Dear all,
This blog isn’t being brought on by the
‘resolutions’ business we all get involved in over New Year (whether admitting
it or not) but rather I wanted to quickly tell you all the things I’ll be
putting on hold in 2014…this isn’t a list of all the things I am giving up on,
or have got bored with or anything like that. It’s just that, as per my
previous blogs have told you, I am going on away this year and as much as I am
looking forward to it and the opportunity it will give me to focus on writing,
it does mean some of the projects I am working on I simply won’t be around for. It’s a shame in a way, because I was really enjoying them and as with
all things it takes a bit of time to build up steam, to get the ball rolling as
they say. So to put the brakes on now feels unfortunate but it is definitely
not the end, it is merely an interruption for all the right reasons.
YouTube
If any of you have had the chance to visit
my YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/thinkingplainly
you will see that there are half a dozen videos uploaded. My intention was
there would be a few more by now, but it takes a bit of work you know! I didn’t
quite grasp how much at first. The idea was to create a channel whereby I could
interview people from all creative walks in life and discuss how their artistic
passions are linked to writing in some way, influences, techniques, etc. It was
a platform I could use to further my interest in the art world and hopefully
create some interesting content that people would enjoy. As you all know, there
is no shortage of videos online, and to create something new and individual is
hard, but all I had in mind is creating content that I would find fun but would
be educational and insightful, and if I did that, then I was sure people would enjoy
it too. Over the course of this year I have spoken to several people who were
interested in being involved, I was lucky enough to be able to get some completed,
Alfred Duff, Rufus Garlic and Brian Bowers and I really enjoyed them and was
busily planning more. I had sculptors, painters, musicians, actors, directors
and others all lined up to take part at some point, it was just a matter of
organizing dates and times. However, as I won’t be here this year it will
have to go on hold. Thank you so much to everyone who was in discussions with
me, I’ll be calling you up the minute I am in a position to get the camera rolling again!
I want to take this opportunity to thank
Dan Li of The Captured Picture Company (http://www.thecapturedpicturecompany.com)
for all of his hard work filming and editing these videos, I’ll be back for
more I promise and please don’t show anyone the outtakes!!!
Nook
and other eReaders
There is a lot of debate about the amount
of time, energy and focus independent people should put on being on multiple
platforms. I won’t go into that here but for various reasons I have taken the
decision to sell on eReaders other than just Kindle. Perhaps I’ll blog on this
topic another time. However, for now, I have a presence on Kobo, Google Books
and Scribd. Nook, Sony and others I’m not on yet and there are issues to do
with having a US residence/bank account to be able to sell on there but I
intend on working on that at some point. Either way, what I haven’t spent as
much time on this year as I wanted to was ensuring that I knew the formatting
issues for these other platforms as well as I know the Kindle. It’s not that
straightforward getting to grips with the technical side, it’s not outrageously
difficult either, it’s just about spending enough time on it, that’s all. I will be keeping this important task very
near the top of my to-do list.
New
Pinterest Shared Boards & Vine
For a long time now I have had several
ideas on some marketing projects I want to get started. I don’t want to discuss
them too much here (that would be telling wouldn’t it!) but it’s a real shame I
didn’t get them underway this year. Vine is a video-sharing platform for quick
6 second films. I wanted to create lots of these on specific book/writing
related projects but will have to wait until 2015 I think because of the internet
connection situation and also most of the ideas I had were for London although
of course I am willing to adapt! The same goes for Pinterest, I have a few
secret boards that I wanted to get up and running, on what I think are very
interesting literary related themes…I’m looking forward to getting back to that
and getting you involved in them too…
Print-On-Demand
It was never an initial aim of mine to use
a print on demand service, I was only interested in eBooks, and I pretty much
still am. However, it has become easier and easier to use these services and
also, several people have asked me about it, so I thought why not. I’ve added
it to my to-do list (erm, business plan) but it’s not top priority, I will see
how things go next year and try to get it going if I can.
Social
Media Advertising and Development
There are a thousand and one things I
wanted to learn, a thousand of which I had no idea about before I started the
company, and I’ve had both fun and frustration getting to grips with the
basics. As I’ve talked about before they are absolutely essential for any
independent person to understand and develop their business. There is a lot of
stuff on Google to work on, analytics and optimization, paid advertising
campaigns to consider, and importantly, linking all of my online presence
together so that I can have the mindset of working as a ‘brand’ that has
specific goals and targets. I am lucky in that I have friends who work in
social media and if any of you are reading this, I will be emotionally blackmailing
you into giving me some of your time and expertise soon enough, don’t think you
have got away with it!
A
couple of thoughts on going away…
Before I go, I was watching a couple of
online videos this week and wanted to share them with you. I leave in a few days and I will do my best to remember Philip Roth’s advice when, without doubt, the
panic sets in and I start to wonder what the hell I have done:
The Book Review Show: Philip Roth
Watch: 02:12 - 02:59
And what I will do my absolute best to do
is prove John Braine wrong (nothing personal of course John Braine fans, there
are some other very interesting points made in the film…and some nonsense too
though) as the timing of me watching this just a few days before I am ‘going
abroad’ really made me laugh…(click on the title below to watch, not the image)
 |
| BBC Writers Archive: John Braine |
Love and best wishes,
RGR
www.thinkingplainly.com
P.S: Please join me on all my social media pages:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Robert.G.Rankine
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/thinkingplainly
- Google+: https://plus.google.com/+RGRankine
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rgrankine
- Instagram: http://instagram.com/rgrankine
- Flickr: https://www.flickr.com/people/thinkingplainly/
- YouTube 1: https://www.youtube.com/thinkingplainly (Personal Channel)
- YouTube 2: https://www.youtube.com/thinkingplainlyltd (Company Channel)
- Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/thinkingplainly/
- Foursquare: https://foursquare.com/thinkingplainly
And Author Profile Pages to keep informed of the latest releases:
- Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/IqRZK (Click 'Add to Favourites’ under profile photo)
- Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1CIEjaf (Click 'Add to Favourites’ under profile photo)
- Nook: http://amzn.to/1CIEjaf
- Google: http://bit.ly/1yyMhQx
- Scribd: http://bit.ly/1xVQlLh
- Apple: Author page not available yet - search R.G Rankine
- Kobo: Author page not available yet - search R.G Rankine
