Do Something!

Note from Deborah Riley-Magnus – I LOVE inspirational people – those writers and creative thinkers that set a real fire under our butts. Dan Holloway is just that kind of inspiring. He and Year Zero Writers have set the groundwork for some groundbreaking advances in how creative people see the publishing world!

Writers love to moan. We love to say the system’s unfair. We love to say the public has no taste; the publishers don’t understand the public (sliding our argument to suit our end, of course); agents are slowpaced and biased. We love to complain. As though a Monty-Pythonesque character will boom down from the sky “I hear your complaint and I shall make it well” and a contract with six-figure advance will miraculously appear in our hands.

As I trawl through a number of writers’ forums, the sheer energy we expend complaining makes me wonder – why are we really moaning (especially when I hear people berate the industry for expecting time-pressed writers to market their own books!)? Isn’t that energy better spent actually doing something?

I’ve always joked that my motto is “it’s better to fail gloriously than never to have tried”, but it’s not really that much of a joke. What frustrates me most is seeing great writers waiting for something to happen, or frustrated that nothing does. I certainly DON’T believe that hard work creates success. I do believe that those who succeed have worked hard for it, though. I also would like to believe that as writers we’re a fairly creative bunch. It’s what we do, right? So why is it we’re so bad at thinking up ways to make our mark? Why are so many of us slaves to the agent-publisher route? Why do people still insist that getting lost amidst the crowds of Lulu or floundering on blogger and smashwords are the only alternatives?

Why don’t people get out there and DO something, and not give a fig whether they fail? I’m going to start with an answer. I think most people don’t because they’re the people about whom the adage that “everyone has a book in them” was written. There are lots and lots of people who’ve written a book. Maybe even a very good book. And they want to spend the rest of their lives selling it and living off the proceeds. Well, I’m not talking to them. Frankly, whether they look to the mainstream or beyond, they’re never going to make a career as writers. It’s all very well worrying that you’ll throw away your book’s big chance if your experiment goes wrong. But that’s only an argument if you’ve only got one book in you. And if you have, you’re never going to be a career writer.

This is aimed at the rest of you, those who know you’ll have to produce a book a year for the rest of your working lives if you’re going to stand a chance – and back that up with at least ten to a hundred times that number of articles. It’s to those of you for whom a failure with one book isn’t a “waste” but an experience. It’s for those of you who like the sound of my other hackneyed adage: “How do you know if you haven’t tried?”

This year I’ve tried three big things. One of them fell flat on its face and two of them have been the most amazing experiences. This is what I’ve learned.

1. The Man Who Painted Agnieszka’s Shoes. This is a novel I wrote interactively on Facebook, in a group of the same name. The idea was to get readers involved in the story, to draw them in and get them deciding which characters they wanted more of, which they wanted killed off, which story angles they wanted to pursue and so on. I wrote al kinds of background material, promoted it online and in the local press, got a reasonable number (218 at latest) of people in the group, but it never really caught on. I had some lovely comments from my fellow writers, but readers never really caught the interactive bug.

Why? I think there are several reasons. But most of all, I think what I learned, and it’s been borne out elsewhere on the web, is that for all we talk about interweb this and 2.0 that, people behave on the net much as they behave off it – and most people want to be told a story, and not to have to get involved in it. Maybe it would work better in a book that overlapped more with traditional gaming scenarios – certainly MCM had some success with 3D1D. But it doesn’t work for how I write.

Nonetheless, I learned a lot about the craft of writing (serials are great for pacing), and I met some great people. And at least I know it doesn’t work for me.

2. I got the Year Zero Writers (http://yearzerowriters.wordpress.com/) collective together originally as a marketing group. I thought we could use the economy of scale of numbers as a way of cracking the hardest self-publisher’s nut of all – getting word out. It hasn’t quite worked like that, although the word IS getting out. What’s happened is that around 20 of us have formed less of a marketing collective and more of a mini literary movement, each writing fiction that’s unapologetically literary, and delivering it straight to readers both through books, which are available on the freemium model – with ebooks free and paperbacks for sale, and through daily original fiction on our blog.

I’ve learned some amazing things through Year Zero: first, working in a group of people with similar concerns is great for pushing your writing to the next level. Second, marketing is key, but when you’re indie, it often works best when you’re not trying to market but just doing what you love doing. People get the authenticity. Whilst we just had our books, we went largely unnoticed, even though we were “marketing” a lot. Then we got the blog going, and within a few weeks we were Nylon Mag’s site of the day, labeled “cool”. And people were inviting us to guest blog, strangers were e-mailing saying they loved what we were up to. Authenticity and integrity are absolutely essential. Third, I’ve learned a whole load of things about going the indie way. The freedom you get – editorially, over cover art, over marketing, and over what you write next, is exhilarating. It’s something I can’t imagine swapping for a publishing contract. Fourth, I learned persistence. So many self-publishers give up when they’re not an overnight success, but there are no overnight successes – not really. What matters isn’t how you’re doing on day two of your project – it’s how you’re doing on book five.

3. Free-e-day (http://freeeday.wordpress.com/) is something I literally thought up on the bus. A single day on which every independent creative person gives something away for free to form one big celebration, and show the world what indies can do. It seemed utterly overambitious but I dutifully started a Facebook group and told a few people and, today (literally today, December 1st), we have a full-colour free e-programme with 100 contributors, 5 fantastic web workshops, and a live concert with music, reading, art, and dance, and most of all, we have built an actual indie community around what we’re doing. It’s a festival that will grow and communities and collectives and friendships with it.

So here’s the message. I’m an amateur. I knew nothing about social media theory or marketing before this year other than some experience running a flooring showroom. But I thought 2009 seemed like a perfect time for trying things and seeing what happened. So I did. Everything I tried I tried from scratch. There will be lots of people who disagree very strongly with what I’ve done. I’d respectfully suggest that rather than vent their spleen my way, they put that fantastic energy into seeing what they can do. Go on, everyone. In 2010 DO something. Anything. Just get on with it and don’t let anyone tell you no.

 

Promotions: The Difference between “Free” and “Cheap”

I’ve never known a writer who wasn’t starving for something. Some want more time, some need ideas, most desire a champion to fight for them, and in this time of shifting publishing industry paradigm, all of them need to promote. The problem is, first-time authors just don’t have the money to do it right. Enter – the internet and every crazy “free” or “no charge” scam imaginable. It’s just the tip of the iceberg and very little of it is designed for long term results. Many are design to feed our egos, and most take advantage of ignorance about the publicity, marketing or promotions process. Always remember what your mom said, “You get what you pay for”. 

Today I’d like to explore a few specific tags authors on a tight budget seem to hone in on. Free, Cheap, Inexpensive, Reasonable, and Value/Value Added. 

FREE 

This is easily the most powerful word in the English language, maybe even more effective than “Fire!” Free falls into the bin with Easy, Stress Free and Child’s Play. Come now, you’re a writer. Has anything in this process been easy, stress free or child’s play? What makes you think promoting your book will go any smoother than writing it? Free is where the phrase Bait and Switch comes in to play. Let’s take an example: press release services. 

You’ve just written a sterling press release announcing the release of your book (or where you’ll be doing a book event, or when you’ll be interviewed on a radio show). Now you need to create a list for where to send it. But it’s more complicated than that, you must specify who will receive it at each target media. There are options here. You could painstakingly create a killer media press release list of your own by doing research and compiling everything yourself. Oh, that may be free but is sure isn’t easy. Or, you can seek out an already developed list, so you troll the web and low and behold, you find not one but several Press Release List services that boast the word FREE! You’re in like Flint, right? Wrong. Take a closer look. 

Yes, for free you will have your press release go out, but you won’t know to whom, nor can you specify an industry or subject in which the release should be categorized. You need two days lag time for the company to screen your press release and deem it inoffensive before it’s actually sent out. Seems reasonable, in fact, even paid press release email services take the time to look over your submission. Here’s the catch. For Free, you don’t get to add any attachments (i.e. your book cover or photo), you don’t know where the release is going, you don’t know if it was ever received so you have no idea how or with whom you should follow up, AND, you don’t even have proof it went out. 

I’m not condemning free press release email services. I’m only pointing out that such services make it extremely difficult to gauge the success of your press releases. 

If you go back to the main page of that press release mailing service site, you will see a chart. THE chart. The one that shows you what you get if you pay for it. Online email press release services range from free to hundreds of dollars per release. The super expensive services are not a scam; they include AP wire service, international targets and client specification down to the smallest detail. Those are the services that provide reports that gauge success. 

Nothing is free, at least nothing that works. Sorry. 

CHEAP 

Okay, time to look at Cheap. You need to self promote, there are no two ways about it. Without tooting your own horn, you will be lost in the tall weeds. Cheap directions can include a few free things, but in this category, everything requires your careful watchful eye and diligence. Websites can be created cheaply, but they don’t need to look cheap, so it may be beneficial to get some help in that area. If money is too tight, think about trading services instead of cash. For example, a friend who builds beautiful websites may occasionally need a writer to pen the blurbs for his/her clients. 

Blogging is cheap. Well, in most cases it’s free, but your time isn’t, so budget your time carefully to assure that your blog is updated and promoted regularly. Same with Twitter, FaceBook and all the other online exposure venues you are using. Saying you’re on Twitter and actually tweeting regularly are two different things. I have to laugh when clients tell me Twitter does nothing for them. A little exploration explains how they’ve done nothing to make Twitter a viable tool. Things like having a website, a blog and social marketing are the life blood of making yourself and your book known. Yes they’re cheap, but they can really score big if handled correctly. It’s a strategic investment of time and energy. 

INEXPENSIVE 

It’s a relative concept and depends on how empty your pockets really are. The best way to seek and utilize the illusive inexpensive strategies is to create them. Think outside the box. Maybe you can’t get on Oprah but why aren’t you trying to get on your local public television shows? Maybe speaking at the biggest bookstore chain isn’t possible due to scheduling, but look around, aren’t there fifteen small independent book stores and libraries nearby? Maybe you can’t purchase a quarter-page ad in the newspaper, but printing out flyers and posting them at your local market, beauty salon, your pet’s vet, your dentist’s office or any business related to your book subject just may be extremely effective. 

The difference between expensive and inexpensive is elbow grease. Trust me, you can work around anything and get astounding results if you just think creatively and work it to the bone. Lots of small efforts lead to big exposure that just may put you on the map sooner than you think. 

REASONABLE 

What’s reasonable for you? It depends on your goals. If you’ve self published, printed only a thousand books and have put no efforts in creating your platform, it’s highly unlikely you’ll be a New York Times best selling author by Christmas. Finding reasonable solutions to building success often takes an author back to the original question: Why did they want to write a book in the first place? Make a pot of coffee, grab a note pad, refresh the answer to that question and start getting reasonable. 

Writing is a career, not a pastime, not a fun thing we like to do … it’s a business. If you opened a corner coffee shop (self published), you’d be taking on an inventory based business with built-in competition. You’d do whatever you had to do to bring people off the sidewalk and into your doors. You’d create specials and maybe buy 5 get the 6 cup ‘o coffee free cards. You know why you’d work this hard? Simple. You’d do it because your failure would be painfully obvious when the “Out of Business” sign goes up in the window. When you’re on your own, it’s tougher. 

Now, let’s imagine that instead of being independent, you buy a Starbuck’s franchise (traditionally published). You’ve got guidelines, you’ve got training, specific products, national advertising and an already established following. Cool huh? But guess what, you still have to be there to open the doors, hire the employees, stock the shelves, make acceptable vanilla lattes and meet expectations. You have a lot of help but failure is still a looming possibility. 

Everyone has to work at it, and in the case of authors, reasonable is all about knowing your limitations and needs. It’s about understanding the professionals you need, choosing them carefully and working with them to get the success you want. Whether you opened an indi coffee shop or a shiny new Starbucks, you still have the same goals. Good professionals know how to help you reach them. Don’t randomly hire marketing experts, publicists, advertising agencies or even personal assistants. Make sure the relationship is reasonable for you, your wallet and your target goals. 

Oh, and just like owning that coffee shop, with hiring comes possible dismissal. Know how to say, “enough, it’s not working” and move on.

VALUE/VALUE ADDED

Promotional Marketing is about glitz and glamour, it’s about loud bongs and flashy lights and gaining awareness that results in sales. 

The problem is, as the creator of the product, we tend to get mesmerized by all that sparkle. Like a dog that suddenly stops mid-stride because he noticed a squirrel, we have a habit of falling head over heels in love with the ego-feeding super promotions. 

Please note, that doesn’t mean that those particular promotions are bad or ineffective or even ill advised. They may be perfect for your book, but the author’s responsibility is to stop drooling, take a deeper look and decide intelligently. Explore the value of the promotion … and seek out the added value, because therein lies the power. 

For example, who doesn’t get excited about things like book videos, high profile ads, audio books voiced by famous actors, a possible movie deal or international interest for translated publication of their book? It’s so heart-pounding it makes the head spin. There are three things you must think about before you swoon with visions of expectant riches. 

1)      Cool as it may be, does the promotion really serve to reach your reader target? Many promos blast off about reaching a million viewers, but honestly, if you’ve written a dark literary novel about the history of the Druids, and a large portion of the viewers boasted happen to be YA readers who prefer sparkly vampires, this may not be the promotion for you. How will you know if you don’t demand proof of the demographic receiving the promo info? And oh hell yes, you certainly can demand, after all, you are paying for this, right?

2)      Is it necessary? Really, it makes perfect sense to do an audio book version of your amazing Druid novel … but is it really necessary to get Russell Crowe to do the recorded read? Isn’t it the story that’s important? Wouldn’t an unknown with the perfect voice do just as well and cost … oh … less than your mortgage and/or first born male child?

3)      Where’s the added value? Some of these services have taken things several steps further to help assure success for not only their product, but their client’s promotion. For example, never, ever even consider having a book video produced unless the company offers a strong marketing package to make it all work. Yes, it’ll cost a bit more, but what good is having a cool book video if no one sees it? Ask for the added value packages, look them over carefully and choose the one most likely to create the success you want. 

So, there you go, the difference between Free, Cheap, Inexpensive, Reasonable and Value/Value Added. Any questions or comments? I’d love to hear your input.

Tools with Balls: Software for Serious Writers

Note from Deborah Riley-Magnus – I’m not usually one to endorse products on my blog, but there are a few amazing tools coming onto the market designed to help writers write and organize, manage SEO and understand the shifting literary market. I think this is the place to share them. Welcome to a new blog category – Tools with Balls – where we can explore a few neat weapons for success! In the case of My Story Writer, I had taken the challenge, downloaded the free sneak peek and promptly asked Lara Wells if she’d like to share her thoughts with my blog buddies. Here’s what Lara had to say.  

I never thought I’d use writing software. I know as well as any writer that when it comes to writing, there’s no “magic bullet.” No book you can read or class you can take or software you can use that will make writing stories effortless, but it would be wrong to ignore the fact that there are tools out there that can help to make the process of writing more manageable. 

My Story Writer was created by a software developer for his daughter, a writer who wanted a tool that would help her writing – not to write better but to get (and stay) organized throughout the writing process. 

I was asked to take a look at My Story Writer this past summer by a friend of my husband’s in the hopes that I might have some marketing ideas for the software. I’ve been in marketing for more than a decade but was very skeptical as I downloaded the trial. Two hours later I wondered how I’d ever planned a story without this tool. 

The argument I often hear about writing software is that it’s just another way for writers to procrastinate. I agree. As writers, we are true masters at procrastination. We have a gift for finding something else we need to do when we should be writing. The options are endless. 

The other snappy comeback I see when someone asks for a recommendation on a good writing software product is: “Shakespeare (or insert-any-other-famous-writer’s-name-here) didn’t need writing software and you don’t either. You just need to write.” If you carry that logic ahead we should all be writing by candlelight with a quill pen and a pot of ink. Shakespeare (or insert-any-other-famous-writer-name-here) also didn’t have a computer, spell-check, or the Post-It note – all of which I could not live without. 

Writing shouldn’t have to be any harder than it already is. 

As for me, I’m currently working on revisions for a memoir I never thought I’d write (I’d so hoped it would be a novel) and I’m playing around with two other novel ideas that are swimming around in my head. I’ve got three of what I’d call “practice novels” to my credit – one first draft and the others at various stages of revision. I learned a lot from writing them but don’t believe any of them are salvageable – and I certainly don’t have enough passion for any of them at this point to see them through to the finish line. 

In my writing, I’ve always struggled with structure and that’s the problem I’ve had with the memoir. Even after writing the first draft and undertaking a major revision (let’s just call it a complete rewrite), it still felt to me like a series of events and not a story. I wrote the first draft and the rewrite before I knew about My Story Writer but have been using it on the current revision and can’t believe how much it’s helped me to visualize what I have for each scene – and more importantly, see what I was missing. 

My favorite tool in My Story Writer is the wizard. In addition to the New Story Wizard, there are wizards to help you create characters, locations, events and even items. I wasn’t sure how helpful the wizards would be for me since when I started inputting my two story ideas I had such limited information, but the wizards helped by taking these story “nuggets” then and asking the questions I needed to have the answers to write the story. What’s the story crisis? Where does the story take place? When does the story take place? What happens at the end of the story? Of course I didn’t have the answers to every question in the wizards but it planted the seeds of these unknowns in my head so that I could be thinking about them. Not sure the color of your protagonist’s eyes? Maybe it’s irrelevant and will mean nothing for your character at all, but what if it does? Or it could? 

But what I think is the greatest thing about My Story Writer is that I have everything in one place. 

Like most of us, I need to maximize the time I have to actually sit in front of the computer and write. By having everything in one place I don’t waste time searching for a character’s name or random trait that I wrote down here somewhere. (Good luck finding that on my desk.) And not only is everything I need captured in one place it’s organized around each story which is great when you’re working on more than one project at the same time. I’m currently playing with two different novel ideas and not sure which one will be my next project so I’m researching and exploring both of them. 

My brain isn’t into linear processes so even as I’m trying to work out ideas for one story, I’m constantly coming up with something for the other – whether it’s a character detail or a plot point or line of dialogue. With My Story Writer I can easily jump between stories and capture all of my ideas –  even links to the websites I may need to reference again. Everything is right there so there’s no searching through the multiple folders in the Writing folder in My Documents to find a document I think I saved. 

I don’t write science fiction or fantasy but am in awe of the writers who create not only a story, but an entire world in which that story takes place. When your locations aren’t as simple as Colorado or Los Angeles I don’t know how you’d keep it all straight and consistent without a writing program. 

The future of My Story Writer is exciting, too. We’re constantly looking for ways to improve to software and here are two new features we’re working on:

• Collaboration – With the new collaboration functionality you’ll have a way to easily work with another writer or writers on the same project. This will also make My Story Writer a great tool for writing classes or groups to be able to share not only a manuscript in progress, but also the planning that’s going on behind the scenes – like character development and plotting.
• Marketing – We’re undergoing some major enhancements to the Marketing tab which currently focuses on the query letter process to include planning for the post-publishing marketing efforts that often starts long before that first query letter is even sent out.  (Thank you to Deb Riley-Magnus for her feedback and insights into how we could improve upon this to offer a true publicity tool.) 

As what it means to be a writer evolves, so will My Story Writer. It’s meant to be a companion to you throughout your writing journey – whether you’re just starting out or you’re a seasoned writer. So share with us how you work and what you need to make your writing days easier. There’s never going to be a “magic bullet” when it comes to writing, but I’ll take any tool that makes the process more manageable.

My Story Writer writing software brings technology to the creative writing process so you have a structure for organizing all of your writing projects. You bring the ideas – or use the brainstorming functionality to create some – and My Story Writer delivers a way to control the writing process the way you want to – from conceptualization of your story idea to the day when you submit your manuscript for publication. You can try out the software with a free 15-day trial. (http://mywritingsoftware.com/FreeTrial/tabid/139/Default.aspx) 

Lara can be found on Twitter (@mystorywriter) and on the My Story Writer blog or via email laraw@mywritingsoftare.com

(http://mywritingsoftware.com/Blog/tabid/128/BlogID/5/Default.aspx)

Villains and Trojans

A writer without her computer is like a woman living in a pitch dark desert! A publicist without her computer is a professional on the edge of terror. Twelve days ago, (on my birthday, sheesh!) I was gifted some horrible, nasty, computer controlling villains who literally stopped my life dead in its tracks until the Tech Guru at the repair shop was able to revive my creative heart and send home a faster, more smooth, fully recovered and newly protected machine. 

I just wanted to share the ten levels of hell without my computer. I’m sure it’s not new to most of you, but it sure was new to me. 

1)      All my writing was out of reach. Computer gone, what’s a writer to do? I mean really, when was the last time you wrote with a pen and paper? Hell, I didn’t even have an empty spiral notebook to work with and found myself scribbling on those cute little lined yellow 5”x7” pads. Six of them. I used to really like those things too. Now I’m so traumatized (and finger cramped) by the experience, I may never be able to purchase a pack of those pads without having heart palpitations. Not to mention … I can’t read my handwriting!

2)      Where was I? You know the question. I have a laptop available but my backup was weeks out of date. All my novels are on the desktop. I had no way to truly pick up where I left off, and with the panic and stress of being overthrown by a whole Trojan army, I simply couldn’t think straight! But, I did what I could and kept on writing.

3)      I need ginko biloba, dammit! This publicist has clients … yes, clients … plural … in the dead center of several projects. I was faced with recreating at least two complete proposal outlines from memory. But there again, I trudged through, sigh.

4)      Where is everything? Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING I research is bookmarked in my internet listings. Everything I need for my writing, everything I need to keep up to date with in the publication and publicity business and everything I stored away for special client projects, past, present and future is in that list. Talk about having your hands tied!

5)      My email, now that was fun. I have Outlook Express which feeds from my yahoo account. Every time it fed into Outlook Express, it was filed appropriately and simply disappears from the yahoo account. Sooooo, from the moment I opened my laptop, I was in the dark. Who remembers email addresses or phone numbers these days? We’re so reliant on technology, all we do is hit a button or type in the first few letters and voila, connection. Seriously, I had to call everyone and tell them to email me so that I’d have an addy to work with! By this point, I had pulled out a large portion of my hair.

6)      The vacillating prognosis. Four days after dropping off my computer at the repair shop, after they’d quoted a price and promised that they could remove all the nasty stuff with no damage to my files, they called with bad news. Techie Guru was suddenly saying the Trojans were far too deep and everything would be lost … but, hold a minute, he’d call back in a few moments. His next call was semi good news, he could get all my files saved onto a disc, but the computer would be wiped clean and I’d need to put everything back on. Now, I’m about as computer savvy as a gnat, so this was extremely distressing. That, and the fact that it would cost even more to do this. Yes, I cried. Two days later, I received another call that they finally discovered the way to clean the nasty viruses off and everything would be just dandy. It was time for my coronary.

7)      Seeking technical support. Like a woman about to give birth, I talked to all my computer proficient friends and heard all the horrible possibilities. They told me that it still may not work out and I should be prepared for the worst. I think I may have had a stroke about then, my eye started to twitch and my head was about to explode.

8)      Seeking emotional support. Now I called all my friends and family. They were sympathetic, insisted that everything will be fine and yeah, that helped … a little. The twitch continued though.

9)      Seeking spiritual support. Yes, I went to church. I knelt at my bedside and folded my hands, praying to the God of computers to help me through all this. I even started reading Spirit Cards. That did help, a lot.

10)  The aftermath. Finally, my computer came home! It runs fast as a whip, has a full disc backup of everything that was on it and … well … looked all different. Needless to say, I was happy as a clam but confused for a good twenty-four hours until I could put everything back the way I’m used to seeing it. Guess I’m more a creature of habit than I thought. Now I have kick-ass protection and several fail safe procedures before anyone or anything can download a damn thing on my baby. And now … I can work and write again. 

Needless to say, the whole experience was horrible. I still have nightmares about it. But I’m nothing if not persistent and determined to use my tenacity to not only get back on track, but learn to roll with the punches. 

Where did I get the damaging Trojans? I followed a link on twitter. Techie Guru explained that it wasn’t placed there by the poster, that Trojans are out there, laying in wait until there’s a crack in the foundation then they attack. It has taken me a day or two to feel safe and comfortable enough to log on to twitter or follow a link, but sometimes a little faith is needed. 

Now, I’m back in the saddle again. Long gone are the days when using a Trojan meant being safe … now a Trojan means completely the opposite. I have chosen to trust my Tech Guru (who I actually asked to marry me, he was so kind and helpful and calm) and trust in the new security systems I now have installed on the computer. 

Onward and upward!

No Blog Today, Just Birthday Silliness!

 

No blogging today … no heavy thinking, no project juggling, no worrying or strategizing.

Today I’ll do whatever comes into my head.

I’ll eat what I want, bake brownies and cut them HOT!

Today I’ll laugh rather than cry, I’ll celebrate an eclectic life and the interesting results.

I’m going to read instead of write, imagine instead of plot, read Medicine Cards and watch television, preferably movies.

Today … I’m just going to be silly and have myself a happy birthday.

And the Publicist says … “Breathe”

Most writers and authors I know and/or work with are so much more. They are mothers and fathers, caregivers, homemakers, cooks and bread winners. They work day (or night) jobs as accountants, factory workers, cashiers, salespeople, business owners and top executives. They all struggle with finding the balance between their passion, their families and meeting their mortgage. Life is complicated enough without trying to write, but every one of them is driven, obsessed with their plots and characters, striving for perfection with the written word and usually dog tired. They’re courageous and talented and among the most creative and busy people I know.

Now, add negotiating the shifting paradigm of the publishing industry and what do you get? A borderline crazy person. Some writers are new and baffled by the currently vacillating publishing maze. Some authors are embedded with the original publishing business profile and having a difficult time accepting the reality of this new landscape. 

I’m proposing that change is deceivingly simple, it’s just our mindset that makes it appear complicated. Don’t panic. 

Breathe. 

Let’s start with that quaking landscape. Rising up from all this upheaval is more promise and potential than a writer ever had. There are more options and more variations available today than ever before in publishing. All should be looked at, dissected and considered for making intelligent choices. Traditional publishing, sprouting indie publishers, POD, e-publishing, market shifts in reader genre preferences, purchasing outlets and how the reader likes to read a book. (Kendel? Hardcopy? Online?). Yes, it seems like the zoo has gotten overpopulated, but really … the reader base has expanded vastly and that’s a good thing. Honest. 

Breathe.  

No matter how you publish, you must market. I’ve covered this topic before and won’t go through it again. The bottom line is … you must market. All authors are terrified of this prospect but in truth, I have never met a writer who isn’t so completely sure of their story,  that in a few excited words they can’t sell it. You CAN speak in front of a group. You CAN talk to the media. You CAN do this. All an author needs to do is believe it and make the time for it. Time was carved from a hectic, full life to write the book; there’s no logic in deserting your baby as it’s about to take flight. 

Breathe. 

Now you need to make plans. Don’t shy away from this, it’s no different than plotting your novel. All you’re doing now is plotting your success. You need a business plan, a marketing plan, a press campaign plan, a speaking engagement/event/book signing plan and a plan for your next book. Close your eyes and imagine the success you want, then get it down on paper. 

Breathe. 

It’s time to open your mind and expand it. Spark up those creative juices, get your brain crackling to uncover all those unique, untapped markets for your book. In truth, you should have been doing this since you began writing the book and you probably didn’t realize that you were. The trick is to jot those ideas down as they come. Discount nothing. Save them all for a brainstorming session that breaks all the acceptable molds for the sale of your particular book. Just be fearless. The massive shift in the industry has opened neat little cracks and anything is possible. Never concern yourself with the fact that something hasn’t been tried or that you never saw a book sold in that particular venue before. If it fits, would be powerful, and you’re excited enough about the possibility, you can succeed. Call in all your friends and associates who write and don’t write, share your ideas and get their ideas. Who knows, you may just be the author who cracks a bookselling venue no one ever thought to approach before. 

Breathe. 

Decide how you want to deal with professionals. Of course, you may have a literary agent and you will have a publisher to deal with. Those are based on your informed choice and you deal with them as you would your doctor or lawyer. Respect them, stand your ground and smile. But there are other professionals, all clamoring for your attention, your project, your money and a coveted place on your coattail should you make it big. 

There are knowledgeable people everywhere and they’re knocking on your door. You’re no longer a lone, private writer taping away at your keyboard. Now, you’re visible. Early on you may have come across an Author’s Liaison, a newly created professional geared toward helping writers find self or join publication for their novel. If you’re not super duper computer savvy, you may be either approached by or on the prowl for a website designer. Later, when your book is a reality, you’ll meet local media people, bookstore owners and a slew of other authors (if you’ve been diligent at social marketing). All these people are brimming with great advice and seriously want to help you … some for a cost. You’ll consider hiring an assistant to help organize all the wonderful book events and speaking engagements you see in your future. Then you’ll notice that all these eclectic, scattered, dismembered efforts require someone to pull them all together and keep them targeted and you may consider hiring a publicist. 

Here is a vital piece of advice regarding any and all of these professionals: If they don’t know when to hold your hand and say “Breathe”, then they’re not worth their salt, much less their fee. 

Everyone clambering to be part of your future success is not always there to support you, the author. Everyone you come across who loves your book and knows someone who knows someone related to Jeffrey Katzenberg or Opra, is not necessarily your ticket to the big time. They may be, but keep your head on straight and don’t forget to … Breathe. 

Breathe deep and do it often, with intent and determination to remain centered and think clearly. This is where all those plans you made earlier come into play. They target the goals and help you keep your eye on the prize. With the right attitude you can attract the right professionals to get where you want to go. The best professionals understand that there are times an author needs to be reminded to step back, think, and enjoy the ride. 

Be happy and remember to … 

Breathe.

One Author’s Inspiration: “Finding Emmaus” by Pamela Glasner

Empath, defined:

For the purposes of my book, an Empath is someone who experiences another person’s emotions as if they were their own, meaning they can actually feel the feelings of others.  However, unless they are aware that they’re Empathic or have the training required to make the distinction between feelings which are legitimately theirs from Empathic events, they’d have no way of knowing that they’re experiencing emotions from an outside source.  

The Inspiration for Finding Emmaus:

I knew I wanted to write a book about Empaths and actually Finding Emmaus started out as a love story with an Empathic element.  But I wasn’t crazy about it.  It kept feeling strained and forced.  I’d written about two or three chapters and I just didn’t like the ‘feel’ of it.  It didn’t flow; it just didn’t have the power to move me.  

And then, one morning, it occurred to me that perhaps I should try coming at it from a completely different angle … just pick anything.  The first thing that popped into my head was ‘name the town where the story will take place.’  

At that moment I just happened to be standing in front of a fabulous work of art I own called The Basketweaver, drawn by a wonderfully talented artist from Tennessee named Marita Parisi, a pencil drawing of an incredibly old man named Frank who truly did exist.  He used to sit inside the shelter of a covered bridge and weave baskets.  So I thought: Weaver’s Bridge, and suddenly the town had a name.  

That thought was followed closely by: yes, the town is Weaver’s Bridge and this is Frank and he’s an Empath.  In fact, he’s the Father of Empathy.  He ‘wrote the book’ on it.  But the book has long since disappeared and has fallen into legend.  

And then I thought, if the book faded into legend, this had to have happened a very long time ago.  And since modern America’s history is only about 390 years old, the decision as to when the story took place was made for me.  It couldn’t have happened any earlier than the 1600’s because that’s when Connecticut colony was settled.  

Then I thought: no-one wanted to listen to him.  He wrote the book — dedicated his life to it, in fact — but everyone considered him to be a madman.  Why?  Because HE was an Empath and therefore would have been considered a lunatic, particularly in Puritan times. 

So Frank (now dubbed Francis, as he would have been called back then) dedicated his life to the creation of a guide, a central source of information, an authoritative voice, an anthology of his experiences as well as the experiences of as many other Empaths as he could find and persuade to contribute, a manuscript containing not only practical lessons of what it meant to be an Empath and how to survive in this life, but a set of principals to live by and pass on so that none would ever be harmed again.  This guide would eventually come to be known as The Lodestarre. 

Unfortunately, Frank couldn’t find anyone to publish it or any other way to disseminate the information (because of Puritan beliefs) so eventually The Lodestarre was hidden away in the hopes that some time in the distant future, when hopefully the world might have evolved and people might have become more tolerant, that someone would find The Lodestarre and carry on with Frank’s dream.  Then, 300 years later, Katherine, the 21^st century Empath, does just that: she finds it and picks up where Frank left off. 

I had all of that – I swear to God – in my head in less than 15 minutes.   

As I said, I knew I wanted to write about book about Empaths and I also knew I wanted to draw a comparison between the outward manifestations of the Empathic personality and the “symptoms”, if you will, of Bipolar Disorder.  And in order to do that accurately, of course, I had to do some research.  

In the story, Katherine finds out at 54 that she’s been misdiagnosed and inappropriately medicated all her adult life.  Now in her case, she’s an Empath so of course she could not be ‘cured’.  Katherine was actually the initial reason for MY research: I did it just so I could speak intelligently about Bipolar Disorder and not for any other reason.  But what I found in the course of my research sickened me.  Frankly, it scared the hell out of me.  Eventually, as I delved deeper, learned more and became more appalled at what I learned, it had a tremendous influence on what happened to Katherine as the story progressed.  

Traditional psychiatric philosophy has it that Bipolar Disorder is an illness which is treatable only by the administration of extremely toxic drugs, the side effects of which are pretty universal — and most of them hideous.  A good number of them, in fact, can become permanent and in about 10,000 cases each year, the effects are fatal.  Those who ingest these drugs — and I am speaking here specifically of people under the care of licensed physicians who legally prescribe them, can become psychotic, lose their eyesight, develop body tremors, become insomniacs, lose the ability to swallow, or if they can swallow they lose their appetite anyway because of severe nausea and vomiting, develop a condition known as Akathisia, develop hallucinations and actually lose ability to think clearly and reason.  

Then I found out that the failure rate of these drugs is 70% — meaning that 70% of the time, these drugs do not have their intended effect.  

Think about that: If a cough medicine failed at that rate, or if 70% of the time when you popped open a can of Coca Cola you didn’t like the taste, just how long do you think those products would remain on the store’s shelves?  

And yet, these drugs not only remain on the market, but in an economic environment when everyone else is suffering layoffs and cutbacks and closings and downsizing, the manufacture of psychotherapeutic medications has skyrocketed in four short years from a $12 billion industry to a $70 billion industry — with a product that fails 70% of the time.   

You go figure it.  

After reading congressional testimony and reports written by the CDC (US Center for Disease Control) and patient diaries and blogs from the loved ones who also suffer right along with the patients … I do not exaggerate one bit when I tell you that some of the stuff I read not only froze my blood, but broke my heart and had me sitting in my office, unable to read what was on my computer screen because I was crying too hard. 

It was — and still remains — impossible for me to talk about or write about objectively or dispassionately, but because it’s all true and I wanted to remain true to my characters, and because Katherine really would have found all of this had she been a real person and been the one to do the research, I wrote it into the story.  

Now, not only does the story move me, but there are parts of the book that, even now, even after countless reads and edits and re-reads, still have the power to break my heart and bring me to tears.  

~~Pamela S. K. Glasner~~ 

http://www.lodestarre.com/index.html

Finding Emmaus is available at several locations. See the “Buy the Book” page on the website.

The Person Underneath

Over the past few months, I’ve been interviewed and asked to write guest blogs on publicity, marketing, promotion and the processes of a writer. I think it’s about time to talk a little about who I am aside from that. We’re all a giant ball of a thousand things that make up the whole. Like a well developed character in a novel, we have layers of personality, likes, dislikes and obsessions that make up the image we portray to the world. Everything  buried has a prominent mark on what we do, how we do it and why. I thought it might be a good time to peel the onion and tell all (well some). This won’t take long, I’m not that interesting. 

This is a picture of my cousin Charlene and me (that’s me in the stylish plaid jumpsuit). We grew up almost in each others pockets, had the same friends, the same teachers and on at least one occasion, shared the same boyfriend. She was the adventurous one, I was the follower. Once at around seven years old she sprinted across the street and I actually trailed after while her father charged to catch us. He caught my ponytail, thinking it was hers. We were so inseparable even Uncle Charlie couldn’t tell us apart. 

Charlene liked to dabble with the unknown and take the challenges; I liked to tag along (knowing full well we’d both be in deep doo doo if we got caught). She was the opening for me, the expansion that created the me I am today. 

Life and adulthood took over, we each married, had children and went our ways but we talk on the phone often. She lives in Florida, I’m in California. I miss her, or perhaps it’s just the craziness of our youth together I miss. These days I follow seldom and blaze my own paths, although I’m still glancing over my shoulder every now and then to see if Uncle Charlie is barreling down on me. 

This is the landscape of my life now. Aside from being a publicist and writer seeking publication, I’m a retired chef, mother of a grown son, grandmother, friend and roommate. Three years ago I moved from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Los Angeles, yes drastic and the time between making the decision and actually moving was less than three weeks. At that point in my life, it was time for a BIG change. 

I’ve been married and divorced twice and to the shock and amazement of many, would actually try it again. I like the yin and yang of marriage, the symbiotic partnership and the dream of “happily every after”. Here’s the kicker, I also like the independence and empowerment of being single. There has to be a middle ground for this but I’m not sure I’ll find it in this lifetime. 

My loves include English bulldogs, cooking and entertaining, experimenting with ideas and presentation, with deep thoughts and the ever present “what ifs” of life. I’m a problem solver in every room in my house from the kitchen to my home office, with a tight household budget, a tough cut of meat or a difficult client issue. 

I’m a spiritual person, a bit Catholic, a lot seeker and I’ve studied under a Native American medicine man. Everything in my life seems to focus on a spiritual guide post of some sort … an enlightened friend, family member or tarot card reader. I’m a universal believer, a Christian aware of the vast number of paths toward salvation. 

I love chocolate (who doesn’t?), the ocean, mountains and (yes) big cities. I love nature when it intrudes boldly with intense weather, something I sorely miss in Southern California. 

I’m not political and spend a mess of time seeking the center for any given situation. As a Scorpio that seems like a contradiction. An argument or heated blow-up has never helped me make headway in anything, so long ago I chose to pass on the drama. Maybe I’m a Scorpio by mistake. 

I enjoy movies, the black and white ones especially, and I think Russell Crowe is brilliant. I’m a stagnant music lover and never have been progressive in my preferences. Everything from classical to crooning 50s and up to classic rock fits the bill to accompany my work. Meatloaf, Beethoven, Rusted Root, The Eagles, Bing Crosby, Counting Crows. Yeah, not a big explorer where music is concerned. 

I love my family, so far away now, and talk to my three grandsons as often as possible. And … I wonder everyday what made me move so far away. 

I don’t get extremely sad but I can reach ecstatic panicles of joy over a clear winter California day when I can see snow on the San Gabriel Mountains from my house. Guess it just doesn’t take much to please me. 

I am a bunch of contradictions. I’m a social animal who seldom leaves the house. I love to laugh but often find myself deep in serious conversations of a metaphysical nature. I am creative and prolific with a client’s goals and budgets but can’t balance my own checkbook if my life depended on it. I totally adore counterpoints in flavors, ideology and personalities. I’m an acquired taste. 

There … see. Told you I’m not all that interesting but writing this all down has reminded me that I’m more than a publicist and struggling writer. I’m a whole person and I’m hungry, starving everyday for the success looming for my clients, finding publication for my own writing, the prospect of flying home for the holidays, and the simplicity of working effectively in my home office exactly fifteen feet away from my bed and thirty feet away from my coffee brewer. 

What makes you what you are? What sits under the surface that defines the person you are and the profession you’ve chosen? Come on. Share. Otherwise I’ll feel like a goof for writing this blog.

Market Research for Authors

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of market research? Eight people taste testing crackers in front of a one-way mirror? Irritating telephone calls from pollsters at dinnertime?  A four-page check-box survey that arrives in the mail boasting of free coupons if you’re one of the first 500 people to return it? 

You’re right, these are all tools that researchers use to find out more about their customers.  Most of us believe that this element in the product development cycle is only for manufacturers of cars, the staff of politicians and producers of cleaning products.  However, this little post is all about market research for the author. 

Most authors balk at having to promote themselves.  After all, they are ‘Creators’, not salespeople.  That’s the job for publicists or agents or publishers or someone else.  However one might feel about it, the responsibility for marketing one’s book is the author’s.  How they go about that is really up to them, whether they hire someone or take it on themselves.  The importance of building an author platform is paramount in the selling of the book – and any author worth their weight knows this.   

This blog post is here to help you with that.  This is a simple primer on market research, that little thought of, but oh so important aspect of selling a product, and yes, whether you like it or not, your book is just that – a product. 

Simplistically speaking, the goal of market research is to determine the market demand for a particular product.  By determining demand, one is then able to determine how to best sell it.  That is why market research is important for authors, because after doing this relatively simple task, you’ll find it is easier to sell your work. 

The traditional product development cycle would say to research the demand for the product, go build it, then go sell it.  For the author, this might mean checking out bestseller lists, libraries and online networks to find out what people are reading and buying and then write a book on something that has high demand. 

But does that really work in this arena?  My say is no.  The minute you write for someone else, and not for yourself, you lose all credibility as one who creates.  And what you create will be lacking, aerated and void.  And readers will see that.  And they won’t buy it.   

So, remain true to yourself and create something from your heart, soul and intellect.  Go through all the steps necessary to get to your finished product – a manuscript.  Then once you’re done, you’ll try to sell it.  For some authors this means self-publishing.  For others this means shopping it around to publishers and agents.  If you take the latter route, you’ll soon find out that most of these people are looking for authors with an established platform. 

No matter which road you take, developing a platform means getting yourself out there, marketing yourself and your book.  You might Tweet, start a Facebook page, join author’s groups, hold readings, get a webpage, a blog, etc.  It means doing anything to get yourself or your book in front of customers – whether they be readers, agents or publishers. 

But, if you take the time to do a bit of research before you start all your platform-building efforts, you’ll find that you can cut down on the costs and time you spend doing sales and marketing and maximize your efforts.  While some might say that these tasks only apply to those authors who self-publish – I say that doing this task is for all authors.   

1. Know Your Product 

Being the creator of your product, one would think you know it well.  However getting a second or third opinion would be prudent.  Get your friends to read it and ask them to give you a “product overview”.  Ask them to describe the book as though they were telling someone who knows nothing about it, subject matter, length, writing style, etc.  You’re not looking for reviews – just a description.  Both you and your colleagues should write down your “product overviews” so as to avoid any misinterpretation in trying to remember what people said.  Then from these, compile a final description of your book, including all the details from ISBN, to title, to genre to word count to synopsis. 

2. Know Your Customer 

You likely have a pretty good idea on who your target reader is.  However, it is a good idea to get some second and third opinions, via your colleagues as mentioned above.  I have had several authors be surprised that a demographic group, different than the one of which they originally thought, enjoyed their novel.  Write down who your reader is.  Don’t stop at the regular demographic particulars like age, income and whether they have kids.  Think about their lifestage.  Are they young urban singles, suburban stay-at-home-moms, mature professional men, etc?  Then, think about what those groups might enjoy doing, list their possible hobbies and past-times. Think about their reading habits, frequency or where they read.  If you don’t know, talk to people.  One of the reasons Dan Brown’s books are so popular is because of his very short chapters.  His books fit today’s harried and hurried lifestyle of multi-tasking; and fitting in a short chapter on a coffee break makes for easy reading that many people want.  Then, once you’ve got your primary reader targeted, think about your secondary readers – or groups who may also be interested in your book. 

One might read this and wonder how we can group individuals into static uniform groups of readers.  I’m not proposing that – but generally speaking, people in similar life stages share similar interests. In no way is one trying to exclude any particular demographic, but having a sound idea of who your target readers are will better enable you to reach them. 

If you’re shopping your book for publication, then you need to identify another customer segment – publishers and literary agents.  Take the time to research these people and companies and get to know them the same way that you are trying to get to know your reader. 

3. Know Your Market 

Here is when you get to know the marketplace in which you are jumping into.  You would want to know the size of the market and the growth that’s in it.  If your book is romance, a quick web search will yield that in 2008 Romance is the largest genre of the fiction market taking 13.5% of sales.  Other things you might want to have an idea of are average prices, lengths, and trends in cover design or storylines.  You should also make yourself familiar with the trends in reading, publishing and bookselling.  Bricks and mortar bookstores aren’t going anywhere for a while, but paper books are down in sales and the only growth is in digital or eBooks.  If you don’t know anything about digital publishing or any other industry trends, make it a priority to find out the basics. 

4. Know Your Competition 

Finally, get to know who else is out there.  By knowing what authors and books are selling and not selling will help you figure out where your book belongs and perhaps what kind of sales you can expect.  It’s not hard to figure out the current trends, from YA vampires to middle grade fantasy.  Pay attention to these trends and pay attention to what your competition is writing and how they market themselves.  Glean ideas from others who are better at it than you.  Watch, listen and learn, then you can get out there and put your own spin on it. 

 

This might all sound a bit daunting, but once you start writing these elements down in an organized format, you’ll realize that you likely know a lot of this already.  You might have to get a few other opinions or bits of information.  This isn’t about creating tables or graphs or demographic pyramids.  It’s just about cementing in your mind where your book fits in this mass of new books that are released every day.  You’ll find that all this will fit on a few pieces of paper. 

Once you’ve done this, you’ll find that marketing becomes a bit easier, more creative, more task-oriented and far more effective.  For example, many authors join Twitter or Facebook and start trying to sell their book/themselves that way.  They accumulate lots of friends, and figure they’re doing a great job.  But what if their target readers are middle grade kids?  Many parents don’t let their 11 year-old kids on those social networks, so all that time spent tweeting would be much better served by doing some local advertising at schools, libraries or by getting creative on how to get viral with that highly social demographic. 

Of course, now comes the hard part, how to find creative and effective ways to reach your readers.  But now that you know who they are, who else is out there, what kind of market you’re in and what you have to offer – the ideas will flow much more easily from what we already know is your highly creative mind. 

 

 

 

 

Michelle Halket is the Creative Director for ireadiwrite Publishing, a digital small press which specializes in literary fiction, poetry and selected non-fiction by new authors.  For more about her and ireadiwrite Publishing, check out www.ireadiwrite.com

Mumbo Jumbo OR the Answers to Everything an Author Needs

Have you ever tried to take a subject or thought as absolutely far as your mind can take it? I’m talking getting-a headache-but-can’t-stop far? I’m talking if-you-can-bend-the-light-there-is-no-spoon far? I’m talking down-the-rabbit-hole far? 

If you have no idea what I’m talking about, this may be a good time to tune out. This isn’t stuff for the faint of heart. In my humble opinion, this is the stuff of true creative minds and like a gorgeous hard body with a perfect six pack and glistening muscles, it takes a mess of focus, commitment and hard work to get there. In this case, imagination work. NOTE: I didn’t say physical work or brain work. I said IMAGINATION WORK. 

About twenty years ago I taught a “Thinking” class at a kids club. My students were inner-city children between 12 and 15 years old. An unruly gathering of young people so settled into their reality, anyone could see that without an imagination shake-up they were going nowhere. Their lives, values, expectations and emotions were limited to what they saw and heard everyday. My idea was to make them see past it, beneath it, around it and beyond it. High hopes, right? But I’m no expert at any of those things so I dug into my own reality to envision the turning points in my life that could have changed everything. I got a headache, couldn’t find the spoon and dropped like a rock into the rabbit abyss. Determining how to teach the class took longer than actually doing it. 

There are benefits to every endeavor and I often wonder about those kids, where they are, if they ever thought twice about the classes after I left and if they learned anything. Here’s the kicker, I did. I discovered a whole world of metaphysical awareness I only imagined existed for other, more blessed and gifted people. And … I use that world in my practical life all the time. 

Many of my classes had a basic structure, a direction or goal in mind but I determined early that how we’d get there was going to be revealed as we explored. Sounds like mayhem and it could have been but I didn’t introduce this concept until we’d gotten a few interesting classes under our belts and noticed that the faces walking into my classroom were bright and focused and ready for more. Then I just let the energy take over. For example, at the time, I had very long hair and a favorite fuchsia scrunchie I used to pull it up into a ponytail. 

They sat, quiet and waiting (a rarity for 12 to 15 years olds), watching me with open interest. I simply tugged the scrunchie out and dropped it onto the table. “Teach is missing. She’s not here. The only clue you have is this. What happened to Teach?” 

What followed was the most intriguing mystery I ever heard; Sherlock Holmes meets the Hardy Boys in the back streets of any dingy town. It encompassed their truths and realities with the spice of unexpected creativity. From there it flowed into the next class where the students arrived with a concept for a board game based on the mystery. Art supplies were provided and my class grew in number and inspired ideas. That concept expanded from board games to hand-drawn comic books to a novella plotted, written, typed and bound by the students. The power is inside the freedom and those students had a blast. For twelve weeks while they conceptualized and created their products, they explored various ideas and venues to sell them. And every phase of this process was NOT guided by me; it grew organically from expanding young imagination. I’m not sure, but I think I unleashed the next generation of marketing experts. 

The end profits were born in the original passion. Their class experience wasn’t an instruction of techniques and skills to perfect, it was the growth of unique ideas and elements to support something they were proud of and loved. 

Aren’t we all like that? 

In this time of shifting economy and the added marketing workloads falling on an author’s shoulders, I think sometimes we miss the point. With my students, I never once said “create a product and I’ll teach you how to sell it”. I never told them that once their product was developed they’d be responsible for making it successful. Hell, I never even told them to create anything. The natural progression of logic, excitement and imagination made wonderful things happen. 

We’re all kids. Writers dabble around the rabbit hole, explore characters and concepts and boldly, courageously, write them, pitch them and hopefully publish them. Then what do we do? We freeze. Our reality limits us, tells us we’re writers and that’s all we can or should do. It tells us that publishers do the marketing, someone else does the legwork and all we need to do is write. 

When a concept germinates and develops we’re so excited! We know this is it, the one that’ll sell a million books. We feel the passions and even get glimpses of where the book should be, who will own it, love it and cherish it on their personal shelves. Then we nip that in the bud and move on. After all … someone else is supposed to do that stuff, right? Get the book into that reader’s hands? So, all our fleeting brilliance that should be part and parcel of the creation of the book and extend to how and where to make it visible, gets locked away. 

With or without a big publishing house behind your book, you instinctively know things about publicity and marketing. It ain’t brain surgery. It’s only a meatball. The process is woven into the chapters, laced through the characters’ dialog and painted into the book cover image you have in mind. Why do authors abandon this essential extention of creation? 

You know I’m a writer, but I’m also a publicist. When I write, I let the concepts for the book’s future flow through me and onto a cool little note pad I keep to the side. Those thoughts are vital, they will plot the road to success. I’m receiving those thoughts because they are elemental to the creative project at hand. 

When I am functioning as a publicist, the process is surprisingly the same … but I have rules. 

For example, I will not take on a client (especially of the author persuasion) unless they already understand their role in making a book successful. I’m not talking about authors who say “tell me where and when and I’ll be there with book sighing pen in hand”. Not interested in that author at all. 

Here’s a truth all authors must swallow. Publicity and marketing are already structured into your project and you already know it. An author who calls me, tells me their story with passion and direction then blurts out strange ideas for marketing the book … now that’s my perfect client. I have practical and professional tools to implement a great idea. I do not work for a client … I work with them. Don’t give me your book, ask me to read it then tell you how I’ll publicize or market it. That’s when I use my favorite four letter word … N E X T. Do convey your passions about the story, the characters and the reader you want to speak to. Any good publicist can help you take your voice and put in traditional venues as well as off-the-wall places you instinctively knew to reach. 

A good publicist/author relationship is about synergy. And a good author/imagination relationship should never be stifled just because it seems like someone else’s job. If it came to you, it’s yours. Own the idea, set it aside while you write, then bring it to the light to start the marketing and publicity ball rolling. Respect the ideas. If you don’t, who knows, someday they may just stop coming. 

Just as you enjoyed the rabbit hole to create your wonderful book, take some time to look through those fleeting marketing ideas that you randomly jotted down. Go back to the rabbit hole again, go ahead, leap. Take the freefall and discover all the bizarre and unique solutions that drift past. When you land you’ll be right back where you started, only a whole lot more clear on your personal journey toward publishing and marketing success. 

Now, while you do that … somewhere I have a spoon to bend. Oh, right, there is no spoon.