Marketing 101

After months of writing blog posts, I've come to realize that many authors agree on one thing; they hate marketing their books. I can understand why. Marketing isn't an easy job. You spend all of your time and energy writing an amazing book, and still there's so much work to do after that to ensure that your baby makes it into the world. 

I'm by no means an expert when it comes to marketing, but I've learned a few tricks through my own experiences and also reading articles/blogs from experts in the field. I would definitely suggest looking into Jenn DePaula of Mixtus Media. She's actually running a sale on her Book Marketing Foundations class. Also, check out Alexa Bigwarfe from Write. Publish, Sell who also provides valuable information and courses in marketing.

• Build a Community: Whether this is through social media, readings and signings, conventions, or gushing over a book, make connections with writers and readers in your genre. Building connections helps open you to other opportunities in the literary world, like signings you never heard about. It's also just nice to make new friends. Try to focus on those in your genre because they will be the people you sell to later. It's better to have a smaller group of interested people than a large group of followers who won't take a second look at your book. 

• Social Media: As much as some people hate it, social media is important. It's how your readers get to know you. You can share information about your story or your everyday life. Keep in mind, you don't have to do all social venues. Pick the ones that work well for you. Maybe update a blog every week, or keep a twitter account active. Don't try to do everything, otherwise you might become overwhelmed. Just make sure people have a place to find you, buy your book, and learn more about you. Readers want to feel connected with the author. 

• Author Website: Going along with social media, you want to be able to market your book through an author website. You can get one for free through Wordpress, or you can spend a little money on it through sites like squarespace. Here's mine for example.  Make it unique. Make it you. The best thing about this is you can store all of your social media links, your appearances, your purchase links, etc in one location. And if working on a lot of social media platforms is too daunting, this is a good place to focus your attention. 

• Author Signings: As much as we would like to stay behind the computer screen, it's important to participate in author signings. An author named Alexandra Penn says she sells most of her books through in-person signings. To prepare for it, have your elevator pitch ready. Know how to explain your book in 30 seconds or two sentences so you can keep the people engaged. Decorate your table to make it eye catching. Also, consider holding raffles or special sales at in-person signings. It might attract more attention. 

• Swag: Seriously, people love swag. Bookmarks especially tend to go over well with people because they have a dual use. Character stickers, postcards, small journals, key chains, etc. All of these things can be used to promote your book. You can either make the items yourself or enlist others to help you like Sarah Cunningham who made a lot of my swag.

• Press Releases: When your book is about to come out (or even if it is out), it doesn't  hurt to write a press release and send it in to your local newspaper, radio show, or tv station. Contact your local newspaper company (or go on their website) to find out where to send a press release. 

• Interviews: Look for authors or bloggers who are hosting interviews of other authors. This is your chance to talk about your book and introduce yourself to your readers. If you have a book coming out, make sure you get some interviews out around that same time. I host author interviews on my own website here. 

These are just a few ideas to get you started. If you have any marketing tips, please feel free to post them down below! 

Cheers!

Erin

Accepting Rejection

It's bound to happen to all writers. You write a piece for a contest, anthology, or agent. You're excited. You really feel it has what it takes to get published. You send that e-mail off along with your hopes and dreams. A few weeks later (sometimes just a day later) you get a one-word response that shatters all of that. 

Rejection. 

Okay, so maybe this sounds a little over dramatic, but, as writers, we're all faced with rejection. Even the greats endure it (Rowling was passed up at least 7 times before a publishing company took on Harry Potter). That doesn't make it sting any less. Here you presented your heart and soul to someone and they broke it with a single e-mail. 

What are you supposed to do? 

First, let's address how you feel and what to do about shelf care.

• Breathe: Take a breath and remind yourself that everyone gets rejected. Just because the contest or agent didn't accept it doesn't mean it's bad. 

• Feel: Allow yourself to feel mad or sad if you need to. I know this may sound silly, but if you can get your emotions out, you can go back to the rejection, and your piece, with a clearer head. 

• Don't take it personally: Easier said than done, I know. But don't take this as a rejection of you or as a personal attack. As with every "contest" in life, some people win, and some don't. This is NOT a reflection of you or your self worth. Keeping going forward and do what you love. 

• Step back: Step away from the piece for a while. You probably just spent a bunch of time working on it and it's too fresh in your head. Take a few days to relax then get back to editing or submitting. You don't want to rush in and send it to a contest that doesn't quite fit the piece. 

• Get back to work: After you've had a moment to collect yourself, sit back down and get back to work on your piece or your other stories! 

Second, let's take a look at that rejection letter, because sometimes there's something there you might not notice in the heat of the moment. 

• Generic Response: This is the auto-generated, "Thank you for the chance to read your piece. Unfortunately you were not selected." If you get this kind of response without any additional information, then let it go and move on. Prep your piece for another contest. 

• Personal: Sometimes you may receive a more personal rejection letter. Someone may have seen something in your piece and decided to take the time to respond back to you. These e-mails or letters will be signed by the person you queried and likely contain more than the typical "you were not selected." In this case, consider writing a very short thank you letter back. It's a good way to keep connections open. 

• Personal Feedback: These are my favorites. The queried person not only responds with a personal letter, she also provides feedback. Use this as constructive criticism to revise your work, not as an offensive response. This means she's taken the time to help you with your work. And if she mentions wanting to see your writing in the future, make sure you keep that person in mind! Definitely send a thank you letter back. 

The final question is, what do you do with your rejected piece? 

• Submit again: In some cases, try again without revising. Maybe the piece wasn't right for that particular contest. It doesn't mean your work is bad! Go ahead and send it somewhere else. My rule of thumb is I wait for three rejections before I touch the piece again. 

• Consider Revising: If the contest provided some feedback, you may consider revising. Take another look at the story. Are there ways to revise it? Can you make it sound better or tighten up the language? Did you miss one of the contest requirements? It doesn't hurt to look it over.

• Blog it: Sometimes if you can't get a piece published, it doesn't hurt to either blog it or post it on Wattpad. There's nothing wrong with sharing your work on another platform!

There's nothing wrong with getting rejected. It helps you grow as an author and prepares you for sending out some of your larger pieces. Rejection is all part of the process, and the best thing to do is to learn, grow, and keep writing! 

Marketing vs Writing Time

I think the favorite motto of a writer is, "I hate marketing my book." Most times when I ask someone about their marketing techniques, they talk about how much they despise it and would rather have someone else do it. Unfortunately, whether you're traditionally published or self-published, you will have to do a fair bit of marketing if you want your book to succeed. The question is, how much time do you put into marketing vs your writing? Obviously you won't have anything to market if you don't write! 

Here are a few tips and ideas I've learned about when to market vs when to write and how to divide your time. 

• Feeling inspired? Put the marketing aside and get those words down on paper. Don't squander time if you're feeling creative. 

• No Inclination to Write? Then focus on marketing. Sometimes putting together graphics or sending out tweets/building your reading and writing community can help you break out of that creative fog. 

• Deadlines for Books: If you have short stories due for contests, or a book due for printing, put the marketing aside and focus on getting that done. You want to make sure you meet those deadlines so you can market it later. 

• Deadlines for Interviews/Guest Spots: If a site or station is waiting on your interview or a guest blog, for example, then make that your priority. You might have to put your writing aside just to make sure you get that deadline done. Remember, this will give you traction and bring more people to your website. 

• Long Break: Do you have a few hours during the day where you can sit and focus on your book? You might consider writing. While marketing can take hours to do, it's easier to get that done in shorter spurts of time than working on your novel. 

• Short Break: Are you waiting at a doctor's appointment? Do you only have a few minutes to relax before a meeting? Spend that time marketing. Post a tweet. Share information about your book. Check your e-mail. It's easier to do that than to get writing done. 

• Split time: Maybe you want to market and write in the same day. Create meetings for yourself. From 6-8, you'll work on writing. From 8-9, you'll work on marketing. Treat those like meetings that you can't miss. That means you can get both done! 

• Author Events: When you have an author event coming up such as readings, signings, tours, you want to spend most of your time marketing. Share your event to the community you've built up. Focus your tweets and Instagram posts around what you'll be doing. At the same time, post pictures while you're at the events! Not only will you be preserving memories, you'll also be sharing your experiences with your readers. This is a time to focus on the marketing and getting to know the crowd, not the writing. 

• Burnout: At some point you're going to burn out from writing or marketing. When one fails, turn to the other. Usually if I'm too tired to write, I can still market my stuff. I might engage in a twitter thread or post a couple of pictures on Facebook and Instagram because it doesn't take a lot of energy. Sometimes, trying to share yourself with the social world can be draining. When you feel worn out, settle in, turn off social media, and just focus on your book. And, if you hit a point that you can't do either, take a break. Allow yourself to breathe and come back to it another day. If you keep pushing yourself, you won't do well with either your marketing or writing. 

• Scheduling: Each week, create a schedule for yourself. Decide what's most important (writing or marketing), and jot down the days you want to do one or the other, or both. Having this routine set up can make the whole process a lot easier and more friendly for yourself. Scheduling marketing posts is helpful too. You can take a day to schedule posts/blogs/interviews, and then while those launch, you can work on your writing. 

• Check in with yourself: Check in frequently to see how you're feeling. If you're starting to feel too overwhelmed with writing or marketing, it may be time to switch up your schedule. You are in control. You have the power to do as much or as little as you want. Make sure you're being kind to yourself and taking it all one step at a time. 

• Create Shortcuts: Find ways to get multiple kinds of marketing done at the same time so you have more time to write. For example, use hoot suite or another platform that allows you to schedule and set up multiple posts at once. The site posts for you while you write. Or, schedule a blog post on a Tuesday and have that be your "marketing piece" that you share that day. By 9am, you may be done with your marketing. While views are rolling in on your blog, you can go back to writing. 

A lot of this really depends on where you are mentally and what needs to get done. If you're itching to write, then write. If you're craving social media, focus on that. And if you find that you're struggling in one of those areas, then make sure you set up time that you can sit down and focus on publicizing or writing your work.  

It's likely authors hate marketing because either 1. they aren't sure how to do it productively, 2. they don't like stealing away from their writing time, 3. they don't like talking about themselves, 4. it's just not their forte. If any of this is true for you, you may want to look into finding someone who can market your work for you. That way you can spend more time writing. 

I hope this helps!

If you have any topics you'd like me to cover, please post them down below! 

Creating an Indiegogo Campaign For Your Novel

Over the past few months, I have been working with a couple authors to create an Indiegogo Campaign to help launch my book, The Purple Door District. As of October 15th, my campaign is live here and receiving some nice attention thus far. Some people have asked how I created my campaign and its purpose, so I thought I'd share some of that information with you. 

What is Indiegogo? 

Indiegogo is another kind of Kickstarter campaign that helps creative folks receive contributions to go towards the creation of a product. While Kickstarter tends to focus more on technological advances, Indiegogo is more author and liberal arts friendly. You can find many authors trying to promote their books and graphic novels on the site. Generally, people will run a campaign for 30 days in order to reach a set goal. Kickstarter is an all or nothing thing. If you raise the money, then you get it. If you don't meet your goal, you get nothing. Indiegogo offers that too, but it also provides a "flexible" goal. You can set your campaign for 30 or 60 days, and even if you don't reach your goal, you still get to keep whatever you made

Why not just do flexible goal then? Well, studies show that the urgency of trying to make a 30-day goal that's all or nothing actually encourages people to donate more and right on the spot. The disadvantage is, if you don't make it, you get nothing. Since I'm happy to accept whatever contributions people are willing to give, I've made mine flexible. 

What Are You Raising Money For? 

People usually raise money to help create/sell a particular product. In my case, I'm using my campaign to help me publish The Purple Door District. Indie publishing is not cheap. You basically wear the hat of the editor, publisher, marketer, distributor, etc. All of that money adds up, and sometimes you might not have quite enough in your bank account. I've personally enlisted artists, editors, proofreaders, and jewelers to help create swag for my book, causing my cost to go up. At the same time, though, this allows me to support other members of the literary community. So, in a sense, I'm raising money both for my book and for fellow creative minds.

[caption id="attachment_532" align="alignnone" width="3159"] Art of my main character Bianca by Oni Algarra on deviant art: https://www.deviantart.com/onialgarra[/caption]

Tips for Creating a Campaign

• Know your product: You must have a solid product in mind that you're trying to raise money to create. Whether it's a book, a fidget cube, a graphic novel, make sure it's clear to your audience. 

• Figure out your budget: You have to know how much to ask for when you set up your campaign. Go through every single thing you spend money on, (ie. printing, setting up the book, editor, proofreader, swag, etc). Don't leave anything out, and make sure you round up rather than down. It's better to ask for a little extra than not enough. Create a list with all of your expenses, and then be honest with the people contributing to you. Break down the costs on your Indiegogo page so people know what their money is going towards. It's better to open and honest. 

• Create a Video: Indiegogo indicates that you're much more likely to receive donations if you have a video at the beginning of your campaign. This can just be you explaining your book, or perhaps presenting a book trailer. Be genuine in it and let people know just how much their help means to you. The more people know about the product, the more willing they may be to back it. 

• Perks: Now, while some people may be willing to make a donation, others will want something in return. This is where perks come in. Similar to patreon, you create different tiers. If someone contributes a certain amount, they may get a shout out, or posters and stickers. The bigger the contribution, the larger the return. You must make certain that you can actually provide the perks to the contributor, however, and in a reasonable time. People feel more valued if you get the items to them in a timely fashion. They should also be of good quality. 

[caption id="attachment_533" align="alignnone" width="2988"] Samples of bookmark, sticker, mini poster, and necklace from one of my Perk packages. [/caption]

• Publicize/Create a Street Team: The best way to get donations is by having a marketing plan. Create a street team of people who you know will be willing to share the link to your information. Set up days/times when you'll post about your campaign, and make sure it's to the right people. Know your audience and your readers. You don't want to post about urban fantasy material in a mystery group. Also, don't be obnoxious about it. While it's important to market, make sure you follow the rules of groups that you post it to, and don't invade someone's privacy (ie, PMing random people to beg them to donate to you). That's a great way to get blocked.

• Be Responsive: When someone donates to you, let them know how much you appreciate it. They're taking their time and their hard-earned money to help you bring your project to life. The least you can do is thank them. Answer any questions they might have, and give frequent updates so people know how close you're getting to reaching the goal.

• Pictures! Provide lots of pictures of your product. It lends agency to what you're doing, and it also helps people visualize exactly what they're going to get, or what you're trying to do. Pictures also make your campaign eye pleasing. People are more likely to donate if you can show them what you're making rather than describing it in a wall of text. 

These are just a few tips I've learned while creating my campaign. I have Brian K Morris and Brenna Deutchman to thank for helping me set this up. It's always good to have someone look over your campaign in case you're missing something before you make it live. I'm sure I'll have some failures and struggles along the way, so I'll post about those as well. 

If you have any questions about Indiegogo, or any topics you'd like me to cover, feel free to post them below! 

Happy writing! 

Mental Health and Writing

I'm no stranger when it comes to depression and anxiety. I walk with them, hand in hand, everyday of my life, and sometimes I get dragged along, kicking, screaming, and crying. The US is notorious for looking down on those with mental health. We're supposed to suck it up and be strong, but really, that creates more problems in the end. So when the world gets to be too much, I turn to therapy writing and reading. 

Everyone uses writing in a different way to help themselves. Some write journal entries, spewing out their emotions so they don't have to hold them so heavily in their hearts. I write violent scenes so I can feel something other than the pain inside of me. Poetry, short stories, novels...they can all help because they give you something else to focus on. 

If you want to deal with the problem or emotions you're going through, use therapeutic writing as a chance  to center on the issue. Write down how you feel and what events have led you to those negative emotions. As you do this, you might see patterns form. Maybe you're not getting enough rest and that's causing problems, or a new stress was added into your daily life. Whatever it is, remember, your feelings are valid. You're allowed to be upset, and it's good to take the time to work through your issues. 

Poetry can be helpful, too. Splatter your page with the rushing thoughts in your head and see what you create. You can always go back to it later if you want to adjust the rhythm, rhyme, or form. There's also nothing wrong with writing the poem for your eyes alone. Don't worry about editing or how the words might sound. Let them flow and see if that helps alleviate some of the stress. Some of my best pieces have come out when I've been at the peak of depression. 

Working on my novel can be very therapeutic too because it gives my brain something else to focus on. I have a huge issue with stress eating; I always have. So if I feel depressed or overwhelmed, I try to turn to my computer instead of grabbing a bag of chips or cookies. Does it always work? No, but more and more I find myself sitting down to my work instead of eating, and I consider that a success. 

Right now, I'm in a hospital getting treated for cellulitis. Deep down, I'm scared, angry, and frustrated with myself, but I know those emotions aren't going to help me heal. So I'm keeping my mind and hands busy by writing this blog to you. My body is resting and my brain is getting a break from fretting over the pain and stress. 

I've said many times that it's important to take care of yourself when you write. Writing can, at times, be the healer we need to get through stress, depression, grief, and more. Find what works for you. If you have any suggestions on how to use writing for healing, post them below! The best way to help each other is by sharing ideas. 

Your feelings are valid. YOU are valid. 

Happy writing.