If you’re a writer, find the time (about 20 minutes) to watch this video. It’s not about writing. It’s creating a life where you are radiantly alive and you’re living the life you want.
How many of us wait until the moment when we’re able to write? How many of us play the “if/then” game? (If I get on the New York Times Bestseller’s list, then I’ll be happy.)
Life’s too short to be wasted.
Last week, I had an appointment with two local publicists to help me market the books to Denver. Because I know so little about book marketing, I begged asked my friend, Carol Corbett from a great little publishing house, Publishing Works, for help. Carol is the VP of marketing at Publishing Works. We met on Twitter. She had great ideas and is always willing to help out.
Overall, Carol gave me great ideas about book marketing. I had to share them here.
Marketing MUST HAVES:
Because online marketing seems so easy, Carol said that people forget the basics. Carol believe every book campaign must have:
1. A great local campaign. Your local campaign is literally the foundation of your book sales. In Carol’s words: “If no one in your neighborhood knows you wrote a book, why would anyone else?”
2. A campaign focused on your market. “There is a market ready and waiting for your book,” Carol said. What magazines, newspapers, or TV shows reach your specific market? Find your market then take a few steps back from it – Where do they shop? What do they do on a Saturday? Where do they get their news?
A few marketing DON’TS
1. Don’t get overly focused on being a bestseller. The word is very pliable. There are relatively easy ways to manipulate Amazon or even Barnes and Noble so that you look like a bestseller. But becoming a bestseller doesn’t mean you stay a bestseller. Without the basics, you will fall back to obscurity when your manipulation is done.
2. Don’t listen to anyone who tells you they will get you on Oprah. Chances are you won’t. Further unless you a solid author platform (aka an audience), your visit to Oprah won’t pay off. Your audience pulls you along the path to the NY Times best seller list, Oprah, etc.
3. Don’t give over the entire process to someone else. You must sit in the passenger seat of any book campaign. Marketing is collaborative. For example, if your PR person gets you a TV spot, you should tell the newspapers that you’re going to be on television.
4. Don’t believe the big name authors had it easy. “If you look under the flap of most big name authors, you’ll find that people struggled and suffered when they were starting out.”
A few general principles
1. It takes a lot of marketing, and a lot of dollars, to make a book career.
2. Think of each event – television, best sellers list, radio interviews, book sales – as one step on your journey, not your destination.
3. Look at the timing of your marketing efforts. If there’s something big going on in the media (ex. Obama election, Haiti earthquake), no one is going to pay attention to your event.
4. It’s easy to kiss a lot of money good-bye.
5. The old fashioned marketing techniques work really well because no one does them. (Ex. Hand written thank you notes.)
6. Right now, it’s hard to get people out of their houses to buy books.
7. Don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ to your PR person, an interview request or whatever. It’s better to not go then to have a bad interview.
Good stuff, wouldn’t you say? I hope it helps you on your journey.
You cannot imagine how many times I’ve heard “publishers support authors so authors can just write.” Or…
“It used to be that publishers supported authors so authors could just write.” Or..
“I can’t wait until I’m published so I can just stay at home and write.” Or…
“I wish was (fill in the blank with bestselling author). Their publisher does everything for them so they can just write.”
These statements are fantasy at best. Let’s take a look at each of these statements.
“Publishers support authors so authors can just write.” Writing contracts include publicity and promotions requirements for authors. Further, since 2003, most publishing houses have gutted their publicity budgets. Even bestselling authors are funding their own press and publicity agents. When I worked in the Open Grove, I met many authors who funded their own travel and hotel expenses. One woman, with a bestselling book under her belt, couch surfed around the country in support of her book.
“It used to be that publishers supported authors so authors could just write.” When I hear this statement, I usually ask “WHEN was that?” Pick an era, authors have always had to promote and sell their own books. Walt Whitman went door to door with his book. When people didn’t like Dicken’s work, he and his large family didn’t eat. Mark Twain hated traveling away from home, but left his family for a speaking tour to sell his books and make up for his debts. Even in the recent past, Jennifer Louden traveled the country in her parent’s vehicle teaching Free Adult Ed classes to support Women’s Book of Comfort. To my knowledge, there’s never been a time that author’s could ‘just write.’
“I can’t wait until I’m published so I can just stay at home and write.” This statement reflects a fundamental misunderstanding of the word “advance.” An advance is basically a loan against your future earnings. For easy math, let’s say you receive $50 in an advance. Of that $50, your agent takes $7.50 leaving you with $42.50. You need to save 1/3 for taxes ($12.75) and at least 1/3 for publicity or a press agent ($12.75) This means that you live off of $12.75. But that’s okay, right? You’ll get more. Most authors never see another penny from their books. In fact, outside of about 50 books a year, most books lose money for publishers. What if your book becomes a best seller? Doesn’t help because you make the deal for your book up front. When you signed, you would have signed for anything – and usually authors sign for less than anything. When your first, second or third book becomes a best seller, the publisher wins for the risk of their investment, not you. What about when the story sells to the movie people? David Morrell sold Rambo for $50,000. Total. Period. That’s it. He was delighted for the $50,000. But once it’s sold, it’s sold. The entire billion dollar franchise was started from the $50,000 investment.
“I wish was (fill in the blank with bestselling author). Their publisher does everything for them so they can just write.” When I hear this statement, I always ask “Who are you talking about?” Janet Evanovich in How I write, speaks of working eighty hours a week. Moreover, after writing for eight hours, she spends the afternoon and evening working on marketing efforts. Nora Roberts, one of the most prolific authors of our time, writes all the time, including when she’s on press junket. You can find her in the middle of book tours working on her laptop in the smoking room of airports. She writes in the car, at the hotel and any moment she’s not interacting with someone else. Even after 159 published books, most of them bestsellers, she still doesn’t have the luxury of ‘just writing.’ Stephen King is in very much the same position. Stephen is constantly trying to find better ways to promote and publish his work. He writes at least 8 hours every day then spends the rest of the time trying to find a better way to do business.
The only authors who are able to “just write” do so because they have family money, are supported by a family member, or have other sources of income. No working author gets a free ride.
If you want to write, you will have to learn to promote your work. That’s how it was for Chaucer. It’s how it’s going to be for you.
You work for years. You send your project to your friends, family and finally shell out for a ‘real copy editor’ and a ‘real content editor.’
Then, if that’s the path you choose, you send it to your publisher’s editor. This editor slaves away to make your manuscript make sense. The two of you work your butts off to clarify the story, find all the typos, and make sure the grammar is correct. All the while the cover is being created.
Then your 120,000 word document goes through the process. A book block is created. The cover is approved. And a proof arrives.
You go through it another time – just one more look. And you find a typo or 700.
No problem. Easy to fix. Correct the book block and the book wanders off to be printed!
And the book is finally printed!!
You wait. One book sells, then two. When you look again, you’ve sold 50 copies, then 100. The book is selling! YES! Take that Mr. ‘you suck at writing’ English Teacher!
Now, you need to prepare yourself. Feedback is on it’s way. The Internet gives your readers immediate access to your email, voice mail and website.
Oh, don’t worry. People who hate your book won’t go out of their way to tell you (at least to your face). You won’t hear specifically how much you suck or your book sucks or what a hack you are. No, only social media forums are the elementary play grounds of adulthood. As long as you avoid asking anyone in a social media forum about your book, you’re probably safe.
Most people will tell you how much they like your book.
Then they will tell you about the typos, copy edits, misplaced quotation marks or whatever else their forth grade grammar teacher told them was wrong. It never fails.
It doesn’t matter that there are major copy edit errors in every Harry Potter book, that in half of one of Patrick O’Brien’s Master and Commander books he calls a character by the wrong name, that any book on the shelf has copy errors or even that British grammar differs from US grammar. Because Microsoft and Apple have a grammar checker on their word processing program, your copy is supposed to be perfect.
Most people are trying to be helpful. Truly. They just want to help.
And some people are just snipers. My most recent worst case was in a social media forum. (Yes, I should have written this post before I went there.) Someone shot a sniper round in my latest book release with an: “I see major spelling errors…um…”
She didn’t say WHAT she saw. She didn’t bother to say WHERE she saw it. She just said she saw it. No more follow up. I went into a complete meltdown panic. Finally a couple other friends said, “I see this word…” (Luckily, one typo was in the bookstore and not on the book. One was a word in a quote .)
Another time, someone IMed me in a panic at 10:45 p.m. over a copy error in a sentence in the middle of the book. This is what I mean. Panic. Mayhem. The world is coming to an end. Your 120,0000 word book has a copy error in it!!! Oh. My. God.
Most people are trying to be helpful. And some people aren’t. We could postulate for hours as to why people snipe or say weird things or demoralize. But who cares? Really, why waste your time when other people are willing to help?
What do you focus on? I prefer to focus on the fact that most people are trying to be helpful. When people tell me about copy edits errors or typos or copy errors, I say “Thank you for pointing it out. I appreciate your support.”
Why do I say that? Because I truly appreciate people’s support. I wouldn’t have seen these copy errors if they hadn’t point them out. A few people have generously taken their time to help copy edit books for me or share their ideas to better the text. I am grateful. I need this kind of help. Every author needs this kind of help!
Since my books are published using print-on-demand technology (and really shouldn’t all books be published print on demand?), I keep a book and flag it with copy edits. Six or nine months after the book comes out, I’ll make the corrections and publish a second edition. Easy.
Here’s what David Pogue does with feedback. This is a very funny video worth watching but the part I’m referring to is at 19:21 – just skip ahead.
What will you do? What have you done?
In this video, British singer Robbie Williams has one of those miraculous moments – his dreams came true. Watch his face. See the surprise, gratitude and awe of the moment when dream meets reality.
Some day you’ll have the same experience. Your dreams will come true.
In the words of Winston Churchill, ““Never give in, never give in, never; never; never; never – in nothing, great or small, large or petty – never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense”
I recently read a blog post giving 54 tips for writers and was surprised that my favorite bits of advice weren’t there. I thought I might compile my own list. So here goes:
PROMOTION
1. “Think really hard before you spend a year trying to please one person in New York to get your book published by a ‘real’ publisher. You give up a lot of time. You give up a lot of the upside. You give up control over what your book reads like and feels like and how it’s promoted. Of course, a contract from Knopf and a seat on Jon Stewart’s couch are great things, but so is being the Queen of England. That doesn’t mean it’s going to happen to you. Far more likely is that you discover how to efficiently publish (either electronically or using POD or a small run press) a brilliant book that spreads like wildfire among a select group of people.” (Seth Godin, Advice for Authors, Seth has published most of his own books)
2. ”Don’t get taken in by the Get-Rick-Quick Myth. It takes Ten Years to Become an Overnight Success.” This section talks about the dismal financial reality of being an author. (July Delton, The 29 Most Common Writing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
3. I’ve linked to this article before. Corey Doctorow gives the best reasoning for giving away your work in this article.
4. “Play for anyone who will listen.” Mark Hoppus says this is one of the most important tools in becoming a successful band. But I think it’s very true for authors. You must get your work out in front of people. Hoarding your work stifles your own creativity and growth. Get your work in front of as many eyes as possible. You’ll be amazed at what you learn.
CRAFT OF WRITING
5. “Use small words. Best-selling novelist consistently use shorter words than non-best-sellers. It’s a main reason their writing reads at a faster pace than most mid-list books.” (James V Smith, Writer’s Little Helper
6. I think this chart speaks for itself. If you want people to understand you, write short sentences.
(James V Smith, Writer’s Little Helper
7. About the word said:
“The whole purpose of using ‘he said’ or ’she said’ is to identify the speaker.
(Janet Evanovich, How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author
I heard this for more sources than I can count. You want a fast reading book? Don’t shift off the word ’said.’ Anything else slows the reader down.
8 . Some paraphrased advice:
)DOING THE WORK
9. “Do one task at a time without distractions. This is one of the most important habits in ZTD. You must select a task (preferably one of your MITs) and focus on it to the exclusion of all else. First, eliminate all distractions. Shut off email, cell phone, Internet if possible (otherwise just close all unnecessary tabs), clutter on your desk . Then, set a timer if you like, or otherwise just focus on your task for as long as possible. Don’t let yourself get distracted from it. If you get interrupted, write down any request or incoming tasks/info on your notepad, and get back to your task. Don’t try to multi-task. See How NOT to Multi-Task for more.” I use the timer on my Google Sidebar when I’m writing. I set it for an hour and work until it rings. Check around my world, then start over again. It’s very effective. (Leo Babauta, Zen to Done)
10. “No one’s coming.” My book mentor. He says this to remind me that:
Writing is a solo game. If you want to be successful, you need to start thinking today about what you can to do make it happen. If you can’t do it, no one will.
What’s your favorite piece of writing advice?
Imagine this:
You set aside the time to write. The house is finally quiet. Every responsibility is tucked out of sight.
You sit down at your computer… and don’t feel like writing.
There are few things that are more frustrating to an author. Often, these moments happen right when you must get something written.
I’ve learned that this only happens when I need a break for inspiration.
Inspiration? We tend to think of inspiration as a creative spark, possibly coming from outside ourselves.
But look at the word.
Wikitionary defines Inspiration as:
I’ve learned that when I’m stuck or feel the ‘don’t wannas’ I need to get moving, get breathing. I get up for a fast walk in the neighborhood, a run in the park, fifteen minutes of chasing Rose around the house, dancing in place or even some fast house cleaning.
When I return from inspiring air, low and behold, my writing inspiration has returned.
Recently, my twitter buddy Lyn Thorne-Alder, writer of Addergoole, was on deadline and stuck. I encouraged her to try my walk inspiration trick. After a quick walk around the block, she easily made her word goal for the day.
Works every time.
What works for you?
What can I say? I spend my days with words and have developed a few pet peeves. Here’s an incomplete list
What are your pet peeves?
Let’s face it. We all do it. Maybe we get up early, or set aside time on a Saturday, or even stay up late at night to write. We’re actually excited to sit down at the computer then…
Something shiny comes along.
We remember the mortgage is due tomorrow, dinner needs prepping and our friends on Twitter or Plurk or Facebook really miss us. We might play Facebook games or watch videos of puppies on UStream.
You’ve done it. I’ve done it.
The problem is that time is a static component. Unless we’re traveling out into space, where time is relative, here on earth we only get a fixed amount of time. There’s simply no way to write a novel, short story, article, blog or poem while watching 1,000 of snake in a box television. If you consider the billions of television related tweets and plurks, 140 characters is the sum total of the writing anyone can achieve while watching television.
Writing takes time. Just typing the words into the computer takes time. Research takes time. And then the story must age. There’s time involved in endless edits and copy edits. Writing takes work, sometimes hard work. This week, I read an interesting article about this very topic. Ann Patchett’s conclusion was that writing should be treated like a job. While I hesitate at the word ‘job,’ I agree that writing is work.
I know how lucky I am. Right now, I have been given the gift of working on my writing. The gift of this time should not be repaid by spending hours watching otters holding hands or videos of people making rain. Instead, I make every effort to use the time to actually write.
Recently, I started getting up at 5:30 in the morning to work on a new project. I was stunned at how much I could get done with a couple of hours of quiet. This has grown into entire mornings of writing. And, not surprisingly, my output has increased.
If you’re not meeting your writing goals, ask yourself – are you giving it enough time?
If not, how could you make the time you need to get your writing done?
Post your ideas in the comments and I’ll link to you here.
We all have them. Special little words that creep into our every sentence. They are like weeds. Sometimes we notice them, sometimes we don’t.
My weed words?
JUST
and it’s evil cousin
THAT
Before I send any manuscript to the copy editor, I go search for the words “just” and “that.” I try to decide if I want to keep them in the sentence or if another word will do. I do the same for adverbs and adjectives but that’s another rant.
What about you? What are your weed words? (List them in the comments and I’ll add them here.)
Have you trained yourself out of using them? Or do you search and destroy?
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© On a limb with Claudia. Say something clever here. Or not. You decide.
