When I was a lad, and the sun shone hot, and water was bluer and the grass was greener, I used to do a fair bit of hiking and mountaineering. My slightly random claim to fame? I once climbed the highest mountain in Africa not to have been previously climbed. It wasn\u2019t much of a mountaineering challenge, but there was a lot of very jungly jungle to get through first. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the biggest issues in planning those expeditions was always: what to pack? What food, what camping gear, what clothes, what climbing kit? <\/p>\n\n\n\n
All those decisions, of course, operated under a hard constraint of weight and volume. The question wasn\u2019t \u201cwould an X be nice?\u201d but \u201ccan I justify an X, given its weight and given all the other things that are also needed?\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Same thing with authoring, of course. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
You need to write a book. You need to edit it good and well. Then \u2013 publishing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Here the path divides quite sharply. Trad publishing calls for a fairly light day-pack. The self-publishing path is more demanding, more arduous. The cliffs are higher, the gear needed is more significant. You can\u2019t load too much \u2013 weight isn\u2019t a constraint, of course, but time certainly is. Either way, you need to pack with care. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now, last week I asked y\u2019all about topics you\u2019d like to see covered in these emails. I got back a lot of really useful thoughts and comments. The rough summary: <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I got a lot of thoughts from you about specific topics you\u2019d like to see covered, and I\u2019ll get to as much of that as I sensibly can. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week \u2013 and for the rest of this month \u2013 I\u2019m going to be talking about Tools. How to stow your backpack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
That\u2019ll be the themes for both the Friday emails and for the FF topics too. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This week, let\u2019s just list out what you need for your backpack. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trad Publishing<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n What do you need? As in need-need? Well, arguably not much, as plenty of authors climb that mountain with only the skimpiest little bivvi bag for protection. I don\u2019t recommend that though, much as I love a good bivvi bag. <\/p>\n\n\n\n I think any serious 21st<\/sup> century trad-published author needs: <\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019ll surprise a lot of you to see my scepticism about social media, but SM doesn\u2019t really sell books, or not directly. If you like interacting with bookish people \u2013 I mean, booksellers, critics, reviewers, agents, etc \u2013 then good. Do it. It\u2019ll only be helpful. But yelling \u201cplease buy my book\u201d on Twitter doesn\u2019t work. Never has, never will. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Digital first publishing<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Digital first is trad publishing, really \u2013 it\u2019s still selective; entry is still controlled by gatekeepers \u2013 but it belongs in a different category because the kit-list is different. I do think that if you\u2019re publishing digital first you need to add: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Self-publishing<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here, you need the full works. As well as all of the above, you need: <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s not an exhaustive list \u2013 plenty of indie authors will do more. At the same time, you could argue that this list goes beyond real essentials. The only things that you have to have as an indie are: (i) a book, (ii) an Amazon account, (iii) a mailing list and everything which goes with that, and (iv) one other source of traffic, probably Facebook ads. <\/p>\n\n\n\n *** <\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s it. It all looks a bit daunting written down in this way \u2013 but expedition packing always does. The fact is that the tools have got so much better and slicker over time, and they\u2019re built by people who know that their audience is not naturally techie. It\u2019s all built to be simple. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do please take a look at the Feedback Friday stuff this week. Whether you\u2019re a Premium Member or not, this stuff matters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once, when climbing a different mountain, my climbing buddy used a dodgy petrol stove and set his head on fire. Luckily, we managed to put him out and there was a glacier not too far away, so we even had ice. Lesson of that story? Equipment matters. And, OK, glaciers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n FEEDBACK FRIDAY \/ TOOLS SEASON \/ The Freebie<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n All good email lists are seeded by a free gift. The offer to readers is \u201cyou give me your email address; I give you something you want.\u201d That something is a free gift. For novel writers, it\u2019s almost always a short story. For non-fictioneers, it could be an anything \u2013 a checklist, a case study, a questionnaire, whatever else. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The actual setup of your mailing list is a relatively drab, technical affair. The design of your short story is anything but. It\u2019s joyous, or should be. The normal specs for a free story is that: <\/p>\n\n\n\n So your challenge this week is simple: <\/p>\n\n\n\n What\u2019s your freebie? <\/p>\n\n\n\n I want: <\/p>\n\n\n\n That\u2019s it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Til soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Harry <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When I was a lad, and the sun shone hot, and water was bluer and the grass was greener, I used to do a fair bit of hiking and mountaineering. My slightly random claim to fame? I once climbed the highest mountain in Africa not to have been previously climbed. It wasn\u2019t much of a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":98318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[29292],"tags":[29213],"class_list":["post-101265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-harrys-friday-email","tag-harry-friday-email"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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