Author Archives: Wayne Smallman

About Wayne Smallman

When you're young, you think you know everything and life is indistinguishable from a game. It's only when you get older — when you begin to doubt the authenticity of the event and question the rules — that experience begins to count for something. And to quote the inimitable Forbes Bingley, a recurring character of several novels: "Life makes you stronger, at a price." In a sense, life has been preparation — practice, perhaps — for this wild stab at being an author. After all, how hard can it be, putting one word after another? Of course, like anything else in life, you only get out what you put in. At times, writing is both cathartic and semi autobiographical, where I catch myself looking backwards whimsically, lustily, with regret, a wry smile, a despondent glower or growing doubt. But writing is also a journey, one with no intentional destination, just waypoints I may navigate towards from time to time, at leisure. Though I must admit, it's a journey I would prefer not to make alone.

Women, eh?

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I think this one article, on the subject of writing strong female characters, kind of brought things to a head for me, this being perhaps the forth or fifth article I’ve read dealing with the (apparently thorny) subject / issue of female protagonists.

Why is it even a issue to begin with? I think — if what I’ve been reading is anything to go by — the thinking appears to settle into two groups:

  1. the male authors who, for whatever reason, feel compelled to write something with a female protagonist, yet can’t quite figure out an angle of approach, since they’re not writing from personal experience, in an emotional context;
  2. the author (male or female) who writes something with a female protagonist, with the intention of doing the “crop top, big knife, and tattoos” thing, knowing it’s by far the easiest angle of approach, and therefore likely to monetize more easily, too.

I’ve written two novellas so far, both of which feature a female protagonist. But the only quandry I found myself in was timing; I’d intended to have another novella or novel between them featuring a male protagonist, just to space them out. Why? Because I personally didn’t want to be labelled some kind of neofeminist science fiction writer!

I suppose the characters I’ve written appear (or at least read) more realistic because of the upbringing I’ve had (three older sisters) and mostly having had some wonderful women in my life, removing the need to guess what a woman might do in what might be perceived as a typically male situation, as was often the case with Leonora in Earth Day.

Lucidity, on the other hand, really wasn’t about action or anything like that. So I didn’t have to think hard about how the Barbara would react.

One would hope things might not be as cliché in the future. But the problem is one of experience more than anything else. Obviously, this is just an opinion, not fact, and it would be great to hear the thoughts of others.

An experimentation in marketing!

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Okay, I’m running an experiment, and Earth Day is the Guinea pig. So what’s the experiment? Marketing, that’s what. Actually, I’m running two experiments: one with Facebook Ads; another with StumbleUpon Paid Discovery.

Facebook Ads

Because of the CPC (Cost Per Click), Facebook Ads is less likely to make me any significant money. Okay, I’ll be losing money. However, that’s not the point — it’s an experiment! So, as a learning process, I’ll gradually feel my way into things. And by setting a reasonably low budget, I won’t suffer from any runaway dead-end clicks that soak up every last penny.

I’m using the Amazon listing of Earth Day as the target page. Also, I’ve been very specific about my target audience — I’m using “Science Fiction Books” and “Apocalyptic and Post-Apocalyptic Fiction” as the interests.

StumbleUpon Paid Discovery

Here, I’m pointing the visitors to the actual post for Earth Day, right here on the Wayne Smallman website. StumbleUpon is a very different proposition to Facebook Ads. First of all, it’s much cheaper. Secondly, if my post proves interesting, the paid aspect will be overtaken by the Stumblers liking my post, which will drive a natural flow of visits from other likeminded Stumblers. That’s the idea, anyway.

Goodreads Self-Serve Advertising

On the 25th, took out two adverts with Goodreads via their Self-Serve Advertising. After some investigation and a little thinking, this seemed the logical option.

Goodreads is an intended destination of the marketing effort, along with Amazon, where I request that reader share what it is they’re reading and write a review. So it is logical to skip one step (slightly) by taking out adverts on Goodreads, where the members are already conversant with the idea of sharing what it is they’re reading.

This process of sharing is, in itself, a kind of word-of-mouth marketing. And if the reader is so compelled, they may write a review. Should the review or the act of sharing prove compelling, or the member be sufficiently influential, my books would benefit.

Add finally…

There are several incidental but nevertheless very important details worth mentioning at this point, that could have a major impact on the outcome of my experiments. Firstly, I am now the proud owner of 10 ISBNs, one of which has already been assigned to Earth Day.

Also, I’ve recently made a number of changes to the back matter of Earth Day (and Lucidity), so that they include an appeal to the reader, asking of them — should they have enjoyed reading either of the aforementioned — to share their thoughts on Goodreads and / or write a favourable review on Amazon.

Let the games commence!

A breakthrough with Smashwords

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I may have finally whipped Earth Day (a sci-fi novella) and Lucidity into shape, ready for “Premium” status qualification on Smashwords.

But what’s most annoying about Smashwords — and most other publishers, for that matter — is the disperate formats and how they somehow expect the authors / publishers to homogenise their works to meet the criteria of each and everyone of them, with just the one manuscript.

Why not PDF? As a designer with a background in print, I just cannot for the life of me understand why we have ePub and Kindle formats when PDF is there, staring them, us and everyone else in the face!

Anyway, I’m nearly there…

Project Status — A Darkening of Fortune

So far, I’ve been working on A Darkening of Fortune (Wraith being its former and provisional name) almost the whole of 2012, and it has been the most difficult novel to date.

As some may remember, I’ve already written a large novel, which came very easily. However, that really isn’t the same here.

Presently, I have a written plan of how the end of the novel must be re-written, and it’s a substantial task.

I’m hoping to have a final draft ready for my editor by the end of the week. But I won’t allow myself to be rushed with this, not with so much depending on this first novel.