The Blog Of Greg Rollett

There are so many people in the Personal Development/Lifestyle Design/Internet Marketing niche that are writing eBooks to either generate some income, or kickstart their careers in this space. I totally think this is a great idea, but you are basically just being a follower (unless you are the greatest writer of all time), these books are mostly the same, with the same theme (sorry friends, but it’s true).

That is why when I heard about Monica O’Brien’s (Monica Leonelle now) new project I really wanted to get behind and support her. I’ve been running in similar online circles as Monica for a few years now and we both come from the original Brazen Careerist background. Her new project sees her releasing a fiction novel, Silver Smoke, Vol1.

This thing is no small feat either. It’s 120,000 words, the size of a Twilight or Harry Potter book. Here is some of the scoop on the book:

Silver Smoke takes place in Honolulu, Hawaii and follows siblings Pilot and Brie van Rossum in the aftermath of an accident that took their mother’s life. She died in a plane crash, supposedly; but as they learn more about her death, they find out that their mother kept secrets from them that put their lives in danger too. The paranormal elements revolve around angels, demons, and several other mythical–or maybe not so mythical–creatures that are explained by the beautiful yet haunting world of the Hallows and the Nephilim.

Monica is releasing the book in early 2011 and in her marketing for the book she is also looking to do some videos to make the novel come to life. She is using Kickstarter to do the fundraising, which is really exciting as some of my music buddies have also used the platform to make their dream come t fruition.

You can grab a signed copy of the novel, along with the digital version for only $25 over on Kickstarter. I highly recommend supporting!

Anyway, I wanted Monica to answer a few questions about the novel, her approach and her goals for going the fiction route. Check out what she had to say below.

Greg: What are your goals for this book, and for writing fiction while we see so many of our peers writing nonfiction these days?

Monica: The great thing about this project is that there weren’t any goals when I started. I started writing the book to cope with something else that was going on in my life, and the fact that I finished the book is a surprise to me.

I’ve been writing non-fiction for years and years and I spent a lot of time trying to make money off of it. But writing fiction started out as a hobby and morphed into 120,000 words, bigger than any amount of text I’ve ever written in my life. When I had written a certain amount and felt sure that I would finish the book, I jumped into entrepreneurial mode and started setting goals. The nice thing is that any money I make off of the project would just go towards writing more fiction or paying down my school loans. I’m not trying to make money for my family or survival, which takes the pressure off and lets me focus on the art of it. I just want to write a great book and have lots of people to read my work.

Greg: I am intrigued by people who are able to write whole books, as I can barely keep focus to write out a Tweet. What was your writing process and what kept you going (this is a pretty large book, btw)?

Monica: The book is 120,000 words, or about the size of Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight. So yeah, it’s a large book; but about the right size for the genre and type of book it is.

Regarding a writing process, I’m not sure how to describe mine. I build scenes the way I build blog posts, which is the way I used to build computer programs–in small chunks, starting with a shell of an idea and filling in the details afterwards. I revise a lot, and I think each scene of my novel went through around 10 individual revisions from either myself or my two editors.

But writing is a hobby for me, just like playing a guitar or volunteering for a church or going deer hunting are hobbies for other people. I don’t see writing as a chore or a job, and I think when people approach it that way they tend not to create something that resonates with people. I rarely force myself to write–I wait until I have the idea and honestly, I’ll stop whatever I’m doing and sit down at my computer. If I’m out somewhere I’ll excuse myself and use the notes feature on my iPhone to email myself. I just watched a TV special about Taylor Swift and she did the same thing at school when she had an idea for a song. People can become obsessed with ideas to the point where their ideas are what drives them, and writing is one of those things for me, just like music is one of those things for you.

Greg: I see you chose Kickstarter to raise funds. This is something we see a lot of musicians using. What was your process for choosing Kickstarter and what are your thoughts about using this approach to find startup ideas?

Monica: I don’t know of any other fundraising sites, to be honest, so I don’t have any good comparison tips. I like that Kickstarter is focused on artists and is diligent about kicking everyone else out. I think the platform has a lot of room to grow, specifically with tools to promote the project within its own community. I used Crowdspring to get the Silver Smoke cover done and they had lots of tools for attracting designers. I’m guessing there are lots of people out there who just love backing projects, but I have no way to reach them.

Greg: What is the biggest lesson you are learning about releasing a book and what advice can you give to others who are looking to do the same?

Monica: I learned that the most important thing is to write the best book you can and have a serious marketing plan. To write the best book, you need to enlist beta readers, editors (both content editors and copy editors) and all of your family and friends. You can do this by signing a deal with a big publisher or by paying out of your own pocket.

With marketing, you have to be willing to pull out all the stops and do some crazy things. One of the things I’ve done to promote Silver Smoke is to personally find and email over 2,500 book bloggers about my book (yes, there is a subset of bloggers who write primarily about books). I asked each of them if I could send a review copy and about half of them have said yes. Another group have said they don’t have time to read and review the book but they’d be willing to do a book giveaway or interview on their blogs during the publication week. This is a big publicity push to pull off though. If you are not willing to hit the pavement and email thousands and thousands of people to ask for help, you will have a hard time getting your book off the ground, even with the help of a large publisher.

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Big shout out to Monica for running outside the box and writing something that she can really be proud of and share with the world. Again, if you want to make a contribution to the project and get a copy for yourself, head on over to Kickstarter and turn this into a reality.

Read a snippet of the first few chapters here.

As a final note, what questions do you have for Monica on writing fiction and trying to make a living doing it? Write them in the comments below and I’ll be sure to pass the message on to Monica.

-Greg