Every Writer Is An Entrepreneur

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Within the writing community, there is an age-old discussion about whether a writer needs talent or can learn the skills to be a writer. From my perspective, talent is a God-given ability but the skills and how-to information about craft are elements that each writer can learn. In fact, each writer when you enter this business as you submit or pitch your work, you are forming your own business and entering the world as an entrepreneur.

While I’ve written about the up and down sides of the writing life in these hundreds of entries, in 2008, I compared my life as a writer to a roller coaster. When you submit your work to an editor or agent, your optimism is high as you wait for a response. It is like when you’ve gotten on a roller coaster and that car is climbing the steep area toward the top of the experience. Then when the agent or editor engages with you about your submission, you have the excitement about what could happen with your work as it gets into the marketplace. It’s the same sort of exhileration when you fly down the first steep area of the roller coaster. 

The business aspects of publishing are comparable to the ups and downs of a roller coaster. Last week, I pulled a book from my shelf called The Entrepreneur Roller Coaster. I’ve had this book for several years yet had not read it. Maybe you have a few books like that on your bookshelf.  I also have the audio version of this book. Over several days I listened to the audio while I read the words in the book. I used this method of reading to be fully focused on the contents and absorb as much of it as possible. 

For my life in publishing, I found the stories and the how-to information relevant and practical. In this final entry on the Writing Life for the year, I want to give you the ability to have the same experience. On his website, Darren Hardy offers you this book for only the postage of $6.95. His offer includes more than the hardcover book, but also the audiobook files and other resources such as worksheets for each chapter. 

I highly recommend you take advantage of this offer. Don’t follow my example and leave the unread book on your shelf for several years. Instead I encourage you to find the time to read and listen to this book. Then as you consume this book, apply the lessons to your writing life. The experience will help you understand and succeed with your journey as a writer. 

As you think about your writing life, do you identify with the comparison to a roller coaster? Let me know in the comments below.

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What To Do With a New Book Review

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

Last week I got an email from our author support team at Morgan James Publishing. I'm intentionally starting the story here because from my years in publishing, it is important to select and work with a team who helps you in unexpected ways. The email told me about a new review for Book Proposals That Sell (the Revised Edition).  As an acquisitions editor, I watch many authors choose not to have a team but there are unexpected benefits from working with a team.

 

The author support email told me about a new review from a trade magazine. The team sends out review copies so I have no idea how the publication got my book for review. Typically publications receive many more books to review than they can possibly assign and publish. Many authors would like for their book to appear in a local newspaper yet that newspaper may only publish six or seven reviews a week—like what happens in my local Denver Post. These few published reviews come from hundreds of books which they receive.  Anytime you get a printed review it is rare.

 

In this article, I want to tell you about what I did next. You can use this information for any review for your book such as an online review which are public information just like my print review. I could have celebrated it and put it into a file. Instead I took additional actions and encourage you to do the same. It often takes author work to get reviews. The main way to get reviews is to ask people to review your book. I have a free teleseminar about getting reviews (just follow the link for this teaching).

 

When I received the review from the Morgan James author support team, the email had the text of the review in the email but they also sent the print review which included the entire publication. I could have cheered to myself and then filed the review and forgotten about it. But I didn't. Instead I loaded a program that I have called Corel PDF Fusion. Google the name to purchase it or you may use another tool. This program allowed me to load the PDF, then separate out the single page with my review.

 

After isolating the single page of my review, I carefully read the review several times and isolated a couple of glowing sentences from the review. Because I had isolated a single page for the review, I uploaded this page to my website (so it will always be there and not disappear).

 

For my next step, I loaded a program called Author Lab. Follow the link to learn more and gain lifetime access for only $80.  For my work in publishing, I use this program almost daily. It has royalty free stock photos for example that I use on my blog. 

One of the tools in this program is called Testimonial Builder. I read the review several times and look for a glowing statement or two. Then I opened Testimonial Builder. In a few mouse clicks, you can select a background and image (I selected a woman since it was a woman who reviewed my book). Then this tool allows you to add a sentence and her name, then save the image. I am not a designer but in a matter of minutes I created a professional image with a sentence from the review.

 

For my final step in the process, I created several social media posts (check here and here), then scheduled them on Hootsuite for release. Notice my social media post includes a link to the full review where I got the sentence for the image. I will be using these posts on a regular basis in the days ahead.

 Every day potential customers are reading reviews and making buying decisions about your book. A key part of my personal philosophy is every author has to take 100% responsibility for their own success. I encourage you to take similar actions with your reviews to get them into the market.

 

What actions do you take with a new review? Let me know in the comments below.

 

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Don't Play the Blame Game

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

When things go wrong (and they often do in the publishing world), it is easy to blame someone else. 

As an editor, I hear writers who are disappointed with their book sales. They blame the publisher for not doing enough marketing and pushing on their book. Yet when we look to see if we've heard anything from this author in the last few months, often we find nothing but silence. We can't be promoting the author if we don't hear about their marketing activity. Are they marketing (hopefully so) but then they also have the responsibility of telling their publisher about their marketing efforts. In my detailed calls with authors, one statement that I always make sure and include is: “80% of the marketing is up to the author.” 

This statement is true no matter who publishes your book—whether they pay you a large advance or a small advance. 80% of the marketing is up to the author and the author's activity. Your publisher may be able to sell the book into a brick and mortar bookstore but it is the author's activity (marketing) which drives people into that bookstore to buy the book.

 

When you point your finger, think about the way your different fingers are pointing. One is extended but the other four are directed back to you. A pointed finger is a good illustration of what authors need to think about when it comes to blaming others for something not happening. My key message in this post is rather than blame others, take your own actions and responsibility.

 

If you aren't getting enough sales, what are you doing to tell people about your book? Are you booking yourself on podcasts? Are you collecting the recording and continuing to use the recording to market your book? There are many different ways to market your book? You can be on talk radio. You can write print magazine articles on a related subject to your book. You can write blog posts on your blog. You can write blog posts on other people's blogs as a guest blogger. You can advertise on Facebook or some other platform. You can market your book to your email list.  You can write a newsletter and send it to your list. You can market your book on social media (various platforms and methods). You can market your book in person to others and also when you speak. The list of possibilities and opportunities are endless and only limited by your own imagination and energy.

 

Have you hired a publicist to promote your book? You still have to market and can't give the entire responsibility to the publicity firm. Many of these places charge $3,000 to $5,000 a month. One of my authors told me that last year she spent $50,000 with a firm and wasn't going to do that again. When I heard that information, I thought to myself, “Wow, that is a huge investment and would have to sell many books to get a return on that investment.” It was not a wise move in my view. During my conversation, I affirmed that she needed to do something different in the future.

 

Bestselling author Jack Canfield has studied what it takes to be successful and wrote his book, The Success Principles. The first principle is I will take 100% responsibility for my own success. I suspect no one wants to take 100% responsibility for their own success (I don't) but it is the best course of action for every author. If you take this responsibility, then you don't play the blame game and point the finger at others. Instead, get busy and take action yourself to make things happen. 

 

Have you played the blame game in your conversations, writing or thoughts? What steps are you going to take to move in a different direction? Let me know in the comments below.

 

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A Critical Responsibility for Every Writer

By Terry Whalin @terrywhalin

I often hear fascinating stories from writers about their experiences in publishing. I listen to these stories because I learn more about the world of publishing. Often in the process, I discover some pitfalls to avoid with my own publishing efforts. Yes after years in publishing, I continue to learn—and I hope you are learning too because that is how we continue to grow as writers.

This author has written a number of nonfiction books. For his most recent book, he signed with a literary agent and had high hopes for the success of this book. While I'm not including the name of this agent, she is well respected within publishing. She has a large number of clients and has placed a number of books with various publishers. In other words, this agent has a good reputation and this author was thrilled to sign with such an agent. This agent took his nonfiction book and placed it with a small traditional publisher located in the midwest.

With the agent placing his book with a traditional house, he had high hopes for the success of this book. The author is connected and worked hard at getting reviews and book signings and other events to promote his new release. Yet this author could not get much traction (exposure and sales) in the brick and mortar bookstores. They would not order or carry his book inside the bookstores. Then he discovered the reason: this publisher did not allow retailers to return unsold books.

An aside: books inside bookstores have been 100% returnable for the lifetime of the book since the great depression in the 1930s. Publishers take all the risk on these books and while it seems unusual to people outside of publishing, returning books from retailers is simply a part of the fabric of publishing.

This author was enraged to learn his traditional publisher didn't allow returns. He spoke with his agent and she shrugged it off, saying, “Most books are sold through Amazon anyway. Returns is not an issue.”

Another aside: Amazon is a large player in the book publishing business but books are still selling in brick and mortar bookstores and other venues. You narrow your possibilities if you are only selling through Amazon (in my view).

This author learned a lesson from his experience—and one that every author should learn. You can delegate some things to your agent or a publisher, yet at the end of the day, the author bears the ultimate responsibility. The agent doesn't sign the bottom of the contract. Only the author signs the contract with the representative of the publisher. Yes the devil is in the details. It doesn't mean you have to do everything, but you have to know enough to monitor everything because if something falls apart, you will take the blame.

What did you learn from this story? Does it help you take the critical responsibility for your own writing and work? Let me know in the comments below.

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Seven Critical Steps for Every Author

Over 80% of Americans plan to publish a book at some point in their lifetime. Over 4,500 new books are published every day. Yet repeatedly I hear from authors wondering how to sell their books and what steps they should be taking in this process.

Let me tell you right from the start, when it comes to book publishing and in particular selling books, there is no magic formula. If there were such a formula every book would be a bestseller. Yet there are proven essentials that every author can do—and that's what I'm writing about in this article. These steps are not in any particular order but it's important to tackle each of them.

1. Know your target audience (readers). The more information you have about this reader, the better you can focus your efforts to reach them. No matter how much we want it, not everyone will read your book but your target audience will.

2. Be active or visible with your audience. It is different for every author but if you know your target. Where are they? Listening to their radios? Then you need to be on radio programs. On Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn, then you need to become more visible in these places. To help you, I have a free ebook, Platform building Ideas for Every Author.

3. Start and actively use an email list. If you don't have any idea what I'm talking about then I recommend you explore these two links for My List Building Tycoon at: http://bit.ly/t2W1zy or on Kindle: http://amzn.to/wU6Fzb. The essence of it is you create an ebook or audio or something valuable for your audience. Then give that ethical bribe away to your audience in exchange for them giving you their email address. Only you control your email list (not some other platform like Twitter or Facebook). Then you build your list as you use the list to continue to give your audience value. 

4. Take responsibility for your own marketing. Each of us have excuses. We are introverted. We don't like it. We want to just write. We want someone else to do it—why we get a publisher. Listen to yourself and then stop the excuses and take action. Every day when I speak to authors I tell them that they bear 80% of the responsibility for selling their book.. They say, “yes” but then balk at taking action. You will be exceptional if you do take your own responsibility.

5. Get to a writer's conference. Conferences are a key part of my own growth and people I know in publishing. You will learn a great deal and also make friendships with editors and agents. Over the next few months, I'm speaking at different conferences and would love to meet you in person. Follow this link to my schedule. I especially recommend Author 101 University.

6. Have the Right attitude. You should always be growing, trying new things and experimenting to find your path. It is different for each book and each author so you have to be moving forward. Remember you are not selling your book or yourself. Instead you are helping as many people as you can help. In the process, stress the benefits and advantages of your book and how it will help others. Much more attractive to people than “selling” and as an author you will be more comfortable doing it.

7. Create a simple system to become active with your readers. It is different for every author. Maybe your path is blogging or social media or radio interviews. As you speak or write, focus on helping others but also leading them to your products where to spend money to get additional help. An example of this process would be my free teleseminar about book proposals. When you take this teleseminar, I lead you to my Write A Book Proposal membership course. 

Opportunities are around you—but to take advantage of these opportunities, you have to seize them and take action. Don't count on anyone else or you will certainly be disappointed (publisher, bookstore, Amazon—no one). If I can help you, reach out to me. 

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Paper Towns and Book Marketing

This weekend the movie Paper Towns released. If you don’t read young adult novels, then you probably don’t know what I’m talking about. The well-done film is based on the third novel, Paper Towns by bestselling author John Green. His bestselling book, Fault in Our Stars, also had a movie attached to it. For the launch of Paper Towns, check out his unusual marketing ideas, for example this video of the Get Found, Get Lost Tour (over 110,000 views on You Tube as of this writing).

For the opening of the Paper Towns movie, John Green greets the audience in the first few minutes and thanks everyone for coming to the movie.  In all of the movies, I’ve seen, I’ve never seen the author of the book do such an opening. Why?

John Green is known as a fun author who creates entertaining videos and has a huge following. By the author speaking at the beginning of the film everyone was reminded the movie was based on his book

1. Books have more depth and information than any movie because of the limitations and differences between the two art forms. I’ve not read the book but Ashley Ross pointed out some of the distinctions in this article.
2. The reminder will drive book sales and get more people to buy or read the book

It was a smart marketing move from John Green to thank the audience in the opening minutes of the film. It showed his support of the film (some authors dislike how their movies are portrayed and would never do such an opening) and drives more readers to his books.

As I mentioned in this 2005 article, it is rare for a book to become a movie. Yet every writer can learn the example of John Green. First, while Green is a bestselling author, he is active in the marketing of his books and products (like movies) associated with his books. You may be reluctant to jump into the marketing area but learn from watching people like John Green.

Second, look for something different or unusual to do for the marketing of your book. How can you stand out from other authors (in a good way) and be remembered? It may not be a movie but you can create a blog campaign or a real book tour or any number of other ways with your book—but it is up to you as the author to put the thought and energy into that campaign. You need to created it, then carry it out.  

If you don’t market and get people talking about you book, no one else will do it. As authors each of us wants someone else to do it. I continually hear complaints from every author. It does not matter who published their book (major publisher, minor publisher or self-published). The truth is the marketing and promotion of your book is your responsibility as an author. Your complaining will not help. Instead you need to follow the Nike slogan and just do it.