Home

Who Is J.J.Foxe?

J.J.Foxe is my fiction writing persona.   In my ‘day job,’ my real name is already associated as a brand in two unrelated market areas….to add fiction to that mix would make an already unwieldy balancing act impossible.

So I’ve taken the name J.J.Foxe to attach my upcoming fiction to.

Why The Blog/Website?

Two reasons.

The first is accountability.  If I post my very specific fiction writing goals here in a public place then I’ll feel much more urgency about actually putting in the effort required to achieve those goals.

And the second reason as all about building an audience – or tribe – for J.J.Foxe.  Doing this has worked really well in my ‘day job’ – I’ll blog about this at some stage, but building your own audience or tribe is something that every author should be doing, whether they self-publish or publish traditionally.

And Why Now?

If you read the About JJ Foxe page, you’ll see that I’m old enough to have learned to type on a manual typewriter, but young enough to type at 100 Words Per Minute.   So why embark on this journey now?

There are two reasons.

The first one is this – and I’m quoting Bestselling Author Stephen Barnes here:

“I’d rather fail at writing than succeed at anything else. “

And the second reason is this year I’ve had my nose rubbed in my own mortality too many times – each time I interpret this as a message from the universe.  There are stories only I can write….I’d fucking hate it if when the day comes, part of the ‘eulogy’ at my funeral was about the stories I’d never written.

Really.  I’d hate that.

Spelling Out My Goals

The goal setting process – like writing – is useless without specificity.  I’ll post more on my goals soon….but here are three goals that cover the next 15 months (I’m writing this on September 5th, 2012)

  1. Publish the first J.J.Foxe story to Kindle before Christmas 2012
  2. Write one hour a day, six days a week, before I do my day job.
  3. By Christmas 2013 to be earning an average of $100 per day from the J.J.Foxe stories

What Will You Find On J.J.Foxe.com?

There are five topics that I’m going to be talking about here on J.J.Foxe.com:

  • My thoughts on writing  Ultimately everyone has to find the system that works for them.  If you’re anything like me you find articles about this really interesting.  Please note that these articles are for ME – they will enable me to deepen my understanding of writing topics.  If other writers get value out of them that is gold plated gravy.
  • Marketing My ‘day job’ has involved a detailed study of marketing on the old Interwebz for the last four years…so I probably have a different perspective from how most writers view and talk about this topic.
  • My thoughts on practice There’s few people talking about Deliberate Practice as it should be applied to fiction writing – Deliberate Practice is a topic I’m very familiar with, and it’s a topic I’m going to be sharing here to help people who want to get better actually do that.
  • The process of self publishing I plan to lay out step-by-step posts on how I get the stories onto Kindle, Nook and so on.  Plus I’ll talk about all the other self publishing challenges as they crop up – covers, blurbs, Amazon author pages, and the rest.
  • How the J.J.Foxe stories perform IF you’re thinking of self publishing you’d like to see actual sales numbers and income figures, wouldn’t you?  I know I would – so I’ll be providing them, along with platform breakdowns, promotional strategies and any other juicy business info I can dig up for you.

And as the J.J.Foxe stories get published….I’ll feature some book trailers or talk about them or include little excerpts too.

Why Should I Listen To J.J.Foxe?

This blog is for four types of people:

  • Me  – if I write down my goals in a public place then I’ll hold myself much more accountable than if I scribble them in my ‘Goals Diary.’  Plus any blog posts I write where I share my thoughts on the ‘writing process’ will help ME learn at a deeper level.
  • People who want to write, or want to self publish what they’ve written.  Hopefully my journey will give them a blueprint to follow.  If I can do it, they can do it.
  • Writers who want to get better at writing.  If you subscribe to the million words of crap method of getting better, I’ve got some radical ideas you might find helpful.
  • As I get the J.J.Foxe stories published on Kindle (and Nook, and Kobo and Smashwords and any new platforms that pop up) I’m hoping to connect with people who like the stories and actually wanna hang out with J.J.Foxe the author.

If you’re one of these four types of people, I hope you’ll stick around and dive into some of the content I’ve got planned for J.J.Foxe.com.

If you’re not one of those four types of people you probably shouldn’t be here.  Time is the one resource we’ve all got the same amount of…so if what I’m writing about doesn’t fit you, then find blogs and websites that resonate with you.  And go read them.

On With The Journey

I’ve set out what I want to achieve in my goals statement.  I’ve set out what you can expect in the coming weeks and months on J.J.Foxe.com.  It’s time to get on with the journey.

I hope you’ll enjoy the ride.

 

 

James Foxe

London