Writing and Publishing News

It’s tough to be a self-starter and to work independently when your efforts seem to be for naught.

Don’t you feel more like working when you’re actually experiencing positive feedback—when your articles are being accepted, your books are selling well and/or your clients are thanking you profusely for your good work? Ah, yes. And isn’t it annoying when you are ignored and rejected? It’s not easy to get back on that bucking horse. But successful writers and authors have done so many times. They’ve licked their wounds, tended to their bruises and climbed back up into the saddle. It’s the only way to succeed.

If you want writing/publishing success, giving up is not an option. If things aren’t going your way, find another way. And don’t look for the easy way out. One of the easy options offered to hopeful authors today is the pay-to-publish service option. These companies may call themselves self-publishing companies. They may seem like the answer to a struggling or hopeful author’s dreams. In reality, these publishing services may actually be stifling your dreams of success.

They don’t do anything to help you grow as a writer or as an author. They take more away from you than just your money. They give you an easy way out of the frustrating, difficult process of authorship. They publish your book for a fee and then toss you to the wolves. In the process, you have not been encouraged or guided in how to make your book the best that it can be. You know nothing or little about the publishing industry and how you fit into it. You are not prepared for the reality of your promotional responsibilities. And you are trying to sell a book that may not be ready for an audience and that is often too high priced to sell.

If you are contemplating turning your book over to a fee-based publishing service, PLEASE read my book first. The most valuable gift you can give yourself is knowledge. Educate yourself about the publishing industry—learn about your choices and the ramifications of those choices. Don’t spoil your chance for publishing success. Arm yourself with knowledge and make educated decisions.

Order your copy of “Publish Your Book” today. It’s in print, Kindle and audio at Amazon.com. It’s filled with information, resources and inspiration from my forty years in the business and provides perspective and guidance from an additional two dozen professionals and others who have experienced some measure of publishing success.

Note: This message was first posted here in June of 2006—only the book title I recommend has changed. “Publish Your Book” is the revised, updated version of another book I wrote for you—“The Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book.”

Are you writing your memoir, a children’s book, a how-to or a young adult fantasy? When is the last time you read a book in this category? Many of you can only answer that question with—“never” or “a long time ago.” And, in case you’re wondering, this is the wrong answer.

You need to read what you write. Why?
• In order to see what’s out there in this category, topic, genre.
• To understand all you can about the genre.
• So that you are more apt to write the right book for your readers.

What elements are a must in a children’s adventure book? What should you avoid? What type of memoir is most popular? What makes a memoir interesting to read? What techniques turn readers off? How is a successful how-to or self-help book organized?

Yes, you want to be creative. You don’t want to copy other writers. However, neither do you want to confuse or turn off readers.

Before you launch out to write your memoir or your first children’s book, study books in this genre or topic—lots and lots of them. Get a feel for what works, what’s appropriate and what readers want/need and will accept. And then you will be more apt to write the right book for the right audience.

For more about writing and publishing your book, read my book, “Publish Your Book.” It’s at Amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores. You’ll find it in print, Kindle and audio. Or purchase your print copy here: http://www.matilijapress.com

Yesterday, I shared three tips for jumpstarting your writing career. Here are three more. I can’t tell you how many people I meet every year who ask me how I organize my time so that I can write. Well, for me, writing is my full-time work. It’s what I do and what I’ve been doing for forty years. It’s a lifestyle that I take for granted now. But in the beginning, I had some of the same challenges you have when it comes to finding time to write, disciplining yourself to write and so forth.

I once worked at a regular job outside the home, for example, but I still found time to write. Here are three more tips for you:

4: Use your time wisely. Becoming a successful freelance writer or to write a book takes discipline and realistic scheduling. Failure comes to those who procrastinate, who have trouble prioritizing tasks and who are easily distracted. Those who succeed in this business have found a way to organize their lives and discipline themselves.

5: Just start. It isn’t easy to transition from full-time office worker to full-time writer. Most of us don’t have the funds to support us while we build a new business. I didn’t always have 12 or even 8 hours each day to spend working my freelance writing business. I built it over time. For any of you who are interested, here is my story:

I started writing articles for magazines from a corner of my bedroom using a manual typewriter in 1973. Thirteen years later, however, it became necessary for me to take a full-time job. I’d just spent 5 years researching and writing a comprehensive local history book and self-publishing it. So funds were low and my lifestyle was in transition.

How I missed writing. While I had a good job with lovely people around me, I disliked working for someone else—on someone else’s agenda. And it looked as if this would be my future. I became despondent. That’s when I realized that I had to find a way to write no matter what else was going on in my life.

I started getting up at 4 every morning and writing before I went to work. Then I would write on weekends. I completed an entire book in 8 months on that schedule. I can’t even begin to describe how happy and fulfilled I felt. But I wanted more. I wanted to come home and establish a writing business that supported me spiritually as well as financially. So I began using that time in the wee hours of the morning to submit articles to magazines—remember, this was before the ease of the Internet. Within a year, I was able to quit my job and come home to write. And I’ve never looked back.

6: Write what they want. You have to go where the paying work is and accept the jobs that are available. While I never compromised my values in order to get paying work, I have certainly had to take some challenging and sometimes not very interesting jobs in order to keep the flow of money coming my way.

I’ve seen too many writers so bent on making their own personal statement or doing things their way that they get nowhere in this business. If you want to make a living or even earn some part-time money as a writer, you have to go where the work is and write what is needed/wanted. Write about things that are current, popular or even a bit provocative or controversial.

It takes more to become a full-time writer than just dreaming about it. If writing full-time is your dream, read and reread the above six points and use them to finally fulfill your passion.

Would you like to establish a career as a freelance writer? Do you dream of writing full-time? Follow the suggestions below and your dream could become a reality.

1: Spend time writing whether it’s convenient to do so or not. Your routine is important to you. In fact, it probably represents your comfort zone. To step outside of this zone, even to pursue something you want to do, often causes some discomfort. You have choices. You can give up your dream of writing or try easing into the writing realm. How? Make writing a priority and you will find the time.

2: Make time to write. Usually this means making some sacrifices. What are you willing to give up in order to write? Sleep, TV, Internet surfing or perhaps overtime at work?
Get up an hour earlier or stay up an hour later and spend this time writing. Turn off the TV more often. What may feel like a sacrifice at first, will become part of your new writing routine. If writing is your passion, you will soon feel blessed to have the time to write rather than feeling deprived of time in front of the TV.

3: Be realistic about your writing choices. Perhaps your true dream is to support yourself by writing stories for your favorite romance magazines. Or maybe you’d like to become a novelist. It is extremely difficult to break in as a career writer of fiction. If fiction is your writing bag, I strongly urge you to set that dream aside for now and pursue a mode of writing that is more likely to produce the monetary results you are seeking.

Here’s what I recommend: start writing articles for magazines, seek freelance writing work in corporate offices or on the Internet or produce some how-to booklets on topics related to your expertise, for example.

If, however, you are submitting fiction in order to support your upcoming novel or the novel you are currently promoting, by all means stay on this task. If you need some resources listing fiction markets, let me know and I’ll send those to you.

Tomorrow, I will provide the additional three tips for freelance writers.

Is the book you propose wanted or needed by a distinct segment of readers? Does it have the elements your readers require or expect? Does it respond to the questions or concerns of your readership? If it is fiction, are all of the elements your readers enjoy written into the story?

Here are 10 things that you can do in order to make sure you are writing the right book for the right reader:

1: Study the market with regard to books like the one you want to write. For nonfiction, what is missing from most books within the realm of your topic—what is not being covered? For fiction, discover what is currently popular? Which genres are selling?

2: Study books within the category you want to write. What makes these books work? What do you want to avoid with your book? Maybe books in your topic are typically heavily illustrated with graphs and diagrams. Perhaps readers of these books appreciate a lot of examples throughout. Certainly the way a nonfiction book is organized is important.

3: Connect with your proposed audience through online discussion groups, bulletin boards, and find out what this audience wants/needs.

4: Read what others are discussion in these discussion groups, but also ask pointed questions to get the information you want. Ask, for example, “What would you like to see included in a book related to animal behavior?” “What elements are missing in the relationship books you’ve been reading?” or “What tugs at your heart most in your favorite novels?”

5: Join a group or organization in order to become more educated about what is available and what is needed. Involvement with your potential audience is a great way to learn about their reading needs/desires.

6: Subscribe to newsletters and enewsletters directed at your proposed audience and read them. Pay particular attention to letters to the editor.

7: Visit blogs related to your book’s topic/genre. Study the posts and the comments.

8: Start your own blog along the lines of the book you propose and invite comments from your potential audience.

9: Teach a workshop or class in your topic or genre. Listen to your students’ questions and comments.

10: Communicate with other authors of books like the one you propose. Most are willing to discuss the topic and their books. One author may tell you that publishing a memoir is a big waste of time and money. However, you might discover that this author hasn’t done any promotion and, in fact, doesn’t understand the necessity to promote your book or how to go about it. Another author of a memoir might recommend that you provide more than just your story in order to attract a wider audience—a self-help or educational aspect, for example. This step could give you valuable insight. Or it could be a deflating experience.

Your primary concern before you write a book should be whether or not this is the right book to write at this time and if you are writing it for the right audience. Take these 10 steps and you will be closer to making the best decision on behalf of your fiction or nonfiction book.

For additional help, be sure to read my book: “Publish Your Book, Prove Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author.” It’s at Amazon.com in print, Kindle and audio. Also available here: http://www.matilijapress.com

Are your book sales dwindling? Have you been busy with other things and you’ve neglected your job as marketing agent for your book? Maybe you feel you have put in your time with your book and it should be selling on its own by now.

That’s not going to happen. Your book will sell only for as long as you are willing to promote it. What does this mean? That you can’t ignore your book. You can’t do a blast of promotion and then stop. If you want to continue attracting readers—to keep making sales, you must keep promoting. Here are 10 things you can do this week to boost your book sales.

1: Carry your book with you everywhere you go this week and show it off every chance you get.

2: Stop in at one or more bookstores or appropriate specialty stores and ask the managers to carry your book. If you have it in these stores already, check to see if they need more copies.

3: Hand out promotional bookmarks or other materials to everyone you see. Leave some scattered here and there for people to find.

4: Offer a discount for Father’s Day or for Summer Reading and send a notice to your email list.

5: Call a few friends, acquaintances or colleagues to remind them of your book or email them a special message.

6: Send promotional material with your bill payments and mail one in all of those return address envelopes you receive in the mail this week.

7: Arrange to speak to your audience. Is there someplace you haven’t made an appearance yet—where your audience congregates? This might be before a church group, businessmen’s or women’s club meeting, service club meeting, at a local school, etc.

8 If your book would make a good Father’s Day gift, visit with a neighbor and suggest it.

9: Leave books in the lobby of local hospitals, doctor’s offices and/or the lunch room at large companies. Include ordering information.

10: Sign up for a booth at a book festival near your home or someplace where you’ll be traveling this summer. Locate festivals by using keywords, “Book Festival” and the city/state.

Bonus Idea: If you don’t blog, set up a blog site this week. If you have a blog, promote your book through your blog all week.

For additional book promotion ideas, order your copy of my book, “Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author.” It’s at Amazon.com in print, Kindle and audio. Also order it here: http://www.matilijapress.com/PromoteYourBook.html

I’ve been creating free 50-way reports for authors at my PatriciaFry.com website for a couple of years. I’ve done four of them, and I have a new one ready to post. So watch for the announcement.

Have you thought of doing this type of promotion for your nonfiction book? Can you come up with a list of 50, 25 or even 10 tips, ideas, resources or little-known-facts/trivia related to the topic or theme of your book? It’s a good exercise for creating presentations, articles and new books on your topic as well as freebies for your readers. Here are some examples that might help you get started:

1: For a how-to or informational book on aviation, gardening, horse racing, selling a house more quickly, foods/cooking, family finances or organization techniques, for example, consider the following: 10 of the easiest (most fun) planes to fly and why; 25 flowering indoor plants you can grow; 10 tips for betting the horses; 50 tips for making your house more appealing to a buyer; 25 ways to create more attractive dishes; 50 ways to help your kids learn money awareness; 25 ways to become more organized.

2: Some nonfiction books are more conducive to the list—for example, travel, parenting and educational. But you still might be able to come up with interesting and educational list items for a memoir (10 things you didn’t know about my home country or state; 25 ways to sell your art; 25 tips for curing cancer…), for true adventure (25 ways to stay safe in the wilderness, 10 things every horseback rider should know…) or a scientific book (10 ways to get the most out of a visit to an aquarium, 25 bugs and beetles you want in your yard…)

3: You can provide lists for fiction, too. I know an author who writes western romance novels. She offers readers lists of old west trivia. Fun stuff. If your book is set in another century or country, if it features or touches on a real event or person in history or if it has a supernatural, spiritual, lesson aspect, consider lists of little-known facts, interesting trivia, revealing details and so forth along these lines.

If you are an author, you know your book inside out. But many of you have never dissected your story or your nonfiction book to the degree that you should in order to adequately describe it, write powerful back cover copy or a press release, prepare a fascinating speech or use material and innuendoes from your book in order to promote it. Maybe this will give you something to think about.

Once you come up with your list, share it here with my readers.

I’ve been gone for a couple of days. It was a fun and relaxing get-away. And I’m glad to be home and back in my routine. While I was enjoying life away from the office, I also stayed closely in touch with the artist for the cover of my first novel. Before I arrived home, we had the cover set. Within the next week or so, I will be making the big announcement for my cozy mystery, Catnapped, a Klepto Cat Mystery. So get your Kindle ready to download the debut novel and learn all about Rags, the cat and all of his special people and how he helps to solve a mystery involving a ring of catnappers. No, he doesn’t have a speaking role in the book. He’s an ordinary cat with a few out of the ordinary habits.

But doesn’t that describe many cats you know? They each have such different and intriguing puuuursonalities.

I’ll also have a new freebie for you on how to build and maintain your author platform. I’ll make that announcement soon as well.

As you can see, lots popping here in the offices of Patricia Fry and Matilija Press. So stay tuned.
http://www.patriciafry.com
http://www.matilijapress.com

You might consider it popularity, prominence, visibility and/or credibility. It may consist of experience, connections, skills, proficiencies and reputation. It is basically your reach—your following. It’s not so much who you know as who knows you with regard to the topic or genre of your book. How many people know you or know who you are? How many have you influenced in a positive way related to the theme or genre of your book? Are you a trusted expert or professional in your field or in the genre of your book?

Here’s a question you should contemplate even before you write your book. Why would someone buy your book rather than others on the market? This is something you need to seriously explore. If you can’t come up with valid reasons, it may be because you haven’t taken the time and effort over the years—or you just haven’t had the opportunity—to build a solid author platform. Not enough people know who you are. You don’t have a track record within your topic or your genre.

This is the gist of the upcoming freebie I’ll be offering at my website http://www.patriciafry.com It will include 50 ways to build or add to your author platform.

Currently, you can download 50 Ways to Use Your Personality to Sell Books. It will be available for another week or so for free so get your copy now. And watch for the announcement for the new freebie—50 Ways to Establish Your Author Platform.

Many first-time authors are so focused on selling books that they neglect a very important aspect of marketing and promotion: Exposure.

I’ve seen authors complain at the end of a day at a book festival because they sold only 12 books. Never mind the fact that hundreds of people saw the book, dozens picked it up and discussed it with the author, 130 people walked off with his brochures, he was invited to appear on a radio show and he met two people who use speakers at their monthly meetings. Yes, he may have lost money if the booth cost him $100, lunch was $8 and he paid $5 for parking. But, in my estimation, he still gained more than he lost.

He has 12 new customers who, if they like the book, will talk about it with their friends. He can add those new customers to his mailing list and let them know when his next book is out. And he collected several leads that, if he follows up on them, could result in numerous sales. This is what’s known as exposure.
There’s an old marketing concept that says someone must see or hear about your product (be exposed to it) 8 times before he or she will buy it. So, as authors with books to sell, we must consider each opportunity to talk about our book or show it to someone as a step toward selling it to that person (or a whole audience of persons).

That’s why I always suggest to those who are out giving presentations related to their books, attending book festivals and so forth, to have a signup sheet. You want to establish a connection with people who express an interest in your book. You want to make contact with them again and again. One way to accomplish this is to offer something for free. Have a signup sheet for those who want to receive your free ebook in the genre or on the topic of your book. Offer a “report” they might be interested in—8 tips for using garlic in cooking, tips and techniques for photographing your pets, how to handle your money in this economy or some of your favorite short stories.

Offer services for free. I offer free manuscript evaluations, for example. If you are an accountant with a book on family budgeting, offer a free email consultation for all or a few of those who sign up. Maybe your expertise is health and fitness. Offer your latest reports on fitness tips for the elderly, for example. Come up with something that members of this particular group of people could use and they will sign up for it—providing you with names and contact information to use in promoting this and any future books and/or services.

Do you see how valuable exposure can be? You may decide, “I don’t want to purchase a booth at that small book festival, even if it only costs me $75, because there won’t be enough sales.” But, I suggest thinking like a savvy promoter and signing up for that booth with a whole new attitude. Think exposure! Don’t be irritated with the folks who just walk on by your booth or who pick up your book, listen to your spiel and then put it down and move on. Be honored. Be grateful for the opportunity to connect with this person. Make sure he or she takes something with them—your brochure or business card, for example. Invite them to sign up for your freeby. And thank them profusely for stopping by.

Always consider each and every visitor at a book festival and member of any audience a potential customer or client who could purchase your book or contact you for your service at any moment. It may take exposure to your book or you a dozen times or more before they buy. But, if you neglect to connect in some way with that person the first time around, or if you let your disappointment show, you will likely never hear from them again.

For more about book promotion and getting exposure for your book, as well as how to work a book festival so it works for you, purchase my book, “Promote Your Book.” It’s available at amazon.com in print, Kindle and audio as well as most other online and downtown bookstores.

You might also want to sign up for my online Book Promotion Workshop. It’s a great way to get hundreds of dollars worth of personal attention from me for only $200. http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookpromotion.htm