F. P. Dorchak

Speculative Fiction (New Weird) Author

Social media

Platform?

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Now, This Platform Has Legs! (By Tu Foto [originally posted to Flickr as Acrylic Heels] [CC BY 2.0 {http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0}], via Wikimedia Commons)
Now, This Platform Has Legs! (By Tu Foto [originally posted to Flickr as Acrylic Heels] [CC BY 2.0 {http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0}], via Wikimedia Commons)
Wow, how things can change!

You know, when I first heard “platform,” it meant “something you stood for,” like fighting school bullying. Even for fiction writers. Fiction writers were also told they needed “their platform.” And “social media” was nowhere in any of the definitions I’d heard. In fact, it was specifically called out as not being a “platform.”

Now I hear, “platform” is your social media stance.

Wow, seriously? How did things change so drastically? If you look at the two links, you’ll see Jane Friedman’s definitions are from 2012, and Jann Alexander’s are from June 2015 (with her definition coming from Karlyn Hixson, Marketing Manager at St. Martin’s).

So…as you can plainly see from Jane’s first sentence, everyone defines it differently.

But, whether or not the definition did change (it very well might have)…this new version of a fiction author’s platform actually makes far more sense to me…and in today’s Electronic Age, one I can’t really argue with…at least for fiction writers. If you have some other method to your madness in getting your words out there, more power to you!

And, feel free to be picky—you don’t have to do everything.

Pick what you feel comfortable with and focus on those. If you don’t want a Google profile because Google requires an electronic DNA sample, fine, skip Google. I mess around a lot in Twitter and post blogs (obviously), have an Author page on Faceplace, and frequent Pinterest. I also have a Goodreads and LinkedIn presence, but don’t spend too much time there (it’s primarily a matter of time). I really tried to put out a newsletter, but I just do not have the time not only to write the danged thing, but to format and mess around with layouts (yes, I’m sure once you get the layout, you just keep it, but still…). And I simply don’t have enough info to put into a newsletter. I put that info into my blogs.

So, if “platforms” now mean social media, hooray for fiction writers, cause if just made life a smidge easier—but don’t feel like you have to do everything or be everywhere at once. Create those accounts you want and focus on those aspects of social media you’re really good at. In other words, do as much or as little as you see fit.

This is a definition of “platform” that has some legs for fiction writers!

#Platform

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Twitter

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By GageSkidmore at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons
By GageSkidmore at en.wikipedia [Public domain], from Wikimedia Commons
Okay…I admit it, it’s a guilty pleasure!

Twitter seems quite suited to my personality.

Short quips. One liners. Observations. It’s a short-and-[not always] sweet way of social interaction across the planet. And you get to meet and interact with some interesting people—some of them famous—that you’d never otherwise have a chance in Hades of meeting, you know, if that’s your thing. But it’s not so much about Hero Worship as gratefulness. You can thank these actors and writers and producers for their great work that you’ve watched and followed, and that is kinda cool. Sometimes you can even interact with them.

A couple of weekends ago, I joined in on an Intruders tweet-a-thon, and I had to admit, it was fun! All you do is tweet while watching the show. See what your fellow folk are tweetin’.

Now, it’s not something I want to do all the time…when I watch TV, I want to relax, but if it’s a special event, I could get into it once in a while. Had some good interaction and played along with some funny comments from the handful of us tweeting the show.

BTW, if you haven’t heard of the  Intruders, I highly recommend it! The first episode had me a little baffled, but I like baffled, so just hang in there if you feel the same way after watching the first installment (where to watch episodes, since the season ended and they’re no longer broadcasting on their website). It’s a really cool show involving the paranormal. It’s my new X-Files replacement, and I’ve been looking! The show is based on the Michael Marshall Smith novel, The Intruders.

But, all that said and done, I think the biggest thing I’ve gotten out of Twitter is just meeting people!

There are a handful of tweeters I call “my Twitter friends,” because we’ve been tweeting since pretty close to when I started Twitter, in 2009. Yes, you can be hoodwinked, but I think, for the most part, you can get to know people over Twitter—or blogging or whatever else it is you do with social media. Even when you get to know people through actual, physical contact, how much of “you” do you show to the public, right? It’s no different. Sure, it’s easier to hide over social media, spoofing and conspiracy theories and all that, people can’t read your body language, et cetera, but I do feel that you can get a good gauge of most. Just like with anything “public,” you have to be careful and err on the conservative side. And sometimes, yeah, you may piss each other off…but it’s also interesting to see how your new friends handle these situations. The really good ones will—in some way—reach out and try to correct an intentional or unintentional wrongdoing.

And that can speak volumes to the type of people they are.

Again, spoofing and conspiracy theories notwithstanding. Just be careful out there.

Just remember we are all people out on these things, we’re not just avatars and bylines. We have real feelings and good and bad days. Deserve to be treated with respect. Consider the words you are about to send out into cyberspace before hitting the Enter key…and if you screw up, be quick to apologize and make it right…leave room open for others to do the same.

In short: cut people some slack.

None of us are perfect.

But, do have fun exploring the world through your chosen mode of social media!

Feel free to contact me at my Twitter handle of @fpdorchak

 

 

 

Psychic Cover Reveal!

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© Psychic (F. P. Dorchak and Duvall Design, 2014)
© Psychic (F. P. Dorchak and Duvall Design, 2014)

Here is the front cover to my new novel, Psychic.

I decided to do the cover early, this time. I’m still polishing the manuscript, which, I think, still has a couple of months to go. But I’ve had such a hard time visualizing what I wanted for the cover since the very beginning of this manuscript’s creation…and, with the help of Karen Duvall, of Duvall Design, we came up with a great image, huh? I really love it.

Psychic is about a humble and angst-ridden hotline psychic who gets embroiled within a remote viewer government conspiracy, headed up by one shady, evil, Victor NMI Black. It’s an action/adventure that shows the origin of The Man With No Name (MWNN), a character from Sleepwalkers, and interlaces an alternate history storyline with John F. Kennedy. The story takes place in 1994, where JFK is 77 years old. The date is also significant, since the official remote viewer organization the government had used (in our present-day reality) was officially disbanded that year. I use a present day organization, The Monroe Institute and morph it into an alternate location, called the JFK Center, where my story’s remote viewer activities take place. The story is heavy on probabilities…the different roads that actions and people can take…or not. I play around with time…time travel…paradoxes…how scary, nefarious people can come into other people’s lives and simply take them over. How much of what you read in the news is real…or fashioned. Can “facts”…change? This is an intricate story…a gritty story (much grittier than Sleepwalkers…but it is part of the Sleepwalkers “universe”; I expect at least one more novel to come out of this universe)…and gets into the “backgrounds” of our lives and how things may—or may not—come into being in our everyday lives, however nasty those things may be….

Check out my Psychic Pinterest board for images related to this novel!

Many, many thanks go to my “cover girl,” Karen Duvall, of Duvall Design. And I hope you’ll all join me when Psychic is unleashed upon the world, and enjoy what I’m billing as the ultimate conspiracy!

Feel free to freely use the cover graphic in any (legal and tasteful) ways possible, just properly attribute ownership!

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Beggin for You To Like Me….

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facebook engancha
Man, this guys’ work is GOOD…. (Photo credit: facebook engancha, Wikipedia)

Okay, I admit it, I’m beggin’ for all your help!

I told myself I’d never do this, but it’s just not happenin’ as fast as I thought it would. Or maybe not so much “fast,” as…at all.

I got this Facebook page, see.

Only 19 “Likes.”

I’ve tried spreading the word by word of mouth, but even my mouth has limitations (yes, Dad, I know, hard to believe…).

You see, I thought I’d organically (isn’t that a cool term?) allow my FB page to grow as things progressed…not artificially asking people to, you know, please Like me, I’m so needy!…but, yes, it’s come to this, and I humble myself before you and pronate, prostrate, and whatever other -ate, and beg for you to like me.

Why?

Because I have low self-esteem?

An ego that needs bolstering?

I’m so unlikable I need reinforcement that I’m not?

Maybe.

But the real reasons are simple: 1) apparently, in the mode of Facebook I’ve subscribed into, the more Likes I get the more capability I get. I don’t know what those capabilities are…but I’m told they’re cool. And save the world. I haven’t signed up as a “regular” user, who can hop from FB page to page and Like the hell out of everyone’s pages. I’ve signed up at a biz/artist page. It has limitations I admit I, uh, like…but also I ask this because, 2) I am trying to gain more exposure for my work (not me, you see, but my work, my books…).

And if you like my page, you get to help save the world.

So, you see, it really isn’t about me. Not at all, nor my ego. It’s about saving the world and my stories. Couldn’t care less if you like me, just like my work. Please. I’m beggin you. My stories keep hammering me to be read by more and more of the world. They want world domination, and they’re not really very happy with me right now, cause I haven’t been promoting them enough (I’m tryin—I’m tryin!). After all, they, say, what’s the point of writing them, if no one’s gonna read them? Sure, I tell them I read you…over and over…I even make you better with each reading…I tend and care for you, polish you…whisper sweet nothings into your ears and nibble and stroke—well, that’s for another story. Anyway, it all falls on deaf ears. They want more…and they’re beginning to threaten.

I’m scared.

So, please…help a fellow out…visit my Facebook page and just click that little old button that says “Like,” or whatever. You know the drill. Maybe spread the word a little to your friends and colleagues…cats and dogs. Goldfish. Of course, if you just plain hate my efforts, I won’t force you into this, but if you have even a little interest in my work…’twould be greatly appreciated. If I then gain the ability to Like your pages, you can be dang sure I’ll visit and return the favor. And this’ll get my voices to back off to pursue more creative endeavors….

Thanks!

(Did the cat picture do it?)

On Being Relevant

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EXPERT
I am the Expert. I know all. Come to me and build my reputation! (Photo credit: “Expert.” by Pete Prodoehl)

Read an interesting article yesterday about being relevant.

What the heck’s that supposed to mean?

Well, according to the editor of this article, from “The A$$et,” a weekly financial newsletter (still free, always free!), it states that you are continuing to improve in your craft and your reason for doing what you do. That you stay informed, aware of new aspects of whatever it is you’re into, put yourself out there as an expert (I don’t feel you really need to be considered an expert to be relevant…), earning a good reputation (again, I don‘t feel this really should be an organic consideration to this particular discussion), and that you have your own style (again, is this really a requirement for relevance? Sounding CorporateSpeak to me!). The article also mentioned that while you may be aware of all the “new gadgets” (or services, I add) out there, you don’t feel the need to actually use them, buy them, or spend tons of time on things like social media or the Internet. That you “…self-filter out some of the crap,” so you can focus upon what’s important.

These I heartily agree with!

To me it does seem you do do some of the above…staying aware and engaged. Filtering through the current of life to take what you need, and pass on the rest. But you’re aware of this stuff. Engaged in what’s going on. Perhaps these are my two defining definitions. I don’t feel one needs to position themselves as “experts” and “advance reputations,” though these might, indeed, manifest themselves later on as a natural progression from the individual’s actions…but to say they have to organically be part of the definition of “being relevant”…no, I have to disagree. Again, this sounds “corporate,” if you ask me, where these people already have their heads (and egos) in the clouds. Outcomes are not the same as requirements.

In any events, the article also had some good tips on relevance:

  • Evolve—of course, this has to happen! For the most part, I feel this cannot not happen; barring mental aberrations, I don’t see how the average human cannot evolve going through life…so I really don’t see this as a necessary element to “being relevant,” so much as being human.
  • Get familiar with technology—in today’s world this does seem like the “coming thing,” so, yeah, I can see this as an element of “being relevant.”
  • Learn to adapt—yes, to be relevant, you do have to go with the flow to be aware and be engaged. I get this. If you don’t, you’re not going to be interested in what’s going on, and stagnate.
  • Pay attention to your health—no, I don’t see this as a requirement. Think of all the nerdy geek-kind out there who are quite engaged and aware and all-knowledgable about any subject. Many are not healthy, because they don’t spend any time being healthy, because they’re always doing whatever it is they’re “being relevant” in! Disagree with this element!
  • Be informed—obvious element for “being relevant.”
  • Engage people younger and older than yourself—hmmmm, maaaybeee…but not necessarily. In today high-tech world, no one really has to interact (“engage”) anymore (if you don’t count blogs, articles, and the like). We can get all our information from social media, news feeds, well, the INTERNET. In a pre-Interent world, I’d agree with this, but not today. Look at the lack of interpersonal skills around us, today. The lack of manners the rudeness. I feel this stems from not only poor upbringing, but also from lack of meaningful, face-to-face interaction (“engagement”). Were we truly interacting (“engaging”) more on a face-to-face level, I think there would be far better manners. Now this statement also doesn’t define how the younger and older interact, which could be through social media/the Internet, so, point taken.
  • Gain knowledge from successful people—this should include all people, not only successful ones. Again, this seems like CorporateSpeak. Why should this one element be singled out? If one were truly being “relevant” this would be done as a matter of course, and would not need to be singled out as a specific “being relevant” element.
  • Crystallize your own vision—what does this have to do with being relevant? It has to do with goal setting. Being relevant is about being engaged and aware of what’s going on around you, I don’t see how setting a “vision” is an organic element of “being relevent.” Again, CorporateSpeak!
  • Live forward—yes, can see this. If you’re always living in the past, you’re not “engaged and aware” of the present…nor the future.
  • Don’t think you know everything—goes without saying, though many get “Big Heads” when “being relevant,” in that they think they do know it all and have heard and seen it all, since—in theory—the Relevant Person is supposed to have seen or heard it all! Catch-22!

I think these are great guidelines in “being relevant,” but do think this has some CorporateSpeak in it, having been designed, perhaps, by corporate execs, who I really feel do lose touch with Common Human reality, in their rarefied life of privilege. But it isn’t a bad structure to follow. I, certainly, do not know it all, but try to apply principles of common sense to everything I see and hear, and reading this article just hit me in the way that I’ve tried to present, here, so feel free to point out something I may have missed, concerning my take on things!

But, whatever you do take away from this, remain engaged in life and aware!

Monsters in the Closet: Book Promotion, PR, and Buzz

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Making Monsters
Take My Hand…. (Photo credit: Making Monsters, Wikipedia)

There’s an old saying that goes, the more you know, the more you realize you don‘t know.

Wow.

After reading this post, never was I more aware of what I didn’t know…or, perhaps, more correctly, I knew there was so much more to know and do, but now I know the actual monsters in the closet!

Brian Feinblum, CMO, Media Connect PR, wrote this post. It wore me out!

Whether or not you agree with all of it (as in modifying your manuscript to PR angles), there’s much, much more to consider.

My head just exploded.

Sure, you’re just one person, the author, and if you’re an Indie author, that makes you less-than-one person, because you’re spread so thin. Then throw in that all this costs time and money and soul, and well, there goes your head. All over your computer and walls. Ceiling, if you have a big one.

This is one of the best posts I’ve read regarding this kind of stuff, because it actually breaks out a lot of specifics that need to be taken into account by PR specialists. Again, whether or not you believe it all, or want to do it all, this is how PR people think. I think it all has merit. It’s just never gonna happen on my end. My resources are far too limited to be able to even partake in a little of what Brian and his ilk’s magic can wand (yes, I’ve already approached and priced PR/promo work)—and I do not want to hear from those of you who so blindly, blithely, and tritely spout “Then don’t get into this business if you can’t afford it.” There are more than one or three reasons to “get into this business,” and it’s not all about money.

So, sit back, read, and face the monsters in your closet.

I need to clean up my office….