My Author Brand Couldn't Slow Down
While I've been quiet externally for a little while, my business bus has been well over 50mph. It's now time to let it explode and move in a different direction.
You’ve probably seen this graph, often in meme form, around the internet. This is a humorous version based on a real study by Dunning and Kruger where they found a cognitive bias in less-skilled people that led them to believe they were more skilled and knowledgeable than they were. Sometime this appears in a false sense of self confidence, sometimes it results in mansplaining. In my case it presented in thinking my stories, podcast episodes and longer form works were of a higher quality than they may actually have been.
This was somewhat confirmed when the podcast hit the million download mark and my novel Naughty Forty sold multiple copies without any real marketing effort from me. However, I caught myself at the top left of the graph and I’ve spent the last couple of months driving myself into the low middle section of that red line. When I say driving myself I mean driving like Sandra Bullock in Speed when she’s flooring it towards the gap in the freeway. You know that bit. Foot down, determined to make it.
This started a few months ago when I realised I had been doing a lot of research and learning in the area of running an author business, but I had only written one novel. I thought I might have been a little ahead of myself. Added to that was Brian Cohen’s catchphrase from the Sell More Books Show, “The marketing reveals the book,” meaning that your marketing efforts only get people to see the book, the writing then needs to be good enough to make people want to buy it.
Here is where I changed tack. Keanu Reeves got in my ear and told me I wasn’t picking up passengers anymore and if I didn’t start writing good books my business would fail. In one week I found six podcasts on the craft of writing and shifted my learning from business and mindset to drafting and structuring. That learning curve was steep and as a result I decided that every half-written draft of the Oxley University novellas series I had in the works was absolute trash. That was the gap in the freeway.
With this big issue ahead I dived further. I downloaded templates from Story Grid. I subscribed to two more writing podcasts. I bought two boxes of index cards and bought Plottr, a piece of writing planning software. Alex’s story, the first in the Oxley University Series, was replanned and restructured. I spent hours on planning a new version of Jack’s first entry into that series.
I trawled Amazon for the best sellers in the Erotica category and the books that were highly rated by readers. I read Me And Brother’s Best Friend, by Bill G Gavin and Zeus, A Mike Bravo Ops Novel by Eden Finley. These are the two books that gave me that last push to make the jump across the unfinished freeway.
There’s a caveat I want to put on what I’m about to say. I don’t mean any of the following to be seen as denigrating these books or their authors. I don’t want to come across as a literature snob. I enjoyed both of the works and there’ll be reviews of both to come.
These books changed tack for me again.
The first is pure smut. Me and Brother’s Best Friend is a basic story. A few plot points linking so hard fucking between teen jock guys. The action is well described and the scenes are hot. I have enjoyed more than a few healthy loads emitted while reading it. But there isn’t a lot of character depth or overall story arc. I couldn’t tell you which of the Story Grid methods or Plottr templates Gavin may have used in writing the story. But it’s up on Amazon and people are reading it. I read it and I got off to it.
Eden Finley sits in the erotic romance category. There aren’t a lot of sex scenes in Zeus, and the ones that are in there aren’t described in significant detail, at least compared to those I have written, or those in Gavin’s novel. But the action of the novel overall had me hooked. Finley’s writing style is not literary. You are in the character’s head and we are privy to their internal thoughts. There isn’t a lot of subtext and I didn’t have to spend much time thinking about the overall theme of the story. Which, for erotic romance, is perfectly fine.
So now, I’m doing laps of the airport, while the SWAT team helps me unload the poor trapped passengers on the bus (I think those passengers might be my preconceived ideas of my need to write literary erotic fiction). I’ve realised I write really good sex scenes. Those scenes are being enjoyed over 1000 times a day. Almost 500,000 people have listened to my podcast. Bill G Gavin and Eden Finley have helped me realise that that’s enough.
So a new tack, once Keanu and I roll off this bus and get to make out while the idea that I need to be erotica’s equivalent of Patrick White, explodes in a fiery end. Good sex scenes with good characters is now the Liam Williams brand. Wholly and firmly (hopefully very firm for some of you *wink*). The first draft of Alex’s Oxley University novella has been read by a couple of people and confirmed as ticking those two boxes. I’m not going to impose Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey onto Jack’s first book.
From here on out you can expect two things from me. Hot short stories on the podcast and novellas that give you an insight into a character and then give you a boner. Erotica is what I’m writing and I’m not going to bust my brain trying to make it more than what it is.
I also hope that you have seen the movie Speed. It’s top of mind because I just listened to a review of it on Two Drink Cinema which reminded me how great it is. I thoroughly recommend seeing it if you haven’t and also highly recommend Two Drink Cinema if you’re looking for a new movie review podcast.
Thanks for still being here and for reading the stories and this update. You can expect a lot more activity in the next few months. Make sure you’re subscribed here and to the podcast for all the stories and updates, including the launch of the novella series.