My Once-A-Year Indulgence

Do you have something that you do once a year as a special experience?  I never used to have such an indulgence but it started a few years ago and carries on this year.

For me, it is reading a new book from Daniel Silva. The bestselling thriller writer produces one book a year which releases about this time each year. The former journalist at CNN has written 18 novels. I discovered his books several years ago and slowly read all of them through my public library.

From learning about his books, I became a follower of Daniel Silva’s work. I joined his newsletter list and began to notice his writing and hear his media interviews. While I was living in Arizona, I had the opportunity to meet Silva at the Poisoned Pen which is a well-known independent bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona.  It was not far from where I was living at the time.  In addition to hearing Silva speak about his work at the bookstore, I purchased a copy of his latest novel at that time, The Rembrandt Affair and he autographed it to me. I was converting from a follower into a fan.

Each year when his new novel releases, Silva travels on a national book tour.  The cities and the bookstores for this tour are not random. Each one records the book sales to the New York Times. Following each book tour, I have watched these new novels climb to the top of the bestseller lists.

I moved away from Arizona but Silva has offered his fans the ability to purchase an autographed copy of his novel during the release week at the same retail price. This service was arranged through Barnes & Noble.com.  For the last couple of years, I’ve ordered this autographed book several months in advance then watched for the release date and the shipping of my book. Yes I’m definitely a devoted fan.  Recently, Silva has expanded from Barnes & Noble and has a list of of places to get signed copies on his website through various independent bookstores.

The autographed book is not personalized to me but the autographed page is the first page of the book. I suspect Silva signs a certain number of these pages in advance from his publisher and in the production process the autographed page is bound into the book. Stickers on the hardcover jacket are added that the book is a “signed first edition.”

The English Spy released last Monday, June 29th and as usual, Silva began his national book tour on the Today Show.  His wife, Jamie Gangel, was a long-time Today Show correspondent (left last year) yet someone else on the show interviews him. This year it was Willie Geist.  My book shipped this past week and arrived on Thursday. I began reading it right away.  Most of the time I do this pleasure reading in the evening but Friday was a “holiday” so I took several hours and read during the day.  I finished my reading late last night.  As I mentioned in this article, I quickly wrote my review for Amazon and Goodreads.

To read a Daniel Silva book is a pure delight for me. His characters are engaging and his storytelling makes for a page-turning experience.  Yes it is a weighty novel, but the hours pass quickly as I’m glued to the pages. Almost as soon as I’ve finished the novel, I’m eager for the publisher to release his next one. The experience is my once-a-year indulgence.

Notice my gradual transformation from follower to fan. It did not happen overnight.  What are you doing with your own writing to convert people from followers to fans? Do you have an electronic newsletter and a regular way to communicate with your audience? Are you engaging with them on a regular basis to encourage them to move from followers to fans?

It is rare to become a bestselling novelist like Daniel Silva. Yet every writer can learn from his example and make daily strides with our writing to build a following and turn them into fans.  If you haven’t read it, I encourage you to get my free ebook, Platform-Building Ideas for Every Author.

Do you have a once-a-year indulgence like my reading of Daniel Silva’s novel? I look forward to hearing about it.

Does It Sound Like Writing?

I've been reading Jurgen Wolff's book, Your Writing Coach. It's broad look at various types of writing from fiction to nonfiction from books to screenplays to magazine writing. I've appreciated his vast writing experience and his solid bits of advice. Because Wolff comes from a film background, he has included online bonuses for each chapter. Of course, you have to go to his website and register (smart) plus type a key password from the book to access the bonus film clip (also wise because it forces people to purchase the book to have access). I've only looked at a few of the bonus clips but plan to look at more in the days ahead. This book is loaded with practical and tested advice from a practicing writer who has helped other writers.

As an example in his chapter called Watch Your Language, he includes a brief look at novelist Elmore Leonard's ten rules for showing and not telling. I found the expanded list online at Leonard's website. They are fascinating and helpful rules. After these rules, Leonard writes, "My most important rule is one that sums up the 10. If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. Or, if proper usage gets in the way, it may have to go. I can't allow what we learned in English composition to disrupt the sound and rhythm of the narrative. It's my attempt to remain invisible, not distract the reader from the story with obvious writing." I loved that line: if it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. It's good advice from my perspective.

A bit later in this chapter, Wolff writes about how to master dialogue saying, "The most useful skill for someone who wants to write good dialogue is eavesdropping. By listening carefully to how a variety of people speak, you absorb a lot of useful information. There is a fantastic website for any writer who wants to get a sense of the voices of real people: http://www.storycorps.net/. It features more than 10,000 recordings of people talking to each other about aspects of their lives." It’s another resource for you to use in improving your dialogue. It makes it easy to eavesdrop.

I recommend Your Writing Coach as a solid investment in the future of your writing life.

Gimmicks Can Work

The Weekend Edition of the Today Show was reviewing books to read at the beach and one of them caught my attention. It was a book called Poolside, or 14 stories from a number of well-known authors about their experiences around a swimming pool. The gimmick for this book is that it's waterproof. In fact, they had a little plastic pool and fished it out of the water on the show.

I have no idea how the short presentation affected other people but I went to my computer and ordered one. It worked to get me and purchase the book. It's definitely different and I'll be curious to see what it looks and feels like--then to read the book. The real test is not going to be the gimmick. It's going to be what is contained in the pages. If the writing and content is excellent, then I will probably be telling even more people about it.

With the proliferation of books, media and product in the marketplace, it is a challenge to get someone to purchase the book in the first place. The next step is to produce something so excellent the user becomes an evangelist for your product. You want to enable that person to actively spread the word about your book any chance they get the opportunity. It’s some of the principles of Greg Stielstra's excellent book, Pyromarketing. If you don't have it, get it and I recommend you read his introduction. I’ll be watching my mailbox for my copy of Poolside so I can check it out for myself.

One more thing: Numerous times in these entries, I've recommended snipurl.com. Their site has undergone a major overhaul. They say they are in beta mode but I applaud their improvements to the site. If you've never used it, register and log on to the site because then you can create your own private abbreviations for various links. It's a terrific resource that I use throughout my day.