Month: November 2012

25 Twitter Accounts to Help You Get Published

by

This post originally appeared on Online Education Database (OEDB).

We here at the ol’ Online Education Database can’t promise that following these Twitter feeds by periodicals, bloggers, agents, editors, and writers will score you a coveted publishing contract. But we can promise that you’ll more than likely find at least one of them extremely useful when researching the five Ws (and one H) of getting your name out there as an author. And if these don’t work, chances are they link up to a microblog that does. And if that doesn’t work, then the blame probably sits with you.

 

  1. Writer’s Digest:

    One of the best routinely released resources for authors provides updated information about the state of the publishing industry, generating ideas, self-editing, and everything else they need to know.

  2. Publishers Weekly:

    Follow this absolutely essential Twitter feed for all the latest news and trends regarding the publishing world; after all, knowing how it works is half the battle (Disclaimer: It might be a little more or a little less than half).

  3. GalleyCat:

    Media Bistro’s GalleyCat blog (and, of course, accompanying Twitter) focuses on delivering the headlining stories about publishing today and tomorrow. Also probably the next day and the day after that.

  4. Carole Blake:

    She didn’t write THE book on how to get published, but this literary agent wrote A book on how to get published. Head to her Twitter for expert advice regarding the writing and submission process.

  5. Kevin Smokler:

    Publishing and other media collide in one illuminating resource for writers and wannabe writers trying to make it in the business as it transitions fully into the digital age.

  6. Victoria Strauss:

    As the co-founder of Writer Beware, this veteran writer knows what her fellow artists need to look out for to prevent being preyed upon by publishing scams.

  7. SPR:

    The Self-Publishing Review posts up advice, reviews, and other resources devoted to helping writers launch their careers autonomously.

  8. New Pages:

    New Pages catalogs literary journals looking for submissions, so it would behoove every short-form writer out there to check them out regularly and see what new opportunities pop up.

  9. FreelanceWritingJobs:

    Like the name says, this is one of the top resources where writers head to find themselves some gigs to launch their careers. It might not be about publishing what they want, but it still provides links to numerous opportunities as well as advice.

  10. Writers Write:

    Another fully fab resource where writers turn to for advice and publishing news as well as information about what relevant jobs are currently available around the United States.

 

 

Read the rest of the post, which includes 15 more Twitter accounts for writers and authors to follow, on OEDB.

Non-Writing Spouses

by

This post, by Kaitlin Ward, originally appeared on YA Highway.

If you’re here reading this blog, odds are high that writing is a major part of your life. For many of us, writing is a thing we do whenever possible, something that makes us happy, that we love, that is a massive, important part of our lives.

But writing might not be something that matters to the people we marry (or date). Every couple has at least some interests that don’t overlap, and that’s okay. It’s good, really. You need things that are just for you, whether it’s writing or something else. But sometimes it can be weird when your spouse just cannot fathom how writing could possibly be fun, and when you want them to be able to be part of this thing that matters so much to you. As a person whose spouse is completely uninterested in writing–and in fiction in general–I have navigated these waters, so I thought that I would share some things I have learned.


1. It’s okay that they don’t care about writing–or even reading. Really, it is. Unless they have an actual interest, there’s no reason to try to force them to understand the wonder that is writing. They have their own hobbies, and it doesn’t lessen their quality as a partner if they don’t care about active sentences and the beauty of a carefully crafted book.



2. You don’t have to tell them everything about your writing, but you should tell them something. I don’t remember exactly when I told my husband that writing was something I did a lot, but I know it was fairly early in our relationship. I couldn’t exactly hide the dozens of notebooks that I have always had in storage bins, drawers, and all over the floor. But the point is, even if they can’t relate to it, your significant other should know about the things that you love, especially a hobby as time consuming and (often) emotionally trying as writing.



3. They will listen if you need them to.

 

Read the rest of the post on YA Highway.

The 5 Essentials Of A Powerful Book Introduction

by

Introduction

Your book’s introduction is a quick way for you, the author, to explain how your book is going to help the reader. This explanation is what will make your introduction a powerful sales tool for you to use to hook the reader into buying your book and reading it. Buyers of your book don’t care why you wrote this book. They just want to know how your book can help them improve their life. Your book’s introduction gives you an opportunity to convince the buyer that your book is the best one out there that can help them. To do this you should include the following five parts in your book’s introduction.

1. The Hook – Why Should They Buy Your Book?

Answer this question properly, and you will sell more books. Here you must compel your potential buyer to read more of your book, so they will want to buy it. To do this you must grab the reader’s attention. Grab them with a telling snipped from your book, or a shocking news headline, or dramatic facts and statistics, or a famous quote. What are their concerns or challenges that your book will help them solve? Put yourself into their shoes, and explain why they should buy your book.

2. The Connection – Describe Your Reader’s Problem

Here you must make an emotional connection with your reader. You wrote the book, so you must really understand the challenges, problems, and risks, etc., that have caused your audience to seek out your book. Why is your audience having these issues? Why haven’t they been able to solve them? Why are these issues so hard to fix or solve? Explain to your audience why and how you know about these questions. Convince them that you are the one with the answers and that you want to share this information with them.

3. The Benefits – How Will Your Book Help The Reader?

The benefits to the reader are what will sell your book, so include several of your most important benefits. The reader is only considering buying your book and reading it because of the benefits that the reader will gain. Include some general benefits, and several specific benefits to reading your book. Keep explaining why they should buy your book. For example, “You will learn how to . . .”; Discover ways to . . .”; "You will improve your . . .".

4. The Format – What Will Happen In The Coming Chapters?

Here you will give the reader a quick idea about how your book is arranged. Your book’s table of contents has already given the reader a quick glimpse of how your book is arranged and what it will discuss. But here you will tell the reader about some of the other features that are not reflected in the table of contents. For example, tell the reader about the side-bars, tips, facts, stories, interviews, quotes, pictures, diagrams, appendix, etc., that you use to illustrate or enhance your chapters.

5. The Invitation – Entice The Reader To Read On

This is the conclusion to your introduction. Just like in a standard conclusion to an essay, quickly summarize what you have been saying in your introduction. Then close the paragraph quickly and enthusiastically with a very short invitation to turn the page and keep reading your book.  For example, “Turn the page and let’s get started”; “Onto chapter one”; “Let’s get started”; “Turn the page and let our journey begin”.

Conclusion

If you don’t use these simple sections in your book’s introduction, you may never achieve the level of sales that you and your book deserve. On the other hand, write a simple and straight-forward introduction with these five sections, and readers will want to buy your book.

This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com

 

The Preface: Share Your Inner Passion And Inspiration For Better Book Sales

by

What Is The Purpose Of The Preface?

The book preface (PREF-iss, not PRE-face) is a short explanation about why you wrote your book. The book introduction, on the other hand, is all about the benefits the reader will get from reading your book. The preface is about you, and the introduction is about the reader. But never forget, both should be written by the book’s author, and that both must show your passion and thereby make an emotional connection with the reader. In contrast to the preface and introduction, the book’s foreword is not written by the book’s author. It is written by a guest author, generally a person that is well know within a certain industry, that can bring third-party credibility to you, the book’s author.

What Is The Structure Of The Preface?

The preface discusses the story of how your book came into being, or how the idea for your book was developed by you, the author. In order to be a successful marketing tool, it must be written to show your passion for the subject matter, and your inspiration for writing the book. Here is your chance to infect the reader with your passion for the topic you have written about. Show the reader that you are a kindred spirit and have a passion in common. Here your aim is to make the readers empathize with you and identify your genuineness in writing the book. Answer questions such as “How was the concept of the book born?”; “How did you think of writing the book?”; “What are you trying to achieve by writing this book?”; “What are your qualifications to write this book?”; “What other books have you written?” The explanation to these questions can be autobiographical. You can tell the background, the context, and the circumstances in which brought you to write this book. The bottom line must be, “Why did you write this book?”. Be very clear and honest about this. And always write in the first-person, and in a friendly manner. Also, use your own voice when writing this way, and speak directly to your audience.

How Do I Close The Preface?

The main body of the preface is followed by a statement of thanks and acknowledgments to people who were helpful to the author during the writing of the book. If the list of acknowledgements is too long, a separate section should be created just for the acknowledgements. Alternatively, some authors use both sections within the same book, and use the acknowledgements page for the most special contributions – and the lesser contributors are kept in the preface. Another alternative that some authors use it to combine the preface and the introduction into one section and label it as the introduction. And finally, the book preface is  signed by the book’s author, along with the date and place of writing. Fini.

 

This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com

 

 

Questions To Ask Yourself Before Writing Your Book’s Introduction

by

Introduction

Your book’s introduction is a quick way for you, the author, to explain how your book is going to help the reader. This explanation is what will make your introduction a powerful sales tool for you to use to hook the reader into buying your book and reading it. You must understand that buyers of your book don’t care why you wrote this book. They just want to know how your book can help them improve their life. Your book’s introduction gives you an opportunity to convince the buyer that your book is the best one out there that can help them. To do this you should include the following five parts in your book’s introduction.

1. The Hook – Why Should They Buy Your Book?

Answer this question properly, and you will sell more books. Here you must compel your potential buyer to read more of your book, so they will want to buy it. To do this you must grab the reader’s attention. Grab them with a telling snipped from your book, or a shocking news headline, or dramatic facts and statistics, or a famous quote. What are their concerns or challenges that your book will help them solve? Put yourself into their shoes, and explain why they should buy your book.

2. The Connection – Describe Your Reader’s Problem

Here you must make an emotional connection with your reader. You wrote the book, so you must really understand the challenges, problems, and risks, etc., that have caused your audience to seek out your book. Why is your audience having these issues? Why haven’t they been able to solve them? Why are these issues so hard to fix or solve? Explain to your audience why and how you know about these questions. Convince them that you are the one with the answers and that you want to share this information with them.

3. The Benefits – How Will Your Book Help The Reader?

The benefits to the reader are what will sell your book, so include several of your most important benefits. The reader is only considering buying your book and reading it because of the benefits that the reader will gain. Include some general benefits, and several specific benefits to reading your book. Keep explaining why they should buy your book. For example, “You will learn how to . . .”; Discover ways to . . .”; “You will improve your . . .”.

4. The Format – What Will Happen In The Coming Chapters?

Here you will give the reader a quick idea about how your book is arranged. Your book’s table of contents has already given the reader a quick glimpse of how your book is arranged and what it will discuss. But here you will tell the reader about some of the other features that are not reflected in the table of contents. For example, tell the reader about the side-bars, tips, facts, stories, interviews, quotes, pictures, diagrams, appendix, etc., that you use to illustrate or enhance your chapters.

5. The Invitation – Entice The Reader To Read On

This is the conclusion to your introduction. Just like in a standard conclusion to an essay, quickly summarize what you have been saying in your introduction. Then close the paragraph quickly and enthusiastically with a very short invitation to turn the page and keep reading your book.  For example, “Turn the page and let’s get started”; “Onto chapter one”; “Let’s get started”; “Turn the page and let our journey begin”.

Conclusion

If you don’t use these simple sections in your book’s introduction, you may never achieve the level of sales that you and your book deserve. On the other hand, write a simple and straight-forward introduction with these five sections, and readers will want to buy your book.

 

This article was written by Joseph C. Kunz, Jr. and originally posted on KunzOnPublishing.com

 

 

 

5 Ways To Get Your First Draft Material Out Of Your Head And Onto The Page

by

This month, thousands of people will write 50,000 words, but these will not be fully formed books, for this is an outpouring of first draft creative material and that is a hugely important distinction.

First draft material is allowed to be crap, and often is and it’s meant to be so.

So don’t worry! A perfect sentence does not appear fully formed on the page, and it is not followed by another one, and another, to create a perfect story in one go. That’s not how writing works – but it is the myth of writing which we must dispel.

“Writing is rewriting,” as the great Michael Crichton said. Remember that, and then go write 50,000 words of first draft material that you can shape into something marvelous later.

So how do you get your first draft material from your head onto the page? Here are some of my tips.

(1) Set a word count goal

This is why NaNoWriMo works so well for people, as you have to write around 1700 words per day in order to ‘win’. Many pro-authors, like Stephen King, have a goal of 2000 per day, even birthdays and Christmas.

If you don’t have some kind of goal, you won’t achieve anything. I really believe that. It also breaks the work down into manageable chunks.

For a full length novel, say 80,000 words @2000 words per day = 40 days of consistent writing

For a novella, say 30,000 words @2000 words per day = 15 days of consistent writing

Of course, you have the editing process after that, but you can’t edit a blank page. So set your word count goal, and get writing.

[Personally, I always use word count goals in the first draft writing phase, but I don’t do that many fiction words every day of the year.]

(2) Write Or Die

write or die This awesome software at WriteOrDie.com is a way to burst through the internal editor that snipes at you as you write a load of crap in your first draft phase.

The software allows you to set a goal in time or word count. I started with 20 minutes, and then you have to keep typing or it will play some psycho violin music, or the screen will start turning red, or in kamikaze mode, your words start disappearing. At the end of the session when you reach your goal, trumpets sound and you can save the text.

I highly recommend this if you are struggling. This is how I wrote 20,000 words in my first NaNoWriMo and created the core of Pentecost. Maybe 2000 words survived the culling/editing but you have to write a lot of crap to shape it into something good (at least when you’re starting out anyway!)

(3) Scrivener

project targets

Scrivener Project Targets

I wax lyrical about Scrivener all the time, but it has some cool productivity tools. You can set Project Targets, so 50,000 words for example, and you can also set Session Targets, so mine is set at 2000 words. Every time you sit down to write, you can have those targets floating by your work and the progress bar moves so you can see how its going. Very motivating.

I also like to put as many scenes in as possible before I start writing, so I have somewhere to start each day. So right now, I have 11 one-line scene descriptions that I can fill in as I go along. I will change them, add to them etc but it means that whenever I sit down for a writing session, I can start filling in the blanks if I don’t know what else to do.

There’s also a Compose mode so you can fill the whole screen with a blank piece of paper. Keeps you focused:)

(4) Set a timer for focus sessions, and use Freedom or other software to turn the internet off

As part of my daily productivity tools, I set my (iphone) timer for 90 minutes and then I write, or edit, or work on a specific project for that long. But you can start with 10 mins or 15 or whatever you can manage.

The important thing is not to get distracted in that time, and DO NOT check the internet or twitter or your email or make a cup of tea or anything. You can use software like Freedom to stop you accessing the ‘net if you really can’t resist without help.

(5) Get up really early and work while your brain is still half asleep

sunriseWhen I wrote my first novel, Pentecost, while working full time, I used to get up at 5am and write for an hour before work.

Johnny B. Truant recently did this to write 2 novellas in 2 months (although he started at 4am some days – ouch.)

I think the early morning helps because your brain isn’t polluted by everything that has happened in the day, and your internal editor is still asleep. However, this totally depends on whether you’re a night-owl and your family situation etc etc … so find your own groove, but the point is, you need to schedule some time that you don’t have normally to get stuff done.

[Here’s another productivity tip. I got rid of the TV nearly 5 years ago, about the time that I started writing, blogging and changing my life – there’s some correlation there!]

Trust the process of emergence

I heard this in an interview with Brene Brown on Jonathan Fields’ Goodlife Project, and it is totally true.

Even if you plot your books, sometimes you won’t know what is coming until the words appear on the page. Something happens when you commit to the page, to the word count goal and you write through the frustration and the annoyance and the self-criticism.

Creativity emerges. Ideas emerge. Original thought emerges.

Something happens – but only if you trust emergence.

You can see the process work itself through by checking out the journey of my first novel. It starts in NaNoWriMo 2009 with my first draft material and ends with 40,000 books sold nearly 2 years later. The core idea completely changed :)   but I hope it will encourage you to see that first drafts are just the beginning.

If you don’t force yourself to get the first draft material down, you will never have anything to work with. So fight resistance and get it done.

How do you get your first draft material written? Please leave a comment below. 

 

Image top: Bigstock Shakespeare, Flickr CC Sunrise by Pilottage 

This is a reprint from Joanna Penn‘s The Creative Penn.

NaNoWriMo Fail

by

This post, by Carolyn Jewel, originally appeared on Girlfriends Book Club.

 

Every year for the last several years, I’ve signed up for NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and failed.

 

 

 

In case you don’t know, NaNoWriMo occurs during the month of November and participants all have the single goal of writing 50,000 words. That’s about 1,600 words a day.

My friend Rachel Herron (Check out her website at YarnAGoGo.com) sold her NaNoWriMo novel, by the way. She’s a wonderful writer.  So am I, I swear! but I remain a NaNoWriMoFa.  

I even failed the two years I was invigorated, inspired, and pumped up by attending talks by NaNoWriMo founder Chris Baty. He spoke at my Uni when I was in grad school, and a few years later, at my RWA chapter. He’s an inspiring speaker, so if you ever get the chance to hear him, GO!

I have copious excuses, of course. Some of them are lame and some of them are really good.  When I was in grad school, my son was quite young, I was working full time, and I was under contract for more books. I was quite busy and I had my schedule worked out to the point where every moment was spoken for. There was no wiggle room for adding stuff. 

A couple of years I was writing a book anyway, but when November hit, both times I was in the Deleting Crap Phase and I ended up with negative word count. And a way better book by the end of December when I was in the Writing Way Better Stuff phase.

 

 

Read the rest of the post on Girlfriends Book Club.

Indie Author vs. Indie Entrepreneur

by

As you may have noticed, it’s been a LONG time since I’ve posted here. There are good reasons for that, like the fact that my former house was foreclosed in August and I had to move on short notice, plus some divorce-related challenges that I can’t really detail for you here. 

But I’ve been thinking about this post for weeks now, and I’m sorry to tell you that it won’t come as a welcome insight to everyone. Still, judging by the recent blog posts or inactivity of many of my online writer friends, I don’t think it will come as a huge surprise to very many of you, either.

I’ve said all along that in order to really make a go of earning a living as an indie author, one must approach it with all the verve, dedication and business acumen of an entrepreneur. I stand by that to this day, but here’s what’s new: maybe not all of us need to be, nor even want to be, indie entrepreneurs.

This new paradigm of indie author-entrepreneur (I’ll abbreviate it to IAE in this post) is totally different from what the idealized picture of being a Published Author was just a few short years ago. While the IAE has much greater control over her work and career, with that control comes greater responsibility, too.

You’ve got to SELL, SELL, SELL. You’ve got to PROMOTE, PROMOTE, PROMOTE. You’ve got to LEARN, LEARN, LEARN. You’ve also got to WRITE, WRITE, WRITE, because having a large published catalog is one of the commonalities among indie authors who are truly making a living at it. And once you get that momentum ball rolling, you can’t stop pushing it, EVER. Not if you want to continue selling, that is.

So making it as a fulltime author means working at it, fulltime. It also means coping with the same stresses and uncertainties as any entrepreneur: unpredictable income, all the administrative duties and headaches that come with running a small business, the constant pressure to produce and promote, et cetera.

A few years into it, many indie authors are stopping to reassess. The initial rush of excitement over being able to call our own shots and write our own tickets is over, and now we’re wallowing in the morning-after hangover realization that being a successful IAE means spending at least as much time on the business and promotion side of things as on writing. 

All those years we spent daydreaming about being a Published Author never included scenes of bookkeeping, coming up with promotional campaigns, buying our own ISBNs, boning up on ebook tech, strategizing over our books’ prices, and so on. We weren’t daydreaming about running a small business, but unless we’re willing to go back to the old ways of querying agents and praying for a mainstream publishing contract, that’s exactly what we have to do.

Those who are trying to transition to being a fulltime IAE while working a fulltime job to pay the bills are finding it very difficult, if not impossible, to manage. It was never easy finding the time to write, let alone query agents, enter contests and so on; being an IAE adds many, many more hours of work to the authorship equation.

I’ve concluded that for me, it’s just not worth it. 

I’m not willing to give up so much of my life to this effort, even if I knew for a certainty that I’d be a Joe Konrath at the end of it: making a comfortable living as a fulltime IAE. I’m not willing to trade years of stress and 80-100 hour workweeks to achieve that particular goal, then continue working 60-hour workweeks to maintain it. Considering that I was never in it for the money anyway, I guess this is not a difficult decision for me to make. For those who are struggling with it, consider this:

Being the next Konrath may not be realistically possible for most of us indies, anyway. Remember, Konrath went in with the advantage of already having a large back catalog of mainstream-published books (plus the royalties that go with them), and he was already a fulltime author before he went indie too. His journey to fulltime IAE was much shorter and less difficult than what the rest of us are facing.

At the outset, my goal for my novels was to get them published and know they’d reached an appreciative readership. My hope as an indie author overall was to see indie authorship go mainstream and become a respectable alternative to mainstream publishing within my lifetime. I’ve achieved the first goal, and seen my hopes for indie authorship realized far beyond my original notions, and much more quickly.

I have a ‘day job’ I love that’s steeped in books and media (Editor in Chief of Kindle Fire on Kindle Nation Daily). I’ve come out of a marriage of over 18 years, and I’m facing the happy prospect of building a new life for myself, exactly how I want it to be. I’m also thoroughly enjoying these regrettably short years of remaining time before my kids are grown and out on their own.

So while I’ll still write and publish, I’ll continue to run Publetariat, and I’ll remain active in the publishing and indie author communities, I’m not working toward the goal of becoming a fulltime IAE, and I guess I never really was. Anyone reading this who DOES want to be a successful IAE, you have my admiration and I support your choice completely. I’m certainly not making any kind of value judgment, or trying to imply there’s something better about my choice in this.

All I’m saying is, if you have decided, like me, that being a successful IAE isn’t really your dream after all, that’s okay. Choosing a different path does not make you a failure. Just be glad that as indie authors, we now have the flexibility to design our own career trajectories. As with pretty much everything else in indie authorship, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. 

 

This is a reprint from Publetariat founder and Editor in Chief April L. Hamilton‘s Indie Author Blog.

Self-Publishers Aren’t Killing The Industry, They’re Saving It

by

This post, by Ed Robertson, originally appeared on David Gaughran’s Let’s Get Digital site.

There’s a lot of talk at the moment that cheap books are destroying the industry.

In traditional publishing circles especially, fingers are being pointed at self-publishers (and their chief enablers, Amazon), who stand accused of encouraging a race to the bottom, of devaluing books, and training readers to pay ever-cheaper amounts – making the whole book business unsustainable.

Today, I have a guest post from Ed Robertson – author of Breakers and Melt Down – which takes issue with that view. His logic is compelling, based on a historical look at book prices. This is really worth the read: 

Self-Publishers Aren’t Killing The Industry, They’re Saving It

I’m a self-publisher. An indie author. Whatever you want to call me. I’ve read many articles about how self-publishers are killing the book industry. I’ve heard it from big publishing houses. From the president of the Author’s Guild. From traditionally published novelists and agents and even other self-publishers. If I want, I bet I can find a new one of these articles every single day.

But I won’t, because I no longer believe them.

Self-publishers don’t have the power to kill the publishing industry. I don’t think anyone does. But we do have the power to change it. We already have – and paradoxically, this change isn’t a change at all. And instead of killing books, this change has helped resurrect them.

We aren’t the first to be accused of killing the industry. In 1939, Robert de Graff threatened to kill publishing, too. At the tail end of the Great Depression, when hardcovers regularly sold for between $2.50-$3.00, he started selling paperback Pocket Books for $0.25.

To put that in 2012 dollars, hardcovers cost roughly $40-50. The new paperbacks, the first of their kind in American markets, cost the equivalent of $4.16. In modern terms, a book that once cost as much as a coffee maker now cost as little as a cup of coffee. A book that once cost as much as a full tank of gas now cost as little as a gallon.

In just over five years from that 1939 launch date, Pocket Books sold 100 million paperbacks.

But it wasn’t all high fives around the burgeoning paperback business. One publisher at Penguin was so aghast at the tawdry covers on his books he wound up selling off the entire line. Others worried openly about the death of the hardcover industry. On the concept of skipping hardcovers entirely and printing straight to paperback, even Pocket Books’ own VP Freeman Lewis said, “Successful authors are not interested in original publishing at 25 cents.”

But they were, of course. Particularly genre writers who didn’t care if this new format was disgraceful. Because it sold. Readers bought their books by the millions. As the format was being denounced as the playground of hacks, authors like William S. Burroughs and Philip K. Dick got their start with bargain-priced paperback-only prints (specifically, with Ace Doubles that sold two novels bundled for $0.35). The history of the era is fascinating – a short yet rich article recaps it here – but what is most interesting to me is that initial $0.25 price.

 

Read the rest of the post on Let’s Get Digital.

12 Holiday Book Promo Ideas

by

The holiday season is upon us.

It’s only [a few days past] Halloween, but you and I both know that holiday displays are going up in stores as I type this.

Scratch that. I was just at Walmart, and half the store is already decorated!

While this time of year is crazypants for you (what the heck am I going to get Dad this year?), it’s also the busiest shopping season for your readers — and that makes it the perfect opportunity for a fun promotion.

And, when you start planning your special holiday promotions now, you  build up excitement before everyone else (except Walmart) begins their own jolly campaign.

While you could go with the old standbys of discounts and personalized copies, they’re…well, somewhat predictable. You know your Duolit gals — we like to have a bit more fun!

So, check out these 12 other holiday book promotion ideas (prettily tied up in a bow):

1. Package Deal

Buyers loooove packages. Less shopping, more gifts, right? Create fun packages including your paperback, such as:

– Discounts for buying multiple copies (2 for $15, 4 for $20)

– Bundling multiple books together (2-for-1, 3-for-2)

– Buy one, share one (one book for you, one for a friend!)

2. Post 12 Days of “Your Book”

This can be a blog series or a great theme for a guest posting spree! Celebrate the 12 Days of [Your Book] by showcasing gift ideas, recipes, flash fiction, or playlists centered around your book and its characters.

3. Create an Indie Authors Bundle

Time to grab those indie author friends and gather your books into a package — at an unbeatable price.

You’ll gain exposure to completely new fanbases, and give everyone’s readers lots of ideas for holiday gifts. Be sure to include a ‘gift guide’, so readers know exactly who on their shopping list would love each book!

4. Share Gift Basket Ideas

Make your book the featured item in a gift basket! Post creative suggestions on your website, so all your readers have to do is purchase your book and create the basket! Ideas include:

– Cozy Reader: hot chocolate/coffee/tea, a mug and a blanket.

– Rockin’ Out: albums or playlists to accompany your book.

– Yummy in My Tummy: A character’s favorite recipe and all the ingredients to make it.

– Book Fair: Your book along with others by your favorite authors.

5. Host a Recipe Contest

Everyone has a special family recipe they’d love to share! Get your readers into the holiday spirit by creating your own fanbase cookbook! Let each reader submit a recipe, then give away digital copies to celebrate the season.

6. Donate Proceeds to Charity

Give back during the holidays by donating a week of your book’s profits to charity. If you choose a smaller/local charity, be sure to let them know of your plans — they’ll want to let their donors/fans know of your good deed!

7. Write a Holiday Story

Borrow characters from your novel and craft a short story centered around the holidays. Sell it as an eBook or give it away as a “Holiday Card” to your fans!

8. Partner with Local Stores

The holidays are the perfect time of year to get offline and pound the pavement. While you’re doing your own shopping, ask local stores to consign copies of your book, featuring you as a local author (what a great gift idea, right?). Bonus points if they’ll host you for a signing!

Side note: Shannon’s book is being featured at a local mall kiosk starting this weekend, and she’ll be blogging about the experience on her website!

9. Decorate Your Emails

Y’all know how wild I am about keeping in touch with your fans via email! Don’t slack on this during the holidays — share your feelings about your holiday experience (loving them? feeling stressed?) and ask a question at the end of every email, such as:

– What gift do you think [character name] would love to receive for Christmas?

– Which menorah would suit [family name] the best?

– Which holiday song is your favorite? [Character name] looooves “White Christmas,” but I rock out to “Little Saint Nick.”

– If you use a graphical template, check out your mailing list provider’s holiday-themed options. Now that’s really decking the halls!

10. Offer Free Wrapping

This one depends on your ‘gift wrap’ skill level (read: this would not work for me),but offer free gift wrapping for books you sell from your website. Pick out (or create) cool gift wrap that goes with the “theme” of your book — and don’t forget agift tag, too!

Note: Make sure this is an option, since some peeps like to wrap their own gifts  ðŸ˜‰

11. Give the Gift of Books

Prefer a simple promotion? Host a giveaway for Amazon or bookstore gift cards — everyone could use more books this time of year!

12. Close Up Shop

This flies in the face of reason, but, let’s face it, everybody needs a break. If you feel overwhelmed during the holidays, take some time off: announce that you’ll stop accepting sales from your website as of [a particular date].

If you go this route, close with a bang (plan one awesome promotion) and use the time wisely (reflect on what you’ve learned this year).

Talk Back

What promotions are you planning for the holiday season? Do you want to give one of the above a try? Would you rather ignore the whole thing? Let’s brainstorm (and share) in the comments!

 

This is a reprint from Duolit.

When Do You Need A Little Ritual? When You Want To Do Some Magic

by

So… I am someone who has long scorned the idea of “having a set of writing rituals before starting to write.” I didn’t like the idea of having these little OCD things I had to do before writing. Or these “stalling techniques”, however one chooses to look at them. But I’m thinking perhaps I was looking at the situation all wrong. Sure it ‘could’ become a little OCD. It ‘could’ be a form of procrastination. But it also ‘could’ be a way of training your brain to get you into the right frame of mind to write.

This is a little bit related to the question of ‘where to write’. I never considered that very important either. Have laptop, will travel. Anywhere and everywhere was “where to write”. But I’m beginning to look at that differently as well. Especially given my tendency to go long stretches of “working all the time” and then long stretches of “barely working at all” (which doesn’t balance out to optimum productivity in case you thought it did). I have no balance.

The benefit and the problem of working for yourself from home is that you can do anything you want. It’s a benefit for obvious reasons but it’s a problem because it can become this unstructured free-for-all where you don’t know where your work ends and your life begins or vice versa. And maybe these walls are all artificial anyway and unnecessary. That’s what I thought for awhile, until I started feeling like I was in constant limbo. While working I wanted to be or could be “not working”. While not working I wanted to be or could be “working”.

It started to become impossible to be in the moment of what I was doing because there were no boundaries. I’ve worked in nearly every room of my house at all sorts of wacky hours of the day, to the point that everything has blurred together and my home is my workplace. Not in the sense of: “it’s where I work”, but in the sense of seeing it more like a workplace than like a home. It would be like living in the back office of Amazon or something. Does Amazon even have a back office? They probably have 500 of them.

Anyway. So I was thinking… what I really need is some routine and structure in my life and a clear separation of work and home. So I thought about renting an office. Not like traditional commercial rental but a single SMALL office for one person to sit in with a desk and work. Or some kind of “coworking” situation where there are multiple cubicles and you’re only renting one of them. It would basically force me to get up and be up during normal work hours that other humans work, get ready, get out of the house, and “go to work”. Very clear separation.

I mean it’s not perfect. There is the tedium of getting ready and commuting and eating up time and gas money. And then the ongoing office expense. But it’s definitely a clear work/home separation and more mentally healthy than what I’ve been doing.

I called a few places that had the sort of thing I was looking for and talked to them but one of the places had no vacancies, and the other one only had large offices currently available (translation: expensive!) or a coworking situation but there weren’t even cubicles. And really… honestly… I need a door, or some sort of subdivided semi-private space in which to work.

I’m sure I could sublet some cubicle in some back corner or some small closet of an office somewhere. I’m sure there are plenty of businesses that have more space than they actually need/use and they wouldn’t mind someone subletting a little of that space from them for a few hundred bucks a month. But, I DO have a spare bedroom in my house.

I haven’t turned it into an office yet because at first I thought I didn’t really NEED a dedicated office because I can “work anywhere”. And then, once it became clear to me the perils involved in that… I thought that just setting up a home office surely wouldn’t/couldn’t be enough. But Tom says I’ll be surprised if I am consistent and don’t play in the office or work in any other part of the house and keep consistent office hours. (This is based on his personal experience going through what I’m going through and then having his own office when he worked from home for himself in the past.) Sure, this doesn’t get me out of the house, but if I can keep the routine and the separation, then I can shave off the time I’d spend commuting and be finished with work faster and have a bit longer free time for the rest of the day… time during which I can leave my house and interact with others.

So I’m going to try the home office thing first. I’ve got a great room that is literally a blank canvas with nothing in it. I’m going to set it up in a way where it is functional and has a ‘professional’ feeling but also where it has a creative feeling so that it’s a place I want to go to work and create. I’m going to spend a little on this because otherwise I was going to spend a lot spread out over indefinite months to rent space that I’d probably still want to spruce up a bit.

I’m going to try to be consistent with the room being specifically for work and not bringing work out into the rest of my life or the rest of my life into work, and keeping sane, consistent work hours. If I do these things, it may be enough structure/separation. If not, I could look into an off-site option. But I was also thinking about the kind of specific environment I want to create in, and the truth is that I have a lot more freedom to create that environment in space that is truly my own than in a rented cubicle or nook.

And then I got to thinking about how I’ll probably have my own coffee maker in my office so during work time I’m spending my time mainly “in my office” and not wandering all over the house in various procrastination exercises… like hot beverages. That was what led me to the idea of rituals and how I’ve poo pooed both the idea of pre-writing rituals and a specific space/room for writing.

But structure and routines are important both to make life feel more organized and manageable and also to get into the mindset you want to be in for various activities. So I’m going to try this space and ritual thing to see if that helps me to create the kind of structure and routine that I need to keep my writing sanity.

I’ve always felt writing was a form of magic. Why wouldn’t one have ritual and significant space for that? 

 

This is a reprint from The Weblog of Zoe Winters.

25 Motivational Thoughts For Writers

by

This post, by Chuck Wendig, originally appeared on his terribleminds.

 

With NaNoWriMo about to storm surge the writer (and wannabe-writer) community, this seems a good time to both tickle your pink parts and jam my boot up your boothole in terms of getting your penmonkey asses motivated. So, here goes — 25 motivational thoughts for writers, starting in 3… 2… 1…

 

 

1. You Are The God Of This Place

The blank page is your world. You choose what goes into it. Anything at all. Upend the frothy cup that is your heart and see what spills out. Murder plots. Train crashes. Pterodactyl love interests. Vampire threesomes. Housewife bondage. Demon spies! Cake heists! Suburban ennui! You can destroy people. You can build things. You can create love, foster hate, foment rage, invoke sorrow. Anything you want in any order you care to present it. This is your story. This is your jam.

2. Infinite Power, Zero Responsibility

Not only are you god of this place, but you have none of the responsibility divine beings are supposed to possess. You have literally no responsibility to anyone but yourself — you’re like a chimp with a handgun. Run amok! Shoot things! Who cares? There exists this non-canonical infancy gospel where Jesus is actually a little kid and he’s like, running around with crazy Jesus wizard powers. He’s killing them and resurrecting them and he’s turning water into Kool-Aid and loaves into Goldfish crackers — he’s just going apeshit with his Godborn sorcery. BE LIKE CRAZY JESUS BABY. Run around zapping shit with your God lightning! You owe nobody anything in this space. It’s adult swim. It’s booze cruise.

3. The Rarest Bird Of Them All

The easiest way to separate yourself from the unformed blobby mass of “aspiring” writers is to a) actually write and b) actually finish. That’s how easy it is to clamber up the ladder to the second echelon. Write. And finish what you write. That’s how you break away from the pack and leave the rest of the sickly herd for the hungry wolves of shame and self-doubt. And for all I know, actual wolves.

4. You’re Not Cleaning Up Some Sixth Grader’s Vomit

You have worse ways to spend a day than to spend it writing. Here’s a short list: artificially inseminating tigers, getting shot at by an opposing army, getting eaten by a grue, mopping the floors of a strip club, digging ditches and then pooping in them, cleaning up the vomit of nervous elementary school children, being forced to dance by strange dance-obsessed captors, working in a Shanghai sweatshop making consumer electronics for greedy Americans, and being punched to death by a coked-up Jean-Claude Van Damme. Point is: writing is a pretty great way to spend a morning, afternoon, or night.

5. Abuse The Freedom To Suck

Writing is not about perfection — that’s editing you’re thinking of. Editing is about arrangement, elegance, cutting down instead of building up. Editing is Jenga. Writing is about putting all the pieces out there. It’s construction in the strangest, sloppiest form. It’s inelegant. And imperfect. And insane. It’s supposed to be this way. Writing is a first-time bike-ride. You’re meant to wobble and accidentally drive into some rose bushes. Allow yourself the freedom — nay, the pleasure — to suck. This is playtime. (Or, as I call it: “Whiskey and Hookers” time.) Playtime is supposed to be messy.

 

 

Read the rest of the post, which includes 20 more pieces of motivational assistance, on terrribleminds.

Insane Characters

by

This post, by Marian Perera, originally appeared on her Flights of Fancy blog.

 

I read an urban myth that The Madness of King George was originally called The Madness of George III, but it had to be retitled in case Americans thought it was the third in a series. That made me think of writing a post on insane characters…

Obvious vs. subtle

I’ve read that one of the scariest things about serial killers or rapists is that they look like everyone else. The same thing would apply to insane characters.

 

 

This isn’t always the case. There was a serial killer called Richard Chase whose disheveled, bizarre appearance helped in his identification and apprehension. But for the most part, people with mental disorders can pass as normal, or eccentric at the most. Writers can often use that to its best advantage, because readers will usually believe that I’m a wolf and will be taken by surprise later.

By the way, the phrase I dropped into the last sentence – “I’m a wolf” – is the first indication in Stephen King’s Desperation that the cop stopping people on the highway is not normal. The cop slipped it into the middle of a regular conversation, and it made me start a little. The people he had stopped weren’t sure if they had heard correctly or not. 

The same thing applies to insanity. It’s incredibly fun to watch readers gradually realize that a character whom they took for normal is nothing of the kind. And is probably very dangerous. 

Often, such slips in dialogue or odd actions can be more unnerving to the reader than if the character is gibbering and clawing at the walls. You can always start subtle and ramp it up to obvious, but it doesn’t work so well the other way.

Beyond the madness

Annie Wilkes, the psychotic nurse in Misery, might chop off a man’s foot but she’ll never use the f-word. Insane characters could have their own codes of morality and ethics. The more you flesh them out – giving them hobbies, fears, genuine liking for some people – the more realistic they’ll be. And the easier it might be for the readers to care about them, if you’re going for tragic-insane rather than only scary-insane.

 

 

Read the rest of the post on Flights of Fancy.