7 myths about being an author
Ever dream about becoming an author? Today it’s easier than ever. And I will be first in line to encourage you to pursue your dream. But making your dream come true means one also takes into account the cost, the reality, and the practicality of how to make that dream actually happen.
The following seven “dream-busting” myths are not meant to discourage you but rather to toughen you up for the exhilarating but often difficult journey almost every author encounters.
1. Publishing a book will make you an instant celebrity. The truth is, it may make you a celebrity in your circle of family and friends but there’s a lot of book competition. In 2011, three million books were published in the United States and the count has been doubling, tripling, rising steadily every year.
2. Becoming a published author will make you rich. The average book sells 500 copies. That’s an average. If you take into account that the big sellers sell millions of books it means that there are many authors who sell less than 100 books. Thousands upon thousands of authors can’t even give away their books. Are they bad? Not necessarily. Perhaps, there was simply no interest in the topic, style of writing, or any number of other factors that weren’t taken into consideration before the books were printed.
3. Having a book will open doors to get you onto radio and television. Sorry, not even close. In fact, one radio host told me privately that authors are in fact some of the worst people to have on his show. A lot of authors, he says, can string a bunch of words together beautifully on paper but flounder hopelessly in front of a mic. Most authors will benefit from media training if they want to sell books on the air.
4. Once your book is published, everyone will want to buy it. Wrong again. This was never true even back in the good old days when fewer books were being published. Many people only buy books from authors they already know and love. It takes work, persistence, and imagination to get your book selling by the cartload.
5. The hardest part of book publishing is writing the book. If only that were true! It does indeed take hard work to write a book and even harder work to stay with the editing and rewriting until it actually sparkles. And it is true the publishing part is the easiest of the whole process. But the truly hard part for most authors is marketing. The good thing is that once authors make the commitment to promote their books, many find that, though hard, it is lots of fun!
6. Once your book goes to press, your job is done. Only if you want to print 25 books and send them as Christmas presents. Selling book number 26 to 5,000 is going to take some push and promotion. Many authors mistakenly believe that it’s up to the publisher to promote their books. The fact is, even major publishers spend only a tiny fraction of time and energy to promote a new book. Unless it’s going to be a mega seller. And even then, popular authors with bestselling books spend hours on the road, in front of cameras, talking on radio shows, and doing a lot to promote their books. Once your book is published the “real work” has only begun!
7. Every book can be marketed in the same way. This may only be true if you’re writing a series of books with the same topic, same target audience, and same appeal. But every day is a new day. What sells like hotcakes one year may not have the same thrill of excitement another year. Fads come and go. Vampires are in, vampires are out. You must constantly study the market, follow the flow, and, if at all possible, get ahead of it with imagination, creativity, and boldness in order to get and keep your book in the limelight.
So, does this mean you shouldn’t write and publish a book? Not at all. If you want to do it, jump in and start making a splash in the water. Once you have your feet wet go out a little deeper and learn to swim. Just as you can get a lot of enjoyment out of swimming without being an Olympic champion, you will discover there are many rewards to writing a book besides fame and fortune. And there’s always a chance your book will make it big. Especially if you have the fervor and commitment to see it through to the end.
You’ll never know if you don’t try.
Finally, I leave you with the best reason of all for writing a book: Do it because you love it. Because you have a story to tell and a message to share. As a result, once you’re done with the manuscript and your book is published, not only will you have a huge sense of accomplishment, you will experience the joy that being an author (yes, even an only slightly famous one) can bring.
The easy button for building your author platform
Over the years, we’ve probably heard one statement more frequently than any other from our author clients: “I don’t want to market my book, I just want to spend my time writing.”
But as an author—and as an entrepreneur—you have a message for your audience. It’s your duty to let them hear it—and you accomplish this task through marketing.
Naturally, you may just want to write—to focus on crafting your message. You may even wish someone else would take your message to your audience. But the truth is, if you really care about your audience, you’ll want to deliver your message yourself because you are the best possible messenger. Don’t be like the mailman who landed in jail for throwing away all the mail in a dumpster instead of delivering it!
Now, suppose there was a way for you to just “sit and type all day” but still be able to connect with your audience: one by one, then dozens at a time… then hundreds, even thousands of people at once. Just by sitting and typing away, day after day…
Yes, wouldn’t it be great to have an “easy button” where, when you pressed it, you’d get to write all day, and your audience would just magically show up to read what you’ve written?
Well, there is such an “easy button” now! We call it the Authors Academy Simple Marketing System. By using the power of online search, social media, content automation, and email marketing, this comprehensive system gets you started building your online author platform and building a dedicated list of followers with an absolute minimum of fuss and zero technical knowledge. All you have to do is write!
We start with a questionnaire about your past experiences and how you really want to be known as an author. We’ll use your responses to create an in-depth positioning analysis of you and your author brand. We’ll do custom keyword research and help you develop your new author brand, including the design and branding of your new website and all your social media marketing channels.
Then we’ll create a custom branded author website that looks great not only on a desktop computer but also on phones and other mobile devices. We’ll include a lead capture form so you can build your own email list of readers. We’ll also make it easy for your visitors to share your message to their friends via social media. You’ll receive comprehensive monthly marketing training, website hosting, technical support, site maintenance, and analytics reporting as part of this system.
Next we’ll create and optimize your Amazon Author Page. Amazon is the 800-pound gorilla of online bookselling, and by optimizing their Amazon pages, Wheatmark clients and Authors Academy members have helped swarms of new readers discover their books, selling thousands of copies in the process. We’ll link up your website so that your Amazon visitors can see your latest blog posts as well, prompting them to visit your site. We’ll also make sure to add relevant keywords to your Amazon profile so that prospective customers can find you and your work, kickstarting your marketing on the most powerful bookselling site around.
We’ll also get you set up on all relevant social media channels—at the bare minimum, Facebook and Twitter—and optimize them for your best keywords.
Don’t worry, we’re not creating a major time-suck for you: you won’t even have to log in to these social media sites unless you really want to. When you post a new blog on your branded website, the link will automatically be posted on your branded Facebook author page and sent out via your branded Twitter feed as well. This automated content syndication will help you to organically grow your list of followers while at the same time driving traffic back to your site where you can capture the email addresses of your new followers.
The final and most important piece of the marketing puzzle is building your email list. This is a list of fans and prospective book buyers from whom you gain permission to market to over and over again. It’s the most important piece of the System because you own and control this contact list—not Facebook, Twitter, Google, or Amazon.
We’ll set up an email marketing system and import your existing opt-in list, if applicable. We’ll also set it up so that when you post to your blog, your list will automatically be notified of the new post.
By implementing the Simple Marketing System you’re guaranteed to distinguish yourself from the thousands of other authors publishing books this year. In fact, many established businesses don’t even have a marketing system that approaches this level of sophistication and complexity. We know this System works—it’s the exact same one that we’ve used to build our own list of nearly 30,000 contacts.
To find out more or to get started, attend this FREE webinar:
See you there!
9 guerilla book marketing survival tips for bestselling authors
Ever wonder how popular authors seem to be everywhere at once and still have time to write another bestseller? Super authors do not have magic powers. What they do have, though, are a few secret weapons in their arsenal that keep them on the front lines while giving them time to type away on their laptops in the back.
Here are nine book marketing survival tips and tricks they use that make a difference:
1. Basic strategic planning is number one on their list. Getting to the top by luck might happen to a few authors once in a decade. Most of them, though, carefully calculated what it would take, mapped out a strategy, and kept to it. Many of these authors had a coach or special mentor that advised them. Others simply read and studied what worked for other authors and implemented those actions into their own battle plan.
2. Budgeted their time. Once a plan is in place, they mapped out how long each activity would take and put it in their calendar. Time management is not a mental juggling game. To be the most effective, each activity is scheduled into their daily routine. They know that a little bit every day pays off in better results than a weekly or monthly social medial cram session.
3. Prioritize activities. For every popular author, the number one priority will usually be writing on his or her next project. But building reader relationships (the essence of all marketing activity) for their book can never be forgotten or placed lower than number two. Who knows how many wonderful books never made it simply because they were never discovered?
4. They concentrate on what activities will most support their writing and simply delegate the rest. This could mean hiring a cook, a housekeeper, and a babysitter to free up more time. It could mean hiring a virtual assistant to handle book orders, email, and other correspondence. It also means getting professional help with book marketing, publicity, cover and layout design, website maintenance, and other promotional activities.
5. They constantly recycle content. Every speaking event—whether live or virtual—is recorded and offered for sale or as a free download. Their books are selectively cut and rewritten to create blogging content, tip sheets or articles for guest posts, magazines and newspapers.
6. Social media is front line work for today’s busy author, even the most reticent. A lot of this is hired out very unobtrusively. Their virtual assistant will type out quotes, tips, and other material from their work and schedule it to be tweeted, blogged, or socially shared in different venues. Surprisingly, many blogs today are ghostwritten (yes, even authors use them!) or accept guest posting to keep them active and current.
7. Bestselling authors will attend one to three book-marketing events every year. This is a prime way they connect with their audience, make important publishing and publicity contacts, and, of course, promote their books. They will also do book signing at bookstores, agree to interviews, and appear at social events when invited, as time permits.
8. Joint ventures. This is a powerful way that a number of popular authors actually became popular! Connecting with a prominent author can open doors you could never push open by yourself.
9. Radio and TV. This is still an important media outreach for these authors. Granted, not all authors felt comfortable going “live” in the beginning, but getting out of their comfort zone put them into a new zone of visibility. Many authors who invested in media training found that it more than paid for itself in gaining confidence and snagging interviews on bigger stations and networks.
If you are not a popular author yet but hope to be, Wheatmark can help you create a book marketing strategy that will help you maximize your impact while minimizing your time. Ask us how!
The secret to selling more books like Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen
Here are five ways to promote your books nonstop, following the bookselling successes of Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen, authors of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series.
1. Believe in your book even when no one else does.
It’s always fun to look back after success and smile with satisfaction. The difficulty is keeping up that smile in the beginning when victory is nowhere in sight. Holding a mental picture in your mind of what success will look like is one of the things that Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen used to keep them going. They actually took a cover of their own book, clipped off a New York Times bestseller image from another book, and pasted it on their own book cover. This simple “magic” trick of illusion implemented strongly in their mind a vision of success.
You can do the same. Before you lose hope with your own book’s success, visualize what success would look like. Paste it not only in the mental hallways of your mind but on the walls and mirrors of your home.
2. Promote your book at every opportunity, no matter how small.
One of the ways that both Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen pursued success was to take every opportunity for promotion that presented itself. Many times they would talk on tiny radio stations out in the cornfields of Iowa or the potato acres of Idaho. Size was nice but they didn’t restrict themselves with that. They used radio extensively in the beginning and continued to use it throughout. They also came up with innovative ideas to promote books. How to sell more books was almost a daily, ongoing mantra that they practiced as a religion. It became a single driving obsession. One that cultivated in massive book sales.
3. Push your book consistently.
With the success of their first Chicken Soup for the Soul book, they quickly did a second. Then another and another; each book built upon the platform of the first and each sequential book added more and more numbers to the next book’s success. Stopping promotion was never part of the game plan. They were relentless in 24/7 book promotion.
John Kremer, author of 1001 Ways to Market Your Books, gave them a bit of advice, and that was to do five things every day to promote their books. They grabbed onto that idea and ran with it as if it were a message sent from heaven. Never a day passed in which they didn’t find five promotional things to do. Sometimes they’d do five radio interviews; sometimes it would be a combination of bookstore visits, media blasts, and anything they could think of. It didn’t have to be five major things to do but it did have to be five.
Ask yourself that question: What five things could I do every day to promote my book?
4. Team up with a book partner who is as determined for success as you are.
Having a partner in your book marketing promotion is a huge help in staying with your program. Whether this person is a spouse, a friend, or a book publisher, it can mean the difference in continuing through the slow days of building a momentum or quitting. Having a partner who not only believes in what you’re doing but also is committed to be on your team, to push through with high energy, creative thinking, and passionate implementation, will propel you over the bar to reach for the stars.
5. Continue to raise the bar for success
What happens when you reach your goal? Celebrate. Definitely. But then if you’re like Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen you’ll create a new goal that’s bigger and better. Success is the best motivator for more success.
Start of by creating a goal that is big enough to be exciting but small enough so you can reach it with concentrated effort. Don’t make your first goal impossibly difficult, or one that will take a long time to achieve. Or else if you do, make smaller goals that become stepping-stones to the big one.
Are you ready to step into the book marketing challenge? Here are three tips: Keep it fun. Keep it simple. Keep doing it over and over. If you do that, your book too can have a great chance for success.
19 Pinterest board topics for authors
More and more authors, libraries, and publishers are finding creative ways to use Pinterest to draw in new readers. Even the big players like Random House and Scholastic have pin boards that are actively pinned and promoted.
This got me thinking about different board topics that authors might use to promote themselves. I decided to create a small list of topics that would give authors newly jumping onto the Pinterest platform a source of ideas.
Once I got started, I found that there were more topics than I ever dreamed of. Dozens and dozens of creative ways that authors were pinning themselves with reckless delight and abandon for book promotion. Most of these authors, libraries, or publishers have 30, 40, or 50 boards each, so I’m only including a few boards that struck me the most. Specifically, those that closely tie into book promotion.
This list then is a brief sampling to provide a springboard of ideas for your own Pinterest book promotion. And since Pinterest is all about link sharing, I am including the links to each board I found. Please feel free to add your own Pinterest author boards in the comments!
From Mandy Boles, the Well-Read Wife:
1. Books I love
2. Clothing accessories 4 book lovers
3. Beautiful library spaces
4. Cakes for book lovers
Note: Mandy has a Directory of 200 (and growing) book bloggers on Pinterest that will give you tons more ideas.
From Priscilla Warner – New York Times bestselling author:
From the Watertown Public Library:
6. Fun with books
7. Literary Lingo
8. Edible books
9. Creative bookmarks
From Jennifer Weiner:
10. Author photos
11. Judging my books by their covers
From Sarah Dessen:
12. Inspiration
13. Well said
14. What I’m reading
15. New paperback covers
From Stacy Millican:
16. Fun stuff for book lovers
17. Libraries, bookshelves and indies I adore
18. Books worth reading
From Allison’s bookmarks:
That’s it for now. I end this with a list of 88 authors of Young Adult fiction on Pinterest that I am sure will spur you on with even more pinning ideas.
Make Goodreads a part of your book marketing strategy for 2013
I had a friend once who carefully and patronizingly explained to me that if you want to catch fish you have to go where the fish are. The more fish, he stated, the easier it is to get a nibble and make a catch. As an author, if you want more readers you had better follow this same advice, pack up your book tackle and head on over to Goodreads and lay down some hooks.
If you’re not experienced with Goodreads you’re in for a surprise. It’s sort of like the super mall of the universe for readers. It was created in December of 2006 by Otis Chandler as a privately run cataloging site for books. One year later it had over 650,000 members and over 10,000,000 books in its system. Now, five years later, the numbers are astounding. 330 million books have been rated. It has almost ten million readers and attracts twenty million (that’s right, 20 million) visits a month.
Whoa. So it’s not surprising that you will also find that there are over 58,000 card-carrying, registered authors as well. James Patterson leads the list with 13 books, 395 friends, 13,938 fans and 2,481,373 member reviews. How would you like those numbers on your contact list?
If these statistics are not enough to convince you that you should be spending some quality time at Goodreads, I don’t quite know what else to say. Ellen Lee, of the San Francisco Chronicle had an interview with Otis Chandler in July of this year. In probably one of the biggest understatements of the year he casually stated that, “Goodreads is fast becoming the best way on the Internet to find a book to read. Everything we do is pretty much centered around helping users find books, discuss books and share books with their friends.”
As an author it doesn’t get much clearer than this. If you want to find new readers and get your books off the shelf and into the hands of readers, definitely make Goodreads a part of your book marketing strategy for 2013.
9 book marketing tips for introverts
Surprisingly, some of the best book marketing done today is done by introverts. It’s not how loud you shout your message but how well you spread it. Here are nine tips to get the word out about your book without appearing before a camera, holding a microphone, or standing on a stage.
1. Create a book marketing strategy that you will enjoy the most. If it’s interesting and fun, you’ll do it.
2. Pick a marketing project that is within your comfort zone. I know there’s a lot of self-help advice that says if you don’t get out of your comfort zone you won’t get ahead. Well, that’s one bit of advice. Here’s another just as powerful: Better to do something than nothing.
3. Create a blog. Most introverts have no problem writing and sharing in print. If this is you, then blogging is the perfect medium to get the word out. Many think of blogs as public personal diaries, which is not a comfortable thought for introverts. Instead, make your blog about your book, other people’s books, writing tips, a hobby, pets, any niche subject that interests you and is popular enough to get online traffic.
4. Get other book bloggers to blog about your book. Here’s a site that lists over 1,200 book blogs by book topic. Visit author and book sites that match your book topic and offer to send them a free book for possible review. Not all of them will do it and some will be swamped, but this is a wonderful way to build exposure and get backlinks to your own site to increase page ranking and popularity.
5. Use a social media tool that you feel comfortable with. Pick a topic to discuss that pertains to your book. That way the message is not about you but about your topic. Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+, and Tumblr are good starting points. Don’t do them all, select one or two that fits your personality and interest.
6. Enter your book in book and writing contests. If you win this can bring you not only recognition, get your work noticed by agents and editors, but you can mention your award on your book cover, news releases, and all publicity material. Many literary contests charge an entrance free so select only those that are perfect matches for your book and only compete when your book is at its absolute best. John Kremer offers a list of 50+ book and author award programs.
7. Send out news releases. There are literally hundreds of places to send out news releases to. Create a list of news sites, blogs, newspapers, and magazines that matches your book topic and audience. Send each of them a release every other month. If you have a big enough list this can keep you busy! See our five-part series on How to sell more books with news releases.
8. Get your book or ebook reviewed. The bigger reviewers such as New York Times Books, Amazon Readers Views, Book Reporter all receive hundreds of books a day to review, so only the cream of the crop will get selected. Yahoo Directory lists twenty sites of major book reviewers that will help you get started. I also recommend you submit your book to Midwest Book Review.
9. Send out a newsletter. Building a mailing list is the number one strategy for all book marketing whether one is an introvert or an extrovert. It’s the easiest and best way to stay connected with your reader. The letter does not have to be big, fancy, or even professional looking. What it does need to do is be consistent (send the same day every week, bi-weekly, or monthly), be friendly and offer something of value.
It’s the End of the Publishing World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine)
I’m sure most of you are aware of the popular theory that the ancient Mayan calendar predicts the world will end on December 21 of this year—yes, that all life on earth may be extinct shortly.
I’ll make a bold prediction: the Mayans got it wrong . . . or people are misinterpreting their calendar!
I will tell you what is going the way of the dodo, however: big traditional publishing houses. (Could the Mayan calendar be predicting their demise?)
In October, Penguin and Random House announced that they will merge, bringing the number of large global publishing houses from six to five. Give it a couple more years and that number will likely drop even lower as a result of further mergers and acquisitions.
What does this have to do with authors? Nothing if you’ve self-published your book or plan to do so. But if you’re holding out for a call from that elusive agent with connections at a traditional publishing house, be advised that this consolidation means that there will be fewer potential traditional publishing deals out there. And time is running out—the world is ending in a few weeks!
Whether you self-publish or are looking to get published by one of the “Big Six” (soon to be “Big Five,” and counting), your own platform as an author is the key to connecting with readers and customers, and not reliance on any publisher’s existing or nonexistent marketing plans. That’s why we’re going to focus on online author platform building in the Authors Academy in 2013. We’re also raising the membership fees (for new members only) from $17 to $37 on January 1, so now is the time to join and lock in the low charter membership rates. To sign up risk-free, visit http://authorsacademy.com/authors/
Free photo images for your author website
Are you wondering whether it’s worth the trouble to add photo images to your author blog posts? You don’t have to wonder any more. The results are in. A recent study by Skyword revealed that a relevant photograph or infographic added to a published article increased total views by 94%.
Have you noticed how shared photos on Facebook receive a lot more comments and likes than just a text status update?
With that kind of information in your back pocket it’s a total no-brainer that adding images is a “must do” task for any blog post you write.
Here’s a list of free great photo resources.
10 Free Photo Image Sites
Morguefile.com: “The morgue file contains free high resolution digital stock photographs and reference images for either corporate or public use.” Plus, you “are allowed to copy, distribute, transmit the work and to adapt the work. Attribution is not required. You are prohibited from using this work in a stand alone manner.” It doesn’t get much better than this.
Foter.com: Great site. Lots of images. You are asked to give photo credit for each picture used and they provide an easy link to do so.
Stock.xchng: Lots of images of high quality. The images are free to use on websites but you must get permission from the photographer for print or commercial use. Must register with site to download images.
FreerangeStock.com: Must register with site. Lots of great photos. The top row of photos on each page are from Shutterstock and are not free, so watch out for that. You can use the free photos for commercial use.
ImageAfter.com: Not a lot of “great” professional-type images. To me they seemed to be more of the home photo variety but that will work just great some blog posts. You’re allowed to modify the images for personal or commercial use and can even sell them if they’re part of a printed works such as a book cover, poster, etc. You don’t have to register or give credit.
RGPStock.com: Must register and asked to give credit to the photographer. Lots of great photos.
Stockfreeimages: Must register and provide author attribution and a link back to the site. Lots of good pictures, impressive variety. Images can be used and modified and can use up to 10,000 printed copies for free. The top row and bottom two rows of images on each page are not free so stay in the middle for the free ones.
BigFoto.com: Beautiful high-resolution photos of geographic areas/cities. Free for personal use but must provide a photo link to BigFoto with each image. Paid options available for commercial use. Not a lot of images.
StockPhotoForFree: Must register. Lots of photos but the images are taken from video clips so the resolution is not always sharp. One interesting feature is that you can search by categories.
Canva: Canva has millions of high-quality stock photos to use for all your design needs. Our collection includes both premium and free stock photos, and you can find the latter here: https://www.canva.com/photos/t
If you still haven’t found your perfect free photo, this page has a list of 73 free photo sites that offer some interesting options: 2yi.net. Not all the sites are working and some take forever to open (a few never did) but you can explore sites from NASA, the National Forest Service, US Dept. of Agriculture and even a site dedicated totally to insect photos. Interesting.
Use these resources to spice up your author blog posts with great-looking images. However, you wouldn’t want to ruin your book cover with cheap images or unprofessional design. For truly professional-grade stock photography, such as images for the cover of your book you’re going to publish, it’s best to go with a more professional stock photography service such as ThinkStock or iStockPhoto.
Zig Ziglar and “See you at the top”
Zig Ziglar made the final ascent to the “top” when he passed away on November 28. He has left behind a legacy to millions of people who were touched by his messages during his lifetime and to millions more who will continue to follow his books, talks, and life for many years down the road.
Ziglar’s first book, See You at the Top, was rejected by thirty publishers before it was published by Pelican in 1975, when he was 49 years old. The book went on to sell 250,000 copies. His thirtieth book was published this year, at age 86.
Thousands upon thousands have changed their lives through the messages of Zig Ziglar. Whether it was through his books, live events, or media stories around the globe, he touched, encouraged, and sparked an almost irresistible motivation to succeed.
There’s no way to know just how many times his words were quoted but he certainly must have been one of the most quoted people (at least by those in selling and business) during his lifetime. Forbes magazine announced his passage with an article headline, “Zig Ziglar 10 quotes that can change your life.” And Goodreads lists an amazing 75 power quotes that have been treasured and held on to by many.
Zig Ziglar is certainly positive proof of the power of using books (he called books on tape your “automobile university”) to further not only your business and your career, but your life itself.