Did you know that first-time novelists have a 90% failure rate? Pretty sobering. That means that 9 out of 10 writers will never see their second book in print. Is it because they can’t write? Maybe. Was it bad timing? Perhaps. Did they just have one good book in them? Maybe.
…or maybe it isn’t any of those things. Maybe, just maybe, it was a lack of proper preparation.
I have been in this business for going on a decade, and have had a lot of writers cross my path. Most got burned out, worn out or simply gave out. What is sad is that most aspiring writers will never make it to publication, and now with that staggering statistic above, we can see that even being published isn’t a true victory. We must stay in the game.
How do we do that? We plan for success. We plan to win.
There is this overwhelming mystique to being a writer that too often excludes thinking in business terms. We are lulled into believing that if we can only get published, all our dreams will come true. We surround ourselves with inspirational quotes and stories of writers who were turned down 973 times, but oh, on the 974th!!!!!.....boy, those 973 other agents were dumb *snicker, snicker.* Thus what ends up happening is we throw all of our energy and effort into our baby, *cough* book…and we fail to plan.
Fail to plan and plan to fail.
How many of you have a business plan? Nothing super fancy. Just a basic business plan. We don’t. We think that NY is going to whisk us off in a limo and that their PR people will take care of everything necessary to make us a household name like Sandra Brown. They’re not??? Nope. Yeah, I was kind of bummed too.
Hey, Kristen, we wanted to be writers so we didn’t have to do all that spreadsheet nonsense.
Oh, I don’t blame you. I still have to go through the Excel tutorial every time I try to use it. I would rather think of character arcs and plot points. But successful people don’t just do what they like to do, they do what they must do.
So what would a business plan look like? Well, no need to get too complicated. A basic business plan has four parts.
1. Description of the Business—What kind of author are you? We have talked a lot about brand. What is your brand? If you want to be a romance-thriller-fantasy-non-fiction-memoir author, you need to either focus or get a small business loan to hire a full-time support staff. Pick one for now. Your mission statement. I am a romance author, specifically Harlequin Intrigue series. I am responsible for a minimum of one manuscript per year.
Yes, use the verb I am. When you use the I will be future progressive, you give yourself permission to be unprofessional and to procrastinate.
“I can send farm animals all day on FB and cuss and rant on MySpace, I’m not a published author yet. This isn’t REAL marketing. This is fun time.”
“Oh, once I am published I will be able to afford a real office and it will be easier to write two hours a day.”
Your mission statement, like most businesses will evolve and change. It isn’t set in stone. But it will position your mindset and it will strip away your excuses. It will help you be taken more seriously and demonstrate to others that you are a professional (hobbyists generally are not known for having a business plan). Most of all, a mission statement will help you maintain your creative focus.
2. Marketing—It is never too soon to begin marketing your product…YOU. This is part of why I teach social media to writers. Social media is how people come to know you as an author. Hopefully one day it will be as a published author and they can buy your books. The sooner you start building your platform the stronger it will be. Do winners wait until the day before the big race to start training? No. Winners don’t wait to build a platform either.
3. Finances—It is safe to assume most of you reading this are not independently wealthy. But, you are a business and businesses have start-up costs, production costs and maintenance costs. Yes, even you. Unless you want to write your novel long-hand or write on a library computer (which are viable options if you have no choice), you are going to need equipment.
How much money are you going to allot to becoming good at your craft? What are you willing to give up in the short-term to invest in your long-term success as an author? What are you willing to sacrifice to fund your new business? To grow your business? These are questions we would ask if we were opening a family-owned pizza parlor, so we also need to also ask them when we decide we want to write. Lay the groundwork for victory.
Think about it then make a list of what you will need. Get what you can afford and make a plan to get what is out of reach. Some people balked at my suggestion of MySpace as a free web site, but that is a minimum of $300 that could be put toward something else.
So what would your new business need?
List of Equipment: computer, printer, Internet access, software.
List of Training Materials: Funds to join a writing group, conferences, workshops, weekend retreats, craft books, magazine subscriptions
List for Marketing Expenditures: Funds to buy a domain, web hosting, software, money to build a web professional-looking web page. I suggest using MySpace as long as you can. New writers especially can use that money for a better computer or a conference.
4. Management: You are the only one who can produce the product, so how much time will be slotted to write per day? Blog? Read? Sift through research? Become more skilled at your craft? Those are jobs only YOU can do.
Now ask what tasks you can delegate, and who can you delegate to?
What is your social media marketing plan? Who can you get to help? How much time do you want to spend per day building and maintaining? (I teach how to do all of this in my upcoming book—We are Not Alone—Social Media Marketing for Writers).
For those who took my suggestion to build a MySpace en lieu of a web page, don’t automatically assume you must do it all. You are a business. Do what businesses do. Outsource.
Pay your teenager who is goofing off on MySpace anyway an hourly wage to add quality friends to your page. Have your blog pulled up in a Word document and get them to post it and link it and send out the bulletin while you’re cooking dinner. Now what you pay them is now a tax deduction because it is outsourced work.
Don’t you think your family would benefit from you being a famous, successful author? Recruit them to your team and allow them to not only support your success, but be a part of it.
There are a lot of exciting changes happening in publishing. The Internet. Social media. E-books. It is now possible for a new author to pitch a book to an agent, a strong platform included. That was almost impossible to do a decade ago. Now anyone with a computer, Internet access, and a good work ethic has a real shot at laying the foundation for success.
Yet, with these changes come new responsibilities and more competition than ever in human history. Now any knucklehead with a computer and an idea can claim to be a blogger or a writer. How will you stand apart?
You will plan.
You will show up on Race Day prepared and focused. You will work harder than all the other wanna-bes whose best strategy is to rely on dumb luck to get the golden ring. If you are reading this blog, then you already have demonstrated you desire real, genuine success. So go make a plan and I will be cheering from the sidelines when you crash through the tape ahead of all the other competition.
Happy writing.
Until next time….
*********************************************************************************************
I recommend Bob Mayer's Warrior Writer Workshops and book. WW training is an excellent resource for learning how to grow from writer to professional author. www.bobmayer.org
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label marketing. Show all posts
Monday, May 31, 2010
The Single Best Way for Writers to Become a Brand
Writers! Want to know the single best way to become a household name??? Brand the right name! Yep. That easy.
This might sound silly, but I think writers love handles and monikers more than any other group. Building a platform/fan base is hard work. As we discussed last week, we can make it easier by recruiting key people to “help with construction.” But there is one key mistake that can totally undermine all your hard work building a social media platform. Branding the wrong name.
There is only one acceptable handle for a writer who seeks to use social media to build a platform, and that is the name that will be printed on the front of your books. Period.
I can already hear the screams of protest, but I am going to save you a ton of hard work and needless duplicated effort.
Part of the reason I decided to teach social media to writers is that I actually have a highly unique background for a writer. Before I was an editor/writer, I worked in corporate sales. Most writers, especially fiction writers, cringe at the word sales. I don’t blame you. But too many writers forget that the purpose behind all of this twittering and FB and MySpace time is for one main purpose—driving sales.
Being published is not the real end goal. Being published is only the means to your real end goal—SELLING BOOKS.
Kristen! Must you be so crass?
Yep.
Plain truth is this. Great, you get published. But, if you don’t sell enough books, you cannot quit your day job. If you fail to sell out your print run, you hurt your chances of another book contract. In order to do what you love--WRITE--you must learn to do what you hate--SELL. It doesn't have to be as hard as a lot of people make it. Brand your name, then your name can do the selling while you do the writing.
In order to maximize sales, your goal is to become a brand. Brand=Big Sales
If I want a good thriller, I pick up a James Rollins. If I want a good YA book, I pick up Stephanie Meyer. A good legal suspense, read John Grisham. Amy Tan will have to change her name if she decides to suddenly start writing novels about the Italian Mob. These authors are the designer brands of writing.
People dig brands. Why?
Most of us don’t have time to research each and every purchasing decision and thus, we as consumers, are prone to rely heavily on brands. Brands let us know what to expect. When we buy Dolce & Gabbana shoes, we expect a certain quality. We go off the name and do far less inspecting and road-testing than we would for a designer/manufacturer we’d never heard of. We are willing to order ahead of time and pay full price and even ridiculous prices for Coach, Ralph Lauren, Prada, Versace, Harley Davidson, Porsche, BMW, Mac Computers, John Deer, etc. So on and so forth.
As a writer, your goal is the same. Your big goal should be to link your name interminably with your content for the purposes of selling books.
Produce enough good content and eventually readers won’t need to read every review about your latest book before they buy. They will trust you for good product and will pre-order your books because they have confidence you provide content that is entertaining, interesting, or informative. They will default to buying books brandishing your NAME because they trust your books are a wise purchase. No more hand-selling--whoo-hoo!
This is where YOUR NAME becomes vital in social media. Your NAME is first and THEN linked with your content, NOT the other way around. We heard Xerox enough times that not only did it become synonymous with copy machines, but ALL copy machines eventually became Xerox machines. Xerox was said enough times in conjunction with the act of copying that it became its own VERB.
This is what we in sales call “top of mind.” A name that is top of mind will be the first we (consumers) will default to when we need a product—name recognition.
I have made all the mistakes, so I can speak from experience. I spent two years under the moniker writerchik. After two years, I had good news and bad news. Good news was that I was smart. I started building a social media platform for my work before I was published. Good news was that thousands of people knew I was a writer and that one day I would be releasing a book. I could actually pitch to an agent that I had a vast platform already in place for when my book hit shelves.
Or could I?
Bad, bad, super bad news was that these thousands of followers knew WRITERCHIK was a writer. My fans/following couldn’t go to Barnes and Noble and buy a book by writerchik. They couldn’t go to Amazon and order the latest and greatest by writerchik. I had spent a lot of hard work and posted a ton of great content….to build the wrong brand.
DOH!
We must realize that we serve the reader not the other way around. Successful writers think like successful companies with good customer service and make the purchasing decision as easy as possible for the reader.
We must appreciate that people are tired, overworked and a lot of times lazy. If they are in a book store, they will default to what they know. We cannot expect that rather than pick up a branded author that our potential reader will instead:
Go to their PDA or borrow the computer at Barnes & Noble
Where they will then log into Twitter
And scroll to one of our tweets
And click on our profile
To get OUR NAME
In order to buy our book.
Maybe they will, but likely they won’t. We MADE IT TOO HARD!!!
Additionally...
When you use anything other than the name that will be printed across your book, you give up your most valuable marketing real estate…the top of mind. Every time you “tweet” or send out a status update, you want those following you to see your name. It is like your very own commercial playing over and over and over, scrolling down the news feed.
There are far too many writers using cutesy handles (I was guilty). I have a ton of writers in my following who, if they released a book tomorrow, I would love to buy it, but I cannot find books written by VampireChick or BookLover_88. I have people I love chatting with on Twitter and FB and MySpace…but I haven’t the foggiest idea what their name is.
Your handle/username is not the time to be clever and creative. Save that for books and blogs and content. We followers will catch on pretty quickly what you write.
If Maura Devlin (made up name) regularly posts blogs on fantasy and links to other fantasy events and talks about her latest fantasy novel that will soon be released, guess what? When I run by a bookstore, I will default to what I know…and now I KNOW Maura because I have basically had scrolling commercials from her every day I am on Twitter.
I also feel like I am Maura’s virtual friend, and I like to support my friends first. So if I am going to try something new in fantasy beyond staples like J.R.R. Tolkien, Piers Anthony, or Anne McCaffrey, I am going to try Maura Devlin because she has focused all her social media energy to making her name synonymous with good fantasy entertainment.
Let’s use Maura as an example.
Scenario 1, Maura is Dragon_Girl
On Twitter, I see a lot of:
@Dragon_Girl New “Wizard Woman” blog post. Where did the legend of dragons begin? (inserts link here)
@Dragon_Girl Book coming out soon. Should be here by end of May
@Dragon_Girl I love the cover. What do you think? (She attaches the cover here)
@Dragon_Girl Book signing is this weekend. Make sure you are early before we run out of books (attaches information on how to get to book signing)
***Notice I NEVER see Dragon_Girl’s NAME. She is always top of mind, but using the WRONG NAME. Even if I wanted to buy her book, I would be at a loss and would have to go do research. If I have an antsy husband who wants me to hurry and get my book so we can go to Costco, and a baby who is teething and starting to fuss, I am not that motivated to figure out Dragon_Girl’s real identity.
Scenario 2, Maura Using Pen Name Maura Devlin
On the contrary, I SHOULD see a lot of:
@Maura_Devlin New “Wizard Woman” blog post. Where did the legend of dragons begin? (inserts link here)
@Maura_Devlin The dragons are near! Book coming out soon. End of May!
@Maura_Devlin I love the cover. What do you think? (She attaches the cover w/dragon art here)
@Maura_Devlin Book signing is this weekend. Make sure you are early before we run out of books (attaches information on how to get to book signing)
Maura Devlin doesn’t need to be Dragon_Girl for those who follow to get that she writes fantasy. We are actually pretty sharp. This second scenario keeps Maura’s name continually top of mind so that those in her network see a scrolling stream of, “Maura Devlin, Maura Devlin, Maura Devlin…always linked with her content—dragons/fantasy.”
So, what if you have used the wrong name, what now?
Don't panic. It is pretty simple to remedy. Go change your username as soon as possible. Those following you are clever. They will "get" that this is a change to your pen name. If it makes you feel better, send out an announcement that you are now focusing on building your brand. Likely no one will blink an eye.
Professional authors use their names and so should we. Using our name sends a message to others that we believe in ourselves and have confidence in the future of our work.
On Twitter and MySpace changing your user name is relatively easy. Facebook is less moniker-friendly, so most of you should be okay unless you started your FB page under any other name than the one you want printed on your books. My advice? Start over. Create another FB page with your pen name and transfer your friends over.
If you cannot get your name, be creative. Kristen_Lamb can easily be The_KristenLamb, KLamb, KristenLambTX, Author_KristenLamb. THIS is a good time to be creative, ;).
Time is precious, so make sure you maximize your efforts by focusing all your energies behind the name you wish to brand. It will save a lot of time for you and confusion for your fans. Branding the right name will help you work smarter, not harder. You need time left over to write great books.
Happy writing! Until next time...
This might sound silly, but I think writers love handles and monikers more than any other group. Building a platform/fan base is hard work. As we discussed last week, we can make it easier by recruiting key people to “help with construction.” But there is one key mistake that can totally undermine all your hard work building a social media platform. Branding the wrong name.
There is only one acceptable handle for a writer who seeks to use social media to build a platform, and that is the name that will be printed on the front of your books. Period.
I can already hear the screams of protest, but I am going to save you a ton of hard work and needless duplicated effort.
Part of the reason I decided to teach social media to writers is that I actually have a highly unique background for a writer. Before I was an editor/writer, I worked in corporate sales. Most writers, especially fiction writers, cringe at the word sales. I don’t blame you. But too many writers forget that the purpose behind all of this twittering and FB and MySpace time is for one main purpose—driving sales.
Being published is not the real end goal. Being published is only the means to your real end goal—SELLING BOOKS.
Kristen! Must you be so crass?
Yep.
Plain truth is this. Great, you get published. But, if you don’t sell enough books, you cannot quit your day job. If you fail to sell out your print run, you hurt your chances of another book contract. In order to do what you love--WRITE--you must learn to do what you hate--SELL. It doesn't have to be as hard as a lot of people make it. Brand your name, then your name can do the selling while you do the writing.
In order to maximize sales, your goal is to become a brand. Brand=Big Sales
If I want a good thriller, I pick up a James Rollins. If I want a good YA book, I pick up Stephanie Meyer. A good legal suspense, read John Grisham. Amy Tan will have to change her name if she decides to suddenly start writing novels about the Italian Mob. These authors are the designer brands of writing.
People dig brands. Why?
Most of us don’t have time to research each and every purchasing decision and thus, we as consumers, are prone to rely heavily on brands. Brands let us know what to expect. When we buy Dolce & Gabbana shoes, we expect a certain quality. We go off the name and do far less inspecting and road-testing than we would for a designer/manufacturer we’d never heard of. We are willing to order ahead of time and pay full price and even ridiculous prices for Coach, Ralph Lauren, Prada, Versace, Harley Davidson, Porsche, BMW, Mac Computers, John Deer, etc. So on and so forth.
As a writer, your goal is the same. Your big goal should be to link your name interminably with your content for the purposes of selling books.
Produce enough good content and eventually readers won’t need to read every review about your latest book before they buy. They will trust you for good product and will pre-order your books because they have confidence you provide content that is entertaining, interesting, or informative. They will default to buying books brandishing your NAME because they trust your books are a wise purchase. No more hand-selling--whoo-hoo!
This is where YOUR NAME becomes vital in social media. Your NAME is first and THEN linked with your content, NOT the other way around. We heard Xerox enough times that not only did it become synonymous with copy machines, but ALL copy machines eventually became Xerox machines. Xerox was said enough times in conjunction with the act of copying that it became its own VERB.
This is what we in sales call “top of mind.” A name that is top of mind will be the first we (consumers) will default to when we need a product—name recognition.
I have made all the mistakes, so I can speak from experience. I spent two years under the moniker writerchik. After two years, I had good news and bad news. Good news was that I was smart. I started building a social media platform for my work before I was published. Good news was that thousands of people knew I was a writer and that one day I would be releasing a book. I could actually pitch to an agent that I had a vast platform already in place for when my book hit shelves.
Or could I?
Bad, bad, super bad news was that these thousands of followers knew WRITERCHIK was a writer. My fans/following couldn’t go to Barnes and Noble and buy a book by writerchik. They couldn’t go to Amazon and order the latest and greatest by writerchik. I had spent a lot of hard work and posted a ton of great content….to build the wrong brand.
DOH!
We must realize that we serve the reader not the other way around. Successful writers think like successful companies with good customer service and make the purchasing decision as easy as possible for the reader.
We must appreciate that people are tired, overworked and a lot of times lazy. If they are in a book store, they will default to what they know. We cannot expect that rather than pick up a branded author that our potential reader will instead:
Go to their PDA or borrow the computer at Barnes & Noble
Where they will then log into Twitter
And scroll to one of our tweets
And click on our profile
To get OUR NAME
In order to buy our book.
Maybe they will, but likely they won’t. We MADE IT TOO HARD!!!
Additionally...
When you use anything other than the name that will be printed across your book, you give up your most valuable marketing real estate…the top of mind. Every time you “tweet” or send out a status update, you want those following you to see your name. It is like your very own commercial playing over and over and over, scrolling down the news feed.
There are far too many writers using cutesy handles (I was guilty). I have a ton of writers in my following who, if they released a book tomorrow, I would love to buy it, but I cannot find books written by VampireChick or BookLover_88. I have people I love chatting with on Twitter and FB and MySpace…but I haven’t the foggiest idea what their name is.
Your handle/username is not the time to be clever and creative. Save that for books and blogs and content. We followers will catch on pretty quickly what you write.
If Maura Devlin (made up name) regularly posts blogs on fantasy and links to other fantasy events and talks about her latest fantasy novel that will soon be released, guess what? When I run by a bookstore, I will default to what I know…and now I KNOW Maura because I have basically had scrolling commercials from her every day I am on Twitter.
I also feel like I am Maura’s virtual friend, and I like to support my friends first. So if I am going to try something new in fantasy beyond staples like J.R.R. Tolkien, Piers Anthony, or Anne McCaffrey, I am going to try Maura Devlin because she has focused all her social media energy to making her name synonymous with good fantasy entertainment.
Let’s use Maura as an example.
Scenario 1, Maura is Dragon_Girl
On Twitter, I see a lot of:
@Dragon_Girl New “Wizard Woman” blog post. Where did the legend of dragons begin? (inserts link here)
@Dragon_Girl Book coming out soon. Should be here by end of May
@Dragon_Girl I love the cover. What do you think? (She attaches the cover here)
@Dragon_Girl Book signing is this weekend. Make sure you are early before we run out of books (attaches information on how to get to book signing)
***Notice I NEVER see Dragon_Girl’s NAME. She is always top of mind, but using the WRONG NAME. Even if I wanted to buy her book, I would be at a loss and would have to go do research. If I have an antsy husband who wants me to hurry and get my book so we can go to Costco, and a baby who is teething and starting to fuss, I am not that motivated to figure out Dragon_Girl’s real identity.
Scenario 2, Maura Using Pen Name Maura Devlin
On the contrary, I SHOULD see a lot of:
@Maura_Devlin New “Wizard Woman” blog post. Where did the legend of dragons begin? (inserts link here)
@Maura_Devlin The dragons are near! Book coming out soon. End of May!
@Maura_Devlin I love the cover. What do you think? (She attaches the cover w/dragon art here)
@Maura_Devlin Book signing is this weekend. Make sure you are early before we run out of books (attaches information on how to get to book signing)
Maura Devlin doesn’t need to be Dragon_Girl for those who follow to get that she writes fantasy. We are actually pretty sharp. This second scenario keeps Maura’s name continually top of mind so that those in her network see a scrolling stream of, “Maura Devlin, Maura Devlin, Maura Devlin…always linked with her content—dragons/fantasy.”
So, what if you have used the wrong name, what now?
Don't panic. It is pretty simple to remedy. Go change your username as soon as possible. Those following you are clever. They will "get" that this is a change to your pen name. If it makes you feel better, send out an announcement that you are now focusing on building your brand. Likely no one will blink an eye.
Professional authors use their names and so should we. Using our name sends a message to others that we believe in ourselves and have confidence in the future of our work.
On Twitter and MySpace changing your user name is relatively easy. Facebook is less moniker-friendly, so most of you should be okay unless you started your FB page under any other name than the one you want printed on your books. My advice? Start over. Create another FB page with your pen name and transfer your friends over.
If you cannot get your name, be creative. Kristen_Lamb can easily be The_KristenLamb, KLamb, KristenLambTX, Author_KristenLamb. THIS is a good time to be creative, ;).
Time is precious, so make sure you maximize your efforts by focusing all your energies behind the name you wish to brand. It will save a lot of time for you and confusion for your fans. Branding the right name will help you work smarter, not harder. You need time left over to write great books.
Happy writing! Until next time...
Is it a Good Idea to Post Chapters of Your Novel On-Line to Build a Fan Base?
As many of you might already know, I teach Social Media for Writers and I am also finishing a book designed to teach writers how to use social media to market and build a platform. I am all about helping writers get content up on the web and teaching you how to use that content to gather a following of readers. The largest component to building a Web presence is that you must post regular content that is informative, entertaining, and ideally, engaging. At this past conference, the question I got more than almost any other was, “Is it a good idea to post my writing on-line?”
My answer was, “Depends on what you’re posting. Most everything yes, in limited quantity. Chapters of a novel? No. No. Definitely…um, no.”
Yesterday, I ran across a blog post from Jane Friedman, a prominent member of the publishing community. “Stop being afraid to post your work on-line!” she claims. Ms. Friedman’s blog was excellent and made some really informative points, but I think there were a number of caveats that should have been included, which we will discuss.
Ms. Freidman cited all kinds of successes, blog-to-book deals and self-published books that landed contracts and success, but not one of them was a novel. She also cited the popularity of cell phone novels in Japan, but here I feel we have three large problems 1) totally different medium (text messaging) 2) likely a different format than a traditional novel and 3) could possibly be a Japanese idiosyncrasy.
I agree with Ms. Friedman that posting your work on-line is helpful for certain kinds of writing and it certainly worked for “Stuff White People Like” and “Julia & Julia”, but what about novels?
Well, fiction does tend to always be the sticky wicket where the rules don’t apply the same way. Ms. Friedman kept using the generic terms work and manuscript, but the successes she cited were all non-fiction, How-To, observational humor, etc . . . but, again, no novels (Japanese text novels being the strange exception).
Ms. Friedman’s blog is fantastic, and has great advice for all kinds of writers. Non-fiction and humor lend themselves to making good blogs and building an Internet following. But, for novels, many of the benefits of posting pieces of your book break down, and I’ll explain why.
Test marketing. Ms. Friedman asserts that posting your work on-line is a great way to test market.
Fair enough. But before you get too excited, there are certain inherent problems with doing any kind of accurate test marketing for fiction.
First and foremost, are you certain that you are getting an accurate statistical sampling when you post chapters of your book on your blog? Most of us cannot accomplish this.
In my experience, the majority of new writers do not have a statistically large following on their blog or even on social media.
Because chapters of a novel are a piece of a larger whole, they are extremely difficult to gain the following and fan base like “Fail Nation—A Visual Romp Through the World of Epic Fails.” In fact, “Stuff White People Like” had a Facebook following in the tens of thousands so it was easy to glean that it was popular and well-received. But chapters from an unknown, unpublished author? Tougher to duplicate these kind of numbers. Way tougher.
Thus, any posted comments about your chapters are a hard way to gain any genuine insight because of this huge problem of numbers (or lack thereof). The smaller the group sampled, the less accurate the Bell Curve. Ten or even twenty people who take time to comment, positively or negatively is in no way an accurate litmus test as to how well your story is being received.
Additionally, the individuals who are most likely to follow or comment on the writer’s work are generally a member of that writer’s peer group—friends, family, fellow writers. Thus, it seems to me that this is the digital equivalent of telling an agent, “All my friends and family just love my book!”
Can you test market fiction by posting on-line? Sure. Anything is possible. But I think it is a lot tougher to do than it seems, and requires a very large and diverse following to get an accurate idea of how good your novel really is. Not to mention that a writer’s work could look perfect and lovely when viewed in small snippets, but the novel as a whole, could be a disaster. I think there are better uses of a new writer’s time and better content to use for platform-building than sections of a novel.
Getting feedback on your work. Ms. Freidman is definitely correct on this point. Feedback makes us better writers. But again, I think this is one of those ideas that are way better in theory than in practice.
Sort of like, in theory I want my husband to tell me if I am gaining weight, but in practice?
The plain truth is that we have feelings and we all care deeply about our writing.
My issue with posting on-line is that it is a tough way to get accurate feedback for a number of reasons. When you get critique in your writing group, you know whose opinion is valuable and whose isn’t. When an agent critiques your work, you know that is a valid critique whether you agree with it or not. But when you open yourself up to the worldwide web, who knows if that person commenting knows a protagonist from a potato?
Additionally (this ties in to my earlier point), if you have a network comprised of mainly friends, colleagues and family (which most people do), do you really believe they are going to be brutally honest and comment publicly that your writing was awful? They won’t, because they aren’t jerks. They are your friends and do not want to hurt your feelings.
It is one thing to ask for our brutal feedback in person, discussed over a table in a local library during critique group. It is a whole other ball of wax entirely when you want us to post that same feedback on the Internet publicly and in writing. Most of us just aren’t going to do that to another writer, even when it comes to mild critique. If the writing isn’t that great, most of us just won’t say anything. And is that helpful to the writer for the purposes of feedback? Probably not.
But what about those who don’t care about your feelings, who aren’t personally vested in you?
Before you post anything, ask yourself one important question. Can I take someone eviscerating my work in a very public forum? Anonymity does weird things to people. Most of the time readers will be nice and kind and helpful, but sometimes they can be just plain horrible. If they tear apart a blog, that is one thing. That’s 500-1000 words. But with your novel? All it takes are a couple of negative remarks to crater your self-confidence and send even the best of us scurrying back to our laptops to rewrite our entire plot (and there might not be anything wrong).
I remember a couple years ago I posted a humorous piece for public critique on my MySpace blog. I must have had 20 people who told me is was awesome and hysterical. But I had one huge jerk who posted a really hurtful mean comment, and I am still not over it to this day. I never felt the same joy about that article, and all it took was one person’s nastiness to crush it. Was my response logical? No. But it was common. Humans are emotional creatures, and when you look up “Emotional Creature” in the encyclopedia, I think it says, “See Writers.”
Even published authors have a tough time when someone posts a nasty comment about their work in a public forum. But there is a difference. They have a published book, professional validation, and sales figures to ease their pain. The rest of us can just end up feeling like we are trapped in Hell's Dunking Booth.
My professional opinion is that for all other kinds of writing, go read Jane Friedman’s blog. The link is posted at the end. But for those who desire to be successful, published novelists, chapters of your novel are not the best choice for content on your blog or your web page. I recommend my blog from two weeks ago, “Where are All the Readers?—Social Media & the Writer’s Revolution” for some ideas of what makes good content (instead of chapters of your novel).
Happy writing! Until next time…
Jane Friedman’s blog
http://writerunboxed.com/
(specifically) http://writerunboxed.com/2010/04/23/stop-being-afraid-of-posting-your-work-online/
To learn how more about the publishing business, I highly, highly recommend Bob Mayer's Warrior Writer book and workshops (now on-line, so no excuses). Sign up today at www.bobmayer.org.
My answer was, “Depends on what you’re posting. Most everything yes, in limited quantity. Chapters of a novel? No. No. Definitely…um, no.”
Yesterday, I ran across a blog post from Jane Friedman, a prominent member of the publishing community. “Stop being afraid to post your work on-line!” she claims. Ms. Friedman’s blog was excellent and made some really informative points, but I think there were a number of caveats that should have been included, which we will discuss.
Ms. Freidman cited all kinds of successes, blog-to-book deals and self-published books that landed contracts and success, but not one of them was a novel. She also cited the popularity of cell phone novels in Japan, but here I feel we have three large problems 1) totally different medium (text messaging) 2) likely a different format than a traditional novel and 3) could possibly be a Japanese idiosyncrasy.
I agree with Ms. Friedman that posting your work on-line is helpful for certain kinds of writing and it certainly worked for “Stuff White People Like” and “Julia & Julia”, but what about novels?
Well, fiction does tend to always be the sticky wicket where the rules don’t apply the same way. Ms. Friedman kept using the generic terms work and manuscript, but the successes she cited were all non-fiction, How-To, observational humor, etc . . . but, again, no novels (Japanese text novels being the strange exception).
Ms. Friedman’s blog is fantastic, and has great advice for all kinds of writers. Non-fiction and humor lend themselves to making good blogs and building an Internet following. But, for novels, many of the benefits of posting pieces of your book break down, and I’ll explain why.
Test marketing. Ms. Friedman asserts that posting your work on-line is a great way to test market.
Fair enough. But before you get too excited, there are certain inherent problems with doing any kind of accurate test marketing for fiction.
First and foremost, are you certain that you are getting an accurate statistical sampling when you post chapters of your book on your blog? Most of us cannot accomplish this.
In my experience, the majority of new writers do not have a statistically large following on their blog or even on social media.
Because chapters of a novel are a piece of a larger whole, they are extremely difficult to gain the following and fan base like “Fail Nation—A Visual Romp Through the World of Epic Fails.” In fact, “Stuff White People Like” had a Facebook following in the tens of thousands so it was easy to glean that it was popular and well-received. But chapters from an unknown, unpublished author? Tougher to duplicate these kind of numbers. Way tougher.
Thus, any posted comments about your chapters are a hard way to gain any genuine insight because of this huge problem of numbers (or lack thereof). The smaller the group sampled, the less accurate the Bell Curve. Ten or even twenty people who take time to comment, positively or negatively is in no way an accurate litmus test as to how well your story is being received.
Additionally, the individuals who are most likely to follow or comment on the writer’s work are generally a member of that writer’s peer group—friends, family, fellow writers. Thus, it seems to me that this is the digital equivalent of telling an agent, “All my friends and family just love my book!”
Can you test market fiction by posting on-line? Sure. Anything is possible. But I think it is a lot tougher to do than it seems, and requires a very large and diverse following to get an accurate idea of how good your novel really is. Not to mention that a writer’s work could look perfect and lovely when viewed in small snippets, but the novel as a whole, could be a disaster. I think there are better uses of a new writer’s time and better content to use for platform-building than sections of a novel.
Getting feedback on your work. Ms. Freidman is definitely correct on this point. Feedback makes us better writers. But again, I think this is one of those ideas that are way better in theory than in practice.
Sort of like, in theory I want my husband to tell me if I am gaining weight, but in practice?
The plain truth is that we have feelings and we all care deeply about our writing.
My issue with posting on-line is that it is a tough way to get accurate feedback for a number of reasons. When you get critique in your writing group, you know whose opinion is valuable and whose isn’t. When an agent critiques your work, you know that is a valid critique whether you agree with it or not. But when you open yourself up to the worldwide web, who knows if that person commenting knows a protagonist from a potato?
Additionally (this ties in to my earlier point), if you have a network comprised of mainly friends, colleagues and family (which most people do), do you really believe they are going to be brutally honest and comment publicly that your writing was awful? They won’t, because they aren’t jerks. They are your friends and do not want to hurt your feelings.
It is one thing to ask for our brutal feedback in person, discussed over a table in a local library during critique group. It is a whole other ball of wax entirely when you want us to post that same feedback on the Internet publicly and in writing. Most of us just aren’t going to do that to another writer, even when it comes to mild critique. If the writing isn’t that great, most of us just won’t say anything. And is that helpful to the writer for the purposes of feedback? Probably not.
But what about those who don’t care about your feelings, who aren’t personally vested in you?
Before you post anything, ask yourself one important question. Can I take someone eviscerating my work in a very public forum? Anonymity does weird things to people. Most of the time readers will be nice and kind and helpful, but sometimes they can be just plain horrible. If they tear apart a blog, that is one thing. That’s 500-1000 words. But with your novel? All it takes are a couple of negative remarks to crater your self-confidence and send even the best of us scurrying back to our laptops to rewrite our entire plot (and there might not be anything wrong).
I remember a couple years ago I posted a humorous piece for public critique on my MySpace blog. I must have had 20 people who told me is was awesome and hysterical. But I had one huge jerk who posted a really hurtful mean comment, and I am still not over it to this day. I never felt the same joy about that article, and all it took was one person’s nastiness to crush it. Was my response logical? No. But it was common. Humans are emotional creatures, and when you look up “Emotional Creature” in the encyclopedia, I think it says, “See Writers.”
Even published authors have a tough time when someone posts a nasty comment about their work in a public forum. But there is a difference. They have a published book, professional validation, and sales figures to ease their pain. The rest of us can just end up feeling like we are trapped in Hell's Dunking Booth.
My professional opinion is that for all other kinds of writing, go read Jane Friedman’s blog. The link is posted at the end. But for those who desire to be successful, published novelists, chapters of your novel are not the best choice for content on your blog or your web page. I recommend my blog from two weeks ago, “Where are All the Readers?—Social Media & the Writer’s Revolution” for some ideas of what makes good content (instead of chapters of your novel).
Happy writing! Until next time…
Jane Friedman’s blog
http://writerunboxed.com/
(specifically) http://writerunboxed.com/2010/04/23/stop-being-afraid-of-posting-your-work-online/
To learn how more about the publishing business, I highly, highly recommend Bob Mayer's Warrior Writer book and workshops (now on-line, so no excuses). Sign up today at www.bobmayer.org.
Social Media for Writers--3 Easy Ways to Build a Platform
Social media is huge. No denying it. In fact, all of you reading this blog are participating in the new paradigm of human interaction and communication. Welcome to the future!
As publishing changes, writers too are being forced to evolve or go extinct. It’s nothing personal. Just reality. Arguing with it is about as pointless as arguing with a Category 5 hurricane that is about to make landfall. Writers are deluged with two words, platform and brand until they just plain want to bang their heads against the wall.
What? No, no, no, no, Kristen. You mean we have to market!??? We became writers so someone else would do this crap…..ugh.
I feel ya. Remember, I am a writer first. But hopefully I will give you ways to make building your platform a fun and enriching experience. Remember, attitude counts for a lot.
Social media is one of the best ways an author, even the not-yet-published can build a platform and become a brand. The problem is that there isn’t a lot of instruction how to do it. Thus, most of us bungle on to FaceBook or MySpace and stumble along and rely on dumb luck to do it correctly. Currently, I am in the process of finishing up a book on social media for writers. Why? Because there is a lot of misinformation out there that I believe can 1) frustrate a writer 2) yield little quantifiable results (in the end the small term for that is “book sales”) 3) can do more to harm a writer’s image than good.
How does that happen? Well, sometimes it is that writers gut through social media and rely on a lot of hit and miss. They join the sites their friends or their kids are on. Probably not the most efficient approach. Also, the most popular books teaching social media are teaching tools and techniques that work well in Corporate America, but have questionable value to an author. To make things worse, my experience has taught me that some approaches and applications that work well in traditional business, actually are ineffective and harmful when used in the world of writing/publishing.
I have been teaching social media for almost three years and have been blessed to work with hundreds of people in many different fields. Social media can be overwhelming and the tools and platforms change faster than most of us can keep up. Yet, by applying some fundamental techniques, my resume is filled with many successes. Thus, I hope to pass some of these techniques to you.
Last week on the Warrior Writer blog, we discussed social media and how authors, particularly fiction authors, would be wise to begin thinking of their content as a product. That, I feel will be a HUGE step to authors beginning to connect to readers (which is code for customer :D). Blogging about writing and networking with writers has it’s place, but it is not how an author builds a platform and creates a brand…unless one is writing about writing and for writers.
Today we will discuss some of the best ways a writer can build a platform.
Understand that your SMI (Social Media Influence) Campaign is About the Customer (Reader)
1) Content for the Customer—This is of course a reiteration of last week’s blog. I often hear “Well, so long as you are having fun and it is a platform that you enjoy.” Um…a friendly reminder. This isn’t about you. Remember, we as writers must serve the reader. If we don’t, readers will gravitate to authors who do. This is true in fiction just as much as non-fiction.
Fiction authors provide entertainment and escape. Readers like you for your content, and that isn’t just a finished book (although ultimately it hopefully will be). If you write mysteries set in the 1800s and you blog regularly about that time period and mystery-information-factoids or whatever regularly, you will be in a great position to already possess a following of mystery fans who respect your authority and talent to write on this subject. You will move from an unknown quantity to a known quantity much quicker than if you blog about writing or don’t blog at all.
2) Location, Location, Location—Yes, it is important for you to enjoy the social media platform you choose, but a wise author sets his preferences aside and goes where the readership is most likely to congregate. You may looooove Twitter, but if you write Young Adult, it is simply the wrong platform to spend a lot of time with expectations of finding readers. Is it a great place to network with professionals in the publishing industry? YES! But doing your homework and finding where your demographic (readership) is likely to spend a lot of time, will save you a lot of frustration.
One of the things I have learned over the years is that it is often our own ignorance that makes us dislike a certain platform. If you have a hard time on MySpace or FaceBook, go get a Dummies Guide or ask a friend in the know. Sometimes we just avoid what we don’t understand. That aversion can cost us countless Man-hours building a platform on the wrong site. And if we are building in the wrong place, we are less likely to succeed and more likely to get frustrated and give up.
Think ice cream stand in Alaska, hot coffee in Tuscon, mountain bikes in Wichita, KS. A tough sell and a very limited customer base. Just because everyone is saying FaceBook is hot and MySpace is passé in no way means you should listen to them. If you have to choose between going with your friends and going with your fans, I advise that you choose the fans if you desire to build a platform.
3) Quality Beats Quantity Even When It Comes to Friends—Now, if you are on Twitter, I highly recommend you follow anyone who follows you (unless they look like some kind of SPAM bot or porn bot). There is a great site called Twitter Karma, and it can help you make sure you are following whoever has been kind enough to follow you. You also have the ability to unfollow people with little or no activity, but I highly discourage this for reasons I am not going to discuss here. http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/
The number of friends one has, whether MySpace, FaceBook or Twitter is really irrelevant when it comes to the world of social media. In social media you aren’t just trying to influence an individual, your goal is to influence that reader’s community as well. Your goal is to identify and then connect with the expert influencers.
Think of high school. There was always that group of girls and guys who seemed to control the opinions of the entire school. Most often they were the cheerleaders and jocks. If you became friends with one of them, then popularity naturally followed suit.
Social media is the same way. You can spend your time one of two ways. Follow so many people that you eventually have influence. Or you identify those in your social network whose opinions hold the greatest sway. A person with 3,000 regular followers cannot accomplish what one person with a handful of expert influencers can.
I recommend www.technorati.com for locating expert influencers in your area of expertise. Technorati keeps track of the most influential bloggers by authority ranking at any given moment. I advise you search in your “subject area.” If you are writing about diets, search for those bloggers influencing that area. If you are writing about space aliens, find the most popular bloggers. Learn from them. Link them in your own blogs about space aliens. Do all you can to integrate these individuals into your network. It will enrich you and serve to help your image as an authority in your area.
The Word of Mouth Marketing Association is also another invaluable resource for anyone trying to create a brand and generate buzz. http://womma.org/main/
In the end, remember:
1) Give the Customer (Reader) the Content She Will Most Enjoy
2) Go Where the Customers Are—Ski shops do far better business in Colorado than they do in Galveston, TX.
3) Surround yourself with Experts in Your Field—That is just good advice no matter who you are.
And at the end of the day, social media aside… write a darn great book.
Happy writing! Until next time…
As publishing changes, writers too are being forced to evolve or go extinct. It’s nothing personal. Just reality. Arguing with it is about as pointless as arguing with a Category 5 hurricane that is about to make landfall. Writers are deluged with two words, platform and brand until they just plain want to bang their heads against the wall.
What? No, no, no, no, Kristen. You mean we have to market!??? We became writers so someone else would do this crap…..ugh.
I feel ya. Remember, I am a writer first. But hopefully I will give you ways to make building your platform a fun and enriching experience. Remember, attitude counts for a lot.
Social media is one of the best ways an author, even the not-yet-published can build a platform and become a brand. The problem is that there isn’t a lot of instruction how to do it. Thus, most of us bungle on to FaceBook or MySpace and stumble along and rely on dumb luck to do it correctly. Currently, I am in the process of finishing up a book on social media for writers. Why? Because there is a lot of misinformation out there that I believe can 1) frustrate a writer 2) yield little quantifiable results (in the end the small term for that is “book sales”) 3) can do more to harm a writer’s image than good.
How does that happen? Well, sometimes it is that writers gut through social media and rely on a lot of hit and miss. They join the sites their friends or their kids are on. Probably not the most efficient approach. Also, the most popular books teaching social media are teaching tools and techniques that work well in Corporate America, but have questionable value to an author. To make things worse, my experience has taught me that some approaches and applications that work well in traditional business, actually are ineffective and harmful when used in the world of writing/publishing.
I have been teaching social media for almost three years and have been blessed to work with hundreds of people in many different fields. Social media can be overwhelming and the tools and platforms change faster than most of us can keep up. Yet, by applying some fundamental techniques, my resume is filled with many successes. Thus, I hope to pass some of these techniques to you.
Last week on the Warrior Writer blog, we discussed social media and how authors, particularly fiction authors, would be wise to begin thinking of their content as a product. That, I feel will be a HUGE step to authors beginning to connect to readers (which is code for customer :D). Blogging about writing and networking with writers has it’s place, but it is not how an author builds a platform and creates a brand…unless one is writing about writing and for writers.
Today we will discuss some of the best ways a writer can build a platform.
Understand that your SMI (Social Media Influence) Campaign is About the Customer (Reader)
1) Content for the Customer—This is of course a reiteration of last week’s blog. I often hear “Well, so long as you are having fun and it is a platform that you enjoy.” Um…a friendly reminder. This isn’t about you. Remember, we as writers must serve the reader. If we don’t, readers will gravitate to authors who do. This is true in fiction just as much as non-fiction.
Fiction authors provide entertainment and escape. Readers like you for your content, and that isn’t just a finished book (although ultimately it hopefully will be). If you write mysteries set in the 1800s and you blog regularly about that time period and mystery-information-factoids or whatever regularly, you will be in a great position to already possess a following of mystery fans who respect your authority and talent to write on this subject. You will move from an unknown quantity to a known quantity much quicker than if you blog about writing or don’t blog at all.
2) Location, Location, Location—Yes, it is important for you to enjoy the social media platform you choose, but a wise author sets his preferences aside and goes where the readership is most likely to congregate. You may looooove Twitter, but if you write Young Adult, it is simply the wrong platform to spend a lot of time with expectations of finding readers. Is it a great place to network with professionals in the publishing industry? YES! But doing your homework and finding where your demographic (readership) is likely to spend a lot of time, will save you a lot of frustration.
One of the things I have learned over the years is that it is often our own ignorance that makes us dislike a certain platform. If you have a hard time on MySpace or FaceBook, go get a Dummies Guide or ask a friend in the know. Sometimes we just avoid what we don’t understand. That aversion can cost us countless Man-hours building a platform on the wrong site. And if we are building in the wrong place, we are less likely to succeed and more likely to get frustrated and give up.
Think ice cream stand in Alaska, hot coffee in Tuscon, mountain bikes in Wichita, KS. A tough sell and a very limited customer base. Just because everyone is saying FaceBook is hot and MySpace is passé in no way means you should listen to them. If you have to choose between going with your friends and going with your fans, I advise that you choose the fans if you desire to build a platform.
3) Quality Beats Quantity Even When It Comes to Friends—Now, if you are on Twitter, I highly recommend you follow anyone who follows you (unless they look like some kind of SPAM bot or porn bot). There is a great site called Twitter Karma, and it can help you make sure you are following whoever has been kind enough to follow you. You also have the ability to unfollow people with little or no activity, but I highly discourage this for reasons I am not going to discuss here. http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/
The number of friends one has, whether MySpace, FaceBook or Twitter is really irrelevant when it comes to the world of social media. In social media you aren’t just trying to influence an individual, your goal is to influence that reader’s community as well. Your goal is to identify and then connect with the expert influencers.
Think of high school. There was always that group of girls and guys who seemed to control the opinions of the entire school. Most often they were the cheerleaders and jocks. If you became friends with one of them, then popularity naturally followed suit.
Social media is the same way. You can spend your time one of two ways. Follow so many people that you eventually have influence. Or you identify those in your social network whose opinions hold the greatest sway. A person with 3,000 regular followers cannot accomplish what one person with a handful of expert influencers can.
I recommend www.technorati.com for locating expert influencers in your area of expertise. Technorati keeps track of the most influential bloggers by authority ranking at any given moment. I advise you search in your “subject area.” If you are writing about diets, search for those bloggers influencing that area. If you are writing about space aliens, find the most popular bloggers. Learn from them. Link them in your own blogs about space aliens. Do all you can to integrate these individuals into your network. It will enrich you and serve to help your image as an authority in your area.
The Word of Mouth Marketing Association is also another invaluable resource for anyone trying to create a brand and generate buzz. http://womma.org/main/
In the end, remember:
1) Give the Customer (Reader) the Content She Will Most Enjoy
2) Go Where the Customers Are—Ski shops do far better business in Colorado than they do in Galveston, TX.
3) Surround yourself with Experts in Your Field—That is just good advice no matter who you are.
And at the end of the day, social media aside… write a darn great book.
Happy writing! Until next time…
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