Category authorship

Apr 27 2013

Murphy’s Laws of Writing

Writing

(1) You are more likely to be interrupted when you’re in the middle of a very deep thought. Silencing your phone, sending the kids out, and disabling the doorbell simply inspire Murphy’s creativity.

(2) Your muse will abandon you whenever you need her the most. But don’t worry: She’ll return as soon as you become too preoccupied to write.

(3) Your best ideas are most likely to come when you don’t have anything to write with or to write on. You’re also likely to be frequently interrupted between your moment of inspiration and the moment you’re able to jot it down.

(4) Whenever you correct a set of typos, you introduce some new ones.

(5) The fewer words you write, the greater the chances that there will be a glaring typo.

(6) Your worst typos are most likely to occur in the most prominent places, such as the first paragraph of the book or the book description.

(7) It’s much easier to see somebody else’s mistakes than it is to find your own.

(8) Not checking your preview or proof is like waving a large red flag with Murphy’s name on it.

(9) If you’re not sure about something that you’re writing, but don’t take the time to check, it will probably be wrong. However, if you do take the time to check, it will probably be right.

(10) The more people who read your writing, the greater the chances that there will be an embarrassing mistake in it. Presenting it to a large audience via PowerPoint improves the odds.

(11) After submitting revisions, if you quickly thumb through your book, your eye is very likely to spot a typo.

(12) The more frequently you check your sales report, the more likely you are to be disappointed.

(13) The more frequently you check your book reviews, the more likely you are to be disappointed.

(14) You’re much more unlikely to see a sale post on your report while you’re spending money.

(15) A good review is 100 times more likely to disappear than a bad review.

(16) One stupid comment that you make in the most remote corners of the internet is far more likely to generate publicity than anything else that you do.

(17) If you only have one copy of your file, this improves the chances that the file will become corrupt. The closer the book is to completion, the greater the odds.

(18) If all of the versions of your file are stored on the same computer, this improves the chances that the hard drive will crash.

(19) If you download a program to help with your book without paying attention to where the file is saved, it will be buried in the least obvious place.

(20) If you need to revise your book, but didn’t keep track of the location and name of the most recent file, you’re more likely to reintroduce old typos when you correct new ones.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2 now available)

Apr 26 2013

A Humble Little Book

Part 1

She worked from 9 to 5. It was a boring job, but it paid the bills.

From 6 to 10, she sat at her computer, typing a book. This was very fun, but just a hobby.

Several months later, her book was finished, but not yet complete. She spent a few more months reading, revising, proofreading, editing, perfecting.

Then it was time to share her work. She viewed her writing as a hobby, not as a profession. So she opted to self-publish.

Specifications. Formatting. Googling computer skills. Researching. PDF conversion. Formatting problems. Asking for help. Reformatting. Not the fun part of her hobby, but at the same time, she was growing anxious. So thrilling and nervous at the same time!

She thought about hiring an editor to help revise and format her book. She considered hiring a cover designer. But as this was just a hobby, should would settle for a humble little book. However, she did proofread it carefully again, and even sought help from friends.

The description was the hardest part to write. All in all, she wrote a dozen descriptions, and the last didn’t remotely resemble the first. It wasn’t a killer blurb, but she researched descriptions of similar books and sought advice from friends. It would suffice.

The biography was a stumper, too. Qualifications? Experience? Skills? Background? Then she realized that she wasn’t writing a resume. Writing was her hobby, not her profession. Readers might be interested in her life experience, not her writing career.

Author photo… (she was a little shy). But her writing was very personal, and she was sharing that. So she would share her photo, too. Not glamorous, but much better than the DMV.

Approve Proof. Click! Ta-da! Celebration coming on!

There it is on Amazon. Check that out. She showed her friends and family. Some pats on the back. A show of support. A little unexpected criticism.

Way down the search results. No reviews. Occasional sales. Well, she wasn’t a bestselling author; not bad for a hobby. Wrote and published a book: Quite an accomplishment!

Part 2

He saw the thumbnail. Not a Picasso. Not eye-popping. But there was something about it. So he clicked the link.

Didn’t sound like the popular books. But it was intriguing. So he looked inside.

Wasn’t fancy. But it was nice enough. And the story caught his interest. So he bought it.

Wasn’t flawless. A few typos. An occasional formatting mistake. But not enough to detract from the story. So he read it.

Wasn’t a nail-biter. Not a page-turner. Yet he enjoyed the story. So he finished it.

He even left a review and told a few friends.

Part 3

It wasn’t a bestseller. But it sold occasionally.

She didn’t market avidly. Yet many (to her) people read her book and truly enjoyed the story. She touched their minds. They shared experiences and emotions that she created. And they appreciated this.

She continued her hobby.

It was a humble little book. Yet it was a success.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2 now available)

Apr 22 2013

Rush, Rush, Rush to Self-Publish!

Day 0:

Think, think, think. Think. Think… think.

Idea!

Day 1:

Type, type, type. Type. Type. Type, type, type.

Day 14:

Type, type, type.

Day 30:

Writer’s block.

Day 35:

Type, type, type.

Day 60:

T. Y. P. E.

Day 90:

Ta-da!

Day 91:

Proofread, proofread, proofread.

Day 92:

P. R. O. O. F. R. E. A. D.

Day 100:

Research publishing options.

Day 101:

Decide to self-publish.

Sign up for an account.

Day 102:

Learn about formatting.

Day 103:

Format, format, format.

Day 104:

F. O. R. M. A. T.

Day 110:

Upload.

Day 111:

Check digital proof.

Day 112:

Ask for help on the community forum.

Day 113:

Implement formatting changes.

Day 114:

Re-upload.

Day 115:

Publish!

Day 116:

Celebrate!

Day 117:

Encounter Look Inside issues.

Day 118:

Post question on community help forum.

Day 119:

Reformat.

Day 120:

Republish.

Day 121:

Find book way down in search results.

Day 122:

Still no sales rank.

Day 123:

No activity.

Day 130:

Request feedback on community help forum.

Day 131:

Look for cover designer and editor.

Day 191:

Republish.

Day 200:

Sales still infrequent.

Day 201:

Look into marketing.

Day 210:

Why was I in such a rush to publish my book?

* * *

If only there were a better way, like:

  • Researching the book idea before writing.
  • Perfecting the craft of writing.
  • Reading bestsellers in the genre to learn what works.
  • Checking out covers of top sellers in the genre to see what readers expect.
  • Reading blurbs of best sellers in the genre to learn how to draw interest.
  • Getting the book edited before publishing.
  • Seeking feedback on the cover and blurb before publishing.
  • Learning how to create buzz for an upcoming book.
  • Learning about marketing before the book is published.
  • Marketing before the book is published.
  • Coming up with an effective promotion plan.
  • More marketing after the book is published.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2 now available)

Apr 19 2013

Three – the Self-Publisher’s ‘Magic’ Number

In many ways, the number three serves as a ‘magic’ number for self-publishing.

(1) Three words or less.

Bestsellers often have three or fewer words in the title. This makes the title easier to remember, which helps with branding and word-of-mouth referrals.

(2) Three images or less.

The best front cover designs often feature three images or less. This makes the cover more memorable, and helps book browsers quickly see what message the book is sending regarding its genre and content. Busy covers tend to deter sales. Just one striking image that signifies the precise genre and relates to the content is most memorable.

(3) Three seconds to catch attention.

Customers who are browsing for books in search results quickly glance at various covers. Book covers have just a few seconds to catch attention.

(4) The three-color rule for cover design.

Professionally designed covers usually follow the three-color rule. The primary color and secondary color should create marked contrast. An accent color complements either the primary or secondary. The colors come in the approximate ratio 6:3:1.

(5) The rule of thirds.

According to the rule of thirds, an image stands out when it is one-third from the edge, rather than occupying the center. This also helps to leave room for the title and other cover text. Visually, the rule of thirds helps the onlooker to determine which part of the cover is the main feature. With the three-second rule in mind, this is an important tactic. When the main image is placed in the center, it instead divides the book into two equal halves.

(6) The trilogy.

Customers who enjoy a book usually want more. Three books is the tried and true number, such that we’re all familiar with the term ‘trilogy.’ Do you happen to know the terms for series with a different number of books? Most of us don’t, but we all know the term for a three-volume set. Readers like it when each volume of the series provides a satisfying ending of its own, and where each volume is so good that they want more. But after the third book, it becomes a challenge to maintain the original spirit while also utilizing enough creativity.

(7) Three or more contributors.

The self-published author must do all of the writing, editing, formatting, illustrating, marketing, and public relations. Almost all authors need help with at least two of these areas. Most self-published authors should hire an affordable, yet quality, editor for proofreading or formatting and an experienced, inexpensive cover designer. Marketing is another area where authors need help, but where there isn’t an easy way to buy your way out of this necessary and challenging work.

(8) Three R’s of branding.

Authors and books get branded with repetition among the target audience. Branding results in purchases when members of the target audience recognize the book while making a future purchase. It’s most successful when there are many customers both recognizing the book from branding and referring the book to others because they love the book. A prior article discussed the three R’s of branding (actually, this article has a fourth R):

https://chrismcmullen.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/marketing-the-4-rs-of-branding/

(9) Three marketing targets.

Authors can receive early sales of their first book from family, friends, and acquaintances and also use this group to help create buzz. They can draw from their fan base for similar support of their subsequent books. Their ultimate target is new members from the book’s target audience.

An author’s personal social media account helps to reach friends, family, and acquaintances. Fan pages and blog or social media followers of the author’s writing account help to stimulate sales of subsequent releases. Keywords, tags, and hashtags help to reach new members of the book’s target audience, as do personal interactions online and writing articles, for example.

(10) Save novelties for book three.

Most self-published authors want to deviate from traditional bestselling ideas. But this freedom comes at a cost. It’s more challenging to market books that aren’t geared toward a traditional audience. Authors looking to be in the elite group of bestselling authors should seek genres in which they are a good fit to write and for which there is a very large existing audience, such as mystery or romance. Don’t break the unspoken rules (like not providing a satisfying happy ending or giving the protagonist character traits or actions that will upset many readers) and design a cover, title, blurb, and story that these readers will be looking for if you’re hoping to be a top seller.

Once you’ve established yourself and built a following, with your third book you can exercise some creative freedom and break some of these rules. This way, there will already be a large audience willing to try your creative book, whereas trying this with your first book may reach a very narrow audience.

You don’t have to “sell out.” You have the artistic freedom to write as you wish. The question is how you wish to weigh the benefits of doing what you want versus the benefits of selling more books, as there is often a very strong inverse correlation.

(11) Three types of author websites.

An author’s blog features daily or weekly written articles. An author’s website does more than this. It may offer the author’s books and related materials for sale or provide supplemental content, for example. A fan page is geared toward existing fans. The blog and author’s website hope to reach new members of the target audience as well as interest current fans with useful content.

(12) Three author pages.

Authors maintain an author page at Amazon through AuthorCentral. They also establish an author account at GoodReads. A social media fan page, at Facebook or Twitter, for example, is another avenue where customers frequently search for authors.

(13) Three-dollar eBooks.

With KDP paying 70% royalties on eligible eBooks with a list price of $2.99 and up, the three-dollar eBook has become quite common. This may not be the best price, but it’s certainly common.

(14) Three books on the signature line.

An author with very short titles can squeeze up to three books on the signature line of online posts.

Chris McMullen, author of Book One, Book Two, and Book Three. (If only I had had the wisdom of choosing shorter titles in the past, I could illustrate this by example without making up book titles. :-))

(15) Edit three ways.

First, scroll through the book to look for visual formatting issues, like page break problems or inconsistent headers. Next, read the book thoroughly for proofreading. Finally, check all references to page numbers, figures, tables, citations, etc. for nonfiction and check for consistency in character and storyline references and development for fiction. For both, check the page numbering of the table of contents.

(16) Three e-readers.

The original black-and-white e-readers had small screens and allowed only basic formatting. The new color and high definition e-readers have larger, higher-resolution screens. Many readers also use small iPhones. It’s a challenge to make an eBook that has pictures format well on all three devices.

(17) The first three months.

With the Coming Soon, Last 30 Days, and Last 90 Days links at Amazon, books have a brief window of opportunity to thrive and develop their own legs to stand on. Good sales and early reviews that come through effective marketing can get newly released titles better visibility in search results and several associations on Customers Also Bought lists to help them succeed after the first three months.

(18) Three page layout terms.

Self-published authors who publish a paperback may learn about page layout issues known as widows, orphans, and rivers (you can find good images for this with Google, for example).

Three cheers for self-publishing! 🙂

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2 coming soon)

Apr 10 2013

Professional Touches that Make Books Stand out

Design Marks

Small professional touches on the cover, title page, copyright page, and first pages can make a big difference. They may be little design marks, but they help to create a favorable impression.

Self-published books are competing against traditionally published books. Some books appear very much self-published at a glance, others are obviously traditionally published, and there are also many in between – those that use an imprint and look very nice, but not quite.

When we’re buying books, we prefer to find those that look professional. For this reason, all publishers – self or traditional – want their books to look professional.

One way to tell is to carefully examine the cover and Look Inside. Don’t just read the first chapter: If you’re looking for a professional book, look for visual clues before investing time on Chapter 1.

Following are a few examples. I’m not affiliated with any of these authors in any way. I’ve never met or interacted with any of these authors. I haven’t even read these books (well, not yet): I chose them for the professional touches that they illustrate, not because I wanted to recommend the content.

(1) Enchantment by Guy Kawasaki:

http://amzn.com/1591845831

See the gold starburst on the paperback cover. Such a starburst doesn’t need to be an award; it can be any note worth highlighting, although in fiction it’s usually an award. (By the way, although this book was published with Penguin, this author has recently self-published a book with CreateSpace.)

Starburst

Look at the pictures in the Look Inside of the Kindle edition. These are not just the front cover repeated inside, but are sending a unified message with the front cover by using the same butterfly.

Interestingly, the Look Inside for the paperback brings up the “Kindle edition” (or so it says), but when you click on the Kindle edition and then Look Inside, it’s different. The actual Kindle’s Look Inside includes a logo, for example. The logo is another professional touch.

Study the copyright page. Every traditionally published book has a very detailed, professional-looking copyright page. Virtually every self-published book has a minimal (if any) copyright page.

Why? Because self-publishers are thinking (A) customers don’t care about the copyright page and (B) they want to get to Chapter 1 as soon as possible, hoping to hook the reader who begins reading. Think about why traditional publishers don’t similarly minimize their copyright pages. Their copyright pages look very professional.

Customers don’t stop and stare at the traditionally published copyright pages. They pass right over them. It’s not going to be a delay on the potential customer’s route to Chapter 1. However, customers will catch a glimpse of the copyright page as they skip past it.

When customers see the minimal copyright page, it creates the impression that the book is self-published. Not much effort was put into this page (perhaps like the rest of the book?). When they catch a glimpse of the long, detailed, professional-looking copyright pages of traditional publishers, it makes the impression that a professional staff has combed through and prepared the book.

(2) The New Rules of Marketing & PR by David Meerman Scott:

http://amzn.com/1118026985

You’ll find another starburst here; this cover also has matching top and bottom borders. (Note that this book is geared toward businesses.)

Check out the customer images and you’ll find an Amazon Video – a video from the author. There are many ways to use AuthorCentral to help make the book’s Amazon detail page look professional, too.

In the Look Inside, of course the copyright page is again very professional (since it’s published by Wiley). The page numbering, horizontal lines after section headings, and matching gray boxes outlining some short paragraphs are design touches that help the book appear more professional. Note that traditionally published books often have such design marks – which come in a wide variety of styles – but that they don’t overuse them.

(3) The Millionaire Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko:

http://amzn.com/1563523302

This cover has a corner stripe with text instead of a starburst (but when you Look Inside, there’s a similar cover with a starburst instead of a corner stripe).

It also features a logo on the copyright page.

Topher

(4) Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich:

http://amzn.com/0061787426

Most fictional books that include a starburst do so to indicate an award of some type (whereas a nonfiction book that doesn’t have an award or bestseller rank to advertise might use a starburst just to say something like, “Includes answers”).

If you publish a fictional work and don’t have an award, note a couple of other design marks on this cover: part of a green circle on the bottom right and a quote between brackets at the bottom center. Harper chose to clearly advertise that this was a “newly revised edition” right on the cover.

Notice the logo/picture at the bottom of the title page, which also appears at the top of the copyright page.

Find the flowery artwork border at the top of the family tree pictures. Such artwork can also be used as section breaks (provided that it matches the theme of the book). If so, it should be short – just taking up about one line of text (and often isn’t nearly as wide as the artwork I’m referring to here). For eBooks, a glyph section break should be in gif (not jpeg) format, and should look good against white, sepia, or black backgrounds (it’s very important to check the preview in each format with each background).

(5) Wool by Hugh Howey:

http://amzn.com/1476733953

When you Look Inside, first you find the logo, then you see a cool picture on the next two pages that looks like the “page” is torn. Although this is now published by Simon & Schuster, this author had been featured at CreateSpace.

Banner

Look closely at a variety of traditionally published paperbacks (and, where available, compare with their eBooks). You will sometimes see a couple of lines or other marks on the cover, copyright page, and other pages, or special marks used in a page header or footer, for example. This sample will help you see what’s possible and help to inspire a professional looking design of your own.

Check out traditionally published books in your own genre to see what kinds of design features are common. Some kinds of designs are more popular in some genres and much less common in others. You don’t want your book to seem out of place.

Don’t go overboard and overuse design marks. Don’t make the cover too busy with too many design details. Notice that traditional publishers tend to add occasional touches. An occasional design touch stands out very well – you notice it better this way.

Make sure that no design marks or pictures seem out of place. Any glyphs or images should match the theme of the book.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2 coming in mid-April)

Apr 8 2013

Fighting Word’s Picture Compression

Microsoft Word has a tendency to compress pictures down to as little as 96 dots per inch (DPI), even when the box is checked telling Word not to do this. That’s great when there is a priority on saving memory, but not desirable when printing for quality.

The first step is to disable automatic picture compression, while realizing that this step – all by itself – is not sufficient. In Word 2010, for example, click the File tab, scroll down below Help to find Options (at first hidden toward the bottom of the list), select Advanced, scroll down to Image Size and Quality, and check the box that says, “Do not compress images in file.” Do this before inserting any images into the file.

Don’t copy and paste pictures into the Word document. Instead, click Insert and then Picture.

Don’t resize or otherwise manipulate the pictures in Word. Instead, edit the images with photo-editing software that doesn’t compress them prior to inserting them into the Word document.

Don’t use Save As to convert the Word document to PDF. Instead, print the file to PDF using a Word-to-PDF converter. For self-publishing, find a PDF converter that allows fonts to be embedded in the file and transparency to be flattened.

Also, check the DPI of the pictures at the source – i.e. the software (e.g. PhotoShop) or device (e.g. camera or scanner) that created the pictures. Using 300 DPI or more produces sufficient print quality images for most applications.

F8

As long as we’re talking about pictures, I may as well include one with a tesseract and a half-dozen planes intersecting in four-dimensional space. If anything else, it may help to make Word’s picture compression seem somewhat less complicated. 🙂

Authors of eBooks have the opposite problem. With eBooks, what counts is the number of pixels along the width and height. In this case, there is a premium on compressing the images in order to minimize the file size of the eBook. To compress the pictures in Word 2010, right-click a picture, go to the Format tab (that appears when a picture is selected), click Compress Pictures, choose 96 DPI (KDP’s recommendation for most eBooks), and uncheck the box that says, “Only to this picture.”

For eBooks, after inserting an image into Word, right-click the image, choose Size and Position, go to the Size tab (in the pop-up window), and set both the width and height to 100% scaling (Word automatically scales images down to a lower percentage when they would otherwise exceed the margin width).

May your pictures come out picture-perfect! 🙂

Copyright (c) Chris McMullen, Author of the Improve Your Math Fluency series of workbooks and self-publishing guides

Apr 7 2013

An Effective Blurb: The Challenge of Writing Just a Few Words

Authors love to write. If you love to jog, running a marathon is easy. If you love to sew, knitting a blanket is fun. If you love to write, completing a novel is a breeze.

Typing tens of thousands of words comes very naturally to writers.

Writing very many words is easy. Writing just a few words is the real challenge.

That is, if you want a small number of words to be effective.

The greatest condensation challenge comes when the self-published author completes the book and must prepare the blurb. Most writers incorrectly view this as having to summarize tens of thousands of words with just a hundred words or so.

But the blurb shouldn’t be a synopsis. The function of the blurb is to entice readers to read the book.

The blurb has the best chance of persuading readers to look inside when it accomplishes the following:

  • Immediately captures the interest of the reader; it has to have a great start.
  • Engages the interest of the reader throughout; every sentence – phrase even – must intrigue the reader.
  • Sends the same message about the genre and content as the title and cover. Buyers want to know exactly what they’re getting; when they see mixed messages, they search for a different book. A target audience mismatch is a related problem: If the title and cover sound like adult romance, but the blurb sounds like teen romance, for example, the readers who are attracted to the book probably won’t buy it.
  • Arouses the reader’s curiosity. Don’t give too much information away; leave questions (implied or explicit) that require the reader to buy the book in order to find the answers.
  • Is well-written. If a hundred words or so have spelling, punctuation, grammar, and other writing mistakes, it doesn’t bode well for tens of thousands of words being well-written. Any mistakes in this short writing sample are deal-breakers.
  • Presents the information concisely. Longer blurbs are less likely to hold the reader’s interest. Bored readers don’t buy books. The longer the reader has to decide about the book, the more likely the reader will find a reason not to look inside. This is especially true in fiction. In nonfiction, there may be some books that have valuable content or features where a longer blurb may help sell the book. However, even in nonfiction, the general rule is that a shorter blurb is better.
  • Provides a clear description. Confused shoppers don’t buy books. Too many characters appearing out of the blue, information that seems ambiguous, words or phrases that don’t make sense to the readers, or anything that isn’t crystal clear to the vast majority of the target audience – these things are likely to blow the sale.
  • Creates an accurate expectation. Readers who are successfully enticed to make the purchase will return the book or provide a bad review if the book fails to live up to unrealistic expectations.
  • Looks appealing. Use block style with linespaces between paragraphs. Nonfiction blurbs that have multiple points to make can use bullets. Such formatting can be done through AuthorCentral.

That’s a tall order! A blurb, which must be short to be effective, has so much to accomplish. It’s quite a challenge to make a small number of words achieve so much.

Yet writing an effective blurb is very important. It can make the difference between very few or very many prospective customers looking inside.

There are three more challenges that fiction authors face when writing the blurb:

  • They tend to write summaries instead of blurbs.
  • They know the story, but often have trouble reading their description from the perspective of a reader who hasn’t read the book.
  • They are often partial to some information in the book which really doesn’t belong in the blurb (for a similar reason, there is often an extra out-of-place object on the cover).

Authors should place their focus elsewhere:

  • What are the main aspects of the book that make it very interesting? Stuff that doesn’t make it sound interesting shouldn’t be in the blurb.
  • What do members of the target audience who haven’t read the book think of the blurb? Feedback is very important. The most effective blurbs often undergo several major revisions.

Look back at the top of this blog article and you’ll see that it started with a few short paragraphs with space between them. When you first see the article, you only see the beginning of it, which – like a blurb – must catch and hold your attention. Evidently, it worked for you, since you reached the end. 🙂

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2 coming in mid-April)

Apr 6 2013

Self-Publishing Success?

A few self-published authors have been highly successful, which shows that indie success is possible. But the odds are very long, as the vast majority of self-published books don’t even sell a copy per day on average.

What have the top indie authors done differently? Is it just dumb luck?

No!

Self-publishing isn’t like buying a lottery ticket where the odds are incredible. With the lottery, every ticket has the same odds. But all self-published books are not all equal.

Not every book has a chance of winning the self-publishing lottery.

The top selling indie authors have some things in common:

(1) They followed good business models. Some authors, like Amanda Hocking, actually researched business strategies in their traditional publishing pursuits.

Most self-published authors do one or both of the following:

  • They get an idea, carry it out, and publish it. Business-minded authors won’t write and publish any idea; they will develop the idea as an integral part of the business strategy.
  • They want to do something significantly different than what is traditional. This is great for authors who want to write as artists and aren’t concerned about lack of success. The problem from a business perspective is that the existing readership has well-defined expectations in each genre and the vast majority of books that they purchase meet those expectations. More of these readers will explore something significantly different if the author first publishes a couple of traditional books and then attempts something new after building an audience.

Some authors genuinely prefer to write as artists, knowing full well that sales might be considerably less than what they may be if they approach writing from a business perspective. There is much to be said for the writing artist. It’s just very challenging to get noticed this way and to establish a large readership.

I’m not saying that you should write for money and not write as an artist. Rather, since highly successful self-published authors follow good business models, let’s follow the logic behind business-minded book development and see where it leads. In the end, I will explain how an author might write as an artist – not for money – and yet benefit from some of the same logic.

A business-minded writer doesn’t just write a book, but develops the book idea as part of a business strategy:

  • Start out considering possible subjects and genres. Of those genres which are a best fit for your writing, which are most popular? What experience or expertise do you have? What needs are there on the market?
  • Research each of these possible book ideas. What books already on the market are most similar to each of these book ideas? Look at their sales ranks. What are the best books like these that don’t have a big-name author or publisher? The business-minded author chooses a book idea with the best potential in a genre or subject that he/she is most qualified to write.
  • Research the top books in the genre similar to the book in mind. Can you compete with the writing in these books? Read these books to learn the unspoken rules of the genre. For example, the business-minded author won’t allow the protagonist to act in a way that will upset much of the potential readership and will create an ending that will please the target audience. The business-minded author develops an idea and writes a book geared toward the largest possible target audience that he/she is likely to attract with his/her writing skills.
  • The business-minded author is thinking about marketing throughout the writing process. This author is seeking input on the cover, title, and blurb for two reasons: to help generate “buzz” about the upcoming book and to see what features please or upset the target audience. (In contrast, too many indie authors disregard important criticism that they receive and focus mostly on feedback that coincides with what they wanted to hear.) They develop a great cover – often hiring a great cover designer – knowing how important this is to marketing. They wrote their blurbs and first chapters to be captivating, knowing how strongly this affects sales.
  • Pinpoint the target audience and discover where to find them and how to reach them. The business-minded author is thinking long and hard what marketing strategies will be most effective for them. Those who have a knack for business tend to be the most diligent, motivated marketers. They also know how to use price, discounts, giveaways, and series to their advantage. Everything from the cover to writing to marketing is part of an overall business strategy.

We’ll return to writing artists at the end.

(2) Most tried diligently to get traditionally published, but didn’t succeed in this until after becoming successful as indies.

Although they didn’t get traditionally published (before they broke through), they were doing all the right things toward achieving this, which helped them develop the skills that they ultimately used to thrive on their own.

  • They tried to improve their writing to get traditionally published.
  • They spent much time studying readerships in an effort to identify their target audience, since publishers are very interested in this.
  • They researched business plans to develop book ideas and write proposals that would help them get traditionally published.
  • They learned about marketing in order to convince publishers that their books would succeed.
  • They attempted to meet people who might help them with their writing careers.

These are all valuable skills that any authors can benefit from, self-published or not. In the last point, they also developed handy contacts.

(3) They were highly motivated to become successful writers. You have to be highly motivated to learn about business strategies when your initial goal is becoming an author. All those rejection letters from traditional publishers fueled their motivation. The best place for those letters is a bedroom ceiling or bathroom wall that you’ll see every morning.

Never give up. Constantly strive to improve.

***

Back to my earlier point: You don’t necessarily have to write for money to be successful.

You can be a writing artist and succeed.

The pure businessman who develops the perfect business strategy to write and market a book is highly motivated to do the marketing, but must find the passion to put into the writing and learn to write well.

The pure writer who writes for art’s sake naturally writes well and puts the passion into the writing, but must find the passion to do the marketing in order to be successful.

There is a limitation from the pure business perspective – i.e. how well can you write, how well can you tell a story?

The limitation for the writing artist is that not all book ideas are good ideas, not all stories have a potential readership.

Almost nobody is a pure business person or pure writing artist.

Determine which side you’re on – those are your strengths. The more you’re willing to improve your weaknesses, the more balanced you’ll become as a self-publisher, which will increase your chances of success.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2 coming in mid-April)

Apr 4 2013

Karma for Authors Who Self-Publish

In order to be successful, a self-published author must come up with a good book idea, develop a fine story, write well, edit the manuscript, learn how to format both a paperback and an eBook, and become adept at marketing.

That’s a tall order. Why risk all of that hard work with any possible bad karma?

If you don’t believe in karma, then don’t think karma – think branding. The image that you brand as an author can have a significant impact on sales. Don’t risk bad book karma or negative branding – whatever you prefer to call it.

What do you hope for as an author?

  • Many sales.
  • Frequent reviews.
  • Word-of-mouth referrals.
  • A nice review average.
  • Good and fair comments about your work publicly.
  • Necessary criticism privately.

Authors may not all share the exact same wish list, but these items are probably pretty high up on most writers’ lists.

Now assess your book karma:

Part 1 – You as a reader:

  • How often do you read self-published books (that you discovered yourself)?
  • Do you leave good reviews for books (written by complete strangers) that you like?
  • Which books (written by complete strangers) have you referred to friends, family, acquaintances, or colleagues?
  • What have you done that might help an author you don’t know whose book you enjoyed?
  • Have you ever (publicly) said anything bad about any other self-published books?
  • Have you ever (publicly) said anything bad about self-publishing? eBooks? Amazon? Kindle?
  • What do you say when people you know ask you about buying eBooks, whether you like your Kindle, if self-publishing is a good idea, etc.?

Part 2 – You as a writer:

  • Did you take the time to perfect the editing and formatting of your books?
  • How do you react when you receive criticism about your work (privately or publicly)?
  • Do you ever respond negatively to customer reviews?
  • In what ways have you helped other aspiring authors improve their own work?
  • Have you ever abused the customer review system, tags, likes, etc.?
  • How do you behave at online discussion forums and your other online activities?

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers (Volume 2 coming in mid-April)

Mar 29 2013

Artists Who Love Marketing – an Oxymoron?

Whether you paint a picture, write a book, or invent a new product, if you did this with the creative passion of an artist, it’s only logical for you to be highly motivated to market your work. Yet most artists express a loathing for marketing.

Why? One reason is that marketing sounds like business and salesmanship. Artists enjoy creating their art, and authors love to write. But business and sales often doesn’t easily arouse their interest.

Let me take a detour and explain that marketing creative products – like paintings and books – isn’t about business and salesmanship. Then I will return to my main point – i.e. why artists should naturally be motivated to market their work.

Marketing a creative product is more about discovery and branding an image, and less about business and salesmanship. Books, for example, aren’t sold by persuasion like used cars. In fact, no salesman is even present – this is obvious for eBooks, but even in the store there is usually just a cashier. What bookstore will thrive with a pushy salesman looking over customers’ shoulders in the middle of the aisle?

Similarly, self-promotion doesn’t tend to attract much interest. “Hey, I just wrote a book and it’s the greatest thing ever so you should check it out,” isn’t the way to sell books.

Instead, when you personally interact with people – in person or online – and people “discover” that you are an artist, author, or inventor, for example, they often want to learn more. People like to buy products that were made by people they know – how often do you get such a chance? – provided that they discover it rather than having it thrust upon them.

“What do you do for a living?” “What have you done recently?” “How’s your new book coming along?” There are so many ways for people to learn more about you and discover your work. They could even click on your online profile.

The more people you personally interact with, the more your work may get discovered. This also helps to create “buzz” when you release a new product, which helps to earn early sales and reviews.

Marketing a single artist’s creative product involves branding. Advertising to say, “This is the best thing since sliced bread,” isn’t going to help, and demanding, “You should go buy this product now,” is a waste.

Commercials don’t work because the majority of people do as they’re told or listen to whatever the television tells them. They work because of branding. When people are standing in the grocery store, deciding which product to buy, they don’t remember what the television said was better and they’re not there because the television told them to go shopping – more often than not, they simply recognize a product that they’ve heard before. That is, they remember the brand. People tend to buy products they’ve heard of, and for which they like what the brand symbolizes.

Fortunately, a single artist doesn’t need to pay advertising fees to brand an image. Branding can be done for free. Getting your product, name, and image in front of your target audience helps to establish your brand as an artist or author. The more they see this, the more they are likely to recognize your product, then one day when they are buying a similar product, they may buy yours.

One way to get your target audience to see your brand is to post valuable content online. Posting advertisements about your product, posting content about yourself, and posting links to your other sites won’t likely attract much interest. But posting valuable content for your target audience may attract new customers. If they appreciate the content that you offer, they might click on your profile to learn more about you – and, lo and behold, “discover” your work.

Every time they visit one of your sites, they see your name, your photo, and an image of your product. Someday, when they are buying a similar product, if they recognize and buy your product, the branding was successful.

Where persuasion fails, discovery often works. Where overt (and even paid) advertising is ineffective, free branding is a great help. So don’t think of marketing as business and salesmanship. Think of it as interacting with others on a personal level so that your work can be discovered, and branding an image so that you and your work may be recognized.

Now for my main point: Artists should naturally be motivated to interact with others personally so that their work can be discovered, and should naturally be motivated to attract the attention of their target audience so that they can brand their image (for which, posting valuable content online is just one of many examples).

So why should artists naturally be motivated to market their work?

It’s simple, really: If you have passion for your artwork or book, you should also have the passion to share this work with others. And how do you share your work with others? Marketing! Use your passion for your work to motivate yourself to work diligently to share your work with others through marketing.

Furthermore, when others see the passion that you have for your work firsthand, they are more likely to get interested in your work. (But be careful to show passion and sound confident, but not to be boastful or overconfident.)

Would you rather buy a painting that was made by an artist that was passionate about his/her work, or just kind of threw something together because he/she was bored?

If you meet two artists, and one sounds kind of bored talking about his sculpture, while the other is clearly passionate about his/her work, which sculpture will interest you more?

If you’re passionate about your work and you strongly believe in it, then you should also be passionate about sharing your work with others (not just “getting it out there” – art doesn’t tend to sell itself). If you’re not passionate about marketing your own work, it suggests that you weren’t all that into it or that you feel like something may be wrong with it.

You don’t have to be a salesman to sell your artwork or book. You just have to be passionate about sharing it with others. Marketing through discovery and branding is a natural fit for the artist. It’s just a matter of perspective.

Chris McMullen, self-published author of A Detailed Guide to Self-Publishing with Amazon and Other Online Booksellers