Choose a Path and Persist

  

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

As writers, we have a lot of uncertainty when we choose our path to publication. As you make these choices, there are many different options and paths to succeed with your book. 

The three basic paths to publication are traditional, self-publishing, and hybrid/ independent publishing. If you are exploring these options I encourage you to get a free copy of The Babylon Blueprint for Authors by David Hancock. The book includes 40 pages of detailed comparison of these three paths. If you have chosen your path, here’s another reason to get this book. It includes detailed low cost or no cost strategies to market and sell your book. 

David is the founder of Morgan James Publishing, one of the top independent publishers and where I’ve worked for the last 13 years. In 21 years, we’ve published over 6,000 titles, sold over 20 million books and many bestsellers (which you can’t do unless you are selling in the brick and mortar bookstores--which we are). 

Beyond the publishing paths, after your book is in the marketplace you need to choose which path you will take to gain readers and tell others about your book. Every author has this responsibility--whether they take it or not. Their choices in this area will affect their sales and level of success. 

In December 2004, I started blogging about The Writing Life. Here’s the link to my first article about changing. Blogging was new and a number of people reached out to me and cautioned me not to be blogging. They said things like, “You are a busy acquisitions editor at a publisher. You don’t have time to blog.” I ignored these cautions and persisted to write these articles each week. My friends were right because creating these articles takes time and energy from other choices but I continued on the blogging path.  I chose to blog once a week. Others gather a team of people and blog every day. Other blog once a month. The frequency is an important choice but equally important is consistent execution. 

Through the years, I’ve blogged over 1,800 times. My blogs are different from those early posts. I added royalty-free images to each blog. I also included links to other resources and a call to action at the end of each article encouraging comments. I added the ability for readers to subscribe to my blog and get them on their email (follow this link if you aren’t a subscriber). Also for each one, I’ve added a ClickToTweet so the reader can easily tell others about my articlers. 

Several factors go into this process. First, I’ve continued to learn more about blogging. I’ve got a free teleseminar where you can learn more about blogging with a free ebook. Also I created a low-cost resource where you can learn how to make your blog into an income stream called Blogging for Bucks. Notice the 30 day love it or return it guarantee. 

When you choose a path, you need to be consistent and keep on that path to find your audience and persist. Too many people jump from path to path then they wonder why they never got anywhere.

I have signed up for a free tool which searches for my name online in articles and other places. This article explains there are over 600 million blogs and pinpointed the top 27 content producers. My blog on The Writing Life was one of those 27. It’s not that I’m doing anything other than staying on the path (consistency) and writing articles for my readers. 

Questions for You

It’s wise to evaluate your path and know which one you are choosing. Then see if you are being consistent. Are you continuing to learn and improve your actions? Is there a course or tool you need to add to the process? I encourage you to keep going. Your persistence may not be evident at first but will pay off in the long run.

While the bulk of this article is focused on my blogging, these questions are the same for a variety of aspects of the publishing world like social media. You can’t be everywhere. Are you selecting a path and then being consistent? Or pitching podcasts then telling others? Are you writing book reviews and joining launch teams, then telling other people about your review on social media? Are you exploring and adding other possibilities to your actions and reach on a consistent basis? The possible choices are endless. It’s why my friend John Kremer wrote 1001 Ways to Market Your Books. For every choice, without your persistent and consistent action, something terrible happens: nothing.

What am I missing or other suggestions do you have? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

Authors have many possible paths. This prolific author and editor writes about blogging and other choices in your journey.  Get the details here. #writinglife #pubtip  (ClickToTweet)

Throughout my many years in publishing, I’ve co-authored over a dozen books and reviewed thousands of submissions (no exaggeration). As a part of the process of working with these authors, I speak with them about their dreams and plans. Many of these authors have  unrealistic expectations about what will happen with their published book. Many aspects of the details of publishing are outside of anything an author can control. I wrote 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS to give authors practical help. You can get decades of insights in 10 PUBLISHING MYTHS for only $10, free shipping and over $200 of bonuses. 

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Since 2004, I have blogged about The Writing Life over 1,700 entries and one of the top 27 content writers. With this simple form, each week you can get my new articles, encouragement and insights at: https://t.co/W6uU64u6aA

Distribute Selected Targeted Content

One of the blogs I read consistently is from the Steve Laube Agency. I've known the various writers for years and they write solid valuable content. If you haven't subscribed to their email version of their articles, I recommend it. Recently literary agent Dan Balow wrote about Eternal Words. It's a concept that I keep in mind with every social media post and blog article—my words are around online forever. If you feel a rant coming on or want to post something strange—think twice before you send it out to the world.
I've written over 1400 articles for The Writing Life and I've posted thousands of tweets and other social media posts. With each one I've thought about the eternal nature of our words. A few weeks ago I wrote about developing writing routines.

One of my routines is to use Hootsuite to schedule my social media posts. I post numerous times throughout a day (12–15 times) yet each post is crafted and includes an image along with often a link to additional insights. As I write each one I'm asking:

1) Is this information right for my target audience?

2) Is the article that I'm highlighting timeless? For example, this time of year, a number of articles are about Halloween but I'm scheduling the posts in the future. It is not appropriate to post an article about Halloween in December.

If you study my tweets, it doesn't take much to see they are in patterns. I begin each day with an inspirational quotation. Then I follow with a couple of posts which include my writing (either on my blog or a free ebook or teleseminar). The bulk of my posts are targeted content for people interested in publishing or writing with links to additional articles and insights. Finally I end my social media posts with another article or free ebook or teleseminar or product. The next day, I begin the process again.

My encouragement is that you create your own pattern for your posts. This routine will help you be consistent and yet not have to invent something new each time. I am constantly reading blogs and articles about publishing and writing. When I find something that fits my audience, I will often schedule it right away. My social media feed can be a remarkable education for the reader about the world of publishing. Your audience and your material will be different. My intention with this article is to give you some ideas and help your planning and social media posts.

How are you distributing targeted content for your audience? Let me know in the comments below.

Tweetable:

Are you posting targeted content for your readers? Get some ideas here. (ClickToTweet)

 

The Importance of Sending Good Content

Are you learning from others online? Excellent. Are you passing along this content to others? For me, this process of sending good content to others is an important part of the writing life. In this article, I want to give you some ideas how you can pass along what you are learning or reading to others.

I have been on twitter since 2009 and tweeted thousands of times. If you look at my twitter feed, you will notice the majority of my posts are pointing to articles from others. I follow a series of blogs from experienced writers and receive these blogs in my email box. If you have a blog, it is important to add this feature to your blog so others can read your content on their email. Over and over email has been proven as one the most effective ways to reach others.

If you want to send out good content to others, you need to develop a method or system for taking consistent action. The regular action is important to establish your reputation in the market as someone who helps others—not just once but over and over.

For example, I use Hootsuite to schedule my social media posts then I tweet about 12 to 15 times a day but these posts are spaced throughout the day and each one is different (with different words and a different image). Each day I have developed a pattern with my posts. This pattern is something I've created with different spots on my posts for different types of content and from different people. For example, I post content from a writer about once a day and not multiple times. I begin each day of social media posts with an inspirational quotation and image. The fact that I have a pattern makes my repeat actions easier. I don't have to create something and instead I am simply filling in the designated positions.

Your social media posts will be different than mine and in a different pattern. My key point is encouraging you to develop a system that works for you and your writing life. After you have such a system, your actions will be routine. Each week I take about 30 minutes to finalize my social media posts. I say “finalize” because the grid or slots for my different posts is not finished until I finalize—but I have much of that grid filled in because I take a few minutes each day looking for great content and adding it to my posting plans in Hootsuite.

Reading about my actions are a good first step but here's some action steps for you to take:

1. Decide to send good content to your audience on a regular basis

2. Create a system (possibly using Hootsuite) to make your actions regular and consistent.

How are you sending out good content to your audience? Let me know in the comments below. I look forward to learning from you.

Tweetable:

Are you sending out good content to your audience? Get the insights from a prolific author and editor. (ClickToTweet)

Why I Tweet (Almost) Every Hour and You Should Too

I’ve been on twitter since July 2008. People who follow me are often surprised that I’ve tweeted over 26,000 times. It’s because I post something almost every hour throughout the normal business hours—even on the weekends. Why do I tweet so much? Because people want to follow others who have great content—and post frequently. It is growing my followers at the rate of about 100 new people a day.

I hope you are following me on twitter. If you are, you know that I don't write about my daily activities such as going out to eat or talking with authors on the phone (which is boring and no one cares to read about on twitter). The first step in knowing what to tweet about is to focus on your audience and your message. For me, I tweet about publishing and writing. When you focus your tweets, the audience will know what to expect when they read your information.

The second step is to focus on giving your followers great content and insights. Throughout my day, I read various blogs and articles about publishing and writing (my focus). If I see an interesting or valuable article, then I will quickly add it to my forthcoming posts on twitter. Also I mix my own blog posts and free teleseminars and other content that I've generated into my regular posts. The process takes only a few seconds. Here are the details:

1. I cut and paste the headline or something short about the content into Hootsuite. I use this free tool, Hootsuite all the time to schedule and post my tweets to twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.  If you aren't using it, I suggest you sign up, then open it into a window in your browser so you can quickly use it throughout the day. I schedule my tweets for almost every hour during the regular business hours. If your tweets are too frequent it can be annoying to people but if you are sending good content, then that is OK. Some people tweet a few times a day yet because of the content, I tweet more frequently.

2. I will make sure the author of the content is highlighted. If the author is on twitter, then I use their twitter name which begins with @NAME. Why? Because these posts will show up in that person's twitter feed and be called to the author's attention. I've had well-known people respond to my tweets because of using this method in my tweets.

3. I use bitly to shorten the link in my tweet. If you aren't using this free tool, I recommend you sign in and begin using it. All of the links you shorten are organized and kept in one place (provided you are signed in). 

4. To get more attention and readers, tweets with a photo are more visible. If I'm getting content from someone else and their article or post has a photo, then I right click on that photo and save it on my desktop. Hootsuite has a feature which allows you to add a photo to your tweet. Be aware the photo addition will take some of your 140 characters and you might have to eliminate some words for it to work properly. If the content you are tweeting does not have a photo, then how can you add one? If it is a quotation from someone, I will go to Google and search for an image, then save it on my desktop for quick use and adding it. Or you can use your phone to take a photo Finally some times I use Snagit to create a photo from something that is on my screen. Make sure your photo isn't too large (440 x 220 is the maximum) or it will not fully show in your tweet.

At first reading, these steps may seem daunting and like they consume a lot of time. They do not.  In fact, the more you use these steps, the quicker you will be able to do it. It will allow you to use the material coming across your screen and fill out your tweet schedule.  I'm often several days ahead of the current day. If I'm going to be traveling or away from my computer, I have an entire week or several days full of tweets. Even when not at my computer, I'm able to consistently provide valuable content and insights to my followers (and on several social media platforms). It looks like I'm constantly doing it—but I'm not because of using this system.

Everyone has limited time and resources but I've been using this simple method to constantly reach and grow my twitter audience. I encourage you to do the same and begin to reach the millions of people using twitter every day.

 

Become a Prolific Writer

How do you step up your productivity as a writer and become prolific?

It's a question that many consider but few know the answer. I'd love to help you become a prolific writer with my insights and answers to this question and many others on March 8^th.

I'm holding a FREE 70–minute teleseminar answering your questions about to repurpose your content.

For many years, I've been creating only original content—new articles, new blog posts, new books and any other type of new writing. As a journalist, it's how I've been trained to crank out new words.

In recent years, I've learned that I was missing out on more exposure and income from not taking steps to repurpose my writing. When I use repurpose, I'm taking about reusing my writing from one type of writing into another medium.

While I am still learning more information about this important concept, I'm going to share with you my insights through a free teleseminar on March 8^th at 8 p.m. EST or 5 p.m. Pacific for 70–minutes. I will be answering your questions about how to repurpose your content. Whether you know about this concept or not, I encourage you to sign up and attend this unique event.

If you have a conflict and can't attend the LIVE event, the event will be recorded and everyone who registers will receive the replay information.

Also to help you know more about repurposing, I've created a new Ebook, Get More Mileage From Your Content. You will have immediate access to this 27–page Ebook.

I look forward to speaking with you soon and answering your questions to help you become a more prolific writer.

Use Your Content In a New Way

If you write on a regular basis (magazine articles, blog, or books), then you are constantly generating a steady stream of content. If you speak on a regular basis or teach on any subject, then you have a wealth of material.

This article is the first of several to give you some ideas how you can turn this material into a new source of consistent income. I’ve written in the past about repurposing your content but with your own membership site, you take remaking your content to a new level of potential. I’m suggesting you start your own membership site. In fact, I’ve developed a complete product to show you much more indepth than this short article. Here’s where you can learn about the Simple Membership System.

The first step is to select your niche and your topic.

Now think about this for a moment…

Your goal is to get members to happily pay you month after month for content. Obviously, that means you need to:

Over-deliver with quality content. You want your members to feel like they’re getting a steal for the price.

Give your members what they want. If you’re just starting your site, then look to the top-selling products in your niche to see what your target market is already paying for.

But here’s something else…

In order to get your members paying month after month, you need to be able to make them look forward to each upcoming lesson. And the best way to do that is by creating a membership site around a step-by-step process. That is, your lessons teach your members how to achieve a specific result.

You see, if you just provide tips and tricks for your members, there’s no sense of continuity. Your members don’t develop as strong of a psychological commitment to staying a member, because they won’t have a need to see the course through until the end.

Now imagine having numbered steps and lessons instead. When someone is receiving lesson 10 of a step-by-step process, they’ve made an investment of time and money into learning the process – so they are less likely to “bail” before they’ve received all the steps.

Let me give you a few examples of sites that teach a specific achievement or result using a step-by-step process:

• How to start an online business.
• How to write a sales letter.
• How to choose, train and raise a puppy.
• How to adopt a child.
• How to homeschool your child.

Now let me give you an example of what a 12-week online marketing course might look like:

Step 1: Choose a niche.
Step 2: Market research.
Step 3: Plan your sales funnel.
Step 4: Get a domain and hosting.
Step 5: Get an autoresponder.
Step 6: Write your autoresponder messages.
Step 7: Create a squeeze page.
Step 8: Product creation part 1 – research and outline.
Step 9: Product creation part 2 – create and polish.
Step 10: Create a sales letter.
Step 11: Drive traffic – free methods
Step 12: Drive traffic – paid methods.

Notice how each step builds on the previous step.

It starts with a member not even having an idea for a niche… and ends with the member driving traffic to a sales letter and making money.

In other words, if the member completes the steps as the course progresses, he or she should be able to enjoy a specific achievement or result by the end of the course.

Note: The above example is a 12-week course. Naturally, you could easily stretch this out to a year or more by creating more steps and more in-depth steps. You could go on indefinitely as long as you kept providing more advanced info as the course progressed.

One final tip…

To keep your customers happy, make sure that they are progressing and enjoying results right from the beginning.

Example: If you create a yearlong course, don’t stretch out the process for a year. Instead, give the step-by-step instructions your customers need to experience some type of results immediately (within a few weeks or month after joining) and then provide more in-depth instructions as the course progresses.

In short: Satisfy your customers’ needs for instant gratification while still providing the continuity that will keep them as a member. You’ll learn more about that in Part 2 of this series.

Is Giving Away Content Valuable?

It is completely counter-intuitive to give away valuable content. Often new or unpublished writers will ask whether they lose their rights or will be hurt or hindered if they give away their written material online.

While I understand their fears of their idea being stolen, I reassure them from my personal experience of years in publishing, I have never seen it happen. Yes, I've seen people pitch similar ideas but I've never had one of my exact ideas stolen from either my work online or my printed writing. I've actually been too busy writing and producing new material to spend a lot of time thinking about it, guarding my work and even worrying about it. In many ways, it's the complete wrong focus for a would-be writer.

Instead, I'd encourage them to be focused on learning the craft of storytelling and how to shape their words into compelling prose. It's a better use of their time and energy. If you have written something that is excellent and valuable--whether fiction or nonfiction, you can give that information away--and attract readers. For example, I'm giving away my Straight Talk From the Editor Ebook in exchange for giving me your first name and email address. Or I'm giving away a 90 page Ebook about book proposal creation with the same exchange.

Or maybe you've written an excellent novel and are trying to figure out how to get attention for it. Could you achieve that attention through giving it away?

Book Marketing Expert John Kremer tells the story of Brazilian author Paulo Coelho who for years has been an apostle of free Internet distribution. "He figures they sell more books this way. In 1999, best-selling author Paulo Coelho, who wrote The Alchemist, was failing in Russia. That year he sold only about 1,000 books, and his Russian publisher dropped him. But after he found another, Coelho took a radical step. On his own website, launched in 1996, he posted a digital Russian copy of The Alchemist."

"With no additional promotion, print sales picked up immediately. Within a year he sold 10,000 copies; the next year around 100,000. By 2002 he was selling a total of a million copies of multiple titles. Today, Coelho's sales in Russian are over 10 million and growing. "I'm convinced it was putting it up for free on the Internet that made the difference," he said in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos."

"Coelho explained why he thinks giving books away online leads to selling more copies in print: "It's very difficult to read a book on your computer. People start printing out their own copies. But if they like the book, after reading 30-40 pages they just go out and buy it." By last year Coelho's total print sales worldwide surpassed 100 million books. "Publishing is in a kind of Jurassic age," Coelho continues. "Publishers see free downloads as threatening the sales of the book. But this should make them rethink their entire business model." Now Coelho is a convert to the Internet way of doing things. His online e-mail newsletter, published since 2000, has 200,000 subscribers."

While this story about Coelho is a great success story in the publishing world, make sure you see one of the keys--brilliant storytelling is foundational and understanding the needs of the audience or market--then meeting that need with excellent writing. All too often, I've seen people attempt to give away material which does not fall into this excellent category and does little to help them in their audience building intent.

As I've often cautioned in these entries on The Writing Life, it's a tricky balance between learning the marketing skills and learning the craft of writing.

Branding Or Waste of Time

Each of us have one commodity that we can't renew called time. For each additional task we add to our lives, we have to remove or let go of something else. I understand that's not very profound but I have people ask me these questions about whether to launch a website or not. Or they wonder if they should blog or not. Some of them have tried a blog and given up after a short amount of time.

Into this sphere of thinking comes something called Twitter. You have 140 characters to answer the simple question, "What are you doing now?" And you may wonder, "Does anyone care?" The answer may surprise you.

I've been reading about Twitter for several months. Mike Hyatt at Thomas Nelson wrote an excellent post, The Beginner's Guide to Twitter. Earlier he wrote 12 reasons to Start Twittering. Also notice what he wrote in this post about experiencing a social media that almost a million people are using and it's free. Admittedly it is down from time to time but that's what happens when you are using these free tools (so be aware of it and while you can complain, it does little good).

In the last week, I've started to use Twitter and here's my profile. I'm still learning how to use it (and I'm spending minimal amount of time on it).

Like blogging and other public forums, you have to use Twitter with an intention. For example, if you look at my profile, you will notice that I've changed the settings and template to highlight my Book Proposals That Sell. It was simple to change. I've been following several people and the people who are using it effectively have "branded" their appearance. These same people are using twitter as a way to inform people about something specific.

I do not have it figured out and it might be something to experiment with for a season then let go--like some people have let go of their blog. I do not have a large following on Twitter but I have a growing following and it's been fun to watch.

I was fascinated with the response of Internet Marketing Expert Joel Comm. When I started to "follow" Joel (something you do in Twitter), he wrote that because I was following him, he would follow me. His twitter posts have been interesting to read.

I've been following Michael Hyatt on Twitter and it was fascinating that he went through airport security this week with Vice President Al Gore. Mike introduced himself to the former Vice President. It was an exchange that I would not have been able to know about except through Mike's Twitters.

While many people think that I'm high tech, I do not read my email on my cell phone or have it connected to the Internet. It means if I'm going to Twitter, it will have to be when I am sitting at my computer--and no other time.

Here's a couple of other links to read about Twitter. David Hobson suggests that one of the ways you build a following on Twitter is to consistently deliver good content. That makes sense. Here's an analysis of the people on Twitter with large followings and they have built their following other places. Here's another good post about growing a Twitter following--and once again they are building value in their content.

I suggest you try Twitter and see what you can learn from it as another communication tool. Follow a few people and see how they use twitter and note what you can learn from it. Twitter can be one more tool in your marketing arsenal so you extend your brand or it could be a complete waste of time. The use and control is in your hands.