This Writer's Life 10: Staying Healthy, Because Working Sick Sucks

I’ve been passing out in the afternoons. Not getting tired, passing out. I can’t focus, can’t keep my eyes open, and have to lie down for 20 minutes to restart my brain. Add that to days where I can’t work to save my life and lie on a couch in a malaise, and I thought that doing a post about staying healthy might be a wise thing.

I also went to my doctor and had a bunch of tests because passing out. Duh.

When you’re freelancing, you don’t have a company insurance plan, you sometimes can’t afford your own insurance, and when you get sick, you have no sick leave. I live in Canada where we have universal health care paid for through taxes, so that helps. If you live somewhere where you don’t have universal health care, you need to be doubly careful.

So how do you stay physically healthy? Four basic things:

Sleep

Without sleep you can’t function properly.  I wrote Cold Magics on 5 hours of sleep a night for about 8 months, because the only time I had to write was between 10 p.m. and midnight. I gained weight, felt like crap and got sick a lot.

Humans need between at least 7 hours of sleep a night. Get sleep.

Food

Junk food is one of my favourite things but it isn’t what your body needs to function well and stay healthy. Humans need a balance of carbohydrates, protein, fat and a whole bunch of trace elements to survive and thrive. Learn what they are, and learn how to cook food with them in it. It’s cheaper and healthier than restaurants. Also, yummy!

Note: Don't starve yourself. Your body needs approximately 2000 calories per day for women, 2200 a day for men. Anyone who tells you to eat 1200 calories a day is either misinformed or wants you to give them money for their diet plan.

Water

Did you know the 8 glasses of water a day thing is a myth? Some marketing executive for a water bottling company pulled it out of thin air (or some other place) to get you to drink more bottled water.

That being said, you need to stay hydrated.  Dehydration leads to headaches, exhaustion, grumpiness and drinking all your kid’s apple juice and having to make up lies about what happened.

… I’ve heard.

Drink when you’re thirsty. If you’re worried about whether you’re hydrated or not, here’s a handy guide.

Exercise

Yes, you need it.  Muscle exercises help you keep your posture when you’re sitting in your chair and help you lift those cartons of books. Cardiovascular exercises give you the breath to throw elevator pitches at fast-moving editors, and to run from your legions of screaming fans.

If you have a physical disability or disabilities, you will need to work within those limitations, of course, but still, get some exercise. Bike, run, walk, wheelchair race, lift heavy objects, go hiking, go swimming, do pushups, do something!

Having a healthy body also helps you have a healthier mind, which makes it easier to write more.

Sunlight

All writer-as-vampire jokes aside, get out into the sun every day if you can. Even 15-20 minutes outside does you a world of good.

Sunlight is good for you (vitamin D – the sunshine vitamin!) and more important, getting outside and staring at something other than the keyboard or notebook regenerates your mind and spirit, and you will better for it.

Bonus Tip: Wash Your Hands

I spend years doing corporate communications for a hospital. And one of the biggest messages that we sent out to people coming in was WASH YOUR HANDS!

Why you ask?

Right now, your nose is itching because unknown to you, you have Abyssinian Nose-Fall-Off plague (pre symptomatic but contagious). You’re going to scratch it. The germs will go on your hands. Your hand touches the bannister on your way down to the subway, or the counter at the coffee shop. Someone else’s hand touches the same spot. Then at some point, they touch their face.

One week later, everybody’s nose is falling off, and if you’d washed your hands after scratching your nose, the world wouldn’t be in this mess.

Here’s when and how.

WASH YOUR DAMN HANDS!!!

Next week: Mental Health: Because your body is only half the battle.

Marketing True Magics 9: Twitter Ad Copy

Marketing True Magics 9: Twitter Ad Copy

So, last week was all about my “please be my follower” strategy on twitter (and if you aren’t my follower, I’m @erik_buchanan, and don’t you want to be my friend?). This week is all about getting folks to buy my book from twitter, and that means it's all about ad copy.

Ad copy is HARD.

It needs to be clean, concise, interesting and not irritating.  Remember the big three of marketing: think, feel, do? It all needs to be in there:

Good copy has:
1. Something to get your attention (Think: This sounds really interesting!)
2. Something to make you want the book (Feel: I want to know what happens!)
3. A way for you to buy the book (Do: I’m buying this book!)
And because this is Twitter, it has to be done in 140 characters. Ideally in 100 characters so other people can comment and re-tweet.

(Joke: Why isn’t George R.R. Martin on Twitter anymore?  He killed all 140 characters. HA!)

So how do we do it?

1. Getting your attention

A picture is worth a thousand words, they say, so putting in the book cover is good (I have good covers). Also, pictures are more likely to get re-tweets. So I should either use my book covers or find cool photos related to the books and use them to get your attention.

2. Making you want more

I find my elevator pitches very useful here. The purpose of an elevator pitch is to make the person listening to it want to hear more. Observe:

Small Magics: A young man discovers magic in a world where no one believes in it anymore, except one person who is willing to kill to possess it all.

Cold Magics: A young magician must find a way to end a war before the church finds an excuse to hang him for witchcraft.

(Don’t you just want to go buy them both now?  You really should. The link is in the book titles)

Just like your elevator pitch, your ad copy should make folks interested enough to click through to decide if they want to buy the book.

The next step is to take my elevator pitches and shrink them to less than 100 characters. They have to be less than 100 characters because I also need:

3. A Way for You to Buy the Book

I need to link to to my publisher’s website or to Amazon, and since my publisher’s website is under construction right now, it’s going to be Amazon.

Remember: most book purchases are impulse buys. If the person reading my ad has the impulse to buy, I don’t want to make them wait.

How Often Should I Tweet?

Some authors send out twenty tweets a day about their books, most of them the same. I tend to tune them out and suspect you do, too. So how many tweets should I send out to get maximum effect with minimum irritation?

I had the good fortune to talk with Tee Morris [link] recently. He knows a great deal more about social media than I do, so I asked him what, in his opinion, was the maximum number of times a day one should advertise so as not to annoy one’s followers?

His answer? Three times a day. Enough to get attention and reach people at different times of the day, not so much as will drive them away.

That said, people don’t like seeing the same ad day in and day out. It becomes boring, so in addition to creating the ad above, I should probably create at least 4 others.

For each book.

And I should put them in a rotating schedule so my followers aren’t being bombarded by the same ads at the same time of day every time.

So Where Are They?

I’m working on it!

Really, I am!

Stop looking at me like that…

I am developing 10 twitter ads which will run in staggered rotation through the day and week so as not to bore or drive away followers. You’ll be seeing them soon and, if I do it right, the copy will be spread far and wide across the twitterverse, and all of you will buy my book and my publisher will do little happy dances in the street.

…Here’s hoping.

Next Week: Things I still need to learn about Twitter.

This Writing Life 9: More Editing and Editors, or More Than Just Copy vs Substantive

(Sorry this one is a late. I was sick. I'll be blogging about health next week.)

Last week we talked about why you need an editor. And you do. Sometimes a publisher supplies the editor, sometimes you want a piece edited before it goes to the publisher, or to the agent you are trying to get.  If you are self-publishing you definitely need an editor. And if you don’t think you do, don’t self-publish, ever.  Seriously.

That said, different editors have different skillsets, and in order to know which editor is best for you, it’s best to know which skills editors offer.

The Editing Editors Do When They Edit

When writers think of editors, we tend to think about two types, Copyeditors and Substantive Editors. Some quick definitions, from of the Editors Association of Canada (EAC):

• Copyediting: Editing for grammar, spelling, punctuation and other mechanics of style; checking for consistency of mechanics and internal consistency of facts; marking head levels and approximate placement of art; notifying designer of any unusual production requirements. May include Canadianizing; metrication; providing or changing system of citations; writing or editing captions and/or credit lines; writing running heads; listing permissions needed and/or obtaining them; providing or editing prelims, back matter, cover copy and/or CIP data. May also include negotiating changes with author.
• Substantive Editing: Clarifying and/or reorganizing a manuscript for content and structure. Changes may be suggested to or drafted for the author. May include negotiating changes with author.

Now, that’s a fair amount of work, but there are a lot of other things that editors do knowing them will make it easier for you, the writer, when you go looking for an editor.

(Assuming you are a writer. Because if you’re not, why are you reading this?  Are you stalking me?  Are you analyzing me?  Are one of the alien monsters coming to take over this planet by entering the minds of its intelligentsia?!!!!)

(See what happens when you don’t use an editor?)

Here’s a list from the EAC of the different services editors can provide. I’m not going to give you the descriptions of each, because you can find them all right here.

• Developmental / Project Editing
• Substantive or Structural Editing
• Stylistic Editing
• Rewriting
• Copy Editing
• Picture Research
• Fact Checking / Reference Checking
• Indexing
• Mark-Up / Coding
• Proofreading
• Mock-Up (Rough Paste-Up)
• Production Editing

Now, obviously, not every job is in need of all of these skillsets.  But chances are you’re going to need at least some of those skills beyond copy and substantive

My next series is historical horror instead of fantasy. I need someone who can also do fact checking (did that major historical event really happen then?). Because it is aimed at a YA market, I also need someone who can do stylistic editing to make sure I’m writing at the corret reading level.

If you are a self-publishing something (which I may be doing in the near future…) you’re going to need more than that. Just looking at the list, I’m thinking someone who can do mark-up/coding, production editing, mock-up, proofreading…

It’s a lot, but by knowing what you need, you can budget for it and know what to look for in an editor.

But Can’t I Do It Myself?

Short stories? Yes. Novels? No, unless you want it to be bad. Self-published novel? Definitely not. Ever. Unless you want it to suck.

Every author edits their own work, but at for larger projects, you shouldn’t be the only one to do it, because you will miss something.

Case in point: One of my editors, Gabrielle Harbowy, is also a writer. Gabrielle is a professional. She knows her stuff. From her website:

“Gabrielle is an Affiliate member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America (SFWA). She edits for publishers including Pyr Books, and is a staff proofreader for Lambda Literary. In addition to her independent editing work, she is also Managing Editor at Dragon Moon Press, where she oversees the submissions and editing processes. She has edited for aspiring and first-time authors, New York Times Bestsellers, and Hugo Award winners. Books she has acquired and/or edited have gone on to be finalists and winners of Bram Stoker awards, Parsecs, and ForeWord Magazine’s Book of the Year awards.”

Now for the $24,000 question (and if you get the reference, congratulations! You’re old!): Does Gabrielle do all her own editing?

NO!

Like any good writer, Gabrielle does edit her own work – substantive and copy and everything else. But, before Gabrielle’s also sends her major works to another editor (either her publisher's editor, or an editor she knows for work that doesn't yet have a publisher). This is because Gabrielle knows that, like every other writer, she is too close to see everything that needs changing.

From those one or two copy-edits that you missed the first time and now can’t see for the life of you to that bit where the guy you killed in the first part of the book is giving a speech in the second, you need someone an outside eye. You NEED an editor.

So How Do I Find an Editor?

Word of mouth is your best best for finding a good editor. Talk to other writers (preferably successful ones) and see if they have an editor they use outside their publisher, and if so, do they take other clients.  Then go research that editor (because Google is here for a reason) and find out if they have the skillset that you need.

How much will it cost me?

Depends.

Yes, I know, I’m stunningly unhelpful sometimes.

Different editors charge different fees depending on their skillset, experience, and the level of work that’s involved in making your manuscript go from great (which I am sure it is now) to the THAT’S AMAZING!!!

And you want to be amazing, don’t you?


Next Week: Staying Healthy, Because Working Sick Sucks.

Marketing True Magics 8: Wait a minute! What about Promoting Your Books on Twitter?

All right, you caught me. I haven’t been doing much marketing of my books on Twitter yet. Which begs the question: Why not?

The Marketing Process: Think, Feel, Do

Marketing has three steps: I need to get you thinking about my book, which will lead to you feeling something about my book, which will lead you to doing something (buying my book).

Example: my Twitter feed. (are you following @erik_buchanan? You should. I’m fascinating).  I follow people to try to get them to follow me back. Here’s what happens, how it goes right, and how it can go wrong:

Step 1. I follow a person. The person:

Step	Right Result	Wrong Result
Thinks	Who is this guy?	Who is this guy?
Feels	I’m Curious.	I’m Disturbed
Does	Look at my twitter feed/profile	Blocks me

Step 2. On reading my profile, the person:

Step	Right Result	Wrong Result
Thinks	He does a bunch of neat stuff	He does stuff I don’t care about
Feels	I’d like to learn more	Bored
Does	Follows me	Not follow me

Step 3. On receiving my direct message:

Step	Right Result	Wrong Result
Thinks	Now I know the stuff he talks about	Now I know the stuff he talks about
Feels	That’s cool!	Boring!
Does	Reads my posts	Unfollows

At the end of the process I have a new follower who is likely to read my posts. Three different steps just to do that much. And now I want to advertise to them?

Better make the ads good, hadn’t I?

Next Week: Writing Twitter Ad Copy

This Writing Life 8: Editing and Editors or Just Because It’s Done Doesn’t Mean It’s Done

(Note from Erik: My blog posts have been too long. Since I’m talking about editing this week, it seems like a good time to start shortening them)

Last week I talked about writers as Explorers or Engineers. I said that no matter which a writer was, when that writer finished their book, they were confident that what they have written was the best it could be. I also said they were wrong. Here’s why:

First drafts are never the best they can be.  Ever.

Some people say first drafts are always terrible. They are wrong. Some first drafts are terrible, some are OK, some are good, and some are great. All of them can still be improved.

And here’s the big secret: You can’t make your book the best it can be all by yourself.

You can improve it. You can fix typos and grammar and spelling. You can fix characters, change plot, remove inconsistencies, and correct timelines. But you still need set of outside eyes to look at it.

Too Close To Notice

When we write a novel, we are too close to see all the flaws. Maybe because it’s all in our heads, and therefore we see things on the paper that aren’t there. Or maybe we’ve looked at the work so many times we’ve stopped really seeing it.

Here’s some of my favourite mistakes:
• Saying the same thing over again.
• “You know how Sir Robert says [X] on page 243?” “Yes?” “He died on page 31.”
• Writing the same word different ways, like Mill pond, Mill-pond and Millpond.
• Saying the same thing over again.

And one that I didn’t do, but which is my personal favourite:

“Remember how you said, “Make every person count”?”
 “Yes?”
“You left out the “O”.”

 (Yes, it really happened)

When to Hire a Professional Editor

If your book has a publisher already (congratulations!) your publisher will supply you with an editor.  Otherwise, you should hire an editor when:

• You’re getting ready to send it to an agent
• You’re getting ready to send it to a publisher
• When you are self-publishing (please, please, please!)
• When you are stuck – you know the book could be better, but can’t figure out how, and neither can your first or beta readers. 

An Important Note

If your novel has been accepted for publication, the publisher should bring in an editor to work with you. If they do not, run screaming. Seriously.

If your publisher does not bring in an editor, it does not mean you are a perfect writer. It means that that publisher publishes unedited manuscripts, i.e.: crap.

What Stage in the Writing Process?

Everyone has his or her own process, so the answer is, “it depends.”

The amazing Tanya Huff, for example, is able to edit as she writes. By the time her first draft is done, it’s ready for her publisher to give it to their editors.

My books don’t go out to my publisher/editor until the fourth draft. Here’s the breakdown:

• First draft: Yay! I’ve written it! Pour the whiskey! NO ONE SEES THE FIRST DRAFT!
• Second draft: Fixes the messes I made and puts in all the things I left out of the first. This goes to my first reader (thanks, Katrina!)
• Third draft: fixes the things I missed on the second draft and those that my first reader says are inconsistent/stupid/don’t work (this involves lots of fun arguing). This goes to my beta readers.
• Fourth draft: Add in input from my beta readers, do another scan for typos, etc., and fixed anything that still bugs me. Off to my publisher/editor.

Next Week: More Editing and Editors, or More Than Just Copy vs Substantive

Marketing True Magics 7: Twittering To The Masses, My Journey So Far

The delay on True Magics, final book in my Magics Trilogy, has given me extra time to build my social media presence and following, and take my time in planning out the rest of my marketing campaign. So far, my main focus has been on Twitter.

(Buy Small Magics and Cold Magics so you'll be ready when True Magics comes out and yes, I am getting the sales pitch out of the way early)

Why Twitter?

It’s the easiest to use and the fastest to build a following on. Twitter has lots of writers, readers, fantasy fans, horror fans, historical fiction fans, YA fans, etc., etc., etc.

And most important of all, it is very, very easy to be found and followed.

I’m still learning Twitter. There’s a lot about it I don’t know, and there’s a steep learning curve ahead as I work on turning my followers into my fans, but here’s what I’ve got so far.

Getting More Followers

I’ve gone from approximately 150 followers to 4,761 at the time of typing this. I expect to break 5,000 by the end of the week. And it’s all because I am, in fact, stunningly interesting.

Right?

Right…?

Little love here, folks…

All right. It’s not because I’m stunningly interesting (though I do try). The truth is that if you’re not already famous (or notorious), rich or stunningly good looking, you aren’t going to be building followers at any great speed just by being present and tweeting regularly.

So I’m doing it differently.

After some research I decided to gain new followers as described in this article by C.S. Larkin. The gist of it is this: I follow people who are interested in the same things I am, and the ones that follow me back, I keep. The ones that don’t follow back, I unfollow, usually in 24 to 48 hours.

It sounds fairly heartless, doesn’t it?

I think of it like cold calling in sales. I follow someone. They look over my tweets and decide if they want me to follow back. When they do I send them a direct message. Once they read that, they decide if they want to keep me. If they don't, I unfollow them to make room for those who will.

A Word About that Direct Message

There is debate over direct messages in Twitter. They’re used for advertising and for spam, they’re impersonal (if you write them badly) and they can annoy people.

That said, a properly written direct message is a polite way to tell a new follower that you are glad to have them. Here’s mine:

Welcome! I tweet about writing, books, TV, movies, web series, science, stage combat, and stuff that’s just neat. Thanks for following!

No sales pitch. No requests for friends on Facebook. No requests to visit my website. No demand for retweets.

Of the 4500 followers I have gained in the last few months, I have had exactly one complaint. So I’d say it’s working just fine.

So How Do I Find Followers?

I use JustUnfollow to find people to follow because it allows me to search by hashtag or keyword (such as #amwriting #amreading #fantasy #scifi #horror #YA). It also allows me to find people who write similar things and follow their followers. That’s the one that works best for me so far.

But are they “good” followers?

Right now, my followers are made up of:

• fans
• people who think I’m interesting
• people who think I might be interesting
• people who automatically follow back anyone who follows them
• The odd spam-bot (I'm working on wiping those out).  

Now, “good” followers (according to the social media gurus) will read what I tweet, ask me questions, retweet, and buy my books.

Another word for them is “fans.” And turning followers into fans is my job. If they aren't interested, they'll leave.

Tweeting!

I try to live tweet at least tree times a day. I also use find.ly every week to gather together articles I like (see the list in my Direct Message) and Hootsuite to send out scheduled tweets with them. This way the account is always active.

The daily tweets are the hard ones because if I’m not careful they become a variation on “Sitting at #desk. #Amwriting.” Most of the articles I send out get at least 2 retweets. Some get many more, including some of these blog posts. Thanks, folks.

Retweeting and Favoriting

I do as much of this as I can, when I can. I favorite and retweet causes I support and statements I agree with, as well as articles, pictures or tweets that fall into the parameter of my welcome message, or that I find funny or interesting.

If you are advertising your book/play/web series/comic/event with exciting copy and I read it, I will probably re-tweet it (Put “#Retweet” “#RT” or best of all, “Please #Retweet” in your tweets to improve your retweet numbers). If you have boring or nonsensical copy, I will not. My follower’s time (and mine) is valuable. I’m not going to waste it.

I don’t retweet anything political or religious because my twitter feed is for selling books, not debating beliefs. I don’t retweet anything off-colour because of the demographics of my target audiences.

Final Note: Don't Be Creepy

This article went way longer than I expected, both in time to write and length, but I need to say one more thing.

Don’t be creepy.

One of the problems with JustUnfollow is that, if you follow as many as I do, you tend not to look at whom you follow. This can lead to political or religious connections you don’t want, people you don’t like, and some times, it can make you look creepy.

Case in point: My next series is a YA horror series aimed at young adults, with a possible middle grade audience as well. I thought about following Rick Riordan’s followers, figuring they would like what I write. Fortunately I looked them over first.

As would be expected for someone who writes middle-grade fiction, most of Rick Riordan's followers are minors.

I did not follow them.

As a rule, I try not to follow anyone under 18 years old. Because having a guy in his 40s following you when you’re a minor is creepy.

Don’t be creepy.

Next week: Wait a minute! What about Promoting Your Books on Twitter?

This Writing Life 7: Outliners vs. Pantsers or The Many Ways to Write Stuff

There is big debate over which way is the best way to write a novel. This debate divides the writing community into two main camps: “Outliners” and “Seat of the Pantsers.” Outliners outline their books before they write them and Seat of the Pantsers don’t.

And I’m pretty sure the Outliners named the groups.

And if one of your big questions as a writer is, “should I outline or not?” read through to the end because that’s where I put my opinion on the matter. Before that, thought, I’m going to explain each type.

I’m also going to rename the two types Explorers and Engineers. Because, really, who wants to be a “pantser”?

Explorers and Engineers

Both the Explorer (Panster) and the Engineer (Outliner) have the same job. There is a mountain (the novel) in front of them and they need to make a path to the top (the end of the novel).  Nice metaphor, eh? And so original…

The Explorer’s Journey
Explorers will say, “Right, I have to go that way,” and start walking. They may find themselves with false starts, they may find themselves backtracking and they may find themselves wandering into completely different territory, but at the end, they will discover what is, for them, the best path up the mountain.

For the Explorer, writing is a very organic process. They most likely know the beginning middle and end (some don’t), but how they will get there is completely open to possibilities. They explore and learn about their characters as they write. They find the situations and scenes and moments as they go.  And while they may have false starts and false directions, the Explorer feels that, by the time they get to the top, they have found the best possible path up the mountain.

(They are wrong of course, but that’s the subject of next week’s blog.)

Some explorers: Stephen King, Meg Cabot (who wrote a great article about why) and Erik Buchanan.

The Engineer’s Journey

The Engineers will say, “Right, I have to go that way,” and start planning. They’ll survey the mountain, measure out the best distance and create blueprints, and then build a road that takes them to the top of the mountain.

For the Engineer, a lot of the creative process happens before they write the book. They figure out who the characters are, from their birthday to their favourite colour in some cases. They know what the story is going to be about, and they decide what actions, tensions, conflicts and resolutions will best serve the story.  Then they sit down and write.  They have fewer false starts because they already know where they are going.  They’re less likely to hit dead ends. And when they are finished, they are confident that they have built the best possible road to get up the mountain.

(They are wrong of course, but that’s the subject of next week’s blog.)

Some Engineers: John, Grisham, J.K. Rowling, and Erik Buchanan.

Wait. You’re In Both Lists

Oh, you noticed.

So Which Are You, an Explorer or an Engineer?

Both, of course.

I started out as pure explorer. I love the flow of the writing, and love the journey of discovering the book.  In the last few years, however, I have incorporated more and more of the Engineer’s path.

Why I went from Explorer to Engineer

Remember the only rule of writing: You Must Finish.  As an explorer, I was finishing, but I was hitting some pretty big dead ends in the process. For Small Magics, I had to re-write 200 pages of the book to fix it.  With Cold Magics, it was 250. Both dead ends took up a lot more time than I wanted, and when I moved to writing professionally, I realized it was time I didn’t have. Add to that, most Ghostwriting clients ask for an outline, and you see why I made the change.

So Which One’s Better?

Remember the First Rule of Writing: You Must Finish.

The one that is better is the one that allows you to most effectively follow the First Rule of Writing. Some people can’t outline because they feel it destroys their creativity and makes the story go away.  Some people feel they must outline because it guides their creativity and brings the story together.

For me, changing from Explorer to Engineer made sense. It allows me to work faster, which means writing more books.  Does it make my writing better? I don’t know. I think so, and when I figure out why I think so, I’ll write a blog post about it.

What I do know is that both ways work. Look at the names beside mine in each group. These writers write good books and make a good living doing it. So pick the method that works for you and do that.

Next Week: Editing and Editors or Just Because It’s Done, Doesn’t Mean It’s Done

Marketing True Magics 6: Reaching Your Target Audience (without being creepy)

Last week we defined Target Audiences. That was the easy part.  In case you forget:

A writer’s target audience is the group of people most likely to buy that writer’s books.

This week we’re talking about the hard part: reachin your target audience. Because unlike the old days when I was that kid getting shouted at instead of the one shouting “get off my lawn!” there are lots and lots and lots of ways to reach an audience. Most of them are electronic, but not all, and not the most successful ones.

Social Media

Yay, Social Media!  I can reach people there because that’s not cluttered at all, right?

Click to see the full-sized image and read the article.

God, there are a lot of us.

But that’s why I chose the five social media that I chose: Twitter, Goodreads, Facebook, Pinterest and Youtube in that order.  Each one of these allows people who are interested in you to follow you and see what it is you have to say.

So how do you get people to notice you? More important, how do you get the right people to notice you?

There are two answers. First, be engaging. Second, seek them out. To be engaging:

Have a full profile on any social media that you are on. Explain who you are and what you do in the most engaging way possible.  Put whatever you want them to be interested in first.  If you are a writer (like me), it should be the first thing people on your profile.  The rest of your profile should show what an interesting and well-rounded person you are, and make the people to whom you want to sell your books, want to follow you after they’ve read it.

Share stuff that is interesting to you. Talk about interesting subjects, post interesting pictures, put up interesting videos, share interesting articles. People who share your interests will follow you and those people are likely to become your target audience.  Talk about yourself in an interesting way, and in what you are selling in an interesting way, but not so often as to make them lose interest through repetition.

Share the things your followers find interesting. Repost the things your followers post, if you find them interesting. People who like what you like are good people; the sort of people who will buy your books.

(Speaking of which, have you bought Small Magics and Cold Magics yet? Because it isn’t a blog post without a sales pitch…).

Yes, all this a lot of work. Yes, it’s a time-suck. Yes, it takes away time you could be writing.  It also gives you a better chance of selling your writing, which is the point of this whole exercise.

I mentioned that the second way to get people to notice you is to seek them out. The way to do this requires far more space then I have here. So in the weeks ahead, I promise a separate blog post for each of the social media platforms I’m using, explaining my strategy to seek out followers for each one and how well it’s working so far. Meanwhile…

Reviews

Good reviews help you reach your target audience. A review itself may not be enough to make a person buy your book on the spot, but the review puts the idea of your book in a person’s mind, and the more often that happens, the more likely they are to buy your book when they see it, whether that’s on Amazon, a book shelf, or a table at a convention (which I’ll talk about in a moment).

The issue is that most reviewers want a paper copy of your book, and that costs money. My publisher is a small press, and they can only afford to send out so many ARCs (Advance Reading Copies). I can also buy some and have the publisher send them out on my behalf, but that costs money too. So how do I pick which reviewers to send to?

Target professional/semi-professional reviewers who reach your target audience. If you write fantasy (like I do), target fantasy reviewers. If you write romance, target romance reviewers. If you write non-fiction about the erotic life of Kierkegaard as displayed through his philosophic essays… well, good luck.

Target reviewers who like the style of story that you write. There are few things more annoying to book sales than bad reviews, so try to avoid getting them when you can.  Look over a reviewers reviews of books similar to your before you send them a copy. If they don't like them, don't waste your money.

Target the reviewers above in order of the number of people who read their reviews. If you’re going to spend money, you want to reach the maximum number of people, so make sure the reviewers who are getting printed ARCs have enough readers that there’s a good chance to make up for the cost of the ARC in your sales.

Target reviewers who reach your target audience and are willing to take an electronic ARC. After you set it up, electronic copy is essentially free. Send as many as you can to as many reviewers as you think will be interested and will take it. Because these are essentially free, you can give them to reviewers with smaller audience bases.

Remember, the point of a review is to get the attention of people who might buy your book – your target audience.

Events

You didn’t think you could sit at home the whole time, did you? Unless you’re writing stories for your kid(s) and family alone (which I have done), your target audience is not just sitting in your living room.

For me, the places are sci-fi conventions, book fairs, and book stores. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but there are a lot around and they are all over the place.

The question is, is it worth the money?

The answer is yes. And no.

Events aren’t going to be the places you build up huge audience. You won’t get massive sales there. If you’re lucky, you’ll break even.

What events will give you are fans. Real fans. Not just people who like you on twitter, but people who have met you, talked to you, listened to you, and actively liked you. These people are worth a dozen facebook followers and a hundred twitter followers because they’re the ones that are going to say to their friends, “I met him/her. He/she is a really nice person and writes such wonderful books.  You should definitely buy his/her book so that he/she can afford to write more!”

Fans are worth their weight in gold and need to be properly cultivated.  And the more of them you have, the more of them you’re going to get as they tell their friends, “hey, have you read this?”

One Last Thing: Don’t be Creepy

I’ll get into this more when I talk about each social media feed (especially Twitter), but I want to mention it here:

Don’t be creepy.

Don’t get in people’s faces, don’t ask personal questions, and don’t send out material that is racist, sexist or hate-filled.  This makes you a jerk, and very few people like following a jerk.

If part of your demographic is teenagers (and part of mine is) or children (not my demographic, but might be yours) NEVER send out material with explicit sexuality or explicitly violent images. Don’t make sexual jokes or sexual innuendoes, on line or in person, and always be on your best behavior at conventions and events.

As a writer, you are the chief spokesperson for your product.  Be the sort of person that even people who aren’t in your target audience will say, “They seem like good people.”

That’s it for this week.

Next week: Twittering To The Masses, My Journey So Far.

This Writing Life 6: The One Rule to Writing

There is a plague of doubt that affects all writers.

Some are affected once in a while. Others are affected on a daily basis.

You sit down at your computer and you stare at the blank screen and as you begin to type you wonder: “Am I doing this right?”

Well have NO FEAR, because today, and TODAY ONLY, Erik will reveal to you the ONE TRUE RULE TO WRITING!

That’s right! There’s one rule and one rule only and today, for FREE, Erik will share it with YOU!

Does it Matter What I Write?

NO!

Whether you’re a blogger, a poet, a playwright, a scriptwriter, a novelist, a journalist or any other kind of writer there is only ONE RULE.

Does It Matter How I Write?

You weren’t listening to the last question, were you?

NO!

It doesn’t matter WHAT you write! It doesn’t matter HOW you write! It doesn’t even matter what LANGUGE you write in, THERE IS ONLY ONE RULE!

How Do You Know this One Rule?

Really? We have to get into this?

Sigh.

Fine.

I formulated the ONE RULE TO WRITING after years of talking to wannabe writers at various conventions. It came into full bloom a few years back at the Ad Astra Convention (and if you are a writer of genre fiction in or near Toronto, you should go to this one).

And I should mention, I was hardly the first to figure it out.

I was on a panel about writing groups. The other three on the panel were very much pro-writing groups. I was there to take the negative. I figured people could use my experience to learn what to avoid. (That will be another blog post)

Two of the other three didn’t show up.  The one who did was Brandon Sanderson.

He and I talked for a bit before the panel started, and we switched formats because really, no one was there to see me. So I interviewed Brandon and he is excellent to interview. At one point we were asked if there were any rules to writing. He said there were none, I said there was one, and when I said what it was, he agreed with me.

Now, back to the rampant hyperbole…

If the One Rule Is So Amazing, Why Are You Giving It Away For Free?

Because writers all over the world deserve to share in the ON RULE!  It is the great secret to ALL WRITING. Without it, THE LITERARY WORLD WOULD NEVER HAVE EXISTED!!!

Is that too many capital letters and exclamation points?

NO!!!

The rule is too important not to share! Why, I'm not even going to ask that you go buy my books, Small Magics and Cold Magics, before you learn it (though if you wanted to, you could... just saying).

So When Are You Going to Share It?

AS SOON AS I RUN OUT OF RAMPANT HYPERBOLE!!!

And That Would Be When?

NOW!

Sit down.

Brace yourself.

Be prepared for the BRIGHTEST LIGHT OF INSPIRATION you have ever seen to go off in your head!

THE ONE RULE TO WRITING IS….

(Isn’t the anticipation killing you?)

THE ONE RULE TO WRITING IS….


You must finish.

Really? All This for That?

Yeah, it was more fun this way.

But "You must finish," it is the only rule.  Because no matter what you write about, no matter what genre or medium you write in, no matter what method you use to write (and that will be next week’s blog post) if you want to actually call yourself a writer, you have to finish your work.

I have met lots of people still working on that novel after 10 years, still working on those poem or short stories or screenplays that never, ever get them done.  They are not writers.  They are wannabes. They could become writers easy enough, but they haven't followed the one rule.

The difference between being a writer and not being a writer is finishing your work.

So follow the one rule.

Finish.

Next Week: Outliners vs. Pantsers or The Many Styles of Writing Stuff

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Marketing True Magics 5: Target Audiences or Who Are My Readers?

The single hardest thing in any business is getting people to know you exist. And in this business, it can be very difficult indeed.

 There were (on a researched guess because stats are hard to find) approximately 2,000,000 books published last year world-wide, including self-publishing.

That’s a whole lot of books.

Add to that, that most book purchases are impulse purchases, and without a powerhouse distributor behind you to ensure your book is in every bookstore, drugstore, airport and Walmart in the country, it becomes very easy to be lost in the clutter.

So how do we get noticed?

Your Target Audience
The writer in me always imagines either a group of people sitting in front of a stage wearing t-shirts with a series of coloured, concentric circles on them, or a large group of people staring eagerly at an archery butt.  Both are wrong, though the first one is pretty close:

A writer’s target audience is the group of people most likely to buy that writer’s books.

This is one of the reasons many writers stick to one genre.  If you’ve done fairly well with your gritty, realistic detective dramas, chances are your audience isn’t necessarily going to enjoy the fantasy romance with the beautiful magical princess you’ve just written.

 (And vice-versa: never underestimate the selling power of the fantasy romance with a beautiful magical princess).

There are ways around this, of course.  J.K. Rowling writes her detective series under a different name. Other authors who work across genres do the same.  Some write across genres and work hard to make sure each audience knows what they’re getting, which takes some work, but can also yield good results, though it may drive their agent/publisher insane.

“My Book Appeals to Everyone!”
No. It doesn’t.

No book appeals to everyone, and thinking that yours does means that you are going to be wasting your time and your money marketing to the wrong people, and will probably sell a lot fewer copies than you would otherwise.

Take the time to define exactly what genre your books are in.

My first three novels (Small Magics, Cold Magics and in April 2015, True Magics) are Fantasy Genre, and would be considered either New Adult or Young Adult.

By way of comparison, my new series (under development), is Young Adult, Horror, Ghost Stories, Historical (Victorian).

The more specific you can be about what sort of book you have written, the easier it is to find the sort of people who want to read it.

Speaking of which…

Next Week: Reaching Your Target Audience (without being creepy)

This Writing Life 5: Prioritizing and Protecting Your Time

It used to be easy to avoid distractions. Take the phone off the hook, put up a “do not disturb sign”, turn off the TV and don’t answer the door. Problem solved.

Yeah, I’m old.

These days, we live in a state of constant distraction, thanks to the Internet and all it provides. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, are all designed to keep you looking so they can sell more ad space. Same with all those sites that I use to keep my twitter feed busy.  So how, if you are a stay-at-home, working by the hour/job consultant and writer, do you manage to overcome the distractions and make a living?

Willpower. Sheer, unadulterated, massive willpower; nothing else will…
…
…
I’m sorry, I couldn’t finish that sentence I was laughing so hard.

Willpower doesn’t work for squat. You only have so much brainpower to power everything including your will and a lot of it is needed for work.  So here, really, is what I do.

What’s Worth Your Time: Urgent vs. Important
The first step is figuring out which of the things that you are doing are actually worth your time.  There’s a whole whack of ways to figure out what’s important in your life, but I like the Urgent vs Important matrix.  This tool was used by General/President Eisenhower, though I’m not sure he invented it.  Either way, he was pretty darn organized.

The matrix looks like this:

	Important	Not Important
Urgent
Not Urgent

And everything you do in a day goes inside it.  So for my day today, it looks like this

	Important	Not Important
Urgent	Blog post, work for client, edit new book, get kid to and from day camp,	Work out, create plot arc for new series, housework
Not Urgent	Phone calls, text messages	Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, , TV, etc.

Amazing how housework is almost never actually Urgent and Important at the same time. That changes places when my mother is coming to town.

Simple, easy and allows you to see which things you are wasting your time on so you can minimize it.

A Note on Multiple Priorities
If you have more than one client/project on the go (and looking at my job board right now I have 12) then you need to prioritize them in your day. Here’s a suggestion

1. Are they paying you?
2. Is it on a deadline?
3. Will it further your career?
4. Does it involve housecleaning?

The number of “Yes” answers you get for the first three should help you place the project in order of importance/urgency.

If the answer to the 4th question is “Yes”, the project cannot be considered urgent and important unless you also answer “Yes” to one of the first three or your relatives are coming for a visit (or you need a clean space to work, which can happen I’ve heard).

…But There’s All These Interwebs!
The internet is a time suck. Turn it off.  And I don’t mean close your browser because that doesn’t work. I get distracted or bored and turn it on again, and there goes the morning/day/week/July to October, 2012.

Fortunately, there are dozens of apps out there that will temporarily disable your social media and Internet. I use Anti-Social when I’m working on client projects because it blocks social media but allows me to research as needed and use my online tracker for hours. I use Freedom when I’m writing my own stuff because it blocks the Internet completely.  Both work well and don’t stop working until the timer run out or I reboot my computer.

Keeping On Keeping On.
Some days none of this works.

You know your priorities; you know you should turn on Freedom/Anti-Social/Whatever; you know your bum should be in your chair, your fingers should be on your keyboard and your cursor should be moving to the right.

But you don’t do it.

These are wasted days. Wasted days mean no earnings, no movement forward on your goals, and no luck convincing your significant other there’s a good reason why the kitchen isn’t clean.

And sometimes they happen.

There's a lot of reasons wasted days happen.  Lack of external stimulation, maybe. Lack of exercise or sleep or solitude or maybe your brain just needs to recharge.

If wasted days start happening regularly, or if they happen more than two days in a row, you need to sit down and re-think your schedule.  You are falling into a rut that can really, really mess up your life (and your ability to pay rent).

So, if you lose a day, feel free to berate yourself and be angry and upset. But the next day, be back at your desk, and the next and the next. Keep on keeping on.

Because if you can’t do that, you need to find another line of work.

Next week: The One Rule to to Writing!

Marketing True Magics 4: Cutting Through the Clutter or: Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick Two.

I spent 15 years as an actor before my daughter was born. Chances are you’ve never heard of me.  Most actors aren’t stars. But that’s all right. I’m not bitter at all. I don’t still pine for it like a Norwegian Blue pining for the Fjords.

…But enough of that.

I spent most of my career on stage, and there I was introduced to one of the most useful expressions ever:

“Good, fast, cheap. Pick two.”

Good and fast costs money. Good and cheap takes time. Fast and cheap may do in a pinch but will have no staying power.

Now, let’s apply that to social media marketing, because social media may be free, but that doesn’t mean it’s without cost.

Remember our graphic from last week?

Click here to see the full-size graphic at: http://forwallpapers.com/

We cannot be everywhere at once without a major outlay of time and money.  We can’t even be most places. Heck, even the limited amount of social media I do now is taking up more time that I want.

So how do we pick?

Defining Our Terms

Good social media grabs attention in a world where everyone is clamouring for it. And since you know you’re not going to get everyone’s attention, good social media will get the right people’s attention. (We’ll talk about target audiences next week). It is also going to keep their attention without harping on your book, because a social media plan that just advertises quickly becomes boring.  And boring social media is forgotten social media.

Fast social media keeps up with the trends. It makes your followers/fans/ listeners/viewers/whatever count skyrocket. It’s right there in people’s faces anytime day or night. The people who follow you know what’s happening, when it’s happening, and they look to you to tell them.

Cheap social media isn’t ineffective, just inexpensive. It means doing things yourself rather than having them done for you, and doing them the simplest way possible. You don’t need to spend a fortune to get what you want, but you are going to need to spend time.  And the more social media coverage you want, the more time you are going to have to spend.

So, pick two.

My Picks: Good and (fairly) Cheap.
I am not made of money (pauses to imagine, sighs, continues) so I can’t invest huge amounts of it into marketing my books. I’m not made of spare time, either, so I need to not be continuously on social media. I need to focus on creating good, short social media that will reach as many people as possible, for as little expense as possible.

What I don’t need to be is fast. (Timely, yes, but that’s a different post). I write books. I’m not a fashion critic, news outlet or gossip site. My work isn’t urgent tell everyone NOW!

Add that to a publishing date that’s not until next April and I’ve got plenty of time to get things built up, automated and ready to go.

What It Means for My Social Media Marketing
It means I’ll be doing a slow, multi-pronged social media campaign, organically building followers across all mediums to maximize coverage and exposure to my target markets. This will enable the maximization of conversions from followers to customers and result in monetization through product sales …

Sorry, fell into marketing speak. Trying again:

I’ll be using Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Goodreads, and possibly YouTube (listed in order of use, not order of value) to reach out and tell people about my books and about me, and to get people to buy my books.

I am open to adding other sources, but only if I can prove they will be worth the time and effort.

I am automating my Social Media feeds using Hootsuite so I don’t have to be on it all the time. I’m also using a news aggregator (feed.ly) to find interesting content to post when I don’t personally have anything interesting to say, and to follow certain topics on my newsfeeds so I don’t have to scroll endlessly on my phone.

As for how well it’s going to work…  that’s what we’re all going to find out.

Next week: Target Audiences or Who ARE All These People?

This Writing Life 4: Scheduling or, Where Is My COFFEE???

The Schedule:

6 a.m. wake up
6:15 a.m. workout & light stretching
7 a.m. Make girlfriend’s lunch for work, shave, shower, eat breakfast
7:30 a.m. Check email, Facebook, Twitter, webcomics and news
7:45 a.m. Daughter comes over from Mom’s place
8:00 a.m. Workout with daughter: strengthening and Kung Fu
8:30 a.m. Get daughter organized for day camp
8:45 a.m. Bike daughter to day camp and back
9:15 a.m. Home and blog
10:00 a.m. Ghostwriting
12:30 p.m. Lunch
1 p.m. Ghostwriting
3:45 p.m. Bike to day-camp to pick up daughter
4:15 p.m. Home and work while daughter practices piano
5:30 p.m. Make dinner, hang out with family
8:00 p.m. Write.
10 p.m.  Get ready for bed.
11 p.m. Sleep

No excuses, no arguments, no changes. Right?

Riiiiiiiighhhhhht.

The Reality
The tighter the schedule, the less likely it is to work out, unless you have your own administrative assistant.  So far today, the workout happened on time, but we couldn’t find my daughter’s backpack, it took longer to get to day-camp than we thought, I needed to get new pedals for my bike and a loaf of bread for lunch and an apple turnover because apple turnover. And I spilled a pint glass of very cold water over myself and the floor.

It’s already gone 10 a.m. and I still haven’t had a cup of coffee.

Excuse me…

Ah. Coffee. Better now.

Schedule Sanely
Schedules are vital. Knowing when you need to work and what you're working on is the key to running any freelance business, whether it’s writing or anything else. Blocking your time appropriately means you get more done, have more free time, and feel better about each day.  Just don’t block every minute because chances are things will go wrong and then you’ll feel grumpy about it all.

Write your schedule down and keep it someplace where you can see it. I use a notebook that I keep beside me on my desk for the daily stuff. I also have a wall calendar in front of me that shows the week, month and year, because some things need to be planned ahead.

Be Flexible…
Because not everything works out as planned.  Do your best to stay on schedule and try not to go mad when you don’t.   Sometimes you have to pick things to set aside one day, knowing that you will get them done the next. That said...

Hit Your Deadlines
Because you want to do this for a living, and no one hire someone twice who can’t get work in on time.

And that’s it for today because I am behind on my projects.

Next time on this Writer’s Life: Prioritizing and Protecting your Time (Put Down the Smart Phone!)

"True Magics" release date!!!

Hi everyone!

We have finally nailed down our release date for True Magics.

We had hoped to have it ready for fall 2014, but after consulting with my editor and publisher at Dragon Moon Press, we have all agreed to push it back to ensure the book is at the level of quality you expect from DMP and from me.

Our new release date for True Magics is April 2015, and in keeping with Dragon Moon Press tradition, we will be launching it at Ad Astra, "Toronto's premiere SF and Fantasy Fan Convention."

While I am sad the book will not be out this fall, I am thrilled to be launching at Ad Astra.

Ad Astra is a great convention, by fans, for fans, that focuses on literary SF&F as well as media.  I have always had a wonderful time there, and expect next year to be no different.

And in the meantime, I have short story or two I want to write, another novel to edit, new novels to plan and write, a web series to produce and another short film to write and shoot. Then there's that whole marketing plan I've been talking about...

So thank you for your patience. I think it's going to be a great book.

And if you haven't picked up Small Magics and Cold Magics yet, now would be an excellent time.

Marketing True Magics 3: Social Media or What Fresh Hell is This?

Ah, social media. We love you. We hate you. Especially Facebook. We all love hating Facebook. But social media is here to stay and needs to be integrated into any marketing campaign.  This leads to some issues...

So, So Many Choices…

Social media is a massive opportunity and an equally massive pain in the location of your choice, in part because what's most effective keeps changing!

First there was MySpace. Best thing ever. Then it sucked. Now it’s all about promoting bands and music, so it has found its niche but it’s useless for book promoting purposes.

Then there was Facebook. Best thing ever. Then it changed its algorithm to maximize its ad revenue so  only 4% of your fan base see your posts unless you pay money. So they suck.

Now there is Twitter where you can actually reach your followers if you happen to tweet at the right time to maximize the number of followers who see it read it, or enough times that everyone sees it, but not so often that it annoys people and makes them stop following you.

Instagram is coming up, because the only thing better than a short message is a short message with a picture. Usually of your food. Or your self. Or your cat, because cats.

And don’t forget Pinterest, where you can amalgamate stories and website and things that interest you and hope others follow your pins and find you fascinating enough to buy your books.

Did We Mention Blogging?

Blogging is a great way to drive traffic to your website, make people see you as an authority or at least interesting and you can hook it up to your Twitter and Facebook feeds to further drive traffic to your website and engage people so they will make a purchase.

Not that that’s why I’m doing all these posts and have you bought my books, Small Magics and Cold Magics yet?

And Then There Are All These:

Click here to see the full-size graphic at: http://forwallpapers.com/

Got a headache yet?

And Don’t Forget: Content is King…

You have to have something to say, if you want people to listen.

No one likes the guy screaming BUY MY BOOK! NO REALLY, BUY MY BOOK! I HAVEN’T GIVEN YOU A REASON TO THINK I’M INTERESTING, BUT BUY MY BOOK! 

So you need to sit down and develop exciting, engaging content that will help change readers to fan and fans to customers. In all that spare time you have between working and writing and managing all your social media platforms. Oh, and your family. You should probably feed them once in a while. especially the kids.

So What Do I Do?!?!?

How do I maximize my presence on social media in a way that will enable me to reach the individuals that might be interested in buying my book and convert them from prospects into customers while at the same time not taking away my entire life and leaving me no time to write more books which are the product I am selling?

Next week: Cutting Through the Clutter or Good, Fast, Cheap: Pick Two.

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This Writing Life 3: Making a Living

Every now and then I sit back in my kitchen chair, look around with surprise and wonder how I got this lucky.

Because I am, make no mistake about it. Hard work is no guarantee for success. If it were, there’d be a lot more successful people in this world.  I worked hard but I also got lucky, and I am aware of that every day.

That said, I did some things along the way.

My Foundation
I would love to say that my whole life I wanted to be a writer and focused all my energy toward it, but that isn’t true.

I wanted to be a fighter pilot!

My eyesight went when I was eight. So much for that. The rest of the things I did you can read about in this post.

So rather than starting with a solid “writer’s” foundation, I built mine piecemeal, on the job, learning how as I went. The classes I took to build my day-job credentials, from marketing to project management, also helped.  So did writing continuously and listening to my editors.

Especially listening to my editors. For God’s sake listen to your editors!

That’s how I built my foundation: piece by slow piece. And if you’re a young writer, contemplating making a career out of this, I have two bits of advice:

One: It may take a while.

Two: For God’s sake, don’t do it my way. My way sucked. Get an English degree, find job that keeps you in beer and skittles, and write.

Credentials
I was going to wax eloquent here, but it’s easier just to attach my résumé and sounds less like bragging. Here it is.

Where the Money Comes From
I make most of my money ghostwriting through Elance, which I recommend. Their system ensures that you get paid for the work you do (so do Odesk and Guru, and I’m on them as well) and allows you to rate clients as well as have them rate you. You do good work, you get good ratings, you get more work. It’s a lovely circle.

Like all online job sources, elance is a user-beware kind of place. Some people will contact you through elance and then try to hire you outside of it. Don’t do it. Unless the person is in your town, you’ve met them, and they’re willing to pay you in advance, it’s way too easy for them to rip you off.

There are also a large number of people who are more than willing to rip you off by offering miniscule amounts for the work that you do. Don’t take those jobs. You’re worth money so get paid for your time.

I also make money working locally, through contacts I’ve developed in my industry and in others. I write scripts, speeches newsletters and whatever else comes my way.

So that’s how I earn my living. Sorry I didn’t have any great secrets to depart, but if you’re willing to pay a ridiculous fee, I’ll be more than willing to make some up. :-)

Next week: Scheduling, because if you can’t do that, you need to find another line of work.

Marketing True Magics 2: It’s Not Just the Book

To review: I have finished True Magics, third book in my Magics Trilogy (you can buy Small Magics and Cold Magics here), I have a contract to have them published this fall, and I have time to build a proper marketing campaign.

So what do I do next?

Being a good little Communications Consultant who wants to sell lots books, I researched best practices: who sold how many books doing what when and how?

And the answer that leapt in big bold exciting letters was:

IT’S NOT JUST THE BOOK!!! IT’S ABOUT YOU!!!

Yes, you! The author! You have to be interesting! You have to be exciting! You have to reach out and let the world know about YOU! You have to get on social media! You have to blog! You have to Tweet! You have to Pin! You have to Instagram! You have to do that new exciting fifteen second-video thing! You have to make appearances! You have to go to book fairs! You have to go to conventions! You have to do signings and readings! You need to be in schools! You need to be in universities! You need to be at conferences!

YOU NEED TO SELL YOU!!!

Yeah, right.

No.

Well, yes.... Sort of.... But, no.

Or more correctly: Yes and No.

I'd better explain.

What AreYou Really Marketing?
The first question a good marketer asks is, “What do I want people to think, feel, and do?”

A marketer has to be able to answer all three, because without all three, nothing happens. People need to know about a product (think) and they need to connect with it on an emotional level (feel) before they will purchase that product (do).

So how does that work with selling books?

NON-FICTION writers need to market the author. Whether they’ve written Integrating Lean Sigma Six into Your Home Based Marmalade Business, or Fifty-Five Ways Diaper Cream Can Improve Your Bottom Line, the non-fiction writer’s potential customers need to think that the author is a subject matter expert; they need to feel that the author can be trusted and the author’s idea is a great one, and then they will do the buying of the author’s book.

FICTION writers need to market the writing. We need people to think that our writing is entertaining and to feel our writing is worth their time and money, before they will do (by buying our book).

So does this mean that the fiction writer doesn't have to get on social media and blog or tweet or pin or instagram or do that 15 second video thing? That we can stay home from book fairs and conventions and signings and readings?

We should be so lucky.

Right now most of our potential customers have no idea how good our writing actually is. And unless we are already bestselling authors, no one except for us is going to put in the effort to let people know it.

So yes, we need to do social media, and book tours and conventions and all of that. And we need to promote it to the right people, or we’re wasting our time.

So it's not just the book, it's the writing.

So my job is to convince people that I write well and that they should buy my book.

Now, how shall I reach them?

Next week: Social Media Platforms or What Fresh Hell is This?

This Writing Life 2: How I got here.

The final step was losing my job.

The first step was thirty-five years earlier in grade 3 at William Grayson School in Moose Jaw Saskatchewan, when I decided to write a book.

It wasn’t original – the characters and stories came from comics I was reading. It probably wasn’t that good because, hey, I was nine. But it was ten pages double sided in my duo-tang and I thought it was pretty impressive.

That was when I started writing.

I wrote stories continuously, but never thought of submitting them. And while the family might have been impressed and my granddad liked my writing, at no time did anyone suggest “you could make a living from this.” It wasn’t something my family (and therefore I) saw as a career path.

By the time I finished high school I wanted to be an actor. I studied theatre in university.  I moved to Toronto, discovered fight directing and learned how to do that. I finished my first novel but didn’t do anything with it. I met the woman who became my wife. I supported myself doing contract work for charities while not so much pursuing as stumbling blindly after an elusive acting career at a time when the film industry in Toronto was flagging.

My wife decided to leave the theatre to find steady work. We decided to have a child and so I left the theatre too and searched for a career. I tried working as a fundraiser and discovered I was terrible at it. Then I got hired by Manage My Home to be their staff writer.

I wrote more than 150 Home Maintenance articles in a two-year period. And if you think you can’t find more than 150 things to talk about in home maintenance, you’ve never owned a house. I have.

We bought it because we were both making good money and we had a child. I published my first novel, and for the first time writing seemed like a viable career. Everything seemed right. Except it wasn’t.

Our marriage started falling apart. We went to counselling. Manage My Home was bought by a much larger company who didn’t believe in having staff writers and I lost my job. We quit counselling so I could focus on finding a job. I went to school at night and got a certificate in Corporate Communications. I was hired by Trillium Health Centre, making better money than before.

Things righted themselves for a while. We went back to counselling, and I wrote my second published novel in 2-hour slots from 10 p.m. to midnight while my wife and little girl were asleep. I lived on six or less hours sleep a night for a year and somewhere in the midst of it all we realized our marriage was over.

We sold the house, separated and moved into apartments close to our daughter’s new school. And just as things were sorting themselves out, Trillium Health Centre merged with another hospital and I lost my job again.

They were very nice about it. They set me up with one of the best employment agencies in Canada and sent me home.

Where I stewed.

I didn't want to work in offices anymore. I didn't want to drive two hours a day to get to and from work.

I didn’t go to the employment agency, or take their courses. Instead, I started wondering about starting my own business; one where I write and people pay me for it.

So I did.

Which leads us to next week's post: How I make a living at this.

Marketing "True Magics" 1: It’s Written! Now What?

I’ve got True Magics written! It’s done! And I have a contract with a Dragon Moon Press to publish it! This is amazing! It’s wonderful! It’s…

… the third time I’ve done this. And yes, it is still cool.

My first published novel was Small Magics (2007), my second was Cold Magics (2010). True Magics (2014?) will be my third.

My name is Erik Buchanan. If you read my last post, you’ll know I’m an author, and you’ll know that I am a professional writer. It’s all I do and it’s how I earn my living.

What you don’t know is that I spent seven years working in corporate communications, which is a not-selling-you-something way of saying marketing.

And for those seven years I was too busy, too tired and too wrapped up in making a living and commuting and working over time and dealing with my disintegrating marriage and building a new life after separation to focus on the thing that I really wanted: being a professional author.

Now, things have settled. I don’t have a commute anymore, save from the bedroom to the kitchen table where I work. I do what I love for a living.  My domestic life has stabilized and most of the stress that was sucking the energy and life out of me has gone.

And that means I have both the time and resources to properly market my latest book, and use what I build there to help sell the next one.

These blog posts: “Marketing True Magics” are going to document this journey, from picking the tools I’m going to use, to planning out the marketing strategy, to implementation of the tactics that will support that strategy.

And I am hoping that you’ll come with me. Whether you’re an author or an aspiring author, a marketer, an agent or an editor, a fan or just curious to see what goes into making a small press book get noticed.

Together we’re going to see what works well and what works poorly, what helps sell my book and what wastes my time.  And at the end of it all, we’ll all know more so that for my next book (or for your next book) we’ll do even better.

Next week: It’s Not Just the Book.

This Writing Life 1: Introductions

It's 8:30 a.m. and I am at my desk.

Well, desk is a misnomer.  I'm sitting at the kitchen table in our apartment in downtown Toronto, Canada. But this table is where I work, so until the family comes home it’s my desk.

My name is Erik Buchanan. I’m a professional writer, and I make a pretty good living at it.  “This Writing Life” is a series about how I got here, how I stay here, how you can get here, and what all of us who write can do to improve our writing.

My desk chair faces a wall. There’s a window beside me but I have to crane my neck to look out, which keeps me from staring at the garden and daydreaming.

Instead, if I look up from my computer I can see two whiteboards. The smaller whiteboard lists my projects. There are about a dozen, and so far everything is running on time.

The big whiteboard shows the story arcs for my new novel, True Magics, (due out this fall). The story arcs are written in in eight different colours and look a mess, but they tells me exactly what I need to fix.

Today’s writing tasks:

• This blog post
• Four hours of ghostwriting for a client,
• Three hours of editing on True Magics

Tomorrow looks similar, except it’s six hours of editing True Magics, seven if I can squeeze in the time.

This is where I am: in my office, writing for a living. And I love it.

So how did I get here?

I’ll talk about that next week.