If you’ve always dreamed of being the next Hemingway or Vonnegut (or even Grisham), or perhaps if you just want to write better essays for school or posts for your blog … you need to sharpen those writing skills.

1. Use powerful sentences. Aim for shorter sentences with strong verbs. Of course, not every sentence should be the same — you need variation — but try to create sentences with oomph. You might find this easier to do in the revision stage, as it might not be something you’re thinking about when you’re pumping out that first draft.

2. Get feedback. You can’t get better in a vacuum. Get someone to read over your stuff — preferably a good writer or editor. Someone who reads a lot, and can give you honest and intelligent feedback. And then listen. Really try to understand the criticism and accept it and use it to improve. Instead of being hurt, thank your editor for helping you get better.

3. Put yourself out there. At some point, you’ll need to let others read your writing. Not just the person who you’re allowing to read it, but the general public. You’ll need to publish your book or short story or poem, or write for a publication. If you’re already doing a blog, that’s good, but if no one reads it, then you need to find a bigger blog and try to submit a guest post. Putting your writing out in the public can be nerve-wracking, but it is a crucial (if painful) part of every writer’s growth. Just do it.

4. Learn to be conversational. Many people write too stiffly. I find that it’s so much better to write like you talk (without all the umms and uhhs). People relate to it better. It’s not an easy task at first, but it’s something to strive for. And that brings up another point — it’s better to break the rules of grammar in order to sound conversational (as I did in the last sentence) than to sound stilted just so you can follow the proper rules. But don’t break the rules of grammar without good reason — know that you’re doing it, and why.
​
5. Start and end strong. The most important parts of your writing are the beginning and end. Especially the beginning. If you don’t hook your reader in the beginning, they won’t read the rest of your writing. So when you’ve written your first draft, spend some extra time crafting a good beginning. Get them interested and wanting to know more. And when you’re done with that, write a good ending … that will leave them wanting more of your writing.

“The more product you have on the market, the greater the chance that readers will find you. It's the simplest way to market your work and the one most suited to writers.” Kristine Kathryn Rusch.

Discoverability
Writing a series, or books aimed at a similar audience is one of the smartest things you can do to market your books.

This is an excerpt from How to Market a Book Third Edition, available now in ebook, print and audiobook formats.
1.      Repeat customers are much easier to reach than new customersA survey carried out by International Thriller Writers (ITW) found that readers tended to search for books by a specific author that they knew when they wanted to buy a new book.
It also takes between three and four books for a reader to remember the name of an author and become a fan, so if you have a series (and even a three-book boxset), you are more likely to be remembered next time. As anecdotal evidence, I pre-order books from a few of my favorite authors because I'm a fan of a particular series.
The rise of binge consumption on Netflix and online streaming means that people want longer entertainment experiences. Some readers will not even commit to a new series unless there are multiple books available so they can immerse themselves.
2.      Series make more money for authorsMark Coker reported in the Smashwords 2016 Survey that “when we compared the average sales of the top 1,000 bestselling series books against the sales of the top 1,000 stand-alones, the series books had 195% higher earnings and their median earnings increase was an impressive 127%. Readers love series!”
3.      It's faster to write books in a seriesFor fiction, you know the characters and the world, so you just need a new plot. For non-fiction, you know your target market, and what they need, so you can write more books to suit them.
You can use branded covers to create a look and feel for your series. This can also make book cover design more cost effective, as the title and images need changing for each book, but the overall design will stay the same.
 
All the online stores use Series fields to link books together in a series. This means if a reader buys one in the series, they will likely get recommendations for the other books in the series.
Series can be used for non-fiction, too. Just link books for a similar audience together using the series field. For example, this book is part of my series Books for Writers.

When a new book in the series comes out, you can do price promotions on the first book in the series, or make it perma-free in order to drive traffic every day. You can also use a pre-order to get early sales for the book.

If you’ve got a series, let us help you. Contact us at www.PurposePublishing.com

Since we rarely see errors in our own writing, it’s important to solicit the help of professional editors. But there are things we can do to improve the manuscript BEFORE sending it to an editor.
Grammerly is one of those useful tools that can sort out the basic errors, enabling you to improve your writing and learn as you go. It can also help with emails and online writing, where paying a pro editor isn't cost effective.

Why consider a tool like Grammarly?
As indie authors, we are 100% responsible for producing books that are not only readable and entertaining/informative but also ones that are mistake-free. When readers are distracted by misspellings and grammatical errors their reading experience is going to suffer. And that means your reputation as an author is going to suffer as well.

The Kindle also has a function for readers to report typos and if you get too many of these in a book, you're going to get a quality notification.

For this reason, we always want to use professional editors and proofreaders when we're publishing our books. Nothing can replace the editing and proofreading of a human being, especially one who specializes in your genre.

However, the messier a manuscript is when you send it to a professional for proofreading or editing, the more it's going to cost you to improve and fix.

Grammarly is an automated proofreader, and a grammar and plagiarism checker.
It scans your text and makes suggestions about where changes should or could be made. It even monitors word usage and will comment on sentence length (watching for those pesky run-on sentences that happen when we're writing fast). You can either use it in your web browser or install the Microsoft Office add-on. And you can even tell Grammarly whether you're writing in US or UK English so it will know how to support you.

As with most apps and plug-ins these days, there a free version and a paid one. With the free version, you can log-in and paste your text into a Grammarly document, wait a few seconds, and then see the feedback it's giving you about the possible mistakes in your text. When I ran this article through Grammarly's editor, even though Scrivener had already corrected my spelling in a few instances, Grammarly found several punctuation mistakes I hadn't caught, as well as a case where I'd typed ‘with' instead of ‘will'. Impressive!

Here are six ways Grammarly can improve your writing.

(1) You can learn from it and make fewer mistakes next time
Obviously, Grammarly is a tool for checking your grammar, spelling, and punctuation, something that both Word and Scrivener already do. One difference with Grammarly is that it will tell you why it's making the suggestion. This enables the writer to make an informed decision and perhaps even learn a bit along the way. As well, there is a free, online handbook about English, sorted by topics like style and mechanics, where you'll find articles about everything from how to use an apostrophe to the correct form of abbreviations.

(2) Discover your writer tic, or the words you use too often
All writers are guilty of using the same word too frequently.
And yet, as the author of the book or story, we're often so close to the manuscript, and we've read it so many times, that we can't see this. Grammarly will alert you to this type of problem. It will also allow you to see definitions of words and suggest synonyms if you want to change the word you're using.
In this way, it's like a thesaurus combined with a spelling and grammar checker.

(3) Learn to break up your sentences
“Bestsellers are about shorter, cleaner sentences, without unneeded words.” The Bestseller Code, Jodie Archer & Matthew L. Jockers
Data analysis of bestselling books indicates that shorter sentences characterize bestsellers, but we all know how hard that can be to do in practice.
Grammarly will comment on sentence length when it detects long or run-on sentences. This is another great feature for when we've read a manuscript so many times we can't see it any longer. Grammarly can act like a second pair of eyes, pointing out problems we wouldn't see otherwise.

(4) Take your manuscript one step closer to perfection
We all know how valuable our editors and proofreaders are. As I mentioned in the intro to this article, nothing can replace the skill and human touch of a professional editor/proofreader. However, if with Grammarly's help you've made your manuscript as clean (i.e., error-free) as possible, your editor is going to have an easier time catching every remaining correction. In a way, Grammarly can support your editor to take the manuscript even closer to perfection.

(5) Plagiarism checker
If you're a non-fiction writer, you'll love this next feature.
You can click a button and Grammarly will compare your text to over 8 billion web pages, checking for duplication. This is an amazing feature to prevent a potentially embarrassing mistake if you've accidentally copied text from an article on the web to refer to in your own writing, but have forgotten to include a citation.

Even if you're writing fiction, it's possible to add research material into a manuscript with the intention of putting it into your own words, and then forgetting. Grammarly will prevent any such accidentally oversights from happening.

(6) Use it for social media and email as well as your manuscript
Grammarly also provides a free plug-in for Chrome or Safari (although not for Scrivener, sadly). The plug-in will monitor your posts on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, ensuring you don't make any spelling and grammar mistakes. This can take the worry out of presenting a polished image to your readers and fans even when you're rushing to send out a quick Tweet.
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So if you're feeling a little under-confident in your grammar, check out Grammarly here for your next piece of writing.

So today, here are some of my tips on productivity for writers and a resource I think at least some of you will find useful.
 
(1) Schedule your timeWe all have 24 hours in the day, and we all have to balance the real life stuff with the writing. Before I was a full-time author-entrepreneur, I would get up at 5am and write, then go to work. After the day job, I would come home and get on with building my online business. We got rid of the TV so I would have more time to create, and I spent every weekend working. I was so focused on leaving my job that I cut out everything that got in the way. I was driven to schedule my time incredibly well in order to fit everything in.
 
Now, as a full-time publisher and community relations manager, I still have to schedule everything. I blog, podcast and speak professionally, as well as writing books. It’s still hard to get everything done, let me assure you!
 
So I’ll admit to being a chronic scheduler! But seriously, it is the only way I get anything done. 
I use Google Calendar schedule my time. It doesn't matter whether you use an old school paper system or the latest app, but you have to schedule your writing time! I write down blocks of time for writing, speaking prep and delivery, for podcasts, recording audio and other phone meetings.
I block out time for writing, speaking engagements, for podcasts, recording audio and other phone meetings.
 
(I never answer the phone unless a meeting is scheduled!)
 
Of course, I have slots for personal time with my husband or family trips, medical stuff, friends and ‘real life,’ and of course, sometimes I get things wrong. But overall, I rely on this kind of scheduling to get everything done.
 
After all, you schedule time for your kids' play dates, meetings at work, and your yoga class – so why not schedule your writing time? How important is it to you?
 
(2) Reward yourselfThose of you with children may have used behavior charts, where they get a star or a sticker every time something good is achieved. Rewards for good behavior can actually work really well!
 
Well, that’s what I do for myself these days!
I have a wall calendar on which I write my word count or pages edited every day and I get a sticker if I go over 2000 words. It’s just a paper calendar – nothing fancy – but seriously, it works!
 
 
  (3) Become accountable
This blog has kept me accountable since I started writing it in Dec 2015. Every year, I have posted my goals and what I’ve achieved.

Then I have an accountability partner who has a completely separate kind of business, and we challenge each other on content like the blog, as well as overall financial goals. We even have a competition now, where the loser has to pay for a spa day – now that’s motivating!
I also have a coach who I have calls with several times a year, when I want to take things to another level.
 
Time goes by so fast that if you don’t schedule these kind of check-points into your life, you won’t achieve anything.
 (4) Set deadlinesIf you sign a traditional publishing deal, you will have a timeline for your drafts, revisions and then for publication. You know what you have to do by when.
If you are going the indie route, you need to set these for yourself.

When I wrote my first book, I set a deadline for my birthday. I wanted to hold my book in my hand on a specific date. I made it by a month later, but having that date in mind helped a LOT for getting things done.
Since then, I have speeded up the process somewhat, but I still set rough deadlines. On my wall I have one page A4 that has the priorities for each month roughly planned out.
For example, one particular month has:

• Publish Give Your Intentions some Attention in ebook and print
• Finish first draft and edit Writer’s Boot camp. Send JVP documents to cities by end of Dec
• Finalize workshop road show & map.
• Start pre-production on Strive 2019 with authors.

If I haven’t done all these by the end of the month, then I am behind on my deadlines for each project. 
(5) Spend more hours in the chairWe all know what we have to do. It’s simple but it’s not easy. Like diet and exercise.
More hours in the chair actually spent WRITING will produce more words on the page.Dean Wesley Smith is one of the most prolific writers out there, but he points out that he doesn’t do anything spectacular in terms of word count per hour. What he does is spend more hours in the chair, and he does it every day.
 
This relates to point 1 – you need to schedule the time, and then you actually need to get it done. Get black on white.
 
I like to write in cafes and if you find a quiet one, they are usually happy to let you sit as long as you buy a coffee every hour. I put on my BOSE noise-cancelling headphones – which are amazing! – and play Rain & Thunderstorms on repeat. Then I write and I don't get up until my allotted time for writing is complete.

BONUS (6) Decide what you really want.Perhaps this is the most important thing.
At the end of the day, we all have 24 hours in the day. We all have people we love, that we want to spend time with. We all need to pay the bills. We all need to eat and exercise, and clean and do chores and see friends … and … and …
 
But you get what you focus on in life.If you really want to write that book, you will make the time.
If you want to prove that you can finish a manuscript, you will make the time.
If you want to be a full-time author and make a living with your writing, you will have to make the time.

If you’ve always dreamed of being the next Hemingway or Vonnegut (or even Grisham), or perhaps if you just want to write better essays for school or posts for your blog … you need to sharpen those writing skills.

Becoming the best writer you can be isn’t easy, I won’t lie to you.
​
It takes hard work. But it’s worth the effort. And if it seems like an insurmountable task, there are some concrete things you can do today that will get you on the road to improvement.
Personally, I’ve been a fiction, newspaper, magazine and blog writer for 17 years now, writing for a variety of publications … and I’m still trying to improve. Every writer can get better, and no writer is perfect. I think I’ve grown tremendously as a writer over the last couple of decades, but it has been a painful journey. Let me share some of what I’ve learned.
No matter what level of writer you are, there should be a suggestion or twelve here that will help.

1. Read great writers. This may sound obvious, but it has to be said. This is the place to start. If you don’t read great writing, you won’t know how to do it. Everyone starts by learning from the masters, by emulating them, and then through them, you find your own voice. Read a lot. As much as possible. Pay close attention to style and mechanics in addition to content.

2. Write a lot. Try to write every day, or multiple times a day if possible. The more you write, the better you’ll get. Writing is a skill, and like any other skill, you have to practice it to get better. Write stuff for yourself, write for a blog, write for other publications. Write just to write, and have a blast doing it. It gets easier after awhile if you practice a lot.

3. Create a writing ritual. Find a certain time of day when you can write without interruptions, and make it a routine. For me, mornings work best, but others might find lunch or evenings or midnight hours the best. Whatever works for you, make it a must-do thing every single day. Write for at least 30 minutes, but an hour is even better. If you’re a full-time writer, you’ll need to write for several hours a day, as I do. But don’t worry! It helps you get better.

4. Just write. If you’ve got blank paper or a blank screen staring at you, it can be intimidating. You might be tempted to go check your email or get a snack. Well, don’t even think about it, mister. Just start writing. Start typing away — it doesn’t matter what you write — and get the fingers moving. Once you get going, you get in the flow of things, and it gets easier. I like to start out by typing things like my name or a headline or something easy like that, and then the juices start flowing and stuff just pours out of me. But the key is to just get going.

5. Eliminate distractions. Writing does not work well with multi-tasking or background noise. It’s best done in quiet, or with some mellow music playing. Turn off email or IM notifications, turn off the phone and your cell phone, turn off the TV, and clear off your desk … you can stuff everything in a drawer for now until you have time to sort everything out later … but don’t get into sorting mode now, because it’s writing time! Clear away distractions so you can work without interruption.

6. Experiment. Just because you want to emulate the great writers doesn’t mean you have to be exactly like them. Try out new things. Steal bits from other people. Experiment with your style, your voice, your mechanics, your themes. Try out new words. Invent new words. Experimentalize everything. And see what works, and toss out what doesn’t.

7. Be concise. This is best done during the revision process, but you need to edit every sentence and paragraph and remove everything but the essential. A short sentence is preferred over a longer one, and a clear word is preferred over two in jargonese. Compact is powerful.

“No problem can withstand the assault of sustained thinking.” — Voltaire

Its that time of the year when I start preparing for the year ahead. I ask myself a few questions like: 'What did I do this year? How did the year turn out? Successes/ Failures? What do I want to do in the coming year?' I ask myself, answer truthfully, and look at the results. This is what helps me determine how to spend my time, my focus and my energy,  going forward. So, as I examined my year end results so far. We did some good things. But for 2019, we are going for great!! I see good people go from good to great all the time.  It’s not magic.  It’s passion, purpose, and more important than those two is ACTION.


They find their path, they have a purpose, and if they get knocked down, they get up again.  They keep asking better and better questions that get them closer to their goals and they continue to find the people and resources that support them on their journey.  They turn resistance into growth and they fully immerse themselves in the experience. I’ve boiled down the pattern I see into 10 ways.


10 Ways: Going from Good to Great

Here are 10 ways I’ve seen people go from good to great:

Find your compelling “why.” Find your one thing. Become a dream machine, turn your dreams loose, and envision the end in mind. Your “why” is your drive and you find your “why” by answering the question, “Why do you do what you do?”  To find your compelling, find the answer that connects with your passion and plucks at your heart strings.  That’s the power of purpose in action and it’s what crusades are made of.  Launch your own crusade.

Become a force of one.  Get out of your own way and stack yourself for success by channeling your thinking, feeling, and doing.  Think the thoughts that serve you, feel the feelings that empower you, and do what you know needs to be done.  Disciplined thinking combined with disciplined action is an unstoppable force, and it’s yours for the asking.

Model the best. The best do it with models.  They find the best examples of what they want to accomplish, and they learn from them.  You can find role models or success stories or case studies and work backwards from there.  Success always leaves clues and you can play detective.

Give your best where you have your best to give. This is you unleashed.  The best play to their strengths.  They spend more time doing the things that make them strong, and less time doing the things that make them weak.  This builds energy and momentum and instead of getting drained, you get charged and you grow where you can grow best.

Find your best arena.  Don’t be a fish out of water.  Find your element.  Going from good to great means finding where you can play your best game.  Maybe you’re a mediocre developer, but a phenomenal project manager. Maybe you’re an OK doctor, but an incredible actor.  Take your skills to the job or place where they make the most impact.

Execute.  Taking action is how you make things happen.  Throw massive action at whatever you need to do.  Even if it seems like you’re only taking baby steps at a time, you’ll eventually hit your stride.  When you keep taking action, you learn faster.  Each result teaches you another way how to do something, or how not to do something.  Sometimes, the only way to get past some problems is to overwhelm them with action.  To paraphrase Voltaire, I would argue no problem can withstand the assault of sustained action.

Stick with it.  If you fall down six times, stand up seven.  Remember The Little Engine That Could?  Well, whenever you think you can’t, you’re working against yourself.  It starts with belief.  Think you can, then prove yourself right.   Find your eye of the tiger.

Learn and respond.  The best take action, learn, and respond.  They are always failing forward.  NLP teaches us that there is no failure, only feedback.  The great ones use the feedback to improve their approach.  They stay adaptable while they are finding their way forward.  Be your won best coach, not your own best critic.

Let it go.  The best let it go and move on.  They don’t carry baggage.  They focus on the objectives and they measure against effectiveness.  Either their approach is working or it’s not.  If it’s not working, they let it go, and find a new way forward.

Team up.  The best of the best team up with people that amplify their impact.  They also team up with people that provide more deliberate feedback and that help them find their blind spots and get unstuck.

Putting it all together, you can stack the deck in your favor by playing to your strengths, living your values, and finding the best arena for your greatest results.

To Your SUPER Success,

MG

PS. HERE IS A SUPER SUCCESS TOOL: Book 

GOOD TO GREAT Why Some Companies Make the Leap...And Others Don't by Jim Collins (over 3M copies sold) 

SCHEDULE. IT’S DONE!​

​Your weekly writing and platform-building scheduleA few notes before you start building your author platform:

• If you’re waking up early before work to get in your 2 hours, I’d say start by writing — that way if you’re in the flow, you can always keep going. If you’re doing your 2 hours after work, you might want to “wind-down” with the platform stuff; then do the writing afterwards once you’ve de-stressed.
• I always thinks it’s smart to choose 2 social media sites to concentrate on at first. I’m using Twitter and Facebook for this example, but you could substitute with Pinterest, G+, etc.
• Reading is something we’re hopefully doing all the time. But you gotta find time outside of these 2 hours for that!
• Keep things flexible. You might end up spending an extra 20 minutes on your interview responses one day, which cuts into time to submit work for publication. Oh well. You’ll get back on schedule the next day!

Week 1Monday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 30 minutes: schedule tweets and Facebook updates for the week

Tuesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: prepare 2 submissions

Wednesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 20 minutes: interact with book forums, book-recommendation engines, GoodReads, etc.
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments

Thursday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 20 minutes: seek out reading opportunities at bookstores, libraries, etc. (or plan your book-launch party!)
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 30 minutes: write a blog post for your own website

Friday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: write a guest post for another blog
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: website maintenance (updates, respond to blog comments, etc.)

Week 2Monday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 30 minutes: schedule tweets and Facebook updates

Tuesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: book distribution maintenance, Amazon Author Central profile, accounting, etc.
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: start writing the copy for your monthly email newsletter

Wednesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 15 minutes: revision
• 15 minutes: review newsletter copy and email it to your list!
• 20 minutes: interact with book forums/book-recommendation engines, GoodReads, etc.
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments

Thursday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: prepare for your reading (press release, logistics, etc.)
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: seek out guest blog opportunities

Friday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: write a blog for your own website
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: update website (make sure your website is media-friendly)

Week 3Monday

• 60 minutes: do an interview (by email, phone, or in-person) for a blog, podcast, TV show, radio, etc.
• 30 minutes: calm your nerves from the interview — drive back home
• 30 minutes: schedule tweets and Facebook updates

Tuesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: prepare 2 submissions

Wednesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 20 minutes: interact with book forums/book-recommendation engines, GoodReads, etc.
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments

Thursday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 20 minutes: seek out PR and promotional opportunities (interviews on TV, radio, podcasts, blogs, magazines, etc.)
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 30 minutes: write a piece of flash fiction for your blog, or shoot a quick behind-the-scenes video for fans

Friday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: join or maintain relationship with online writing group, author association, or sign up for a writing conference
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: website maintenance (make sure your blog looks pro)

Week 4Monday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 30 minutes: schedule tweets and Facebook updates

Tuesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 30 minutes: revision
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: prepare for your reading — which is coming up on Thursday!

Wednesday

• 60 minutes: writing
• 40 minutes: do a dress rehearsal for your reading
• 10: make sure everything is set for the reading
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments

Thursday Night

• 120 minutes: give a great reading! (Oh, and be sure to get it on video)

Friday

• 60 minutes: edit the video from the night before
• 30 minutes: post the video on your blog, YouTube, and share on social networks
• 10 minutes: respond to social media comments
• 20 minutes: WILD CARD! (do whatever you didn’t have time for earlier in the month)

This is just an example of one way to do it, but I’d love to hear from you: does this schedule look anything like your daily writing and platform-building routine? How have you started building your platform as an author? What’s worked? What’s been a waste of time? Let us know in the comments section below.

By building your author platform before your next book launch, you can harness the power of potential buyers, industry contacts, and your entire web community.

The “author platform” is a fancy buzzword folks in the book business use to talk about an author’s fan engagement, their social media and web presence, the size and dedication of their readership, and their connectedness to other authors, bloggers, critics, agents, publicists, publishers, etc.

By building your author platform BEFORE your next book launch, you’ll be able to harness the power of all those potential buyers, all those industry contacts, and your entire web community to increase your chances of success. After all, the only thing worse than not publishing your book is to publish it and get ignored entirely.

So how do you build your author platform?

One day at a time, of course. Just like writing, building an author platform is hard work; it takes daily dedication and organization. But the benefit of that labor is your writing will actually have an audience!

For the purposes of this article, I’m going to assume a few things about you (if any of these assumptions are incorrect, adjust accordingly):

You are not a full-time author yet, but you’re building towards it (i.e. you still have a day job)
You have other personal or family commitments that prevent you from spending every waking hour on your writing goals

You are able to set aside 2 hours a day (M-F) for your writing and platform-building work

Only Monday to Friday? Well, at times the drudgery of this platform-building is gonna feel like a “real” job — so you deserve a weekend. If you can sneak in a few extra hours to write on Saturday or Sunday, that’s great, but leave the author platform stuff for the workweek.

Five Tips to Improve Your Bookselling Efforts
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The reward of holding a copy of your published work is indescribable. But it’s just one of the many exciting milestones in your journey to self-publishing success. One key objective in your publishing journey is selling your book successfully. Here are five tips we think may help improve your efforts to increase book sales.

Build up your image as an author and a brand

Book buyers and readers gravitate to books—and authors—that appeal to them. The more you project yourself in a way that holds their attention, the more you gain their trust. Highlight the fact that you are now a published author. Add that to your email and forum signature lines. Don’t forget to add your website or social media profiles to here, as well as to your press release boilerplates. These may be small things, but they’re the building blocks to a positive image.

A quality 3rd-party review is important to successful bookselling

An honest and well-written 3rd-party review is invaluable. A positive review from a respected book reviewer will make your book stand out, improve its marketability and enhance your title’s, as well as your, reputation. Don’t be afraid to invite readers and indie reviewers to evaluate your book. Published reviews on sites like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other bookstore bolsters the credibility of your book encouraging new readers to part with their money knowing that they will get a good read in return.

Librarians are your best customers—and allies

Librarians are savvy, well-informed book buyers. They are the favorites of the traditional publishing houses, small presses, and self-publishers. If librarians like your book and trust your brand, they will likely become some of your most effective bookselling allies. Their participation and support are valuable aids to your bookselling activities—sponsoring book signings, readings, meet-and-greet affairs, and Q&A activities at their libraries. So be sure to visit your local libraries and befriend your librarians.

Use your social media networks to connect and sell your book

While Purpose Publishing carries all the titles of its authors in its online bookstore and through its partnerships with Amazon and Barnes and Noble, one of the most effective ways to sell you book is through social media networking. Generate news, book-related updates, and positive reviews through Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, and to the other online communities you belong to. Social networks are also great places to meet fellow authors and find new opportunities for selling your book.

To Your Success,

MG

Humans are highly visual creatures, and this holds true when we are reading. We don’t see the images in the book, we form them in our minds. Pack in brilliant verbal imagery and your readers will enjoy and remember your book.
Drawing powerful verbal imagery is a skill that defines natural-born writers, but it can also be learned. Here are five things to think about with respect to using the power of the pen to draw images.

1. Be aware of visual imagery
The first step is heightening your awareness of verbal imagery and how it works. When you read a new book, or write, take note.

We think of words as words – black ink on a white page. But they are more: they paint colorful pictures from the action, people, and settings of a story world. Check it out for yourself. Take a paragraph from any book you are reading and do an image “density test.” Count all the images that form in your mind as you read along. Is it a large and diverse number?

It depends on what you are reading, but in many books, it’ll be each sentence, or even each phrase — e.g. “Silent, he nodded and looked out the window at the windmill by the still lake.” That sentence evokes four images – a man nodding, a window, a windmill, and a lake scene.

Here’s the opening sentence of Ransom Riggs’ Library of Souls:

The monster stood not a tongue’s length away, eyes fixed on our throats, shriveled brain crowded with fantasies of murder.

How many images do you get from that? Almost every word is a new one. How does the image density of your writing compare?

2. Actively write in imagesMany authors say they see events unfold in their own minds and then they write them down. This is a great way to get visual writing. You can heighten this by purposefully engineering memorable images into your work.

Whether or not you remember the details of any of the Godzilla movies, you know what Godzilla looks like. What’s the single most memorable image from the Jurassic Park movie franchise? Is it the T. Rex sniffing out the kids in the car?

Often, it’s a useful technique to render an abstract idea into symbolic imagery to give it punch or make it easily understood and memorable. The scar on Harry Potter’s forehead is a brilliant example. It represents his past, his link with Voldemort, and his fate. Harry just has to show it or touch it in pain for readers to know something big is about to happen.

3. Keep the quality of your visual imagery in mind when you edit
If you can’t form an image about what is being described, likelihood is you probably don’t know exactly what is going on. So how would a reader know?

Have you ever tried editing expressly for visual content? Doing so can bring surprising rewards. You might find new ways to express abstract ideas. You might clean up some fluffy or confusing text. You might be inspired to add creative details.

If you read a phrase or sentence and fail to clock an image, you might find that it wasn’t fully imagined. Editing to improve visual interest is often about making abstract things more concrete. This is ubiquitously thought of as a good thing in terms of writing advice. Why say “his car got keyed,” when you can say “his usually pristine black Porsche 911 had an ugly, uneven scar that stretched from the driver’s side mirror to the tail light.” The second one is not only a stronger image, you wince harder. Why say “I fell in love” when you can give a few examples of blushing, tripping because you’re distracted, and sitting with your head in your hands daydreaming and get your “show don’t tell” out of the way too?

Great writing is about giving a reader enough detail to let them see the world you are presenting – without overdoing it. At best, they need some wiggle room to see your story world as they want to.

4. Understand why key types of information work better as a picture
Some things just work better visually. This is because they depend on having all the knowledge at once, on some form of complex structure in space or time, or the linkages between entities. Such information clusters are hard to render in words – no matter how many you use or how artfully you arrange them on the page.

Think about a map or a family tree. These are common images printed in books – words just can’t do them justice – or fit into equal space. If you do need to describe difficult images, it’s about getting out the most important information first – the structure and the types of connection. Then come the relevant details, which a reader can now map onto a visual framework they are holding in their head.

On a map, it’s about how features are related to each other in space that matters. A mountain pass leads to a valley with a river that flows to the sea upon which sits City A, and between that and City B lies a desert. Same with dynastic or familial relationships, and the whys and where different characters appear in the timeline can be critical to your story.

5. Use imagery to your best advantage
We all know the saying “a picture is worth a thousand words.” The trick of images is that they present all their information simultaneously. You might want to linger over The Mona Lisa to take in her finer details and soak in the mood, but it’s all there as you lay eyes on her.

Now imagine the many words it would take to describe The Mona Lisa’s enigmatic smile to give detail equivalent to seeing her in person. It’s likely not possible, no matter how meticulously you picked your words, how artfully you ordered them, or how many you allowed yourself.

So, flip this and use the power of visual imagery to your advantage. Humans have a huge range of cultural images. Save 1,000 words every time you use an apt image. Think of a man who builds his wife somewhere to live. If you say, “he built her a Taj Mahal,” you have an image that cost only two words and you’ll know loads about their lifestyle and tastes: opulent and privileged and over the top. It’s 1,000 words of worth for only two – using an image. “She smiled as enigmatically as the Mona Lisa.”
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Purposefully pack your writing with attention-grabbing visuals and your writing will be memorable. There won’t be any incomplete ideas or passages full of filler. It will be more fully realized and accessible to the reader.
 
To Your Success,
MG

For business leaders, writers, and everyone in between, allowing yourself to be human, and vulnerable, goes a long way toward establishing trust. That doesn’t make it easy.You’ve been a business professional for quite a while now and have learned a lot in your time as a leader in various organizations. Your years of experience and education and your expertise and innovative ideas are what other impassioned leaders need to attain the success you’ve achieved. But do the people you serve know who you really are? They know you are a leader, but do they realize you’re human and no different from them when the veil is pulled back? Have you ever considered that the only way to establish a genuine connection with others is to be vulnerable?

Wearing my nonfiction book coach hat, I speak from experience. It wasn’t until I got real about my true self and who I really am that I began to attract a sustained influx of clients. Because I chose to be vulnerable, it encourages my clients to do the same and it’s one reason they want to work with me. It isn’t easy, but I propose it could be necessary to the success of your business — and your book.
 
As Brené Brown teaches in her TEDx talk, “The Power Of Vulnerability,” the gateway to intimacy is via being vulnerable about your imperfections. If you try to sugar coat your story, you miss out on the sense of connection with another human being that you can only attain when you’re letting someone see your warts and your big ugly tail. Every time you expose those imperfections — even because of those imperfections — you gain trust (or as Brown calls it, you “put marbles in the jar”). Over time, the intimacy you feel with other people depends on how many marbles are in your jar.
 
What business leader doesn’t want to establish trust amongst her staff and the customers her business serves? When trust is established with your subordinates and counterparts, success in all of your departments is guaranteed. People want to work with and for someone they trust and can relate to. The beauty of vulnerability is its ability to establish a connection with people from all different walks of life. People can connect with someone who knows how to get real.

David K. Williams, author of The 7 Non-Negotiables of Winning: Tying Soft Traits to Hard Results, describes vulnerability in business in this Forbes magazine article: “Vulnerability is a natural condition of the work that we do — it isn’t a choice but a consequence. To declare oneself ‘not vulnerable’ would be inauthentic and would leave a leader living in a perpetual state of denial and stress. So it’s better and more courageous for every leader to acknowledge the fact that vulnerability is there.”
As a business leader, you don’t need added stress to your life. Let go of your pride and expose your vulnerability.

Showcase your vulnerability through writing
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You know deep down that you are a true leader. Writing a book not only helps to establish yourself as an expert, but it’s another way to expose your vulnerable side. Business leaders write books for a number of reasons:

• They have something to share that will benefit others.
• They want to leave a legacy that will impact the future.
• They see others struggle and have learned how to overcome obstacles.
• They want to showcase their businesses and their paths to success.
• They want to expose themselves as “real people” to their audiences.

 
In business and in life, trust is a must.
 
To Your Success,
MG

Writing enough text to fill a book is one thing but weaving it all together into a story with a strong arc, purpose, and impact is another. Here are some lessons that might help you in your writing process — whether your own book is an “accident” or not.


​Writing that much prose is one thing, but weaving it all together into a story with a strong arc, purpose, and impact is another entirely. Here are some lessons I’ve learned along the way that might help you in your writing process — whether your own writing is an “accident” or not.

Consolidate
First, copy and paste everything into a single word processor document, in the best narrative order you can determine at the time. Having everything in one place will feel like an important milestone — your work will seem more like a cohesive book-in-progress and less like a collection of fragments, scenes, and vignettes.

Edit at will
As with the initial drafting of any book,  use what minutes you can find in between other activities to clarify the language, put pieces together, or review something you wrote months or even years ago. Sometimes that means searching for a particular scene or experience that’s been caught in your memory and reexamining how it fits into the overall story. Other times, it will mean scrolling randomly through the document and working on whatever paragraph catches your eye and the mouse falls on. Focus your time on what I can do right now to get yourself closer to the finish line, knowing you’ll get to it all completed real soon.

Label and shuffle
With tens of thousands of words and dozens of narrative episodes, keeping track of everything can be a challenge. To help, start labeling significant portions of your story with unsexy and utilitarian titles like, “Argument about green vs. black tea” and “Weird surveillance grocery store encounter.”
Will the chunks I’m currently defining end up as chapter partitions in the final novel? Probably not. But for now, functional titles help you know, quickly and efficiently, what the landscape of my work-in-progress looks like.

Having well-labeled portions of text also helps you put things in the best order for any narrative. Does a certain scene play better in the second third of the book? Does a character’s backstory suddenly become more resonant when presented after a traumatic incident involving an ex-lover? Cut-and-paste is a wonderful thing, and you use it to experiment with all sorts of structures and event orders.

Save versions-in-progress
After significant editing sessions, you  save a new version of my document with a title like “Draft_v2.0,” Draft _v2.1,” and so on. This way, you can always go back and see previous manifestations of my ideas, as well as what I originally wrote on my phone. Having copious backups makes you more comfortable experimenting — you always know you can revert to a previous version if a creative risk you take doesn’t work in the end.

Fill in the gaps
If you discover that additional text is needed to make the story flow (and this will happen quite often), it’s always fun to return to writing mode. Either on the spot with your laptop or on your phone the next time you have a free minute, add the words, sentences, or paragraphs the story needs to smoothly flow and then go right back to editing mode.

Be patient and stay focused
It can be overwhelming to look at a 60,000-plus-word document, completely unedited, and realize it’s up to you alone to get it all in order. Try to stay micro-focused as you work, polishing only whatever sections are in front of your eyes at the moment and losing yourself in the task at hand. Just as the crafting of the original text happened gradually and organically, so too will the acts of compiling, editing, and revising.

Keep the big picture in mind​
At this point, YOU know where your characters begin, the struggles and triumphs they go through, and where they will end up physically, circumstantially, and emotionally when the story concludes. You’ll want to keep this whole arc in mind as you’re editing, compiling, and reordering. In subtle and not-so-subtle ways, the big picture influences everything from word choice to plot adjustments and acts like glue, helping to stick the entire story together as a cohesive narrative.
 
To Your Success,
MG

What does 2018 have in store for authors? Last year we predicted which publishing trends would impact indie authors and how. Many of them materialized and some of them will hold true into 2018. Here is the list of the top 10 trends in publishing that will impact indie authors the most, with specific guidance on how you can best navigate them.

1) Indie authors will continue to grow ebook share

Traditional publishers will continue to price their ebooks above market and will focus on print and audio sales in 2018. They will also continue to focus on their go-to franchises and signing authors who have a built-in audience (celebrities, politicians, successful indies). Indies will continue to fill the void by publishing high-quality, affordable ebooks and writing to niche audiences (something blockbusters cannot do as they require mass appeal). Bestselling romance author, Rachel Van Dyken says, “2018 is bound to be a year for books and a year for readers! Trends come and go but one thing I see coming back in a huge way is sci-fi and fantasy romance. Contemporary will always do well but I think readers are starting to get overwhelmed with the same old rom com with the similar fonts, colors, and titles. I say bring on the other genres—a great palette cleanser for 2018.” As authors like Rachel continue to stay ahead of the curve by innovating on content and design, and become ever more sophisticated at book publishing, readers will continue to shift ebook market share to indies.

What this means for you: Indies have an edge over traditional publishers with both content and pricing. Indies can leverage this by experimenting with pricing and running short-term free  promotions on their titles. As an indie author you can serve readers who are thought of as “too niche” for publishers. Figure out who your audience is and how best to serve them with your writing. Be true to who you are as a writer and don’t try emulate the bestsellers that trads are putting out.

2) Marketing will become more expensive

As we predicted, 2017 saw increased costs on Facebook as more brands and authors used the platform to market their products. We anticipate this trend will continue into 2018 to the point where Facebook ads will no longer make sense for authors with single titles. Returns may still be there for authors with series or multiple titles, but the ROI will be thinner. Unfortunately this trend will not be limited to Facebook ads. Amazon Ads (AMS) will continue to gain in popularity, driving competition and increases in costs on the platform. Authors’ primary marketing challenges in 2018 will be trying to find marketing tools that are time and cost efficient. “Anyone who thinks we are heading into a period of calm after the choppy waters of 2017 is going to be disappointed,” says author and blogger David Gaughran. “Current trends will continue, ramping up all throughout 2018. This means more involved marketing campaigns will be needed to make a dent in the charts: considerable multi-pronged efforts with PPC ads, reader sites, newsletter swaps, and social media push. I don’t think Facebook is going out of fashion at all, I think the game is changing there considerably and authors will either adapt a new approach, or start to see very poor returns.” The upshot of this is that authors will have to spend significantly more time on marketing to maintain the results they saw in 2017.  “As indie publishing becomes more competitive and requires more and more business and marketing skills, I expect to see all successful indies outsource a major part of their marketing efforts — including the planning — to professional freelancers or agencies. Those who don’t will almost certainly experience burnout”, says Ricardo Fayet, CMO at Reedsy

What this means for you: Authors with large catalogs are going to have an edge over authors with single or smaller catalogs as they are able to spread their marketing costs over multiple titles and will get better ROI from read-through. If you are running a successful author business, 2018 may be the year to hire a marketing assistant. If you’re early in your indie author career, focus on becoming more prolific in your writing or adding additional titles to your existing series so you can compete in the marketplace.

3) Email marketing will be tested

Email marketing has always been the most cost-effective marketing tool available to authors. The reach and response you get from email compared to the cost of sending an email is still unbeatable. 2017 saw indie authors turning to email marketing and aggressively building their lists. 2017 was the year of group giveaways and email list swapping. Indies were delighted at the performance of email and used it more aggressively. The side effect has been reader fatigue – lower open rates and lower performance. This trend will continue into 2018 as indies are stuck between rising costs on platforms like Facebook and the growing unsubscribe rates on email. Director of Marketing at Draft2Digital, Kevin Tumlinson says, “To combat newsletter fatigue, authors are starting to become far more personal with their readers, simplifying newsletters to plain text, removing graphics, and refining their copy to something softer than a marketing pitch. The author’s personal empowerment will start, in part, with a more personalized email newsletter.”

What this means for you: Despite some decline in email performance, your email list is still your most valuable asset and you should treat it as such. Authors who respect reader preferences and send compelling content will continue to reap the rewards of email marketing. Experimentation will be the name of the game in 2018 as authors retool and re-think their email marketing strategies.

4) Everyone will talk about going “Direct to Reader”

Due to the increase in costs mentioned above, 2018 will be the year that everyone talks about “connecting directly with the reader”.  This will be true for traditional publishers and indies alike.  “As we move into 2018, there is a lot of interest from authors wanting to build their own store and their own platform. We think more authors will start dipping their toes into direct sales and owning the relationship with their readers, and we see a lot of them using exclusive content and bargains for their true fans. That will only grow as we move into the new year. Our data shows that readers are willing to pay for exclusive content and great bargains. It’s not all about free anymore.” says Damon Courtney, CEO of Bookfunnel. Bestselling author and creator of The Self Publishing Formula, Mark Dawson says, “One development that I am very excited about is the ability to use Facebook’s Messenger platform to reach readers in a way that cuts through the noise of email. I’ve been experimenting with both a chatbot on my author page to build a subscriber base on Messenger that then allows me to send broadcasts with delivery, open and click rates two or three times higher than can be achieved with email.” While writing might always have been seen as a solitary activity, storytelling itself has always been about a collaboration between the story-teller and the listener; or, to put it another way, the writer and the reader. We are continuing to see more opportunities for writers to connect directly with readers, particularly through digital publishing, as well as authors collaborating in ways that transcend simple co-authoring or multi-author promo bundles,” says Mark Leslie Lefebvre, former Director of Self-Publishing & Author Relations for Rakuten Kobo, Inc.  Going  direct to reader will mean different things to different authors and includes everything from chatbots to email marketing to launching a store to having in-person events with readers.

What this means for you: It will be easy to get distracted by all the Direct to Reader chatter in 2018. Many indie authors are already connecting directly with readers due to the nature of being an indie author. Focus on the activities that you know work to communicate and engage with your readers. Pick one new Direct to Reader idea to experiment with in 2018. Learn from the community by staying informed on what other authors are trying and what’s working.
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5) The Audiobook market will grow and be shaken up

Audiobooks were the fastest growing segment in the publishing industry last year. For traditional publishers audiobook sales mitigated declines in ebook sales, and trad publishers are bullish on audiobooks going into 2018. Audible (owned by Amazon) still has the lion’s share of the audiobook marketing but others are trying to make inroads. 2018 may well be the year when we see new and existing players disrupt the established order. Audiobooks.com was acquired by a media group in 2017, Apple’s exclusivity agreement with Audible ended last year and more players are getting into the mix with Kobo launching their own audiobook subscription service in late 2017. Findaway voices launched in July 2017 giving indie authors an alternative to ACX and an efficient way to distribute their audiobooks to multiple retailers. All this combines to give indie authors more control and more opportunity over their audiobook catalog. Kelly Lytle of Findaway Voices says, “Digital audiobooks will remain the fastest growth area in publishing with sales increasing 30% to 40% or more. The dynamics—ease of access for consumers, lifestyle habits, increased market competition, new selling models—have all synced up to create significant staying power. It should surprise nobody when the market size of audiobooks surpasses eBooks in a few years. In 2018, we expect to see independent authors empowered to capitalize on this explosive growth. Indies will take advantage of wide distribution (domestic, international, and public library), realize the advantages at key retailers of setting prices to meet consumer demand, and benefit from more discovery tools created to connect authors with their audiences outside traditional audiobook credit models.”

What this means for you: Producing an audiobook runs into the thousands of dollars or requires giving up significant royalties and is still a significant investment for authors. New authors who find the price tag too steep are best off focusing on building their catalog of ebooks first. Authors who are looking to invest in their publishing business should definitely have audiobook expansion on their list for 2018. All authors should keep an eye on the market and look to support audiobook retailers and production companies that are author friendly.

Publishing Trends Summary

There you have it, the 2018 publishing trends we predict will shape publishing in the coming year. We recommend reading each point but if you’ve skimmed down to the end for the summary it reads like this: Indie authors will continue to steal ebook share away from traditional publishers as readers continue to purchase books that are competitively priced and that cater to their specific genre tastes. Audiobooks will continue to be a bright spot for the publishing industry at large. Amazon will continue to be the thousand pound gorilla with more authors flocking to Kindle Unlimited despite other retailers trying to compete. Amazon will not be without its challenges as it continues to battle scammers and faces backlash from affiliates as Amazon diminishes its payouts. Marketing will be the primary challenge for everyone in 2018 as costs on platforms like Facebook and Amazon Ads continue to climb. Indies with large backlists who focus on multi-pronged marketing campaigns will be the winners. Indies will experiment with new ways to connect directly with readers though success in these areas will likely take multiple iterations and time.
 

WHY DOESN’T MY BOOK SELL?
Imagine this: Your book is done, you’ve had your launch party, and it’s up on Amazon.

But no one buys your book.
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Don’t believe that would happen to you? Think again.

I’ve seen this story over and over again from disappointed writers. They’ve done their research, we’ve published the book, and followed all the steps. Their books are available for purchase — but when their sales are in the double or even single digits, that doesn’t feel like success.

If no one buys your book, it’s likely not because your book isn’t good (I’ve seen plenty of bad books that sold thousands of copies). It’s because you’re missing the most important things you need to publish your book successfully.

What does it take to publish successfully? I’ve found you need five things:

1. A piece of great writing. You want to publish something worth reading, a book readers won’t want to put down.
   
   
2. An audience of readers. Actually, publishers don’t find these for you. No matter how or when you publish, you will need to find the readers who will love your book.
   
   
3. A cartel to support you. A cartel is an agreement among competitors. Instead of fighting with other writers over an audience, create a cartel of writers to reach an even larger audience. Don’t hate, Collaborate.
   
   
4. Feedback. Writers don’t write in a vacuum. You need feedback to help you make your writing the best it can be, and your cartel is the perfect team to help you prepare your writing for publication.
   
   
5. A launch plan. Successful launches don’t just happen. You need a plan, a strategy to leverage your audience and your cartel to send your book out into the world (and sell a lot of copies!).
   
   

Here’s the painful truth: every time you publish without these five things, you actually get further from your goal of publishing success.

But when you write a book you believe in, get feedback to make it the best it can be, gather your cartel and your audience of readers, and plan a brilliant launch, you can release your book into the world with confidence.

Why? Because you’ll actually sell books — and best of all, readers will read them.

To Your Success,

MG
​
Excerpts from Joe Bunting, The Writer’s Practice, August 2017

ELEVATOR PITCH: DO YOU HAVE ONE?

What Makes a Great Elevator Pitch? Do you even have one? Should you? YES! YES! YES!

Every elevator pitch is different, but they should matter to your reader! So they should have emotional appeal (don’t rule out “scary”). They should be helpful and insightful. And most of all, they should be timely. 

Everyone Loves a Good Story
 Stories are a good way to build rapport with your audience. Let’s take a minute to explore how this is true. If you are into any reality tv shows – from America’s Got Talent to American Ninja Warrior and beyond – you’ve seen this in action. They tell an emotional backstory about a competitor that makes you root for – and remember them – because now you’ve got emotional skin in the game. And this person is memorable. If you’re an author, you’ve already told a story in your book. Now it’s time to make the story compelling. I recently spoke at the Kept Woman of God Conference and many were surprised by the humor. A friend shared with me that her friend said to her, “I knew Michelle, but I had no idea that she was that funny.” It’s part of the pitch. It’s part of my story. Of course, many of my friends know I have a tendency to lace our conversations with something funny but everyone who’s ever met me wouldn’t know that. What do you want people who don’t know you to know about you? That’s your elevator pitch should answer.
​
Essential Elements of a Powerful Elevator Pitch

We just talked about what makes an elevator pitch great – and now are the elements you need to make it powerful:

1. Concise: Make it short, sweet, and to the point.

2. Clear: Use simple, compelling language everyone can understand without thinking too long. 

3. Passion: If you’re not passionate about your topic, how can you expect anyone else to be?

4. Visual: Use words that paint a picture in your reader’s mind.

5. Stories: Don’t forget to tell the story. 

6. What’s the worst that could happen? What will people miss out on by not buying your product, reading your book, or using your service?

Now, here’s how to Craft Your Killer Elevator Pitch

 • Write it down: Start by writing the story of your service, book, or product in two paragraphs or less. This will get the juices flowing. If you’re an author, this will be excruciating. Because I’m asking you to take your 100,000-word book and whittle it down to two paragraphs. But I promise you it’s worth it to get to the key elements of your book.

 • Make a list: Write down 10 to 20 things that your product, service or book does for the reader. These can be action statements, benefits, or book objectives.

 • Record yourself: Next, read it out loud and record yourself to see out it sounds. It’s pretty much a sure thing that you won’t like your first few attempts. And that’s ok. Only rarely will the first thing you write be effective. 

 • Rest: In other words, don’t rush this. Let it rest at least overnight. Your elevator pitch is the most important thing that you will be creating in your marketing package. So ensure that it’s just right.
 Finally, remember that you should try to be different from everyone else to get attention. And try to shock your consumer. Unusual facts are quite effective. I did that in the beginning of this piece when I said that goldfish are eclipsing us in terms of attention span. This works well for authors who write fiction. 

 And don’t worry about what other people think. To be memorable you’ve got to take chances. We admire the risk takers, because we wish we could do the same thing. And a good pitch gives you a way to take the chance and be different. Because if you – and your message – don’t stand out, you won’t get noticed in our 8-second world.

No matter what anyone will ever tell you, always be ready to tell your story!

To Your Success,
MG

​Want to write a great book? Use these 10 questions to get ideas for any kind of story, whether a spy thriller, a romance novel, or a memoir of your personal life. Let’s see where your story leads you!
 
1. DOES YOUR STORY TAKE PLACE IN TWO DIFFERENT WORLDS? Of the nine bestselling novels of all time, all nine are set in two different worlds. Think Harry Potter’s Muggle vs. Wizarding world. Or A Tale of Two Cities’ stable London and revolutionary Paris.
 
2. DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE SCARS? We all have scars. To be a writer, Stephen King says, “the only requirement is the ability to remember every scar.” Tap into your own scars to unlock the scars in your characters.
 
3. DOES YOUR STORY INVOLVE DEATH? Good writers don’t turn away from death, which is, after all, the universal human experience. Instead, they look it directly into its dark face and describe what they see on the page.
 
4. IS YOUR MAIN CHARACTER AN ORPHAN? Think for a moment about all great stories about orphans in literature and film. Orphans are uniquely vulnerable and thus have the most potential for growth.
 
5. ARE THERE GHOSTS? What do Edgar Allen Poe, Ron Weasley, King Saul from the Bible, Odysseus, and
Ebeneezer Scrooge have in common? They all saw ghosts! Everyone wonders about the afterlife. Have fun with it!
 
6. WHAT IS YOUR CHARACTER AFRAID OF? Your character’s biggest fear is your story’s secret weapon.
Don’t run from it, write about it.
 
7. DOES YOUR CHARACTER COME INTO AN UNEXPECTED FORTUNE? Not all fortunes are good. Sometimes discovering a fortune will destroy you.
 
8. DOES YOUR CHARACTER BUMP INTO HIS OR HER SOULMATE? Literally, bump into. In film, this is called the “meet cute,” when the hero bumps into the heroine in the hallway, knocking her books to the floor, and forcing them into conversation.
 
9. IS YOUR CHARACTER ON A JOURNEY? Is that journey interrupted by disaster? Who hasn’t been longing to get to a destination only to be delayed by something unexpected? This is the plot of Gravity, The Odyssey, and even Lord of the Rings.
 
10. DOES YOUR CHARACTER RUN INTO THE PATH OF A MONSTER? Monsters, whether people who do monstrous things or scaly beasts or natural disasters, always reveal what’s inside a person. Let your character fall into the path of a monster and see how they handle themselves.
 
You probably haven’t considered all of these questions when thinking about your story, but it’s a great way to even get your juices flowing. So, let your imagination takeover.
 
To Your Success,
MG

As indie authors, we all want to sell more books. And I’ve learned over the years that this is the biggest struggle of all authors. How do I sell more? So, I decided to spend even a little more time sharing some more great ways to get noticed and get more sales.

6. Do more videos: Let’s face it, video is big and only going to get bigger in the New Year. If you don’t have a YouTube channel, you may want to grab one and repurpose any of your social media videos and put them on YouTube! 

 7. Develop Superfans: Make your fans feel special. Maybe you want to create a VIP reader group on Facebook where you give them early access to books, gift card promos, contests, and exclusive content. 

 8. Start an email list! It’s a great way to stay in front of fans and on their radar. Consider including a letter in the back of your book that invites your readers to join. Or, offer a free copy of your book for your email subscribers and run ads on Goodreads, Twitter, and Facebook!  

 9. Network with other authors: Join online groups, go to writer events, or join local author groups. Networking with other, similar authors is not just good business, but it can help you brainstorm new ideas, and most likely expand your knowledge!

 10. Host an event at your library: While bookstore events can be great, libraries are often big, missed opportunities to connect with serious readers.

So take some time to review these ideas and factor them into your marketing plan.  If you haven’t built one yet, it’s time to get started! With a roadmap in place, you’ll stay focused and on task with your book marketing efforts… and maybe just maybe you’ll have the next bestseller! 


Republished with permission Penny C. Sansevieri, Founder and CEO Author Marketing Experts, Inc.
https://www.selfpublishedauthor.com/node/476

As indie authors, we all want to sell more books. And so, I want to share with you several ways that you can make the most of your book promotion efforts. As I’m sure you’ve learned a successful book marketing plan is made up of a range of actions that build on one another, and it’s wise to vary your efforts to get the most bang for your investment – whether its time or money, or a combination thereof. So with this in mind, here are some of the top ways that you can sell more books this year.  

 1. Be consistent: Whatever you do, do it consistently. So often indie authors try to do more than their time and bandwidth allow.  Fix this by picking the things you know you can do consistently and forgetting the rest. Trust me, you will make greater strides if you remain consistent in your efforts. 

 2. Price your book to sell:  How does your book stack up to its competitors? Your book should be priced competitively to sell well. 

 3. Do an eBook promotion: You really can’t do too many of these – and you don’t need to give away your books for free all the time. Even discounting your book by $1 can generate a big surge in sales.  

 4. Refresh, repackage, or reboot your older books: As your older books continue to age, consider refreshing your bookshelf by re-releasing older books, or even breaking older books into smaller ones and creating a new bundle. 

 5. Get creative: Now more than ever, we need to get creative with our book marketing efforts, whether we’re pitching to bloggers and media or working on our social media. Consider using any and all book tie ins, no matter how off the wall.  One example that I’ve used before is how I used a presidential election to make a romance novel into a bestseller. 

Take some time and consider these options and know there are many others. But you have to start somewhere. We exhaust our family and closest friends when we release the book. So, we have to capture the eyes and attention of others to help us share our message to a greater audience. Deciding what you want to do and giving it a try is a good way to get started on your roadmap. With a roadmap in place, you’ll stay focused and on task with your book marketing efforts… and maybe just maybe you’ll have the next bestseller! 

 
Republished with permission Penny C. Sansevieri, Founder and CEO Author Marketing Experts, Inc.
https://www.selfpublishedauthor.com/node/476
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Reality check: Do you have what it takes to make your blog a book? Publishing a book takes effort, so before you start, ask yourself.
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Congratulations! Your blog’s been doing well for a while now: you’ve built a fan base, carved out a niche, and looking back on your articles, you’ve produced tens of thousands of words. So why not publish a book?

You’ve already got credentials as a seasoned blogger, and putting your work together in a book will bolster your reputation. Your readers enjoy what you write, and they’ll be pleased to have it bound together as a book.

But publishing a book will take more effort than maintaining a blog, so before you start, do a reality check: Do you have what it takes to make your blog a book?

Take inventory. Let’s say you blog about “The World of the Fennec Fox.” You’ve been telling your fascinated readers all about this little nocturnal bugger with the unusually big ears running around the Sahara of North Africa. The fennec fox community knows and loves you.

While not every book with good content succeeds, several factors can work to your advantage.

• Readership. You’ve started building readership with your blog. It’s a lot tougher if you aren’t starting from a strong reader base.
• Recognition. People recognize you as an expert on the fennec fox, so they’ll be more likely to buy your book.
• Community. Are you well-known and active in the larger fennec fox community? Do they recognize you as someone who always offers value? If so, you’ll get more than readership: you’ll get active support.
• Comments. If you have an active comments section, you’ve got the beginnings of an audience.

Of course, there will always be competition. A book has the best chance in the market when it offers unique value. It needs to say something that others aren’t saying in a way that makes it stand out.

The economics of self-publishing
Self-publishing is an entrepreneurial activity. Keep that in mind at all times. Create a simple spreadsheet or ledger, keep good financial records, and record all your income and expenses.

There are degrees of “do it yourself.” If you do it all, you have to set up an e-commerce site that makes downloads available and collects payment for them. This can be the same site as your blog, if you have appropriate software and a payment processing service.

Should you consider crowdfunding?
You might want to consider crowdfunding your book. A crowdfunding campaign gives you advance publicity and helps create (and gauge) the level of interest in your project. Of course, if you run a successful campaign, you’ll also have money to produce and market your book in advance of publishing.
Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and GoFundMe are three of the more popular crowdfunding platforms, and each has its own approach. Kickstarter offers an all-or-nothing model, where you receive nothing and your supporters’ money is refunded if you don’t meet your specified goal. Indiegogo gives you the option of “flexible” or “fixed” funding – the flexible option lets you proceed whether you meet your target goal or not. GoFundMe doesn’t require you to set a target.

Running a successful crowdfunding campaign requires planning, effort, and an engaged community. Let your supporters know in advance what your target goal is, when the campaign will start, and how long it will run. You need the support of your core following to contribute money and spread the word.

Setting the right premiums are a big part of a successful campaign. All contributors over a minimum threshold should get an eBook, while higher-level supporters might get acknowledgment in the book, a mention on your website, personalized thank-you cards, and signed copies of the book.

You can get as creative as you’d like with your rewards, but you have to remember that when you start a crowdfunding campaign, you’re accepting an obligation. If you meet your funding threshold, you have to come through – don’t launch a campaign unless you’re sure you can deliver the book and the premiums.

Editing
You can’t just create a book completely on your own and expect it to sell. However good you are at writing, you can’t be your own editor. At a minimum, you need a skilled proofreader, but you should seriously consider employing a good copy editor. A copy editor doesn’t just check for spelling and grammar mistakes, she makes sure your writing is the best it can be. A copy editor will catch repetitious passages, excessive use of the passive voice, and much more.

Copyright questions
Your blog might include quotations, images, lyrics, comments, and guest contributions – perhaps some borrowed from other blogs and places online. When you’re selling a book, potential copyright violations will get more scrutiny. You’ll have to be mindful of Fair Use and contributors’ rights.

People who let you post articles and other content on your blog haven’t necessarily given you permission to include them in a book. You need to ask them and get clearances. They may be thrilled to have their content included, but if they say no, you do not have the right to include their content in your book – even if it’s intended as a giveaway.

Cover design
Whether traditionally or self-published, you’ll be competing with a host of other books, so yours needs to look as attractive and professional as possible. Like it or not, people do judge a book by its cover, and yours will appear on your website, on online retail stores, and everywhere your book is promoted or sold.

Book marketing
As a self-publisher, you’ll also have to be a self-marketer. Harness the resources you already have: the place to start is your blog. If anyone will be interested in your book, it’s the people who already read your material.

Once the book is published, write a blog entry alerting your readers of the great news. Thank them for their support with a discount code. Put a conspicuous, permanent link to buy your book on the home page, along with an image of the cover.

If you have a mailing list and newsletter, promote your new book: give your newsletter readers a distinct discount code. As a general rule, spread discount codes around as much as you can, and tailor each for your different promotions so you can track sales and determine which avenues are working best.

Social media promotions will be a big part of your strategy. Again, use the cover image, and be persistent but NOT annoying. The key with social promotions is engagement. Make your posts read like part of a conversation, not an ad. Talk about what’s in the book and what it was like to create this work. Invite responses.

Time to publish

Turning a blog into a book is a lot of work, but you’ve got the content and a reader base, so you’re off to a good start. It takes planning and commitment: you need to figure out how you’re going to proceed before diving into the deep end. You also need to recognize that the work does not end when the book goes up for sale.

It’s a challenge, but you’ll have the reward of being a published author, and that alone should boost your recognition in your field.

To Your Success,
MG