#Article: A Beginner’s Guide to Self-Publishing in 2021 #motownwriters

Self-publishing has fascinated me for years, and I’m fortunate to call many self-published authors my friends. Today is it is my pleasure to welcome my long-time writing friend Denise Covey to Daily (w)rite, as part of my guest post series, to give us an introduction to self-publishing, and a few solid bits of writing advice for someone who has recently started on this journey.

Take it away Denise!

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SELF PUBLISHING – how fortunate authors are to be writing in the 21^st century!

If you’re in the early stages of Self-publishing or diving in for the first time, read on. I’m travelling with you, and am happy to talk with you about my journey thus far.

Nowadays, books from self-publishing offer an excellent alternative to those traditionally published, because a self-published author is part of an ever-expanding tribe who offer services, some free, some paid to make your book sing. You have beta readers, critique partners, developmental editors, structural editors, line editors and so on; cover artists extraordinaire, blurbs/synopses help, book formatters. You are not alone!

From my perspective, there are 3 major steps to self-publishing:

1 – WRITE

2 – PUBLISH

3 – PROMOTE

All 3 stages of self-publishing are closely interlinked and carried out in order.

1 – FIRST STAGE OF THE SELF-PUBLISHING JOURNEY: WRITE

We write for different reasons – enjoyment, to tell a story, or hoping to change the world. With self-publishing, your writing is a business where you, the author, is in control.

A Beginner’s Guide to Self-Publishing in 2021

#Article: Every Word Written is a Small Success #motownwriters

When you’re in the middle of writing a book, it’s easy to get discouraged. You might not be sure what’s supposed to happen next. You certainly can’t remember what happened two chapters ago. The main characters you thought you knew so well seem wobbly, like you don’t know them at all.

This is when it gets tempting to avoid writing.

When everything inside you is screaming to do ANYTHING but write (hello, laundry! Why, yes, I need to scrub my stovetop right this minute…), extinguish those screams.

Sit down.

Write something.

Anything. Even if it’s ten words. Five.

Every word written is a small success.

When I’m writing a novel, I’m learning more about my characters as I draft the opening chapters. Then the things I thought were going to happen in the middle of the book sometimes change. I may have realized the heroine has a slightly different story goal than the one I initially pictured. Or her motivation to achieve this goal could be different.

Sometimes the scenes I’d envisioned no longer work when I have these insights. And it’s hard to figure out how to blend the new information with the upcoming plot points that need to happen.

Inevitably, if I stick with it, I figure it out. I’ve learned the hard way, though, the more I procrastinate, the longer it takes me to figure it out.

Which means it takes me much longer to write the book.

Every Word Written is a Small Success

#Article 5 WAYS TO BRING YOUR WRITING IDEAS (AND CAREER) TO LIFE #motownwriters

How do you take your writing ideas, write a book, and become a published author? This question typically is met with practical advice, tactical tasks, and skill-based tips.

There are other ways to help yourself become an author that have little to do with book structure, producing business and promotion plans, or even writing ability. However, they have a great deal to do with realizing your book idea and writing career.

My book, Creative Visualization for Writers, is divided into five sections. I believe these areas  provide untraditional methods to help you make your writing dreams real. Let’s look at each one.

1. SELF-EXAMINATION

Personal development or growth lies at the heart of every writer’s ability to succeed. In fact, it’s the foundation upon which most successful people build their careers.

We all have unsupportive habits, negative thoughts, and limiting beliefs that hold us back. The best way to change these into supportive habits, positive thoughts, and unlimited beliefs is to explore our minds, emotions, and behavior for areas that need improvement.

If, for example, you want to become an author but you never write, you can explore why that is so. Are you afraid? Do you believe you are not good enough? Or is authorship an attractive idea but not your purpose or passion. Have lost interest in your current project?

5 Ways to Bring Your Writing Ideas (and Career) to Life

Article: The Inherent Nature of Story Structure #motownwriters

A couple of years ago, a friend of mine was in a meeting to pitch his screenplay to a movie exec. My friend sold that plot with all the gusto he knew he needed in these rare moments. And he did well. He’d rehearsed that pitch till he could recite it backwards. On a tightrope. While juggling.

The exec was impressed. He picked up the screenplay from his desk and flicked through the pages. He turned to page 10. Not 8, 9, 11 or 12; 10. Then he turned to page 25. Again, not 24 or 26; 25. He put down the screenplay, the disappointment clear on his face.

“I don’t see the inciting incident or the shift to act two.” To this exec, the inciting incident comes 10% of the way into the story, and the main character crosses the threshold into act two at the 25% mark. No earlier, no later.

This is taking story structure to an extremely literal limit. It has to hit those beats, he reasoned, and it has to hit them at these exact times.

I wonder what this exec would have made of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. There, she sees the rabbit in paragraph two, by the fourth para, she’s down the rabbit hole. From inciting incident (seeing the rabbit) to crossing the threshold (going down the rabbit hole) in roughly the same amount of words as it’s taken me to get to this point in the article.

That’s how good a storyteller Lewis Carrol was.

But Carrol was writing at a time before there were whole libraries of books on story structure. The most popular among them being Story by Robert McKee, Save the Cat by Blake Snyder, my personal favorite, The Anatomy of Story by John Truby and The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler.

https://t.co/0H4kcBcHF6?amp=1

Article: How to Market Your Book with Book Reviews: Book Marketing Podcast Recap #motownwriters

Reading Time: 3 minutes

This recap of “The Surprising Ways Book Reviews Can Help Launch Your Success” from the Book Marketing Tips & Author Success podcast is one of several episodes where we talk about how to market your book and, at the same time, make you a better writer.

Be sure to download and listen to the show for all the details, recommendations, and considerations!

How to market your book is something that most self-published authors must face. We’ve done several episodes about book reviews, how to generate them, and how to use blogger reviews and media, whether you are in the middle of a launch or not. These podcasts can be great refreshers. Check them out in the Resources and Downloads at the bottom of this page.

Book reviews obviously offer a lot of benefits. Digging into what consumers really want is ideally your goal for becoming the best writer you can be. While some reviewers’ feedback will be something you can’t do anything about, often there’ll be something you can use right away in your marketing strategies now or eventually down the road.

https://www.amarketingexpert.com/2021/08/12/the-surprising-ways-book-reviews-can-help-launch-your-success-book-marketing-podcast-recap/

Article: The Social Media Mistake That Can Damage Your Author Platform #motownwriters

May 4, 2021 by Penny Sansevieri 2 CommentsReading Time: 5 minutes

Your author platform relies heavily on a social media presence. There, I said it. So if you hate social media, you’re going to have a harder time hitting your stride as a successful author with a dedicated following. So when it comes to online book marketing strategies, your social media can both contribute to, and deter from your author platform if you’re not careful.

But is there one single thing you can do to really harm your author platform? The answer is yes, and this article will explore that.

Harnessing Social Media to Grow Your Author Platform

Social media, when done the right way, can really help to grow your author platform. The issue is that a lot of authors grab profiles on all social media sites and put them up on their websites, thinking that they need to be everywhere as part of their online book marketing strategies, but this isn’t true. And it feels like a small detail, right? I mean why shouldn’t you grab all of your names across social platforms. Seems smart, doesn’t it? But there’s another way to look at this. Let’s dig deeper.

https://www.amarketingexpert.com/2021/05/04/the-social-media-mistake-that-can-damage-your-author-platform/

Article: Using TikTok to Sell Books #motownwriters

April 27, 2021 by Guest Poster 6 Comments

Because marketing is a challenge for many authors, Angela and I talk quite a bit about it, sharing tips on how to grow audiences on various platforms. One we don’t use is TikTok, and, frankly, we’d have no idea how to find readers there. Thankfully, Dominika Pin—a teen author with an impressive following there—has that info for us.

Almost every teenager in the United States knows about TikTok—the video-sharing social media platform with hundreds of millions of active users. And with the increasing popularity of the #BookTok hashtag, which readers use to talk about their favorite books, many YA authors are turning to TikTok to promote their work.

I began posting on the platform in August of 2020 and have since amassed nearly 225,000 followers (a number that is still growing by hundreds each day). TikTok makes it incredibly easy to go viral with minimal effort. Just one fifteen-second video can get you tens of thousands of followers; all you need is a decent strategy. Here are some tips that earned my videos millions of views:

Using TikTok to Sell Books

Article: Writing Mistakes Writers Make: Revising While Writing #motownwriters

Writing Mistakes Writers Make: Revising While Writing

Last week, the wonderful Robert Lee Brewer wrote about why it’s a mistake to refrain from revising your project. But with writing, like anything else, too much of a good thing can become destructive.

Many writers can successfully revise while working on a project. I’m not familiar with any, but I’m sure they’re out there somewhere. However, I want to talk about what happens when you find that you’re only revising a project or maybe even getting stuck in the endless cycle of writing a few chapters before scrapping them and beginning again, never getting yourself over that finish line to your draft’s completion.

I’ve talked a bit about the period in my writing life where I wasn’t completing a single project I worked on. The root of my issue was self-doubt; however, I used revision as a way to keep myself from finishing the project. If the project was never finished, it couldn’t be bad, right?

https://www.writersdigest.com/be-inspired/writing-mistakes-writers-make-revising-while-writing

Article: How to Write an Author Bio [With Examples and Templates] #motownwriters

 By Dave Chesson67 Last updated onJuly 20th, 2021

To write a great author bio, you need to know your target audience, cater to your genre, brag (but not too much), keep it brief, and call the reader to action.

When you’re self-publishing on Amazon, you need to put some serious thought into the author bio on your Amazon book page. Don’t haphazardly throw together some sentences and hit the publish button.

The author bio isn’t your most important tool. (The most essential tools are the book reviews, book cover, and synopsis/blurb.) But the author bio is another critical tool that you shouldn’t leave out.

Can I just leave my author bio out? No, you cannot just leave out your author bio, even if you wrote a short story or novella. It looks unprofessional, scares away potential readers, foregoes an opportunity to connect with your target audience, and leads to fewer book sales.

Plus, writing a good author bio doesn’t take that long.

If you’re not Grisham, or Godin, or Ferriss, or Fleming, very few people will buy a novel by you purely based on name recognition. So put a little work into your bio, and you won’t regret it.

Note: The Author Bio is just one of many parts of a book. We have a whole series of posts on the subject, and we highly recommend you check those out as well!

How to Write an Author Bio [With Examples and Templates]

Article: Email funnels: From the first click to conversion… and beyond #motownwriters

What is an email funnel?Why create an email funnelHow to build an email funnelA quick exampleEmail funnel templateAnd that’s a wrap!

How would you feel if I came up to you and shouted, “BUY MY STUFF”? You don’t know me at all! Your first instinct is probably to run the other way.

It’s much more natural (and effective!) to first make an introduction, get to know each other, form a relationship… and then let people decide whether they want to buy. 

That’s exactly the idea behind email funnels. You can use a series of emails to build trust, rather than relying on the “BUY MY STUFF” sales pitch.

An email funnel serves as a roadmap to guide people through every step of the customer journey—from making introductions to building interest to finally pushing for a sale. Each stage is designed to create connections around your brand, and show your value so that your email subscribers get more and more excited about making a purchase. 

When done right, email marketing funnels can strengthen your brand and ramp up your conversion rates. Let’s see how!

https://www.mailerlite.com/blog/email-marketing-funnels

Article: How To Sell Your Book On Amazon [70 Book Marketing Tips] #motownwriters

 By Dave Chesson11 Last updated onJuly 20th, 2021

You wrote a book, and now you want to sell it on Amazon. I’ve got good news! Kindlepreneur is coming in clutch with 70 book marketing ideas that will help you sell more books on Amazon’s eBook and print book marketplace.

Also read Kindlepreneur’s Marketing Mastery Guide.

Let’s dive right in.In this article, you will learn:

1. 70 book marketing tips
2. How to sell your book on Amazon
3. All sorts of practical resources

Links in this article may earn me a small commission if you use them to purchase a service or product. This has not affected my opinion. However, it helps me continue to write these awesome articles that anyone can read for free!

Note: This article is not about selling used books or old books as an Amazon business. Here’s a great article on individual seller accounts, selling nonfiction hardcover books, comic books like new, and Amazon FBA vs. FBM. 

How To Sell Your Book On Amazon [70 Book Marketing Tips]

Article: Holiday Inspired Marketing #motownwriters

By Keri-Rae Barnum for New Shelves on July 1, 2021

Do you ever feel like you’re running out of marketing angles for your book? We get it. After months or even years of marketing the same book, it can sometimes be difficult to keep your marketing from growing stale. But when you stop marketing your book, sales tend to dry up. Not cool. So, the (marketing) show must go on.

Holiday Inspired Marketing

When I was a kid, holidays were pretty limited. But now? You can find a holiday to celebrate almost every day of the year. Yes, yes. Roll your eyes. But then think about it… There are hundreds of holidays ranging from classic to obscure. That translates into hundreds of potential marketing angles. And, as someone who makes a living marketing books, I’m kind of okay with that.

Unique Marketing Opportunities

Holidays present a unique opportunity to market your book. Consider the following:

• Social media posts with a holiday tie in. Does your main character have a serious coffee addiction? It may be time to celebrate International Coffee Day.
• Holiday themed book displays at your local library. Don’t just hope your book makes it on the display table – pitch a holiday display idea featuring your book to your local librarian.
• A holiday inspired bookstore event staring your latest novel. Have you written a book on grammar or editing? Pitch a book signing or event for National Punctuation Day!
• Creative press releases tying your book to an upcoming holiday celebration. If your book has strong themes that can be tied to a well known and recognized holiday, don’t be afraid to play on that for the media.

And, while I certainly don’t want you to ignore the classic holidays like Christmas, I also want you to start thinking outside of the box with holidays like Bad Poetry Day or Take Your Dog to Work Day.

Holiday Inspired Marketing

68 Cents with Sylvia Hubbard author, mompreneur | How she pulled herself up despite her circumstances w/The Roller Coaster!

68 Cents with Sylvia Hubbard author, mompreneur | How she pulled herself up despite her circumstances w/The Roller Coaster! https://anchor.fm/therollercoasterpodcast/episodes/E110–68-Cents-with-Sylvia-Hubbard-e14kmt4 It’s easy to see someone based only on their outward visible success. Often that success is built on a foundation of overcoming challenges. Join me for this episode where I chat with Sylvia Hubbard, who has faced homelessness, poverty and bankruptcy, to share how she pulled herself up despite her circumstances. Sylvia continues her success as an award-winning romance suspense best-selling author. Connect with Sylvia SylviaHubbard.com and on Instagram @sylviahubbard1  Your support of The Roller Coaster is always appreciated, please make sure to SUBSCRIBE! If you REALLY like what you hear, leave a comment, and share it with your friends! You can find me on: www.therollercoaster.com Facebook @therollercoasterpodcast Instagram @the_roller_coaster_podcast JOIN US! www.necturegrowth.com and follow Necture Growth Network on Instagram @necturegrowth Thanks for joining me today and until next time I’m sending my virtually distant hugs! listen now | more about this author| see books by this author

Article: Social Strategy: 100 Content Ideas for Every Stage of Your Writing Career #motownwriters

For many authors, generating social media content ideas is a necessary evil: we all know the importance of keeping up a platform so we can engage with readers and the book community, but maintaining social platforms is yet another to-do item on an already long list.

I’m here for you, friends.

Below are 100 social media content ideas for every stage of your writing career. There are 25 items listed for each of the four stages. Whether you’re an aspiring author, have an impending book launch, just launched a book, or your career is in-swing, I hope you’ll find the below ideas useful. 

The content suggestions listed are best-suited to three platforms in particular: Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. That said, these ideas could also be used in your author newsletter, on YouTube or TikTok channels, etc. We all have a favorite platform (mine is Instagram) but no need to recreate the wheel: once you’ve created a piece of content, use it widely across platforms (and reuse down the road, if applicable!)

Let’s get right to it.

https://writerunboxed.com/2021/05/04/social-strategy-100-content-ideas-for-every-stage-of-your-writing-career/

Coming This September: Writer Wednesday Memberships! & The Detroit Writing Room Awards! Enter now! via @DETWritingRoom

Writer Wednesday Memberships Open Soon! Come work, write and create in the DWR every Wednesday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. We’re excited to welcome back our community of writers this fall! It’s been too long since we’ve had writers, artists, freelancers and entrepreneurs working, writing and creating in the DWR! We can’t wait to see everyone back in person this September! Our new Writer Wednesday membership comes with a ton of perks. Our personal favorite: DWR writing coaches will be available throughout the day to answer your writing questions! And you’ll be featured in our Writer Wednesday spotlights!  Writer Wednesday members must be fully vaccinated and show proof of vaccination status upon registration. Masks are currently required while inside the DWR. If you’re ready to get out of the house and write in an inspiring environment surrounded by fellow creatives, sign up below to receive news when memberships open later this month! Learn more at detroitwritingroom.com/writer-wednesday-membership BE NOTIFIED WHEN MEMBERSHIPS OPEN Also Coming Up!GET TICKETSGET TICKETS See what else is coming up at detroitwritingroom.com/events. Submissions Close Sept. 3 Everyone has a story to tell, and the world needs to read it. With the inaugural Detroit Writing Room Awards, we are celebrating the incredible poets, screenwriters, novelists, bloggers, communications professionals and writers of all genres from the Motor City. Visit detroitwritingroom.com/awards to learn more about the categories and submission guidelines. Each $25 entry supports Coaching Detroit Forward.ENTER YOUR WORK\ Copyright © 2021 The Detroit Writing Room LLC, All rights reserved. Address: 1514 Washington Boulevard, Suite 203, Detroit, MI 48226 In-Person Coaching Hours: Monday-Friday 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Virtual Coaching Hours: Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Saturday-Sunday 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Website: www.detroitwritingroom.com www.newyorkwritingroom.com www.coachingdetroitforward.org Email: hello@detroitwritingroom.com