WadeScripts
The Marketing Elephant in the Room that Writers Try to Ignore; Why and How They Should Snap Out of It
Earlier on this blog, I wrote a post entitled: All The Book Marketing I Did Not Know And Other Ways I Misunderstood How to Sell My First Three Books, Part I
Now that I am 9 months into the launch of my fourth book, the novel Deadly Declarations, I have some updates to share on the topic of book marketing and launching a book for sale. I could have called this post “All the Book Marketing I Did Not Know, Part II,” but I like the image of writers at their computers ignoring the huge marketing elephant standing in the corner. Sooner or later, that elephant is going to step on them if they don’t pay it some attention.
Coming to Terms With Reality – The Universe Doesn’t Care About Your Book As Much as You Do and That’s Okay
It takes courage to put a book in the world, but even more bravery to promote it, and then when you schedule an event and just a few people show up, it takes some real daring-do to stand up and talk about your book with vigor.
Why? Because you want the world to love your book and it can be embarrassing to throw a party that few people attend.
Fear not. Those empty room book signings have happened to the best. John Grisham had a trunk full of books left over after his first novel’s book tour. Thankfully, he laughed about it and kept writing. Now, his events are standing room only.
Promoting and selling books is difficult. There will be good days and bad days, but probably more bad days than good, and it may takes years and years to make a decent profit, if that is the goal. Bottom line: We authors need a reality check so we can enjoy the ride.
38 Helpful Articles About Writing and the Business of Writing: Check Out The Charlotte Readers Podcast Community Blog
There are many ways to learn how to write better in your chosen genre. Options include undergraduate and graduate programs, writing organizations (in-person and online), craft books, writing groups, critique groups, writing coaches, editors, writing buddies, online articles, online videos, watching and listening to authors read their work, reading books in your genre, and more.
One way that we add to the mix of writing resources at Charlotte Readers Podcast is by encouraging authors to submit to our Community Blog, where we feature blog posts on our blog page of the podcast website, link them in our newsletter and talk about them on the podcast.
In this post, I link to 38 articles that appear on the Charlotte Readers Podcast Community blog as of August 28, 2022, with a brief description of the topics and brief excerpts. I encourage you to click on and read the articles that appeal to you and if you are an author with information to share about the craft or business of writing, we encourage you to submit HERE.
Procrastination: A Novelist’s Friend or Foe?
You may have heard this writing advice: “Write every day, even if it’s just a paragraph. Exercise your writing muscles. Get in the habit. Stay in the habit.”
But what if this writing advice, like Julia Cameron’s advice for morning pages, is not for you? What if, for some inexplicable reason, you become a novelist who procrastinates? What then?
Should you be ashamed of yourself? Should you chide yourself for your lack of discipline? Or should you embrace procrastination, find the humor in it, and see where the devil takes you?
So You’re Thinking About Starting a Podcast or Writing a Book: Are You Crazy or Have You Always Been This Daring?
As I reflect on reaching the milestone of producing and hosting 300 podcast episodes on Charlotte Readers Podcast, there is a lot to digest. Like why did I do something I knew nothing about and try to write a full length novel at the same time. The idea seemed crazy and destined for failure. But here I am, 300 episodes later, having interviewed 310 authors in 300 episodes, in 30 states and four countries about their books, stories, or poems, and I have my fourth book and first full-length novel to show for it. As Augustus McCrae said in his dying days in Lonesome Dove, “aw God, Woodrow, it’s been a helluva ride.”
I’m not dying (not today, anyway), but I thought my podcasting days might be over at 300 episodes–and like Augustus, it had truly been a helluva ride. But the demands of podcasting had increased with success, it was getting harder to do the podcast alone and it was becoming more difficult to find the time to do it well and do the other things I want to do, like write my next novel. I had to ask the question: Do I give up the podcast, or do I pivot? This blog post is about why you should do what’s creatively crazy, why and how I did it in starting a podcast and writing a full-length novel, and how and why I pivoted rather than quit the podcast.
What is a Bookstagram Tour and Why Should Authors Give it Try?
Many authors struggle with questions of how best to market and sell their books and if you are one of them, you are not alone. We search for creative ways for our books to be seen, to find our readers, and to get honest reviews for our books. After the toil of completing the book, the marketing and sales part should be fun, but it’s enough to drive an author crazy.
Ever heard of a Bookstagram Tour? I hadn’t–or, at least–I hadn’t paid much attention to the idea, until I was studying how to launch my recent novel, Deadly Declarations. I asked Cindy Burnett with the Thoughts from a Page Podcast what she knew about these tours and she connected me to Suzy Approved Book Tours. I connected with Suzy–actually Suzanne–I booked a tour, and you know what? It was fun, generated attention for my novel, and resulted in a variety of photo shoots for my book cover.
In this post, I talk about how my tour worked, what I enjoyed about it, and I provide some fun images from the tour.
How to Complete a Novel?: Don’t Quit, and Find Your Through Lines, the Ones that Excite You
At a recent book event for Deadly Declarations at Park Road Books, someone asked me this question. How do you write a novel?
I laughed before answering the question, not because the question wasn’t a good question, but because it was a question whose answer cannot be summed up at a book event.
There are thousands upon thousands of books, articles, courses, conferences, and websites with information about how to write a novel and the same number of authors times ten who are imminently more qualified than me to deliver the answer. I chose to stay away from discussing the mechanics of how to write a novel and describe what helped me the most in completing my novel.
Writing Routines: What Works is What Works for You, But it Doesn’t Hurt to Steal Writing Routines from Other Writers
The North Carolina Writers’ Network’s Spring 2022 Newsletter served as the prompt for this blog post. It’s full of flash memoir pieces by writers about their writing routines, and as you might have guessed by the title of this post, writers go at their routines in many different ways.
Trustee Michele Berger, an author who appeared on Charlotte Readers Podcast, wrote the lead for the newsletter, with a title that read: “Whatever Keeps You Writing.” Her advice about dropping the word “should” from the guilty writer’s conscience when thinking about a writing routine was spot on and could just as easily have come under the title I chose for this post: “What Works is What Works for You.” Michelle said we should listen to ourselves. It is great advice, but since the network was kind enough to provide perspectives on writing routines from many different writers, I expanded the title of this post to point out that it doesn’t hurt to steal writing routines from other writers if you think they will work for you.
The Thing About Online Book Reviews: Tips for Readers and Authors
Question. How often do you receive this request: If you liked this book, please leave an online review.
Answer: Every time you finish reading a book, and sometimes, simply because you bought it, and sometimes, because the author bumps into you or emails you or sends you their newsletter and not so subtly makes the request for an online review.
Personally, I’m guilty as charged, but I understand that as a reader, the invitations to review an author’s book–which can feel more like solicitations–can become wearying. So why do it? We know what’s in it for the author: more reviews of their book. But what’s in it for the reader?
Understanding Online Ordering and the Supply Chain that Supports Independent Book Stores
I learned something helpful I’d like to share about how to support independent book stores when you order your books online. I stumbled into this ah-ha moment while trying to understand how the Bookshop.org online preorder link works for my upcoming novel.
Did you know that by ordering your print book online through Bookshop.org (which is affiliated with IndieBound.org), you can designate a local independent book store to receive the profits on the book? Me neither. And it’s really cool. And get this. If you don’t designate a particular store, Bookshop.org puts aside money in a pool that they send to independent book stores. This means that if you want to order online, there is an independent book store option to do so.
Drafting, Revising, Editing and Proofing: Best Practices for Battling Gremlins
As a recovering trial lawyer turned author who wants to be, as Mary Poppins might say, “practically perfect in every way” with the final manuscripts for my books, I must confess that despite all the steps I take–which I plan to discuss in this post–Gremlins are tough adversaries. On the one hand, they encourage me to try to achieve perfection by questioning my work and if that weren’t enough of a burden, when I think I’m finished, they fill the work with mistakes.
With regard to perfection, I’ve learned that authors can become their own worst enemies when trying to produce the perfect work product. They can work a project to death, and in doing so, find themselves going in circles. They can lose sight of the whole for fear of the few.
In my first book, I revised a particular paragraph so many times near the end of the project that when I finished with it and was completely satisfied, I realized I was back to the same language where I started. I went in a circle, trying to achieve what I thought was perfection.
All the Marketing I Did Not Know, and Other Ways I Misunderstood How to Sell My First Three Books: Part I
When I wrote my first three books–The Christmas Courtroom Trilogy–I thought I did what an Indie author is supposed to do. I focused on writing good books, meaning I wrote many drafts, revised them many times, and then hired an editor who encouraged me to work even harder. I then hired a copyeditor to comply with the style manual. And while that was in process, I worked with an illustrator who created eye-catching covers that matched the themes of the books and a book designer who pulled each book together in print and eBook. I then worked with my editor to upload the books on IngramSpark (for access to book stores and libraries) and to the Amazon platform (because that behemoth does rule the world).
Job well done, right?
50% right. 50% wrong.
Learning to Write A Novel: For Me, It Started as an Accident that Turned into a Passion That Turned into My Upcoming Novel, Deadly Declarations
In the spring of 2022, my novel, Deadly Declarations, will be released, and though I’ve written three books previously–The Christmas Courtroom Trilogy–they were all novellas. This is my first full-length novel. This article discusses how I went from being a practicing lawyer to becoming a practicing novelist.
Why do lawyers think they can write novels?
I’ve asked lawyers turned authors who have appeared on Charlotte Readers Podcast why many lawyers believe they have what it takes to write a novel. After all, law schools don’t teach novel writing. Senior partners don’t mentor young associates on the craft. Judges set page limits on briefs. And clients don’t like lengthy contracts. The practice offers lawyers few opportunities to understand how hard it is to write a story as long as 300 pages. So they presume it isn’t hard.
Maybe the answer to the question is arrogance, the misguided belief that it can’t be as hard as practicing law. Or maybe its confidence, the kind that comes with writing every day in the job. Or, possibly, it’s based on hope, the hope that they can build on their skillset in such a way to escape the billable hour and become the next John Grisham, John Hart, or David Baldacci.
I didn’t have arrogance, confidence, or hope when I started writing the story that turned into my first book. I didn’t even know I was writing what would become a book. It was an accident, that turned into a passion, that led to the novel that will come out next spring.
Book Publishing Options and How Being Patient is a Painful Part of Publishing: Me, I’m a One-Third-Patient-Author
Every author knows that publishing a book requires a large dose of patience. Number one, it takes a patient writer to pursue and land an agent and then have their agent pitch and land a reputable publisher. Number two, with that done, it takes another load of patience to wait on the production process to grind along as you peer into the future at a release date you can’t jot down on this year’s calendar. You slog along thinking about how to promote your upcoming book, then get anxious, then promote your upcoming book, then get anxious again, until finally, the big day arrives when your book makes it into the world. It can be a three step process that can take years and years.
I have come to realize that I am a one-third-patient-author when it comes to publishing books. Here’s why.
Writing in Color with Bestselling Southern Author Rick Bragg
Rick Bragg is no stranger to honest writing and his tongue doesn’t hold back, either. Ask him a question about writing. Any question. He’ll treat you like family, the kind who deserves the non-abridged version to your query, and he will do it without pretense, because even though he once was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard, the Ivy didn’t seep into his pores.
Sometimes, he’ll supply you with a direct answer, like what detergent to use to get pond mud off your jeans. He recommends Purex. Other times, his answers are an In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida length expose on how to kill bad writing or make words turn into true stories. Whether you understand the answer, you smile. The reason you smile is the answer is straight, and clever, and built to fit inside a working writer’s toolbox, with emphasis on the word, “working.”
When a group of non-fiction writers gathered on Zoom at the May 2021 Looking Glass Rock Writers’ Conference, Rick Bragg explained why he harps on “Writing in Color,” saying, “I have never, in my time on this sorry ol’ earth, heard anyone say that they greatly enjoyed a piece of writing because it was so exquisitely dull.”
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