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November 26, 2012

Tips for the Serious Freelance Writer

Filed under: Writing — Patricia @ 4:39 am

Today, I’m giving you three tips for starting or amping up a part- or full-time freelance writing career. Tomorrow, you get three more.

There aren’t many careers that allow you to follow your passion while earning a living. And there aren’t many people who can establish the balance one needs in order to create a business around their 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 is convenient to do so or not. Perhaps you have a full life—you work eight or ten hours a day outside the home, you do a lot of charity work and/or you enjoy an active social life. We each establish lifestyles that suit our needs and desires. Our routines are important to us. In fact, it represents our comfort zone. To step outside of this zone, even to pursue something we think we want to do, often causes some discomfort. What to do? You have choices. You can give up your dream of writing or try easing into the writing realm. When people say, “I want to write, but I just don’t have time,” what they mean is, “Writing is not one of my priorities right now.”

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? If your life is filled during all of your waking hours with specific activities and rituals, then something will have to change in order to accommodate your desire to write. And the change won’t occur just by wishing or hoping. It will take your concerted effort.

Get up an hour earlier or stay up an hour later and spend this time writing. Turn off the TV more often—much more often. Say “no” to every other social invitation. 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. If you’re planning to earn a living through writing, nonfiction is easier to sell and a more reasonable medium to engage in. Establish yourself as a nonfiction writer, first—start the flow of work and the flow of money. Then, add to your writing repertoire in order to facilitate your love of fiction.

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.

Now there’s a creative and viable idea. Whether you give horseback riding lessons, make beaded jewelry, are a whiz at finances, raise poodles, do nails or grow herbs, create booklets on various aspects of your knowledge and distribute them for sale to clients, appropriate specialty stores, from your Web site and so forth.

Let’s take the subject of manicures as an example. You could write booklets on the care of your nails, cuticle health, how to give yourself and others a professional quality pedicure, manicure styles over the years, what your nail color choice reveals about your personality, how to decorate your nails for the holidays, recommended products or old-wives tales about nails. And you can submit articles on these topics to magazines at the same time.

There are a gazillion things to write about and even more ways to present each of them. And there are 24 hours in each and every day. Clear space on your daily agenda and start writing about some of those ideas and you could start the flow of paychecks before Christmas.

http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

November 24, 2012

What Authors Should Be Doing NOW!

Filed under: Authorship,Book Promotion — Patricia @ 5:19 am

Today, I want to talk about your speaking plans for next year. You know that once we get through Thanksgiving, the New Year is right around the corner. Are you set up to promote your book in 2013? Have you booked some speaking engagements, workshops on the topic of your book, college classes or readings at libraries, for example? If you don’t have something scheduled for at least once a month throughout the first half of 2013, now is a good time to start planning your public appearances.

Program directors are already scheduling for next year. Librarians, teachers and school district personnel may be eager to bring in authors with pertinent messages. Organizers for conferences occurring in spring and summer—even fall—are open to suggestions.

Perhaps you should be contacting your local civic club program directors, radio show hosts and adult education program organizers now. Scour the Internet for programs and conferences addressing your book’s audience. Are there website hosts presenting podcasts, webinars, teleseminars on your topic? Contact them and see about setting something up.

If your book covers a nonfiction subject with a definite teaching element built in, consider organizing a series of workshops for your audience. This might be on cat behavior, eating clean, gardening, crafts, home decorating, budgeting, investing, writing, Bible study, or any number of topics.

Need help understanding how to approach program directors? Are you timid or unsure about what you have to offer and how to present it most effectively? Could you use a confidence boost? Would you appreciate tons of suggestions, advice, anecdotes and resources on the subject of public speaking and setting up and conducting workshops? Order your copy of Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals, Conferences and More. This is a one-of-a kind book that every author, whether outgoing or shy, will benefit from. It’s available at amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores. Or purchase your copy here: http://www.matilijapress.com

November 22, 2012

The Author’s Thanksgiving

Filed under: Authorship — Patricia @ 4:09 am

Today is America’s annual day of giving thanks. However, as authors, we should express our appreciation more often than once a year. We should thank those who give to us as we journey through the tough process of writing, producing and marketing a book.

I actually received a lovely expression of thanks from a client yesterday, she said, “Thank you for always being so helpful.”

Who should we remember to thank? I’ve listed 20—you can probably think of more.
• Those who take time to review our books.
• Experts and professionals who respond to our questions and concerns.
• Contributors to our books and articles.
• Our editors who go above and beyond—and many of them do.
• Publishers who are wonderful to work with.
• Friends who read our manuscripts and respond honestly.
• Members of our critique groups.
• Mentors, even if they are not officially recognized as such.
• Colleagues and other authors who reach out to help.
• Directors of the organizations and groups that have been helpful.
• Organizers of conferences we attend or speak at.
• Program directors who invite us to speak.
• Fellow writers/authors who support and help us.
• Magazine and web site editors who publish our works.
• Bloggers whose posts help, support, touch us.
• Authors whose books entertain or teach us.
• Our teachers.
• Those who read our blogs, articles and books.
• God for giving us the skill, desire and opportunity to write.
• Our families for tolerating our obsession to write.

That ought to keep you busy today, silently or verbally thanking everyone who has helped you along your writing/publishing path.

I have so many people to acknowledge. Let me start by thanking those of you who faithfully read, occasionally visit or who happened to stumble across my blogsite today. I appreciate you!

Enjoy your day; your family and friends. Happy Thanksgiving.

November 21, 2012

It’s All Up to the Author

Filed under: Book Promotion — Patricia @ 6:17 am

If you have something to sell, you need to find your particular buyers. You must identify them, locate them and approach them. Otherwise, how will they know about your book? Think about it. I mean, really think about it this morning. How will they know your book exists?

Some of you may remember a time before “self-publishing” companies, widely accepted independent publishing, a huge influx of traditional publishing companies and a saturation of books on the market all competing against each other. When your book was accepted by a traditional publisher, you went back to work writing your next one. Oh, you may have had to appear at a book signing now and then. But the publisher took charge of promoting your book. And how did he do that?

You see, this is what many authors are forgetting—that even in the 1980s, ‘70s, ‘60s, ‘50s and so forth, a book, in order to sell, had to be promoted to the appropriate audience. Readers would hear it talked about on a radio/TV show, read a review, see an advertisement in a magazine, notice a press release or story about the author in a newspaper, pick up a publisher’s catalog with the book in it, see it at the library and/or see it in bookstores. The publisher had marketers on staff and they approached your particular audience with news and information about your book.

Fast-forward to 2012. There’s even more competition for books in most all categories. Statistics show there are fewer readers. Publishers have cut way back on their marketing staff, except where a blockbuster book by a name author is concerned. This means it’s up to someone else to promote the other hundreds of thousands of books published each year.

Who do you suppose is interested enough in your book to take on the intense job of marketing it? That would be no one but you. Right?

If you go with a pay-to-publish (self-publishing) company or produce the book yourself, you have signed up to take on the entire job of promotion—or you will fail. And you certainly have some tools and options available to you that were not around in the ‘50s, ‘60s, etc.

Those of you who are currently writing a book or who are ready to publish, make sure that you understand what you are signing up for. My first suggestion is to study the publishing industry so you know what you can expect from it and what it expects from you—if you want some measure of success, that is.

Read the following books from Patricia Fry
Publish Your Book. Learn about the industry and how to navigate it, your options and how to make the right choices and your responsibilities as a published author.

Promote Your Book. This book includes over 250 book promotion ideas with many, many resources and anecdotes and tips from around two dozen authors.

Talk Up Your Book. Personality sells books and this book shows you how to turn up your personality so that you shine, people will notice you and you will sell more books.

All of these books are available at http://www.matilijapress.com and Amazon.com and other online and downtown bookstores. Also available from the publisher’s website: http://www.allworth.com

November 20, 2012

Public Speaking for Authors

Filed under: Book Promotion — Patricia @ 4:52 am

You go out and listen to authors speak on topics related to their expertise. You attend workshops on writing by authors. You buy books by these authors because you recognize the value in their messages. But, when you start planning your book, it never occurs to you that you should be going out and speaking to your readers. Some of you neglect to factor public speaking in as a method of reaching and promoting to your potential readers. And for some authors and some books, this is the ideal way to get word out about your book and entice people to purchase it.

Certainly, there are numerous other methods of book promotion and you should pursue those that work for you and for your book. You can stay home and promote online. You can have your book at Amazon.com and other online and downtown bookstores. You can use social media, post to your massive email list, do a virtual book tour, get book reviews, develop an active blog… But there truly is nothing as effective for some authors as meeting your public and selling to them in person.

I tell people that personality sells books. It’s true. Readers want to have a relationship with the authors they read. They want to know who is behind the marvelous novels they devour or the amazing how-to book that helped them so much or the informational book that so effectively guided them through a project.

Think about it, how often do you purchase something because of persuasion? Or personality?

Plan to do a variety of promotional activities, but make sure that some of those activities require one-on-one interaction with your potential readers through book festivals, presentations at conferences where your readers congregate, at civic club meetings, through podcasts and so forth.

For help in locating these opportunities, preparing for live presentations, rehearsing, creating handouts for such outings, arranging for effective publicity for events, plenty of speaking tips and techniques and more, order your copy of Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals, Conferences and More. It’s at Amazon and other online and downtown bookstores. Or order your copy here: http://www.matilijapress.com

November 18, 2012

Notes to Yourself—What do They Mean?

Filed under: Writing — Patricia @ 6:11 am

Do you ever write a note to yourself during what seems to be a cognizant moment, only to look at that note some time later in total confusion?

I think most writers have had this experience. You wake up in the night with an idea, jot it down using only the dim lighting from the moon or a nightlight in the next room. Only the next day you can’t figure out what it means—sometimes you’re at a loss as to even what it says.

I’ve even tried writing a note to myself while driving. Not a good idea. It’s called distracted driving and I’m sure there’s a law against it.

There used to be (probably still are) devices that you can speak into, record and listen to later. I had one—never thought of something worth recording into it when I had it with me.

I am a list-maker. I am always making note of this or that—tasks, gift ideas, appointments, grocery item. If it’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that if I want my brain to function, I have to avoid overtaxing it. So I take the pressure off of my memory by making notes on my trusty steno pad, post-its, index cards, receipts, gum wrappers and so forth.

Well, last night I had an idea for today’s blog post. I felt as though I was way ahead of the game because, typically, I decide my topic for the day in the morning sort of cold turkey. But last night while watching a cooking show on TV, an idea came to me and, of course, I wrote it down. This morning, I could read my writing. It was clear enough. And the message also seems cogent. But darn if I know what it means. Maybe you can help me out. What would you do with this message?

“What do you do? What do you need?”

Any ideas. Certainly, it would relate to writing, publishing, book marketing. I’ve opened up comments again, so you can leave a comment here. I just hope I recognize your legitimate comment among all of the 30 to 100 totally annoying SPAM comments I get every single day. (Today it was 80.) I’ll never buy UGG boots again or a Coach product or Jordan shoes… Grrrrrrrrrr.

I’m off to see the Cirque du Soleil in Hollywood with my sister, two daughters and mom, in celebration of mom’s 91st birthday today! It was on Mama’s bucket list.

November 17, 2012

As an Author, it’s Not About You

Filed under: Authorship,Book Proposals,Writing — Patricia @ 5:55 am

I told you yesterday that I would talk about some of the reasons why I recommend writing a book proposal before writing the book.

The thing is, just sitting down and writing the book YOU want to write may result in failure for you and your book. Think about it. If you consider your desires rather than the desires and needs of potential readers, you could wind up with a book that won’t sell. This happens to more people that you can even imagine. Or perhaps you decide to spend the next eight months or year writing the book of your dreams and eventually discover that the market is inundated with books like this—there is no room for another book on this subject, written in this way. Maybe there is a glaring need for a book on a topic you could cover. If you don’t write a book proposal, you may miss this opportunity.

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ve “read” me say that a book proposal is a business plan for your book. And one of the first things you need to think about when you decide you want to write for publication is, “Is there a market for this book?” The book proposal will help you to answer this question and even tell you who your audience is, how many of them there are and how to reach them.

If you go to the trouble of developing a business plan for your book (write a book proposal) before you write the book, you will be more apt to write the write book for the write audience.

A book proposal will also help you to gear up for the monstrous task of book promotion. Through a well-devised book proposal, you will learn, as I said, where your audience is and how to reach them, but also what skills, connections and sources of exposure you have that you can use to promote your book and what you need to add to your book promoters’ toolkit.

Whether you want to write a novel, children’s book or nonfiction how-to, informational, self-help book or memoir, write a book proposal before you begin the writing and you will have a much greater understanding of how to proceed and what to expect.

Is there anyone reading this who can attest to this advice firsthand?

For those who write fiction, please do not tell me that by considering your audience first, you will lose your muse—that it is more important that you write from the heart. By all means, you can write from the heart—write what you want—to a point. But if you forget about your audience—discount the fact that you are writing this to be read—you may find that you are not communicating well with your audience. Especially if you are new to writing and you’ve never written a novel, you may tend to leave your readers behind. Your writing might lack clarity and continuity.

The writer has a huge responsibility toward his or her audience and taking the time to write a book proposal can help you to understand this responsibility more clearly and accurately.

Along with developing a book proposal, it is recommended that authors read books in the genre/topic he or she wants to write about. Dissect the contents and organization of nonfiction books. Consider what makes a cozy mystery or a thriller work. What is it about a memoir that makes it popular with readers?

Authors it’s not about you—not when you decide to start writing for publication. It’s about your audience. Take steps to understand your particular audience and exactly what they respond to.

For more of this type of wisdom, information, knowledge and resources, please order my latest books: “Publish Your Book,” “Promote Your Book” and “Talk Up Your Book.” They are available at Amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores as well as my website: http://www.matilijapress.com

Sign up for my online book proposal course and I will walk you through the process. At the end of the course, you could have a completed book proposal. Sign up here: http://www.matilijapress.com/course_bookproposal.htm

November 16, 2012

Your Author’s Library

Filed under: Authorship,Book Promotion — Patricia @ 5:54 am

What does your author’s library consist of? Do you purchase books using a system—you seek out books on certain aspects of writing, publishing and book promotion? Or do you pick up books as you see them. Most authors have multiple books on these topics. And this makes sense, since different authors have varied expertise and have had different experiences. Not only that, there are books for beginners and others that might be more suited to the seasoned author.

Most novelists’ libraries have several, if not dozens of books on writing fiction. And this is good—there are many theories and methods of presenting techniques. Every author, at any stage of the process, should have books on publishing. If you plan to publish the book you are writing, you need to be studying the publishing industry. This is usually number one on my to-do list for any author who decides he or she wants to write a book on any topic or in any genre. Of course, I recommend “Publish Your Book, Proven Strategies and Resources for the Enterprising Author,” (Allworth Press, 2011). This is the revised and updated version of my “Right Way to Write, Publish and Sell Your Book,” (2007 and 2008).

I review books for authors, and I have not come across any other book that covers the industry and the author’s participation in it as completely and thoroughly as this one. (My reviews appear in SPAWNews each month. Subscribe FREE here: http://www.spawn.org and get a FREE ebooklet, “Promote Yourself! 25 Ways to Promote Your Book Whether You Are an Author, Artists or Small Publisher.”)

You need books on book promotion. I recommend that you delve into several books on book promotion throughout the course of writing the book and after–for as long as you want that book to sell. Certainly purchase three or four books on basic book promotion, plus books that specialize on Internet promotion, personal appearances, getting radio interviews and so forth. Those specialty books in areas you want to pursue or that you are a bit timid to pursue can be most valuable. Consider my book, “Promote Your Book, Over 250 Proven, Low-Cost Tips and Techniques for the Enterprising Author,” (Allworth Press, 2012). This is an amazing basic book on book promotion. It is a revised, updated version of a book I wrote in 2000, “Over 75 Good Ideas for Promoting Your Book.”

For a specialty book on using your personality to promote your book, you must consider my latest book—the one-of-a-kind book—”Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals, Conferences and More,” (Allworth Press, 2012).

You might also purchase a book on writing a book proposal, if you feel you need one. I recommend writing a book proposal first—yes, before you write the book—in order to get your bearings within the publishing industry. (I will go into the reasons why—how you can expect a book proposal to increase your chances for publishing success in tomorrow’s blog.) I recommend, “Write the Perfect Book Proposal” by Jeff Herman and Deborah Levine Herman and “How to Write a Successful Book Proposal” by Patricia Fry. There are numerous others.

I also offer an online course on writing a book proposal. http://www.matilijapress.com/courses.htm

Authors should have a good style and grammar book at their elbow while writing and self-editing their books. For authors, it should be the “Chicago Manual of Style.” It is pricey, but worth the money.

All of these books are available at Amazon.com and most other online and downtown bookstores. Patricia Fry’s books can also be purchased at http://www.matilijapress.com

November 15, 2012

Resources for Getting Your Book Reviewed

Filed under: Book Promotion,Writing — Patricia @ 5:40 am

BookBaby has posted my blog on selling books through conferences. Link below. This post is actually partially excerpted from my latest book, Talk Up Your Book, How to Sell Your Book Through Public Speaking, Interviews, Signings, Festivals, Conferences and More.
http://blog.bookbaby.com/2012/11/how-to-sell-books-through-conferences

Did you notice there are three reviews for this book at Amazon.com now?

Have you ever wondered how to get reviews for your book? You ask for them. Who should you ask?
• Those who contributed to your nonfiction book.
• Colleagues and experts that you consulted while writing the book.
• Professionals within your field or writers in your genre.
• Program directors for some of the events where you’ve spoken.
• Friends and readers of your previous fiction or nonfiction works.
• Reviewers for publications related to the topic/genre of your book.

There are also many book review sites online. Most of them do NOT charge. You should not have to pay for a book review. If you are doing your job to become known by your readers, you should be able to call on many of them to give you a testimonial and/or write a review. If your book is decent, you should be able to get some of the online book reviewers to review your book.
Here are a few book review directories:

http://acqweb.org/bookrev.html
http://diryahoo.com/arts/humanities/literature/reviews
http://www.stepbystepselfpublishing.net/free-book-reviews.html
http://hampton-networks.com

Here’s another tip: If you write reviews, testimonials or blog posts for other authors, they are more apt to do the same for you.

http://www.matilijapress.com
http://www.patriciafry.com

November 14, 2012

Speaking Glitches and Hitches

Filed under: Public Speaking — Patricia @ 6:23 am

Yesterday we talked about speaking outside the club and using speakers bureaus. I want to tell you about a strange situation I got involved in some time back related to someone arranging speaking gigs for me.

I have a couple of people who act as minor players in finding speaking and interview opportunities for authors. One gave my name to a gentleman who does teleseminars and he contacted me via email. He asked if I’d be available to sit on a panel of other experts for a teleseminar on a certain date. He also gave a few other possible dates. I immediately replied that the first date was bad—I’d be traveling that day. And I let him know which of the other dates would work for me.

I never heard a word from him.

The day before the original date he had given me—as I prepared to pack for my trip—I received an email from him saying that we were on for the following day and he gave me the instructions for calling in, told me what the subject was, etc. Yikes! I replied to his email saying, “NO, I told you that I was not available that day and I chose one of the other dates you offered to do this. I can’t participate tomorrow, I’ll be in the air on my way to San Antonio.”

I never heard another word from him. I was stunned. I felt bad because I do not leave interviewers or program directors in the lurch. I contacted one of the other people listed for the panel—someone I know. She said she had the same problem. She, too, had replied to his original email telling him she could not do the gig on that date. She never heard from him and then, all of a sudden, here was this email asking her to prepare for the teleseminar scheduled for the next day.

Still, I have never heard anything from this person. I did let the woman who told this guy about me know what had happened. Wanted her to know I wasn’t letting her down—but there had been a giant lack of communication with this guy. Her response was, “What do you want me to do?” Nothing—just thought she should be (and would want to be) aware.

Strange situation. But then, I have been in this business long enough that I have had many of them. If there is an exception to a rule related to writing and publishing, I’ve probably experienced it.

Sales for Talk Up Your Book are zooming. The ranking for this brand new book at Amazon is improving markedly. Thank you to those who have bought it. Did you notice we now have 3 reviews posted at the book page at Amazon. Talk Up Your Book is available at my website as well as amazon and most other online and downtown bookstores.

http://www.matilijapress.com/TalkUpYourBook.html

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