Timothy's Thoughts

One of the things I have been thinking about recently is how can a novelist use a website to sell books? It is very important that we draw a distinction between novels and non-fiction books. It may not be easy, but with non-fiction the formula is straight forward. The Non-fiction Method People choose which websites they visit based on a felt need. Often, the felt need is translated into a search engine query. Unless you are a regular reader of this blog, you may have found this post by typing how can a novelist use a website to sell books or something similar, into Google or some other search engine. You may have clicked on the link because it may answer your question. Following that thought. If a non-fiction author has written a book about Habakkuk, it is reasonable to assume that the people who will buy the book are looking for information about Habakkuk or other books about prophets. The author can provide this information on his website and then simply say, “if you would like to ...

The Olympics are over. As we look back at it, what is it about the Olympics that made it so special? Is it because it brings the world together for two weeks of peace? No, there was no peace. Even at the Olympic games President Bush was talking to the Russians about a war with Georgia. A Cuban athlete and his coach were barred from a sport for life because the athlete kicked an official in the face. There were questions about judging practices and questions remain over whether the host country, China, cheated to obtain some of their many medals. Peace? There was no peace. Was it special because of how much China put into it? Maybe if you went, but for those of us at home it wasn’t so impressive. Sure, they threw many resources and many people at it, but what good is numbers when it lacks beauty? The 2008 Olympics were held in some of the ugliest buildings in the world. No, it wasn’t the resources they threw at it. The thing that makes the Olympics special is the celebration of our simi...

On the surface, when we consider the difference between guy fiction and gal fiction, we might say that guy fiction is about blowing things up and gal fiction is about relationships, but if we look at a guy movie like Die Hard we can see that the main character just wants to rebuild his relationship with his wife and the bad guys are getting in the way. In other words, guy fiction is about some of the same things gal fiction is. The true difference, if there is one, is in how the protagonist solves the problem. In both, the protagonist will debate until he or she figures out what action to take, but that is where things change. In guy fiction, the action that the protagonist takes tends to be more physical. He might not blow something up, but he might build something or go somewhere or stand in front of thousands of people to ask his girlfriend to marry him. In gal fiction, the action is more subdued. The action she takes might be to talk to someone, even though she fears how he will r...