Are you an author or contemplating being an author?
Okay, if the answer is no, then perhaps you have a book inside of you? Is your journey so amazing that other people would want to hear it also? If so, that is your autobiography or your memoir. A lot of people “think” their story is interesting. It’s not. That is the reason there are literary agents in the world. Their job is to prevent bad writing from making it into the mainstream literary world. I don’t have to tell you that the world is full of struggling authors.
Think of being a writer just like any other skill. Typing for example is a skill. The first time you touched a keyboard or an actual typewriter, you had NO idea how these letters ever made any sense. The A was by the S? Everyone knows that A goes next to B. The thought of using this machine and knowing where all the letters were was pretty overwhelming. I learned on an IBM Selectric. That shows how old I am, right? WRONG. You are only as old or young as you choose.
So on to today’s lesson, the book marketing plan. If you were not aware my background is marketing, my bachelor’s degree is in marketing and I was a product manager and marketing manager for a good portion of my professional career. Amazingly it has come in handy. My point is, I am experienced in this arena. You, just like your book, need a marketing plan. Hopefully before your book has ever launched you have spent some time and energy on your personal branding and now your book branding.
Your book needs a S.W.O.T. analysis with detailed marketing data. Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. How you look at your book and who will partner with it is monumental if you want massive success. I have a client who asked me to develop a marketing execution plan for her book. Basically my success of my book and platform put into an easy to follow workbook, marketing plan. I have a pretty good idea of what it is going to include, specifics to marketing strategies, which routes I chose.
Why did I self publish versus going with a literary agent and traditional publisher? What were some of the financial pitfalls I hit and missed? How did I amass such a large following and what were some of the specifics? I would like to say that someone took me by the hand and said, “First you are going to do this. When you complete that you will move to phase 2, which is this …” but it wasn’t anything like that. I spent hundreds of hours doing research, reading other authors blogs, and investigating anything and everything I could find online.
There is a hidden world of eBooks. There are so many eBook retailers that do not exist to the average American. Most of the United States is focused on printed book sales. Getting their books in stores, at Walmart or Costco. Anything to get the marketing and exposure that they desperately want so bad.
You and your I.S.B.N. is also important as is the “imprint” of your book. Whomever owns the imprint is the owner, bottom line. That is who gets paid. If it is not your name, then you have to wait until that entity decides to pay you your percentage. If you go the traditional route with an agent, keep in mind that you will probably be paid just a little better than your agent. 15% of the sale price. If your book retails paper for $19.99, it may sell for $9.99 and you 15% of that. Bookstores get 60% off of list price, that is why Amazon and B&N can discount books so heavily.
Distribution is also very key in your book marketing plan. Newsflash — not everyone shops at Amazon. Some people HATE Amazon. Some people only shop local, some only shop at Barnes & Noble, some only shop at airport bookstores. Some people only read books from their public library. Did you know that your electronic book can easily be listed in your local library? Yep, it is true.
Your power partners are also important in your success. Who are power partners? They are the group(s) or individuals who are helping your cause. Your partners are also part of your tribe. Your tribe is your 1000 true fans. This is a theory I have talked about before so I won’t rehash it. You can research the details, but basically you need to have 1000 people who will buy your product or service.
Regardless if you self publish or go traditional you will be told by many people you need to build a platform of readers. It is a huge gamble for a publisher to print books that won’t sell. You have to prove that you have readers who are willing to fork over their hard-earned cash. Your power partners or tribe will be a large majority of your sales initially.
I have already been approached by many professionals who want this same marketing plan. Why? Because what I have done has worked quite nicely for me. It’s a proven fact that there are millions of people who are successful simply by following the actions of those who have demonstrated success.
I haven’t decided how I am going to pursue this endeavor. Do I write another book for the world to read? Do I have a full day workshop? A Friday, Saturday and Sunday event where people all over the nation fly to Denver and sit in my energy and learn all the things they need to know? How much would people pay for such knowledge? I could easily put that together. I could very easily incorporate small business know how that would be valuable. Finances, sponsorships, investors, things along those lines. Maybe someone believes in you and wants a cut of the profits?
I think I would definitely devote a large portion to training professionals, how to use their website, make the most of “out of the box” marketing tactics. I bet that portion would be very popular. Right now I am thinking $5000 for 3 days, and I share all my wealth of knowledge. You pay for your own way to get here and stay. You can bring a second person, like a business partner for half price. During that time, we build your website, develop your marketing plan, strategize your book, and partner with other authors to build your social media. As an added bonus, I read some manuscripts and give some feedback. It could be a lot of fun.
I know for a fact that some authors have spent tens of thousands of dollars and never achieved the results that I have. If you think you might be one of the few that will be interested in this workshop feel free to let me know. I am thinking of keeping it to a low number of participants so I can work closely with everyone.
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Facebook Business Likes Decreasing
If you weren’t aware, Facebook has made a decision to clean house. Businesses that have fake “likes” from LIKE farms are in trouble. Facebook has decided to remove dead, inactive accounts. It has not been confirmed, but I am sure they have some sort of advanced software working in the background.
If you don’t know what a LIKE farm is, it is a company that hires thousands of people to just “like” pages if customers pay them. On the surface you can’t tell that a business has fake likes. Meaning they paid an outside company to just like their page and they really don’t. Personally I don’t think that is right. It’s cheating. Facebook thinks so too. They are also attempting to determine the number of fake accounts and duplicates. I only have one Facebook account, but there are tons of people who have more than one, and that is against their terms of service. If they find out, they could ban both accounts. So be careful folks.
Facebook also decided that deceased accounts should also not count. In all fairness, the person who liked that page can no longer interact, like or share postings. The biggest problem companies had with using a like farm is that when they would go to post something on Facebook, there would be zero engagement or likes. So I am sure you have seen pages that post something and there is hardly any like or zero likes. For a lot of people they think that those likes are fake, and purchased from a like farm.
If you don’t own a Facebook business page, then this might be educational for you. I am going to assume you know what a page is, and you just don’t have one of your own. If you do, then you already know that it is not easy to get people to like your page. You might be one of them. You’ve spammed all your friends through the Facebook invite option and only a handful of people liked your page. Why? You have over a thousand, surely everyone is going to like your page, right? Wrong.
First of all, your friends don’t know anything about your new page, and second of all, they don’t know if you own it. It might not be clear. I get invites all the time for people who want me to like their page. Here is my rule, if you didn’t ask me personally, or I can’t tell that it is your page, I won’t like it. Third, I need to see what you have been posting the past month or so, how often you post, and if I find it interesting, educational or entertaining. If it doesn’t meet that criteria, I may not want you showing up in my newsfeed. Sometimes, over-posting can prevent someone from liking your page.
Your business page should have at least an hour’s worth of good reading, just like your website. Many people make the mistake of announcing their premature business page and the only people who like it are the best friends, family and maybe some clients. If you are someone who just reposts other people’s material, ultimately you will just end up sending your potential readers to someone else’s page.
When you do finally decide on your topic for your blog, be sure you write something ample. Use big fonts. If you are using WordPress then you should be using those “H” tags. In the formatting, there is Heading 1, 2, 3, …6, and paragraph and there are some other formats you can use. Those are key in your SEO. I have never mentioned using these in my blogs in the past, but I always, ALWAYS, use them. For one, it makes it easier for you the reader to read. Two, it does some special SEO tricks that help search engines find me. Three, it just looks nicer.
Did you know that your blog/website only has 8 seconds before your reader will make a decision? Think about it. How much time and patience do YOU have? If a page doesn’t load fast then your reader will close out. If your page does load and it is too busy, your reader will close out. If your page loads and the font is too small and a TON of text, your reader may close out. Remember, most people have failing eyesight or are reading from a mobile device. As a blogger you are also a designer now. Layout and design make a huge impact and impression on your reader.
So if you haven’t checked me out on Facebook, I have a few business pages. The main one is my public figure page and the other is my children’s book page. I was asked by a client who has an author page if she should also have a book page. Personally I don’t think it would hurt, and it certainly can help. My marketing of the book was monumental on introducing people to the idea of my book, months before it actually launched. After it launched the likes continued to grow. I have noticed that on both of those pages my likes have decreased like everyone else out there. Fortunately for me it was minimal. I lost like 2 thousand on the angel page and maybe 1 thousand on my public figure page.
I am sure it was due to duplicate or inactive accounts. I know some people are thinking, “Wow, you lost 3 thousand fans? That’s more than I have all together. I’d be freaking out.” I would be except that I have over 200 hundred thousand fans on Facebook, not counting my other social media platforms. I would probably imagine that this website has a pretty large following. There are so many marketing vehicles out there that point people to this website. Lately I have been getting random visitors from StumbleUpon.com. That is another cool website, but I will write a blog on that website another day.
Although, in all fairness, before Facebook was doing their deletion of likes, I would lose likes on a regular basis. Sometimes none, sometimes as many as 30 a day. For whatever reason, someone decided they didn’t want to see me in their newsfeed. I try not to overanalyze and instead focus on the positive.
Thousands of God’s children ARE listening to me, hearing his message. There are also thousands of followers who like reading something spiritual and inspirational. I get messages daily, many of them young boys who look up to me as a role model. It’s a really cool feeling when a total stranger tells you that he wants to be just like you. I also spent a pretty penny (from heaven) on advertising and marketing the book around the globe for almost 10 months. Millions have been exposed to the book, Facebook pages, or websites.
I have some stealth website tricks that I use. On the angel academy website and this one, I have a “like” box that shows up in the right hand corner of the website when you hit page 3 scrolling. If you like the site it asks you to like the Facebook page. The cool thing with this is you don’t have to leave the website to actually go look at the Facebook page. So I got thousands of people to like my page without ever going to see it. It doesn’t activate on the blog posts, but if you click on the header it will take you to the home page.
Once you have your Facebook business page established you should advertise it everywhere you can for free. Your email signature, your personal Facebook cover page and description, your Google+ page, your About.Me page, Twitter profile, any promotions, and anything printed, including your business card. I am not sure how many likes I got from LinkedIn, but that is also another rich platform you can market yourself.
Regardless of profession you are in, if you are seeking clients or customers, you need to be visible. You need your website to come up first if someone types it in Google, Bing, MSN or Yahoo. You never know where your readers are coming from, but you can always direct them to your personal professional website. You are always in control of your website. Facebook won’t be going away due to it’s egregious wealth and power. However there were other social media sites that came and went; Friendster, MySpace are just a couple off the top of my head. If you are blogging on Blogger or WordPress.com, there is nothing from them saying they are going to start charging you or hold your website hostage.
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Stealth Infomercial Books
How often have you gone to a website, or a blog because you were promised something for free? Such as a free book, a free article, a top ten listing, free training course materials, videos, mediations, … the list goes on. I don’t do that. I have never asked for an email address. I do give you the reader the option to stay updated.
When you give someone your email address you are giving them permission into your life anytime they feel like it. Your email probably goes to your smartphone, and you are attached to the internet and your computer or tablet almost non-stop. Chances are that person that asked for your email in return for something free secretly wants you to pay them even more money. Usually it is something like “Go to my weekend seminar” or “subscribe to my class”. Ultimately it is usually that they want to make money off of you. Now this is not always the case. However if you do your own research you will find the “experts” telling you to build an email list and that is the way to do it.
So onto the topic of today’s article. Infomercials. You either love them or you hate them. I sort of like watching the Shark vacuum on television. I don’t like reading an entire book to find out I wasted my time and money to learn I have to go buy the seminar. I won’t name any names, but I think we all know someone who has used this tactic before. It seems to work for them. Maybe some people are just so awesome and their fans love them so much, they would LOVE to be in that person’s energy/workshop.
Keep in mind that this usually only happens in the non-fiction market and typically in the self-help arena. Let me also say that many people use this book arena in lieu of a formal education. That is fine when the author is credible. Did you know that the majority of self-help authors use their own personal experience for their book, neglecting many other sources. Most colleges require a master’s degree in that subject field with thousands documented work experience hours to teach a student. There are no requirements to sit at a computer and start typing.
I earned my master’s degree in business administration in human resources. It took me several years to complete and gave me a very good foundation for business. I chose human resources as my emphasis as I already had experience in that arena. I also taught at Westwood College for 9 years. I left teaching formal education and focused working with CEO’s and small business owners.
Thousands of my followers/fans are former students who have reconnected with me. Although many don’t know me, many feel like they know me because they have spent hundreds of hours reading my blogs. It’s true. Many have spent time in my classroom, and all of them have had to interview with me before graduation. People tell me all the time how much they enjoy reading my writing. My personal blog, which you can access on the menu, is another fun reading afternoon adventure. It is much more of a motivational website. I like that one because it is easy on the eyes visually with all the graphics.
Another thing I am annoyed with by some websites is the constant overkill on advertising. Don’t you like how my website doesn’t do that? I actually have been contacted by advertisers who would LOVE to be using my blank, white space on the sides of my blogs. As you can see, I have declined to annoy my readers. Seriously, it’s annoying. How often do you REALLY click on the thing that is blinking or flashing at you on the side of the site? Like almost never. Trust me. I have designed hundreds of sites and banner/side advertising only is brand awareness. Your click-through rate is almost non-existent. Don’t do it on your website.
So if you don’t advertise, trick people for email addresses, or use pop up windows, how do you get people to buy your product? There are several ways. One, let them get to know you. Use your writing in your consistent writing schedule to share with your readers. Two, be likeable. Three, be trustworthy. While those things may sound simple, they are not simple. If if was so simple then everyone would do it.
Trust, for me, is something that is earned. It is a privilege, not a right. Your readers will learn to trust you when you give them reasons. If you are a fiction writer, did your book have a happy ending? Was it so satisfying someone would be willing to recommend it? If you are a non-fiction writer, did you teach someone something that would be of benefit or value? Was it something that they would not have learned searching the internet on their own? Do you bring something to the table that no one else has? Your personality, or unique perspective might be something you bring to the table. A well-known television personality is Ellen Degeneres. Sure she can act, but it is her dynamic fun personality that she is known for by most people.
Many times you can definitely get a “feel” for the author’s writing style. There are a lot of my fans who read my writing and tell me that it “sounds” like a friend that they know. Nope, the work is always original, it’s always mine. Sure the angels interject their two cents. Pennies from heaven? Did you know that angels usually are always working in pairs? If your writing style is conversational and your personality deems it, you can also throw in some humor into your writing style. This can sometimes be challenging if your personality is not well-known. Wanda Sykes making a statement may have a different meaning or tone coming from you. You may think you are being funny, but you may indirectly offend someone.
Writers rule the world. Every movie was once a book. Our laws were written by writers. Our favorite children’s story was written by one person, and read by millions. Writers. Give thanks if you are one of them.
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Angel Geeks
Get Your Geek On
When I was growing up as a kid, being called a geek was not a term of endearment. In fact it sort of had a negative connotation to it. Today I think we agree that the term has taken on new meaning.
What does it mean to me?
Being a “geek” means you are a guru at that topic or subject. Or as closely as possible. No one knows everything, even about one subject. Most of us know a little about a little. Who knows, maybe people will like the term “Angel Geek”. I sort of do. I like people talking about angels. Truth be told, even though I wrote a book about angels, I don’t know that much about them. I don’t even know the divine hierarchy of domains. If I had to take a test, I would fail.
I truly believe that we are all spiritual magnets, either attracting or repelling those who enter into our awareness. So should I be surprised when other angel fanatics show up and love my book? Not really. I was actually wondering what took them so long to manifest into my reality. My new angel friends aren’t going to make me take a test. They just use their psychic powers on me.
So why the blog on angels today? You got me. I guess angels felt they needed some showcasing. I actually don’t write about angels that much, other than when they get in my face and tell me to do something. Seriously. I was telling a friend how I really wasn’t into angels before the book. I was into websites. Someone out there in my big domain of followers needed some sort of validation. Like “show up in my life angels” and they are doing it in the form of this blog. Lucky you. I don’t ask. I just do. You should too.
Your guardian angel has been with you since the day you were born. He or she was assigned to you. According to my book, that angel made an agreement to be your protector until the day you die, and at that point will relinquish you to your angel of death who will take you to your next destination. That guardian will also serve a minimum of 5 earth lives before moving onto a new assignment. Your guardian is with your for at least 5 lives on earth, so they know you better than you know yourself.
There is an entire collection of small stories about angels that will become one of the books in the series. I have been thinking about what could I write about for 20 more books? Unlike other people, I actually got answers. My advanced writing skills will really be put to the test as I will continue to dazzle readers with exciting adventurous escapes. Not all angels are good and you will get to see sides of the story from an angel point of view.
Some people have been fascinated with death and the afterlife, ghosts and demons. I get it. You are very naive if you do not believe in some of these things. There is evil in this world. Few can articulate it well. I plan on being one of those individuals. Stephanie Meyer had a great idea. Change the perspective of the main character. So, I write some pretty scary or horrific stories and show the reader what the angels are doing in the background.
One of the coolest things I did in the book was give you the angel perspective. What happens when millions are about to die, and they all stop and pray to God? Well normally, you sit back, hear nothing and hope you don’t die. In my book, you see the angels and God respond, with very imaginable results. I think it is just awesome. Yes, there is a God.
This weekend my book will be proudly for sale and on display at the psychic fair at the Denver Merchandise Mart. I have a feeling that my book will go over very well and it is just the momentum it needs. Angels tell me frequently “We got this.” If you happen to be in the Denver area, it goes Friday, Saturday and Sunday. My book will be there Saturday and Sunday. Hours are 10-7 Saturday, 10-6 on Sunday. Here is their website.
If you are reading this article chance are you are relatively computer literate. Heck, you might have a tablet, smartphone and a computer. I have a Kindle. I also have the app to use on my iPhone.
Seriously, what would it hurt to say you believe in your angels and you want their help? Ask. Believe. Receive.
Angels have a message for you. You will find it here.
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Ready To Start Your Blog?
Did you know that there are actually lots of different choices and alternatives for blogging. Personally I think anyone who has a thought to share should have a blog. The world needs more writers.
I get a lot of questions from readers who want to start a blog or a website. These probably are not potential clients for me as I usually build websites for clients who have a steady stream of income. Most “blogs” are more informative and usually don’t sell a lot of products or services. I would say that blogs are a collection of ideas, and are composed as a “post”, whereas your website is made of “pages”. All WordPress blogs have to include 2 pages in order to make the site work. The first page is the home page and the second is the blog page. If you do not have these two pages configured correctly then your site will not appear correctly.
Now you don’t have to use WordPress, you can use something else. One of my prior blogs lived on Blogger.com. It is also a free blogging system, has lots of customization, and like WordPress.com, you can use your custom domain name, but you have to pay additional for it of course. If all you want to do is record your thoughts and ideas, then using a free blogging system will do the job.
Your website doesn’t need to be super fancy. Look at this one. It’s pretty plain and simple. It is the layout and the size of the font that makes it easy to read. It is the content that keeps readers coming back for more.
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Blogger Advice – More Website Jewels
Hello my blogging friends! Chances are you like to read blogs and you might even fancy writing one or two yourself. Personally I have several blogs and all of them are for different reasons. One thing that I learned a long time ago, is most people can only focus on one concept at a time. Hence the reason large sites have categories. The layout of your website/blog can make or break your readers experience.
This blog’s specific purpose is to educate, inform, and even entertain the reader. Most of the readers of this blog have been following me for years or are fans from Facebook. Those 3 things, educate – inform – entertain, are the key building blocks in developing your own base of readers.
If you are just starting your blog or you are rebranding yourself, what do you want your blog to accomplish? When someone is done reading one of your clever, crafty articles, what experience or feeling are they left with at that moment? Was your blog too short? Blogs are never too long. Trust me on that one. Write with passion and write from your heart. Always read your own work and spell check.
I use WordPress 4.11 and you should too. I get a lot of people wanting to know what theme I use. The theme I use is not for the average user and most will find it very difficult and frustrating. I say this because my site needs CSS access to modify the code. I use a child theme, which probably means nothing to you. I use very little plugins and most of my site is static. If you want a wow me, dazzle super cool theme, then I will recommend you head over to ThemeForest.net, which has thousands of really cool themes. If you are a blogger, go for a magazine/writers theme. In addition to cool themes you can find any plugin you could possibly imagine.
If you were to use the same theme as me, it would not look anything like my site. Sorry, that’s why I like this theme. I can customize it for any company, person, purpose, event or product. AaronMstephens.com, Angel.Academy, SuzanneGrandchamp.com, and many, many more use the same theme. If you want to see a few sites that I have done with different themes, my personal blog, AaronsAfterthoughts.com uses a cool magazine type of theme. My business website, OpusDeorum.com also uses a complex theme. Many of my clients will buy a theme and try to configure it themselves, which is a very long process if you do not know what you are doing.
If you are a writer, and blogging is your thing, then you should configure your site a lot like a magazine or news site. Your blog, the writing part, may or may not be a driving force in your website. Your witty thoughts are being captured by Google, Bing and MSN, and answered in a Jeopardy like format. Reverse your answers to a possible question. If you are not a writer, you can hire writers. Although, most of your fans would rather hear your thoughts, ideas and imagination.
Being a good writer and being a great writer takes practice, repetition, and convey some sort of a message. If you are someone who just rambles and doesn’t have a lot to say, you won’t hold the attention of your readers. Most people don’t like to be overwhelmed with a lot of data. This is one of the reasons I have my blog display little bits of information at a time. I highly recommend that you read, re-read your work before you hit publish. Did you personally learn something from your own writing? If the answer is no, then maybe go back to the drawing board until the answer is yes.
Keep in mind that if you are using a free WordPress site you cannot use these themes, plugins or anything they sell as you do not have that functionality. You just cant have a cool site with these themes. Bummer.
Once you have your website or blog set up, all you really have to do is focus on your writing. I personally like this blog because it is easy to read, it has big black fonts and scrolls easily on my tablet or phone. It’s not busy at all, and in fact is very black and white.
Before you launch your site, play around with different themes after you have some content. You should always have your home page (landing), about, products/services, blog and contact methods. You may not want to give out your email or phone number. If it is a real lead, they will call you directly, so you may want to get a Google Voice number to list on your site. Create your pages, a few postings, your menu and configure your logo. Your branding should also include your professionally lit photograph suitable for 4 print color. Good luck with branding/creating your website!
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More Blogs & Articles
Hello friends and welcome to another edition of Aaron’s highly informative and extremely entertaining blogs. One of the things I pride myself is the fact the no one writes like me. I’m not scheduled, repetitive, and certainly not boring. I am always looking for new blogs/writers and many times I find myself let down.
I am a member of a lot of different Facebook groups so I am exposed to a lot of authors. Naturally I am curious what other authors are doing and go check out their website(s), Facebook Business page, if they have one, and what they rank on Amazon for their book. Lately I have seen quite a few authors tooting their horn at what a great social media person they are, and you should register for their class/workshop, and of course, purchase their book. If you give them an email address they might give you something free. Personally I don’t ever feel that whatever they are giving is worth signing up for another mailing list.
Seriously, I get so much email another newsletter just is not going to do it for me. But wait! You are thinking, “Aaron, you have a newsletter sign up on your website.” Nope, I don’t. Have you ever gotten an email directly FROM me? Nope. Do I ever send out mass emails on my own? No. If you subscribe to my site, I don’t know it. WordPress automatically sends out a notification that a new blog was created. I never promised anyone anything, other than stealing you away from what you really should be doing … work. However, you may argue that reading this article IS work as it will help you in your own endeavors. How? I am getting there.
I honestly do not even know how many people are signed up for email notifications or RSS, but I do know it is in the thousands. So I never ask anyone to sign up or promise them anything. Chances are by the time you have lost a half an hour or so of time, you can make up you own mind if you want to read more. An RSS is really super simple to set up. What makes it cool is people will still be notified of your update/article without actually going to your site, opening up email, or getting a notification on your smartphone. It just silently scrolls along the bottom of your screen. Very sneaky marketing. If your blog is interesting, people will look forward to seeing updates. If you slam them with “Buy my product/services” they will quickly get rid of you. Sorry, but that is the way it is.
If you are visiting my site for the first time, you will find there is a lot to read. I like to write. If you are returning for a second or third time you will notice that I keep on writing, just like Dory from Finding Nemo. Just keep writing. Just keep writing. I tell that to writers all the time. Who cares if it isn’t good the first draft, just keep writing. We can fix those things later. The other day I wrote a really long blog. The longer the blog, the better the SEO. It got a lot of exposure and people really liked it. Sweet. I’m glad I can be so entertaining. Seriously, I personally get annoyed reading a blog that is like ten seconds long. Almost all of my writing is pretty lengthy. Since I “usually” write quite early in the morning, many people have already started making it a habit of sitting down with their morning coffee and reading my blog. I think I am a little more entertaining than the same old Facebook newsfeed. Well, that is what a reader told me this week.
One of the really cool things I like about having a large fan base, is the constant stream of comments, messages and tweets I receive. There aren’t a lot of writers you can contact and say “Hey will you write about _____ just for me?” I would like to write Stephen King and say, “Oooooo…write a Colorado marijuana horror story just for me! Even a short story, please????” Yeah, that certainly won’t happen anytime soon. I’m not writing short stories, but I am addressing a lot of topics that people find interesting. Some people are even using my articles in their research papers for school. Yes really. Because they tell me. Anytime I write about WordPress I get a lot of hits on the site. Why? Because millions of people are using it and millions of people don’t know how to use it. They fiddle their way through it and barely make use of it. It’s like cooking. Everyone can cook something. Not everyone is a chef.
So today I want to direct your attention to social media. Why? Because everyone loves talking and reading about it. Mostly people who don’t know what it is, or feel like they are lost in the crowd. Everyone has moved on but you. You are now figuring out how this how Facebook thing works and you hear that people are moving on to other things. Like what? Well, that is why you are here on this site. So I can share that with you. Social Media is this giant elephant in the room. Some people like to brand themselves as experts, write books and charge thousands of dollars just to talk. John Maxwell, Darren Hardy are two that quickly come to mind. The thing I find most interesting, is these “experts” are all old. Sorry, they are. They didn’t grow up with a smartphone, they grew up with something called a “rotary dial”. Older people also use Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. The younger generation, we use things like Instagram, Pinterest, SnapChat and StumbleUpon.
I am not going to go into a lot of detail of how to use these outlets, someone has already written about them. For a lot of readers, they are thinking “Okay I know that one, … and that one, but what are those other ones?” I have several people in mind right now. You know who you are. I didn’t know about SnapChat until my friends from one of my Facebook groups told me to start using it with my fans. Of course I asked a dozen questions, but after seeing how it worked I could see a lot of value in it.
I have been struggling with how to reach MY younger reading audience. They aren’t on Facebook. Why? “My parents are on Facebook. They cyber-stalk me.” How freaking funny is that? Well, that is what the kids are saying. “My mom is a total ****** and reads all my text messages and makes me give her my lock code.” SnapChat is a 1-10 second video or message that deletes after viewed. So I signed up for a SnapChat account and then I put a picture of the logo on my Facebook page. I didn’t say what it was, and it did not take you off of Facebook’s site. This is important when you want to have larger exposure. Sure enough, my fans all around the world knew what that app logo was and thousands quickly added me to their friend list. Quite a few older “friends” asked me what it was. I didn’t want to let everyone in on the secret just yet, so I just said it was a way for me to connect with my fans.
As a writer it is critical to connect with your audience. Your audience could span across several demographics. For instance, I seriously doubt there are a lot of kids under the age of 12 that read my blog. Why? The information is not relevant or interesting to them. In the United States a lot of children found out about my book through their parents. Why? Because I wasn’t able to connect with kids. I have several audiences, and perhaps in another article I will go into greater depth. International kids are a different story. I don’t know why.
One way you can connect with your readers is by your writing style. For the most part, I write in a very casual conversational style, just as if I were talking with you. Many of my personal friends say they can actually hear my voice as they read my blogs. Some writers talk above their audience reading level (and lose them) and I just find that frustrating. You should always write at a sixth grade reading level. Why? Most average adults only read at a sixth grade reading level.
The key word I use is CONNECT. Once you have that connection with your readers they are more likely to share, and recommend you and your blog. The “willing to recommend” is very key in getting a viral marketing plan for your book/blog. When you write something, in the back of your mind you should be thinking “WHY would anyone want to read this article? Or tell someone else to go read it?”
So to answer my own question; “This blog introduced me to some new marketing data, social media insights and made me start thinking about whom might want to read my own writing.”
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Best Writing & Selling Author
If you are like me you are often swayed by books and movies. How can you NOT know what is in the media if you are on Facebook, Twitter or any of the other social media sites. Hollywood seems to take over my news feed on a regular basis.
One of the things as an author that I frequently pay attention to is the NY Times Best Sellers. If you weren’t aware, it is a list that the New York Times newspapers puts out weekly based on print book sales around the United States. Personally I have to say that I have never purchased a book based on its ranking for book sales. Never. So why the big deal for everyone to use that particular list as a benchmark? The perception is if you are on the list you are golden. But the truth of the matter is, you aren’t.
The lists are rigged, mostly for the publishing houses. It’s not like it is a big secret as to which bookstores report to Bookscan. If you are a billion dollar publisher you can make sure that each of those store have plenty of copies of your books. That takes a lot of money and power to do that. One person alone cannot accomplish rigging the list. But it has been done in the past. Others rely on phoney rigged reviews which clearly are carefully written by friends; telling very little about the book or if it really is any good.
So I think it is fair to say that a list of selling a lot of books doesn’t necessarily mean that it is a good book. I don’t know how many times I watched a movie that came from a best selling book to find out that it might have sold a lot but it wasn’t written very well. Characters not developed, subplots left hanging, you know, that kind of thing. Do you sometimes wonder where the author is going with an idea, and you keep reading hoping you’ll find out, but alas, you never do.
I have also been tricked by stealth authors who get all their friends to write bogus reviews. You and I both know whom we are talking about. There are authors who have over 100 reviews the first day the book is released. To me that seems a little far fetched. So authors such as myself have turned to Goodreads.com for honest reviews. I also did some contests enticing readers to post a review if they won a paperback copy. That seemed to work pretty well as I had hundreds of Goodreads users add my book to their online shelf “To Read”.
Best writing authors are another category all together. Unfortunately there are not a lot of books that fall into this category. Even some of the big success hundred million book sales don’t meet the expectation of “great writing”. Everyone has different criteria of what they feel falls into that criteria. Personally for me the list is high and most authors don’t fall into that category. That’s okay, it’s just my thoughts. Daily I get feedback and comments from complete strangers how they like how I think and write. Right on!
I had a friend who said she spent months reading my blogs. She read one blog a day. When she was finally done she felt that she really knew me. She could even hear my voice reading my blogs to her. What she found so amazing, is she said that I thought like she thought. You could say that I am a pretty positive, optimistic kind of guy. I was talking with my real estate agent in NYC and she said she spent hours reading my work before she read my book. She said if my book was anything like my articles and blogs she would be more than satisfied. She gave me a five star review on Amazon. Her name is Leah, if you need a broker in NYC she will hook you up.
So I think the takeaway with any new author, is take a look at their professional website, their Facebook and Twitter platforms. Do they provide useful, informative, entertaining messages on a regular basis, like I do? After you have found yourself lost in their thoughts and ideas, would you invest $20 to read that author’s book? I make things easy and let readers subscribe by email, RSS and then of course adding me to a favorite or list on Twitter or liking my page on Facebook. People will always like to read. It’s a good thing I like to write.
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Writing Habits
Good or Bad — habits are necessary
Did you know that it takes approximately 21 days for you to develop and maintain a habit? I tried this theory out once and I would tend to agree. Most people don’t even realize where they are spending their time and energy or even acknowledge.
Some of the things you do that are habit are done so automatically you don’t even have to think about it. I don’t need to list the common habits of most people; but I will list some of the habits that are considered positive, and maybe you might want to incorporate some of those habits in your daily/weekly/monthly schedule.
As a writer is important to have some healthy routine habits just to keep you on schedule. For instance, I always write at the same time period of the day; which for me is always in the early morning. Angels wake me up daily starting at 3 a.m. and keep pestering me until it is 4:44 a.m. and then I get up. I am usually awake by that time, and the first habit I do is start the coffee and tea machine.
I did some muscle testing and confirmed that my body does in fact crave and need lemons and water. It is also a proven fact that brewed tea with lemon and honey is really good for you and your body. I normally drink a dark brewed coffee. I have now included a glass of warm water with lemon and a cup of hot white tea with lemon. To make life easier I buy lemons in bulks at Sam’s Club and always have a dish of fresh cut lemons readily available.
Like billions of people around the world I like Coca Cola, coke. One of my favorite Christmas songs is the Coca Cola “Teach the World To Sing”. I know that coke is not good for me. It is fake sugar that causes my body to react violently as my blood sugar is under attack by corn processed sugar alternative called corn fructose. Coke is my bad habit. It tastes good. It’s full of caffeine and spikes my brain activity for about 20 minutes. When I am wanting or craving a coke, or the sugar, I will drink a glass of lemon water first. If I am still craving it after I really quench my thirst then I might consider it. It has never happened that way. After I drink the ice cold lemon water I have forgotten all about the coke.
Earlier this year I gave some examples of some S.M.A.R.T. goals. Defining time metrics to your objectives and goals will help keep you on track and on target of your complete date. So maybe you don’t like drinking tea and you cannot imagine drinking it daily let alone as a replacement. Fair enough. Perhaps you could start with drinking just one sip of tea a day. You could sip it with your coffee. Make life easy for you to incorporate new habits. I had all my tea in a cupboard, hidden away. Now all my teas are proudly displayed under led lights making it look more like a gourmet kitchen. My coffee maker also has a hot water dispenser, which makes it very simple for tea, hot cocoa or just brewing one cup of coffee for a Starbucks “Pour Over”.
Once you start some easy daily goals and make a habit of completing them, you can move on to some weekly goals. If writing a book, novel or work of art seems a little daunting still, break things down so they are more manageable. For fiction writers, start by jotting down the overall “plot” of what happens, a basic one sentence statement that you can build. Create, develop and imagine your hero. Who is his/her mortal enemy? Write those things down. Believe it or not, writing a fiction story does not usually happen chronologically from start to finish.
As a previous college professor I still believe in hard copy paper back up versions of my work. I also have the ability to mark things up and see revisions visually. All of my work is three hole punched and put into a binder that is dated and color coded. Always keep blank pages in your binder so you can quickly write down ideas, new characters, scenes or conflicts down when they come to you, sometimes in a dream. It is a lot easier to scribble down a thought at 2 a.m. on a piece of paper in a notebook than booting up your manuscript on your computer.
Some writers use digital recorders, others will use smartphone voice recorders. If you are starting your action plan, start by just writing down your daily activities and analyze where you spend your time and where you can allocate new time for writing activities, or whatever it is you want to develop a habit. If you want to start exercising then maybe it is as simple as going to bed earlier so you can wake up earlier?
Write down all your habits. Eliminate the bad and build on the good.
#habits #writers #coffeetea
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Published Authors Take Note
Divine inspiration can come to you in many ways. It is very important that you are always listening. This morning an angel came to me providing me with some very valuable insight. I have been doing websites for over 20 years and a long time ago I had a page of links that became my personal “bookmark” page. Over time many companies wanted to be listed on that list. I never advertised my links, but it lived on my original website for years. It is no longer functional as most of the links are probably outdated. My point is that I already knew how to be a webmaster and forgot some very basic skills. Be an affiliate.
My websites and Facebook platform send a lot of traffic to Amazon. Why not get a piece of that back as a referral fee? It was a pretty simple process, signing up on their website, giving them my websites, and then finally giving me an affiliate id number that I can embed in my links. Every book sale that I send to Amazon I now get 15% back. This is probably the most clever trick I have come up with since launching the book. I wish I would have recalled this technique before the book launch.
The other nifty trick I recommend is having a professional looking cover picture for your Facebook personal page. Here is mine:
I haven’t seen any articles talking about cover photos so I will briefly talk about what went into this one. This is actually a PNG (portable network graphic) file as it it optimized for websites. Also as it is not the common jpg file, your graphics won’t ever be under virus attack. Thousands of people look me up on Facebook and they see my public profile or this one. Both are professional. This one directs you back to my author website and tells you that I am an author. It shows you the book cover, and brands me as a best selling author. It also shows you all the different channels you can purchase my book.
Many readers use Goodreads.com and their smartphone app, so sharing with readers that I am listed there helps to give them reviews from real readers and the ability to add it to their shelf to read later. The graphic reminds readers of the Amazon Kindle and the child leaning against the tree promotes casual reading. Naturally people are curious and they go to my website, my public figure page or to Amazon and ultimately results in an eBook download or printed paperback sale. Once you have a professional looking cover picture you can later use it to brand yourself when you post or blog.
Use a professional eye catching photo that highlights your energy. A picture is worth a thousand words. The day you decided to become a celebrity, a published author or public figure, your days of pictures with your animals for your avatar were over. There actually are a lot of things that you may have to consider once you are in the public’s eye. I do massive amounts of research and I haven’t found any blogs that really address this issue. For my aspiring writer friends I will share some of those things here in this blog as future articles. Like for instance, “What to do when your first fan turns on you?” Believe it, I have had fans who have used some really ugly words with me on my Facebook pages. I have even had to ban users. No profanity allowed on any of my pages.
I try to keep things pretty consistent so people recognize the branding. A lot of other public figures like to change things around a lot. It takes a long time to get international brand awareness. Once you have established your brand, like Google, you can play around with it. I wouldn’t recommend it when you are first starting. Start simple with a font. For some companies, like SONY, their font is their logo. My logo takes up too much of the screen to be part of my cover page. Facebook only allows 20% to be text. So you need to be creative with your cover page so it isn’t all text. When it falls into those guidelines you can promote your page with that picture. I hope some of these tips helped you. Be sure you subscribe to this blog or keep updated with the RSS feed. More handy helpful tips coming your way!
Here is the new Amazon affiliate link. When your website and book are launched be sure you share your link with your readers. They can’t buy if they don’t know it is for sale.
Good or Bad — habits are necessary
