What the future holds

There is a lot of talk in the industry right now about e-books and their potential for sales and growth. Publishers are grabbing up electronic rights from their authors in hopes of making a profit in this new market. Authors started it first, actually. Midlisters would get their copy rights back on books that were out of print for 5 to 7 years depending on contract, then they would revise, create a new cover and put them up for sale as e-books on Amazon.com or other places. Electronic book publishers provide editorial services and book covers as well as distribution for a 30 percent royalty rate. Now big NY publishers who all looked down their noses at electronic books are grabbing up e-rights and opening their own sites to sell books that can be read on various venues like the Kindle, Sony e-reader, I-pad, I-phone and even your own laptop.
There has been on-going discussion as to whether authors as a whole should just bypass publishers all together and format and edit their own work and create their own cover art. Then self publish in the e-format. Amazon promises to start offering 70 percent royalties to authors in May. Midlisters such as JA Koranth blog that there is real money to be made here. Check out his blog here. I read his arguments and his amazing paycheck numbers, but read this carefully. Note the vast amount of PR work he has done-7000 letters to libraries, 100 blogs in a month, etc. Also keep in mind that he is a Mystery writer. I think that some genres lend themselves more to e-readers than others. For instance Erotica has done a booming business in the electronic market but romance is relatively straight-lined. A midlist romance author followed Koranth's formula, putting a handful of books up for sale on Amazon and found she didn't have near his revenue stream. NYT Bestselling Science Fiction author John Scalzi wrote a fabulous blog-as a three act play- on reasons why an author needs a publisher. Read it here. Scalzi goes on to comment in another blog how his manuscripts generate jobs for at least ten other people and he doesn't have to pay them. Unlike a DIY (do-it-yourself) publication.
There are many arguments both pro and con here for keeping electronic rights or going DIY-and I don't mean purchasing a vanity press package to self publish. My advice to you as writers is to do A LOT of research on the matter and don't let Koranth's numbers put stars in your eyes. What he does takes a lot of work, dedication, luck and perhaps it doesn't hurt that he has so many hardcover books out first.
I know that I currently spend 12 to 14 hours a day working on writing, revising, marketing, blogs, social networking, etc. And I can tell you that my electronic books-while they have gotten fabulous reviews such as this one from Gotta Read Reviews-aren't even in the same sales ball park as Koranth's. Not even close. But I have my own reasons for e-publishing and am happy with the results.
I find this turn in the market place interesting and look forward to discovering what happens next. My advice to writers-as always, do your research. Know your reasons why you are doing what you do and ensure the how will back up your why. I promise if you do that you'll never be scammed and you'll never be disappointed. There are no shortcuts here. But it seems there is room to be creative. Cheers!

Marketing yourself and your work-blogs

In the movie Julie and Julia, Julie has a friend who sold her blog to HBO as a series. Julie then creates her own blog The Julie/Julia Project as a way of showcasing her writing talents and as we all know, that became a book and now a movie. I understand that Diablo Cody-who wrote the movie Juno-was discovered when writing her stripper blog. It would seem that blogging is the way to fame and fortune... or is it?
There are millions of blogs out there now. The chances of being "discovered" blogging are the same as an actress being discovered working in a mall in middle America. So, why blog?
Blogging is a good way to meet readers, other writers, to create buzz, to showcase your work, and to build a community.
But all I want to do is write books, you say. Do I have to blog? Answer in a nutshell-blogging is smart marketing for you and your books, but only if it's done well. If you can't devote time and thought to your blog...updating it at least once a week. Don't blog. You're wasting your time and readers will lose interest.
If you want to blog, here are a few tips for good blogging:
1) Post at least once a week on the same day. Example: I update this blog every Sunday. Be consistent. Some people blog on M,W,F. Others blog T,Th. Set a schedule and keep it. This way you will become a part of your readers routine.
2) Create a theme for your blog and reflect it in your blog title. Example: In Julie and Julia she titled her blog- The Julie/Julia Project and created a blog with an over all goal in mind- cooking her way through Julia Child's cook book in one year. If you are a regular reader of this blog, hopefully you've noticed my theme is writing-craft, marketing, and reviews that I try to center around writing and story telling.
3)Think of your blog as a newsletter/magazine. Create a calendar, a schedule, have a plan for what you want to say up to a year in advance. That way you're never caught wondering what to talk about when your day comes around.
4)Most importantly-ensure that what you say has what marketers call "value added" content. It offers your readers something they can use. For Julie it was hints, tips and the ugly truth of a "servant-less housewife" attempting to prepare French cuisine.
Lastly, 5) Get involved in the blogging community. Take the time to visit other blogs and leave comments. A blog by itself- no matter how good- will be lost in the Internet unless you let people know its there. Here's how you do that: link your blog to other blogs, create a blog roll, follow other blogs. Leave comments with a link to your blog or website under your name. Create links inside your blog.

For example: this last week, the wonderful and talented Jane Kennedy Sutton of Jane's Ride blog awarded this blog a Superior Scribbler Award. Blog awards are a great way to link to other bloggers and bring in new readers. By giving me this award, Jane brought a number of new readers to my blog. (I have Google Analytics attached to this blog and check my reports once a week to see which of my blogs created the most interest for my readers and what sites send readers my way.)
It sounds like a lot of work. It is. A good blog offers no promise of a television, book or movie deals. But a good blog can offer in reward- new readers, interesting and fresh craft and market information and above all good friends.
Below are just a few of the great blogs I follow check them out for examples of what a blog does:

Spunk on a Stick's Tips
Jessica Nelson's Booking It
Ann Victor author
Marilyn Brant's Brant Flakes
Boxing the Octopus
Linda Kage Blog Page
Sia Mckye's Thoughts Over Coffee
Cindy Proctor-King's Muse Interrupted
Morgan Mandel's Double M

The secret to marketing your career-at any stage

I read this wonderful piece on promotion by a 14 book veteran. She has simple marketing techniques down pat and as I'm reading her outline I realise that promotion is more than getting your signature line out. It goes beyond SEO (Search engine optimization), bookmarks and contests. It is about having a solid understanding of who and what you are as an author and grows organically from there.

From my experience these are the simple life cycles of a writing career:

Stage one: For me- and most writers- we write our first book to "see" if we can even do it. We are in love with the idea of writing an entire book. We work on our story idea or fan fic and we work on our craft. There is no real thought past can I do it? Will I let someone read it?

Stage two: For me it was book two-but for some this may still be book one. Give the book to someone to read. Take critiques. Polish book. Look for and send out queries to editors and agents.

Stage three: Sell a book. Woot! (I had written 17 manuscripts by this stage.* Some people sell their first manuscript.) Marketing begins. All thought is on how to sell this book so that you can begin to develop an audience and create a readership. Usually we rush to have bookmarks, postcards, pens, website, contests, etc. without real thought past having good sell through on this one book and perhaps it's option.

Stage four: The blush of the first book or two has worn off. You look around and start to really think about the publishing market-beyond trends, beyond a single publisher. The goal is to build a career. As the author of the piece I read stated-now marketing begins with the selection of story. You have to know your personal brand beyond your first book. Then select the next story that fits in this brand and let all others fall by the wayside. You choose your work based on long term viability and the umbrella of the brand you have developed. Everything you do from your website with "value added" content, to your blog must reflect this brand. (Hint: not a good idea at this time to be "neurotic, negative, and cynical" in your on-line blogs, e-mails and loops.)
At this point you may discover that a lot of the things you did to promote your first book no longer fit into the overall viewpoint of your career. These things must go to the wayside. You now promote based on career view and market not simply individual book.

Some people understand these stages quickly and naturally. To me they are strategic thinkers. They are usually the ones who sell their first manuscripts. Why? They have consciously or unconsciously studied the market, have a solid understanding of the differences between genres and classifications of genres and they write a book-not based on a cool idea- but based on a cool idea that works in the overall market. These same people are also the ones savvy enough to start schmoozing on-line reviewers and bloggers. They are already getting to know people who are "in-the-know" and developing friendships so that when their book sells, they can garner quotes from best selling authors and good reviews from important sites who are sympathetic to a long time fan.

*Truth is I am not strategic at all. I flit from one fun idea to another. (Oh, look, shiny. *wink*) It never occurred to me to build a relationship with Dear Author or Smart Bitches (influential on-line reviewers.) So, I find myself in stage four wondering what my personal brand really is and how to convey it. Studying the market has taken years of practice and still...not my strong point. If this is you, it might be a good idea to attach yourself to someone who is a strategic thinker such as a publicist or PR guru and work out your personal brand. (My advice here is to stay within your budget. These people can be very pricey.) Or join a group like Novelist, Inc. and listen and learn from other multi-published authors.

Because the truth is you can be successful at any stage whether you are a strategic promoter or not. The secret to marketing goes far beyond book marks and newsletters. It is understanding who you are and what you are trying to say. (Which is about as easy as boiling your book down to a 15 word pitch.) Good luck!

Words of Wisdom

As writer's we're told to create a blog to garner interest in who we are and what we do. The point is to generate PR and market ourselves and our works. Yes, we are selling who we are and what we do on a weekly or daily basis. The question is how do we do that with the least amount of effort?

The answer- know yourself and know your audience.

A good example is my friend Carrie Lofty. She loves to write historicals set in unusual places. She created the blog Unusual Historicals. Where she gathered other authors who write so called "unusual" setting and reached fans of historical romances with unusual settings. (By unusual, we mean places outside the publisher's marketing research of Scotland and England. Places like Spain, Germany, Africa and the Middle East.) Simply by knowing who she is and what she writes, she has succeeded in reaching and building an audience with her blog.

Sherilyn Kenyon created a whole world based on vampires and some say she is responsible for the huge wave of vampire stories now. When she first started out there was no interest in the subject- but she created a dark website and built a community of loyal fans who demanded her stories.

When thinking about marketing and where to begin or how to revamp, you should think long and hard about what it is you want to do and who it is you want to read your work.

It is simply, really, know yourself, what it is you do, where it is you want to go and know your audience. Everything else stems from there.

Revving up the Marketing Machine

Six months out from my next book release date and I have marketing on my mind. Over eight years of publishing, I have learned that each publisher has different expectations and needs for marketing. Each author, also, has different expectations for marketing their work. Some jump in with guns blazing, others stick a toe in and shiver. I hope to be somewhere in between.

Why? Because I have to put enough effort into marketing to get my name out there and let my readers know I've got a new story in a different venue. But I don't want to use up all my writing time on marketing matters- something that is really easy to do.

So, a fine line must be drawn while I build momentum to Mr. Charming's release date- July 31st.

To accomplish this I am setting aside time this month to build a marketing strategy and calendar. In the last few months I have spent time every day building my social networking skills. I have been reading some good blogs and along the way I have increased daily readers at my website by 400%. (I know, I didn't think that would happen. but I just checked my stats this morning and yes, 4 times as many people visit my site on a daily basis.) Also, my google hits have gone up. All this took was a little time on my part-daily- as in 15 minutes a day to say hello-nice to meet you. Will the numbers translate to sales? I'll find out I suppose.

So, what else am I planning? My friend Morgan Mandel's daily blog, www.morganmandel.blogspot.com has been educating her readers on blog tours, blog following and creating buzz in the blogosphere. So, I'm taking the time to follow her advice and visit a new blog a day-to comment and follow- to say hello!

Add to this strategy planning and executing a blog tour, writing articles for RWA chapter newsletters, and perhaps writing an article for the RWR magazine.

I hope to include the addition of a newsletter to my website, a fan page on Facebook and perhaps a speaking engagement or two. All while continuing to write my next book.

Ugh- you say, throwing your hands up. Who has the time? I don't know if I'll have to time, but five minutes a day, ten minutes a day adds up over the space of six months. In the mean time I get to meet new people and hear new voices which makes my office a cheery place and gives me a smile.

What about you? What, if anything, has worked for you? Any tips for me to think about while I create my marketing plan? This blogger would love to know.

Random thoughts on surviving the book business

This week a quote went around one of my writer's loops that got me thinking. I'll paraphrase because who said it and how they said it is not as important as the thought. Here is the thought: each book written is a new product and in a business model something like 90 percent of all new products fail. Thus every book put on the self has a huge potential for failure.

Why? People like their old brands. They like what they know. This is why the most successful people "seem" to write the same book over and over. It's called a brand. People are afraid to take a chance on something that is too new- too out there, no matter how good. Think about it. When was the last time one of your favorite authors wrote something that surprised you? Did you wonder if they were headed in a direction you didn't like? Did you think twice about buying their next book?

People like sameness. I've known several very good authors who tried to branch out to different styles of books and failed. Some quit. Others went back to the type of story that worked for them.

In essence-the industry prefers to typecast writers. I hear this all the time, "Oh, you write sweet westerns." Well, no- I write all kinds of books. A sweet western was simply the first book I sold to a publisher-they loved it so much I sold six more. But that is not all I am. This year I wrote a sexy single title contemporary romance and a straight up thriller. But I sold two romantic suspense stories.

But hoping from genre to genre and line to line can be a problem. The problem becoming what to label you- all writers need a label or it would be chaos in terms of marketing. Think of it like this- you have a friend who brings home a new guy/gal every night. You don't have time to get to know them or even care. It's all too dizzying to matter. Now you have another friend who has been with the same guy/gal all her life. You know what to expect. You become invested in his/her friendship and their life together. You are comfortable and should they ever break up you will be horrified. This is how people like to think of their writers.

Unfortunately- book types go in and out of fashion-stranding those writers dedicated to only one type of book. So, even knowing the brand expectations, you have to be versatile enough to survive these trends. So, I've learned to nurture two or three different types of books in the hopes that one will keep my career afloat if another goes out of fashion. Think of it as serial monogamy. Instead of a new type of book every time, write consistently in two genres. The idea is to keep your product from being too new and yet maintaining a place in more than one market. It keeps your odds favorable and boredom at bay.

Interesting Findings

There are plenty of so called "marketing experts" in the writing business, who give advice especially when it comes to web or word of mouth marketing. I've gathered up a lot of their advice and have been applying it to my marketing efforts- with some results that my interest you.

First off-experts agree that you should have a blog so that people can find you in the blog-o-sphere-listen to your writing voice and ideas and to build a community of readers around you and your work. This has proven successful for a couple of very famous authors. Also, if you comment on other people's blogs you get more hits in the search engines. In other words if someone types your name into Google-there are more positive results. The theory is that the more positive results, the more people talk; the more people talk, the more positive results until everyone knows your name or wants to know your name.

Second you should join as many social networks as possible so that people can find you if they are looking for you, friend you, and you can easily notify people of your book announcements, reviews and accomplishments.

I decided early on that my goal is to build a community around my website. (www.nancyjparra.com)So I moved my daily blog to my website. I want people to keep coming back to my website for daily blogs, writing articles, reviews and free reads (I have the first chapter of my latest book posted there if you are interested.) I found this successful as the number of daily hits on my website grew. I kept this Sunday blog so I could travel about the blog-o-sphere and read what others were writing and post comments-thus increasing the number of search engine hits on my name. (That said, I have seen no correlation between increased search engine hits and increased website hits.)

Recently I joined Myspace- a social network originally for young kids but now expanded for the world. I am proud to say I have 15 real friends there. It was a couple of days work and a daily on-going search to add friends. But I keep that page as a door to my website-in other words I don't post blogs or reviews or daily musings, instead I ask people to check out my website. Interestingly enough, hits on my website have jumped by a third-just from my efforts in Myspace. Check me out at www.myspace.com/nancyjparraauthor

Thus, from my early results, it appears that having a page in a social network is more productive then commenting on blogs or increasing the numbers of google hits.

For those of you wondering what works and what doesn't when it comes to book marketing, it appears social networks may be the best place to start. Now I know your next question-does any of this actually sell books?

Time will tell. :)

Marketing 101-sell sheets

Sell sheets are a single page device that every company's marketing department creates to focus their marketing plan. It occurred to me a few years ago that sell sheets are a great tool for writers.

For writers, sell sheets are single page flyers/brochures that sell the audience on their book. I learned a few years back that sell sheets are my friend. I use them to focus my writing and my marketing efforts.

A sell sheet is helpful whether you are published or unpublished. It can be used to focus your plot and help with a sagging middle. It can be used to frame your synopsis and query letter. It can also be used to sell a published work-to readers and book buyers. Blogging? Use the material off your sell sheet. Chats? A sell sheet keeps your message focused. Announcing a new sale or a book release or contest? Use the information off your sell sheet to provide a uniform message.

Even better, a sell sheet can be helpful when making an editor/agent pitch. A proper has all the elements you need to give your sales pitch in any situation.

What do I put on my sell sheet?

To begin with I include the following four written elements:
1) A single sentence describing the story using 15 words or less. (Think NY Times blurb.)
2) A five sentence paragraph where the first sentence gives the background. The next three sentences give worsening conflict and the last sentence asks the story question. (Think back cover blurb.)
3) A Goal, Motivation and Conflict sentence for each of the main characters.
4) A short-less than 250 word- excerpt from the book.

Then I arrange them on the single sheet using eye catching graphics-book cover if you have it and fonts. Be sure to include: your title, subtitle if you have one, ISBN, retail price, number of pages, and availability. Finally-have them professionally printed on high-quality paper.

Taking the time to create a professional sell sheet can help to focus your work, your editorial pitch and your marketing plan into a cohesive message that helps the readers/editors/agents understand your unique story point of view.