7
Switzerland	7
Sri Lanka	7
Thailand	6
Taiwan	6
Chile	5
Estonia	5
Austria	4
Iceland	4
El Salvador	4
Slovakia	4
Ecuador	4
Ghana	3
Gibraltar	2
Afghanistan	2
Cyprus	2
Croatia	2
Venezuela	2
Lebanon	2
Jordan	2
Brunei Darussalam	2
Maldives	2
Uruguay	2
Guernsey	2
Bahrain	2
Jersey	2
United Republic of Tanzania	2
Morocco	1
Isle of Man	1
Oman	1
Moldova	1
Bangladesh	1
Jamaica	1
Albania	1
Peru	1
Iraq	1
Azerbaijan	1
Yemen	1

Research · WIP Wednesday

Fantasy Vs Reality

January 23, 2013 paulaacton11 Comments

I have a lot of friends on here that write Erotica and will admit that lately I have been reading quite a bit, (Lee you might want to stop reading here – and Sammie and actually anyone that knows me in real life lol)

I am not about to start writing it any sex scenes in my novel are there as part of the plot rather than basing a plot around sex I don’t have the talent to do that well, but what it has got me thinking about is fantasy. Erotica is based primarily on people’s fantasies diverging into many different sub genres to feed all tastes that could possibly exist. The thing is as writers at times our imagination can lead us to have very vivid fantasies both in and out of the bedroom. The question is can reality ever match our fantasy?

When I was sixteen I had my first love a few months of puppy love followed by the requisite mourning period of broken hearted youth. We never slept together, so in my innocent teenage mind it would have been magical; roll forward a couple years and a chance encounter in a nightclub after the consumption of alcohol. It seemed like a good idea unfinished business between the two of us, after we both agreed that though pleasant it had been a mistake, both of us felt disappointed that it had failed to live up to what we had built it up to be in our minds.

Last night I had read a post about fantasies and it got me thinking about my own, those I would still like to live out and those which I now concede are better left as they are. Now for those getting excited I am not about to divulge those fantasies in detail here and now lol let’s just say that one of them theoretically were it ever to be lived out would place me in a position that could be potentially dangerous hence it will never happen, other fantasies include me not having control – well you guys know how much of a control freak I am that is never happening in real life. The fantasy that I am most upset at finally realising I would now never act upon is my JT, now yes I live in the real world therefore know it will never be put to the test, he is never going to bump into explain he has split from his wife and beg me to run away with him, but the fantasy of it has been with me for thirty years. Last night the sad realisation hit me as I was reading his autobiography in the bath that if in an alternate universe it did happen he could never live up to my expectations. Frequently we see celebrities hauled down from the pedestals upon which we have placed them by showing themselves as mere humans, and on one level we can forgive them (depending of course what they have done) but what we can never forgive them for totally are the dreams they take from us.

Now you might wonder how this relates to writing, well lets all be honest we all have a writing fantasy or two about someone out there reading our work, falling in love with it, the offer of contracts involving a lot of noughts and film rights being discussed. Even in some of the blog awards we share and love we ask who would play your character in a film then fantasise about our leading men, (I still haven’t actually decided on mine for the novel quite like the idea of unknown actors lol) I digress back to what I was saying fantasy writing comes with a whole heap of benefits while the reality for most of us is an inbox full of rejections then if we get lucky a small publisher will take a chance on us that will not allow us to give up the day job but will see your book in print.

The thing is this is one fantasy that it is harder to give up on. We cannot all top the bestseller lists but we can all dream about it because in part this fantasy is not actually about anyone else. It is simply about us, our abilities and our determination to succeed. For some succeed is to write the perfect novel, to write the perfect poem, for some it is to get across and share a message but the final line is that it is possible if only we are willing to work hard enough, slave away at our craft, learn from our mistakes, take chances and risk failure. Today I saw a friend of mine had received some news I shall not spoil it saying who but let me say I am thrilled for her she had almost been talked out of believing in herself, and into closing her laptop but today her fantasies are beginning to come true.

Believe in your own abilities, keep sight of your dreams and don’t let anyone tell you no – let your mind run wild with fantasies but only indulge in those that can do you no harm.

Research · WIP Wednesday

How Much To Invest?

January 9, 2013January 9, 2013 paulaacton9 Comments

As writer we invest our time and our souls into our writing without a second thought, okay may we do think about it but to not do it would only lead to madness, after all those voices in our head must have an outlet somewhere. But today what I want to talk about is something I have just been considering the financial cost.

Now we all know we can publish free through Amazon and other sites for Kindle, we can publish paper copies via Createspace or Lulu where people pay for print on demand copies that technically cost us nothing.

So far sounds good if you just want the profits without giving anything back. If however you wish to give away freebies and promotional material it can start getting pricey and that is not just for self-published authors many of those I know writing for small publishing houses have to produce their own promo stuff.

This gives you two options, invest in a decent printer, design software (although there are some good free templates out there), then pay for countless cartridges of ink and reams of card and paper and make your own, or buy.

I recently mentioned to Mel over at Melchelle Designs they should do a full media package after I had spent several hours trying to make a Facebook Banner because we don’t all have the time or skills to create amazing artwork or to convert it into all the formats we may require. But even for those who can once you have done so and begin looking on-line at prices for you promo material it can be daunting and very off putting.

You find a site that sounds reasonable the product looks good you begin looking more closely $25 for 50 book marks sound great then you discover you need to add $104 for shipping because you are in the wrong country . You begin your search again and find another that seems great until you discover they would like a £30 one off setting up fee – now this would be fair enough twenty years ago where a person was manually required to set up machinery to print but in today’s digital age where they fly off at the touch of a button it is rather unfair.

For those who have already had one or more books out there is the hope that some money has been made which can be invested back into the ‘brand’ but for that first book sent out into the universe any promotional materials must be funded from the family pocket. Websites like Zazzle allow you to design products fans can buy which you could purchase yourself as give-aways but lets be honest really until you develop a real following the only one hitting buy will be your mum if you are lucky.

The real question is how much do you invest and in what? We all know that business cards are a must once we start having those books to push (I haven’t yet managed to design mine I may just end up with simple ones but then what is the point if it does not relate to your product?) I decided rather randomly how to determine how much I spend based on having saved money from stopping smoking. now as much as I would love to say I had saved it all and could spend it all on promotional stuff instead I have determined that one packet of cigs was costing roughly £7 multiplied by the ten weeks I have stopped so far so that means £70 to spend right now and will have another £35 come release date.

I can see the cogs turning trying to work out dates well…..I know I originally said January but I have decided that the release date barring disasters will be ….. drum roll please

Wednesday 20th February.

Right I need to go do some writing for some reason it seemed like a good idea to launch a serial story on my blog in the run up to a book launch plus I have business cards to design, bookmarks to order, maybe some postcards then when the book is launched I will buy a couple of copies sign and giveaway.

Characters · Editing · Plots · Research · WIP Wednesday

Eeekkk Here We Go The Cover Reveal

December 26, 2012December 26, 2012 paulaacton20 Comments

Well you have been teased with storylines and extracts so I suppose the next tease is to show you the amazing cover the wonderful Mel over at Melchelle Designs created for me. So without further ado here it is….

I know it has been a long time coming but it shall be out next month hopefully both as an ebook and in print through createspace…watch this space for details.

Research · WIP Wednesday

Writing Tools and Background Noise

December 12, 2012December 12, 2012 paulaacton17 Comments

I know you are all looking at me like I have lost the plot – possibly I have one can never be sure – but what I actually wanted to do was share a couple of things with you.

The first is a writing app…Written Kitten

Rather than have you squint trying to read what I put here it is…..

So every word you type takes you one step closer to a lovely fluffy ball of cuteness. Now I am not sure how well this will work for me. I like kittens but do I love them enough to want a novels worth of them. Maybe pictures of John Taylor or Johnny Depp infact I think it might b far more interesting if each person could choose their own personal search criteria for the flickr search. The possibilties are endless and could even be tailored to your work in progress for example my words could be haunted houses, ghosts and awww a kitten appeared…

Basically for every hundred words you type you get a new fluffy kitten so for cat lovers this may indeed inspire them to push on and knock out a few extra words for me not so sure it would help.

Now the other thing I wanted to talk about was background noise while you work, now I know some people like a little music others require complete silence but for me I have to listen to podcasts. Yes you heard me, most of the podcasts I listen to are literary ones such as these

Another is Writing Excuses

Now don’t get me wrong these are just a few of the ones that I have on my iTunes but that is the great thing via iTunes you can subscribe to loads of free podcasts be it author interviews, book reviews or something totally different you are interested in I have history ones as well as wildllife podcasts. There is even a chapter by chapter reading of Moby Dick.

I hope if you haven’t taken a look at the wide range of podcasts available for free in the iTunes store that you will go take a look you never know what you might find, if you click on any of the names or pictures it will take you to the direct website rather than itunes.

Editing · Research · WIP Wednesday

Back to the Grindstone

November 7, 2012November 7, 2012 paulaacton8 Comments

As you all know me so well it will come as no surprise that a week after my op I have already turned on the computer and started back at work even if tentatively.

I want to thank everyone for their support, prayers and warm wishes over the past week and I am positive all the positive energy that has been coming my way has helped my recovery begin so speedily.

I am determined to get back into writing everyday as soon as possible and to that end have actually played around with a great NaNo Tool that Svenja Liv has provided on her website for free. You can find her http://svenjaliv.com/2012/10/nanowrimo-2012-word-trackers/ She provides amazing spreadsheets for every aspect of NaNo but for me I have adapted the word tracker one for use monthly to keep track of not only what I am doing but how much time and energy I am spending on it. For example if I post 500 words onto a blog post for a day then I shall take those words into account. Likewise should I prepare extra posts ahead of time one day I shall recognise that and then look to see how if affects my actual writing, will it mean on days with no posts to write that I write more or does it mean on those days I am lazy. It is in part a study of my own writing habits to see how I can best utilise my time and energy to gain the best results.

For someone like me who loves lists and being able to keep track of what is going on this is wonderful and the fact this amazing person is generous to share their work for free makes it so much easier for someone like me who has only just learnt what a spreadsheet is lol.

Apart from two pulls on a cig a couple of days ago I am not doing too badly at stopping smoking I am torn between using the money saved from smoking on here making this my own domain and on actually buying Scrivener although I still have about ten days free to go yet. I am also tempted to blow some of the money on something really frivolous I just haven’t decided what yet.

Any how back to editing on the Woca Short Story for today.

Research · WIP Wednesday

No WIP

October 31, 2012October 31, 2012 paulaacton15 Comments

If you are reading this then barring a last minute phone call to cancel I am getting ready for/in/or recovering from my surgery depending on where you are in the world. I have scheduled some posts as best I can for the next week or so but obviously I cannot respond to comments for a few days or read your posts. I promise I will catch up as soon as I am up to it and hopefully it won’t be long before I am back here letting you all know how it went.

I would ask my other half to let you all know but as he is not really into the social media thing the best I can hope for it that he will post a message on my facebook page to let you all know how it went.

I am still hoping the ghost stories can be out in time for christmas so I will be cracking on with that as soon as I am able and will keep you all updated.

Anyway have lots of posts to prepare so see you all soon I hope.

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