Networking Tips for Shy Writers: Three Steps to Success

If you're a writer, you likely want to make a living from your craft, but the idea of networking to market your skills or work may seem too intimidating for you.  As a shy writer, I've had to develop the skills to connect with others to promote my work.  Here are three quick tips to get you started.

Be No One Else But Yourself

Much of Western business culture is biased towards extroverts. It seems that you need to be outgoing, charming, and charismatic to really make it big.  For a shy writer, this belief is not only intimidating, it's repulsive.  It seems that we must become someone other than who we are to succeed.  That creates an understandable resistance to the whole idea of making a living from writing.

Writers thrive most whenever they express themselves authentically.  That's why it's important to walk into every networking event as yourself.  If you're shy, be shy. If you hate small talk, don't do small talk.  Simply be yourself in every interaction you have when meeting others to promote your work.

Of course, you may be asking "how can I be myself and still be sociable enough to succeed at networking?"  The best way to defeat your anxieties about networking for your writing is to actually go and do it, as yourself.   

Attend Two Networking Events a Month

In the same way that you didn't have to take a class in order to learn how to ride a bicycle, the best way to learn networking is to just do it.  Find two open networking events happening this month in your local area, and then go to them.  Ideally, space them two weeks apart so you can establish a rhythm to your routine.

A great resource for finding these events is Meetup.com.  This is a site designed to connect like-minded individuals, so if you're a writer, look for writer's guilds, book clubs, and marketing groups to start.

If this idea stirs up your anxiety, then this should calm you: when you go, you don't have to talk to anyone. What you're doing is learning through immersion. Show up without attachment to any particular outcome.  Your only goal is to get in the room.

At these events, you don't need to invent an icebreaker. Everyone is there for the same reason you are: to connect with others in business, so feel free to walk up to anyone and just say "hi". For that same reason, you may not have to do anything to have someone come up to you.  As with riding a bike, you'll get used to networking with practice.  Let your connections happen naturally, and be gentle with yourself. 

Learn From The Experts

As critical as learning by doing is, don't forget to read up on what the experts have to say about connecting with people. I recommend Dale Carnegie's How To Win Friends And Influence People, the cardinal guide on communication for business and pleasure.  Another great read is Nicholas Boothman's How to Make Someone Like You in 90 Seconds or Less, which uses an approach based on neuro-linguistic programming (NLP).


Jody Aberdeen is a freelance writer and the author of the sci-fi romance Convergence.  You can visit his page at www.jodyaberdeen.com or his blog, Another Odd Place For A Hill.  
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NaNoWriMo draws to a close

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It's November 24th, and if you've been doing NaNoWriMo, you're going to be doing either one of two things. On one hand, you might be feverishly typing like crazy to ensure you've got 40k words in order to hit your 50k mark on Saturday, or you might have already sailed past the 40k mark, and you're now cruising towards your goal with days to spare.

No matter which NaNo-er you are, let me congratulate you on getting this far. Whether you've written 10k words, or 50k words, that's still a huge chunk of writing to have committed to paper. True, 50k is now well below the threshold considered a 'novel', but hey, you've possibly just written more in one go than you've ever written before.

I'm sure Saturday still feels like a long way off, but what exactly should you do when you hit 50k?

1) Take a break.
You've earned it. Take a couple of days off writing, and do something totally unrelated. Go to the cinema, visit friends, take in a show - anything you want, just don't write. Racking up 50k words in 30 days can take a lot out of you, so you'll need to recharge your batteries if you're going to survive the onslaught that is Christmas. However, at some point, you'll also need to...

2) Finish your novel.
If it's 'finished' at 50k, then you need to decide if you want to keep it as a novella-length piece, or you want to extend it to 80k or more to hit the 'novel' mark. If you want to extend it, consider sub plots, or padding out those scenes that you probably rushed in order to meet the deadline. If you've finished NaNo at 50k but your book itself is still far from complete, then get the rest written. Take your time - the mad panic is over. But one way or the other, get it done.

3) Edit, edit, edit.
Your book is far from finished - it is a first draft, at best. Even if you've typed 'The End' it's still not ready for the public. Put it to one side for a few weeks, maybe even start something new. Put some distance between yourself and your words, so that when you go back to them, you can critically decide what you need to do with what you've produced. Edit it once, and then edit it again. Find a beta reader, or a critique partner - or better yet, find an editor. If you want to put your book out there, it will need to be perfect if it's going to make it in a crowded marketplace.

Now you've finished reading this, get back to your NaNo effort. Only 10k words to go...

Collaborative Book Writing 101

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by Kelly DeBie

Waves frantically to our readers...how have you all been?

It’s been quiet around here for the past few months. I blame summer.

Now that it’s officially fall, it seems that almost every writer I know has begun to hunker down and get serious about writing again.

One of the biggest projects I am working on currently is a collaborative book. The title of it is Sunshine After The Storm: A Survival Guide for the Grieving Mother, and it should be available as an ebook next month, in hard copy shortly thereafter. 

It is the brainchild of Alexa Bigwarfe, who is currently in Washington, DC advocating on behalf of the March of Dimes.

As the title suggests, it is a book targeted to an audience of women who have endured infertility, miscarriages, stillbirths and the loss of their children. Assembling the writers for the book was made possible only through years of connections online of women who were willing to tell bits and pieces of their stories in their blogs.

With each story shared, others would come out of the woodwork, leaving comments and even being brave enough to write about their own losses. Over time, more and more of us became connected to each other, so when the idea of the book came to be, it didn't take long to circle the wagons.

This specific subject matter was quite amenable to a group approach because each of the contributors had a different experience to share, and as a cumulative whole we have addressed a large spectrum of maternal grief issues. An individual writer would, hopefully, only have experienced one or a few of those losses, but not all of them. Bringing our stories together lends more credibility to the book as a whole because we are all speaking from experience, not speculation.

As with any kind of collaborative project, each contributor brought their own background and experience to the piece, in addition to their own style and approach. We've been fortunate thus far that we are all on the same page as far as content and structure go. We've worked together to pull quotes from our own experiences to open each chapter as well.

I don't honestly know how much of the heavy lifting Alexa has done with the book, as she has been the one responsible for all the details. She found the editor and has been the contact person for everything, all the way down to choosing the images for the cover. I suspect she has put far more work into this than she leads on, and for all her efforts, we are tremendously grateful.

With this particular project, there hasn't been a financial motivation to write the book. There never was, and from the beginning, we agreed that the majority of the proceeds would be put back into printing additional books to distribute to hospitals and clinics to help grieving mothers. As an individual writer, I may eventually see a small return on it, but this particular book wasn't written for that reason. It was written to help other women. In the event that a collaborative book is written purely for profit, you would have to make sure that all contributors are agreed on the distribution of income from it ahead of time after all overhead was covered.

Obviously, how you go about gathering writers for a collaborative book will depend on the subject matter. Given the right subject matter, a collaborative approach can be preferred to solo writing, and I believe this is one of those subjects. It certainly cuts down on the amount of material that each person needs to generate, but provides a legitimate publishing opportunity.

In addition to all that, you also have a larger circle of influence built in for marketing simply by virtue of the fact that different writers contributed to the piece, and each will share it with their friends and fans. This book has already drawn a significant amount of interest as a result of our varying reaches.

This book has been a true labor of love, built from years of pain, put together for a reason, and is one that I am proud to say that I am a part of.

Confessions of a Premise Writer

by Rob Hines

That’s me. I’m a Premise Writer.

It sounds like a real job, doesn't it? Premise Writer. It almost sounds like you could make money doing that.

Nope. Not even remotely.

Trust me. Being broke does NOT look this good.

Premise writing is what I've been doing since I decided to start writing fiction, and I've only recently come to grips with this label. It’s a sickness, kind of like rabies, I think. You can cure it, but it takes some gnarly treatment and you should probably avoid people for a month or so.

Are you a premise writer? Ask yourself these questions:

1. Do you have a billion ideas written in piles of spiral notebooks and/or an incredibly cluttered note-taking app on your phone?
2. Have you written any more than about a page or two of any one idea?
3. Do you waste time at work organizing your ideas in fun Google Drive folders instead of actually turning them into thought-out stories?
4. When you do write a story, do you tend to jump right to the “million dollar idea” and linger there for a while before jumping right to the end?
5. Have you had a story about a problem gambler who acquires a golden touch rejected because an editor feels “it all comes too easily” meaning the premise happens with no real conflict or consequences?

Okay, that last one is pretty much exclusive to me, but if you feel any sympathy pains for the other four, you may be a Premise Writer too. Hope is not lost, though. You and I can break from a fate of being buried in an avalanche of hoarded notebooks full of neglected concepts. The key is (cue dramatic music) OUTLINING!

Yep, there they go. The artists are leaving now. The ones who want their writing to be an expression of their inner beings have given up on me.

Okay, the rest of you? You’re professional writers. You’re the ones who know you have to plan a project to achieve consistent results (read: get paid to write)

I’m not dissing anyone who doesn't plan their writing. Hell, until about a week or two ago, I WAS one of those people. At least, I was that way in my fiction writing. My revelation came when I realized that I’m more than just a fiction writer. I’m a corporate writer too. I write copy for advertising, corporate blog articles, web copy, and even a corporate comic book! And you wanna hear a secret? I plan each of those projects before I write them. Why? Because I like to eat horrible food and my paycheck allows me to continue buying said horrible food. If I'm that committed to horrible food, why shouldn't I be just as committed to fulfilling my writing dream?

My cubicle-mate at the above-referenced day job is also a writer and he has published two non-fiction books (if you’re a baseball fan, you can buy one of them here). He’s a relentless planner when he writes and I guess I thought there were different rules for non-fiction. There aren't. Well, except for the whole factual thing.

No matter what you write, the best way to make writing more efficient and less torturous is to effectively outline your plot and your characters. I’m not talking about the high school research paper method with Roman numerals and A’s and B’s and all that. All I’m suggesting is you know what’s going to happen from start to finish as well as the major events in between. It may be a bulleted list. It may be a detailed list of acts and scenes. It may even be a mind map that starts with a central theme and bursts in all different directions. The key is putting your whole story on the page before you try to write 100,000 words around it.

I’m not saying it’s for everyone. I know many great writers just sit and write. Good for them. I’m a Premise Writer. If I do that, I will do a fantastic job of writing down a plot with terribly boring characters and little to no exposition or resolution. In other words, I will suck.

So now I’m outlining. I’m giving myself a chance to hear the story from start to finish and understand my characters so I have a blueprint to guide my actual writing. I’m giving myself a chance to not suck.

Words to live (and write) by

Well, at least not suck as much.

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Passion, Puke, and Priorities

by Rob Hines

So… yeah.

I’m late with my article this month. Really late. Like “oh crap, is she pregnant?” late.

But I have a really good excuse.

Um.

Hold on, I know it’s around here somewhere.

Ah, screw it. I just flat-out didn't do it.

Sure, my kid was sick, but it’s 2013. EVERYBODY’S kid is sick. That doesn't work anymore. We had some major home projects to work on, but my wife is a high school teacher so she knows all about due dates, and she doesn't let me miss deadlines. I feel sorry for her students sometimes.

So what happened?

I happened.

This mess of a guy was trying to do a million things at once and decided the writing could wait. Ugh, it makes me nauseous just thinking about it. This passion, this hunger, this thing I want to do more than anything else was just pushed to the back burner for a few weeks while I did…other stuff.

And that’s okay. Yes, I feel sick when I think about the time wasted, but ultimately it’s just something that happened, and I have to recognize that even though it wasn't a very awesome choice, I can get back on track and leave my moment of weakness behind me.

When you’re pursuing a passion, you tend to make it an obsession that consumes your brain all day, every day. I think most of us are thinking about writing all the time, even when we’re not doing it. Especially when we’re not doing it. My mind actually shuts down a little when I’m finally sitting down to write. The words flow and I turn off my brain to avoid over-thinking the process. The mental torture doesn't start until I move on to something else and begin flagellating myself for neglecting the writing. So the answer is just write all the time, isn't it?

Nope. Not possible. I've got a boss that expects me to actually “do my job.” My son doesn't care about my passion. He just wants to play cars. And my wife would like to have her husband around once in a while. While I’m spinning all these plates, I’m secretly loathing myself for not being in front of a keyboard, and I do a lot of loathing.

Writing is a priority in my life, that’s not a question. The question is where it fits and when it fits. To truly bring writing back into the fold and make it stick, I have to make sure I establish an unbreakable commitment to the activity. I can’t have an excuse to let myself off the hook. I need a place where I can always write. I need a time when no one else can divide my attention. I know that place and time exist. I just have to find them.

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Habits are for nuns and other people

Hoo boy. I might not have the best advice regarding this topic. I guess that's okay, since Gayle already talked about her own difficulty with developing good habits. I don't have a pretty pink dress to spice up my post but all things considered, that's probably best for all concerned.

Moving on.

For starters, almost all of my habits are bad, and that doesn't just apply to writing. But since that's what we're here to talk about, as opposed to your judgment of me and my slovenly lifestyle and poor decision-making skills, I'll stick to that.

I don't have any writer habits and I think that's good. At least for me or somebody similarly wired. Believe me, I've read all the books that talk about establishing a comfortable environment and a consistent routine and I'm sure there's merit to that approach. For one, it instills discipline and there's certainly a benefit to that. I'm not discounting that advice. If it works for you, great. By all means, continue down that path and produce great works!

My problem is I think if I had to develop habits in order to write, I would be doomed to fail. See, my life is influenced to a great degree by an intricate network of part-time employment which prohibits me from making a lot of plans and committing to established routines. I work in the entertainment business and don't have one full-time job, I have several part-time and/or one-off gigs. I work on nights and weekends (some times), I answer my phone at all hours, I eat when I find food, I sleep when I can lay down and I write when I can get my hands on a keyboard or notebook. That sounds worse than it is; I'm comfortable with it and function just fine (although it does make maintaining personal relationships something of a challenge, but that's material for another web site). It just means that it's virtually impossible for me to say that I will sit down every day between 7:00 and 8:30 in the morning with a cup of hot coffee (Hello, Carrie!), no distractions and bang out X number of pages every day. I'm sure there are plenty of people in relatable situations. Maybe they have kids or some other factor that prohibits developing habits and following a routine. My point is, it would be very easy for people like us to throw up our hands and say, "oh well, I guess I just can't write today or almost any day ever", having a handy excuse to be defeated by circumstances we already know are beyond our control.

The alternative is to abandon the idea of developing habits in favor of doing the work. It means focusing on results instead of process. Worry more about getting it done rather than figuring how you're going to carve out the time and establish the environment necessary to sit down and get it done.

Now that I look at the words on the screen, I guess that actually qualifies as developing a habit.

Huh. Shows what I know.

By Clark Brooks

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How Do You Promote Something Written With A Pseudonym?

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by Kelly DeBie

The rumors are true. I’ve been “writing” a few books for a while now, which is a round-a-bout way of saying that there are some really awesome books that mostly reside in my head, none of which have found their way to paper in a legitimate enough form for me to really refer to them as books.

I started one eons ago now, when I was in an entirely different place and time. Though that book still may end up manifesting in some form someday, it's not a reflection of where I am currently, and I've got other books to write these days.

One of them exists now in a form that I can comfortably call a book. There is a table of contents, a rough outline of chapters, a few completed chapters and a running list of things I need to make sure I include.

When I'm in the zone, I'm pounding out 3,000+ words a sitting.

It appears I'm finally in the place to write this book, and this one will get finished.

The trouble with this particular book is a simple one, but one that will inevitably make getting it published someday much more difficult. It is this: I can't attach my name to it. I can't have it associated with me. I need to use a pseudonym.

This presents an interesting problem.

I have a few contacts in the publishing world, and may have to call in a few favors...but this book is going to have to be completely amazing for a publisher to take a risk on it, particularly when I refuse to associate myself with it directly.

OR

I can self publish, accepting the truth that I will be almost completely limited in my ability to promote it, at least to any of my already established fans, readers and contacts. If I call in favors from the people I know, they will obviously know that I wrote the book. If enough people know, everyone will.

What to do, what to do?

Fortunately, the book is nowhere near done. Once it's done, I will almost certainly edit it for twice as long as it takes to write it. After that I will likely ask a few trusted friends to proof it for me, and depending on what they say entertain the idea of bringing in an editor.

Then I will have to make a decision. 

I suppose that in the meantime, I should start working on setting up a social network presence for this alter ego of mine. I'd tell you what I pick for my pseudonym, but then I'd have to kill you. 

Not really, but you get my point.

If anyone out there has advice for me, lay it on thick and rich. I have no clue how I'm going to do this.

This month, I'm seeking, as opposed to offering, help

Tweet  I'm afraid this month, I'm in the position of seeking assistance instead of offering it. I just published my first book in May and find myself trying to figure out how to promote sales. Part of the problem is I don't really want to be a person who sells books; I want to be a writer who puts my book in front of people and their eyeballs in exchange for money. "Well, there's your problem, dummy", you're saying. "That's what selling books is! Suck it up and do it." Yeah, I know. But while you're right, you're also wrong. As Icy mentioned in the last entry, there is no shortage of writers on Twitter who do nothing but hawk their books. Regrettably I follow a bunch of them although I don't know why I ever did in the first place. It's like DVRing a tv channel that shows nothing but infomercials. Believe me, I've been correcting that mistake ever since. The point is, I consider those people to "just" be book sellers and I refuse to become one of them. For one obvious reason, it's obnoxious and boring. For another, I doubt it's very effective.
Luckily, I'm in a position where I don't have to move X number of units by such-and-such date or I'm out on the street. That reduces the stress significantly (although, I'm sure it also reduces my overall motivation). Still, I'd love to sell lots of books and get more and more people to read the book, so I'm here looking for tips and tricks just like you. Here's a list what I've done so far, what I think the results have yielded and what I need to do better.

• I had a book release party - This was a lot of fun. I invited friends and close associates because it was largely a "thank you" to people who have supported me in various capacities over the years and with whom I wanted to celebrate the success of completing the task of getting something published. I sold enough books at the event to break even on the cost of the party (actually, a little bit ahead). I think everyone enjoyed themselves but I'm not sure how many, if anyone, have word-of-mouthed the book to friends of theirs who weren't there.
• I've made it available via multiple sources - Amazon, CreateSpace, an e-store at my web site. Of course, the task is driving traffic to those sources. My blog readers are certainly aware it exists.
• I've solicited Amazon.com reviews from readers - Good news: every one has rated the book FIVE STARS! Bad news: There are only two of them. I need to get aggressive about soliciting more reviews, I think.
• I've done a couple of local radio shows - I don't like to brag but I'm pretty good at holding my own during interviews so I think the ones I've done have gone pretty well. I need, and want, to do more. 

That's all, really. I know I need to do things like approach the local media and knock on the doors of my local independent booksellers, and I will do those things. I'm wide open to suggestions for stuff I haven't thought of or non-traditional tactics though.

- Clark Brooks

To Sell or To Buy? Shifting books ain't easy

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I sometimes think the only thing harder than writing a book is selling it. We've all been on Twitter, and bombarded with "Buy my book!" tweets, and if we follow a lot of the same writers, our feeds can be jammed with the original tweet, and fifteen retweets. After a while, you start to tune them out. On Christmas Day, I was astounded by the number of "Did you get a Kindle for Christmas? Then buy my book!" tweets doing the rounds. Take a day off, people!

So how DO you sell a book? Well I'm not entirely sure. I find it quite difficult to approach people to sell my book because I don't want to look like all I'm interested in is selling. I have tried blog tours, tweeting, joining discussion groups about my genre on Facebook, setting up a Facebook page for the book itself - I even took quotes from the book and turned them into 'quotes pages' which I uploaded onto both Facebook and a Pinterest board I created for the book. I've included an example in the post, not to sell the book but to give you an idea what I mean by 'quote page'. The book is a Western so I tried to choose a design aesthetic that would scream 'Old West'. Obviously if you're not a designer that's going to be more difficult to do, so this option of creating interest might not work for everyone.

So I figured instead of talking about how I sell books, I'd talk about what makes me buy books, in the hope that some specks of wisdom can be found in looking at the situation from the point of view of a reader - after all, readers are paramount.

I talk to a lot of writers on Twitter and Facebook, and I don't necessarily talk to them solely as a fellow writer - in a lot of cases, I'm one of their readers, too. However, I don't respond well to sales pitches, or "buy my book!" statuses and tweets. It's too "in your face" and intrusive. When anyone tells me to buy their book, my default response is "Why?" So I tend to ignore those writers who plaster links everywhere but don't really engage with anyone. The writers I do respond to are those who I just get chatting to, about everything and nothing - conversation flows, we get to know each other, and if I think they're cool, I'll check out their blog. Lo! They have a book for sale! At this point, my interest is piqued because I like them as a person, not as someone trying to directly sell me something. So I trot off to Amazon and download a sample. Now I'm a potential reader, and the only way the writer can make a sale is to write a good book. If I like the sample, I buy the book. Simple!

Well it sounds simple, and I know there's more to it than that - there are a lot of writers using social media, and it's impossible to be friends with everything because one day they might buy your book, but the point I'm trying to make is that I'm far more likely to buy a book because the writer interacted with me in some way. Maybe they bought my own book, or maybe they just helped me promote it. Maybe we swapped guest posts on each others' blog. Maybe they're the kind of cat who's happy to talk nonsense at 3am when neither of you can sleep. Either way, there's a personal connection there, and that's something you just can't forge with an automated direct message on Twitter.

What makes you want to buy a book?

Building Your Reader Army

By Rob Hines

I'm yet to be published, and I have yet to finish a book so feel free to judge my opinions accordingly. However, (and this is a fairly big However) I have spent a couple dozen years or so studying consumer habits in my sales, media and marketing lives, and I'm a heavy media consumer myself. Okay, disclaimer done.

Me: Circa 1987

Even though I'm inexperienced on the publishing side of the media community, I have a TON of experience working with consumers and I'm willing to bet that experience is going to help my book sales.

You know, once I actually have something to sell.

Who's Your Community?

Do you talk to writers or readers? Who's more likely to read (and buy) your books? Writers are pretty busy, you know, writing. Sure, they read a little to keep their skills sharp, but if you want to find people that buy books, you want to find readers.

When you first joined social media to build your writing career--

(You are on social media, right? Facebook, Twitter, etc.? If not, go sign up for Twitter at least. It's simple. I'll wait. So how about that crazy weather, huh? Are you watching the Stanley Cup? That triple overtime game was wild! I sure hope the Hawks can pull it out, but that Boston defense is wicked.)

Oh, you're back. It was easy, right? Now that everyone's getting social, let me give you a tip to think about when interacting with other people on social media. Following writers is great for learning. Following READERS is best for EARNING. 

Pretty catchy, eh?

When I first decided "I'm going to be a writer" a few years back, I immediately ran to Twitter and started following writers. It was fun. I actually had writers following me back, including Sideways author and frequent follow-backer Rex Pickett, so that was a thrill. These experienced authors were sharing knowledge, giving tips, and most importantly, proving that writers are everyday people too. In fact, following writers is what connected me with Peevish Penman so it was most definitely a strong strategy.

But times they will be a changin'. When that first book hits shelves and/or Kindles, I need to expand my community so I'm not just talking to writers all day. I need to start talking to readers. I need to find those Tweeters and Facebookers who list reading as their number one pastime. These are the people that will seek me out and at the very least read my Kindle samples to decide if they should plunk down some dough and help put food on my kid's plate. They're readers. That's what they do.

Not big on social media? Then hit the streets! Go places where readers are. Jody already gave us a great strategy for book-signings, but there are other places readers gather. Talk to your local librarian and ask about special events where you might be able to mingle with local readers. Find trade shows and festivals where your book may be well-received and get a booth if not too cost-prohibitive. That's why I prefer social media, because it's FREE, but if you want a more personal approach, feel free to open up the wallet and get your meet-and-greet on.

Shifting your focus to readers is step one. Now let's take a deeper dive.

Find Your People!

Once you've found readers, you have to find YOUR readers. This part might get tricky, especially if you entered this career expecting to write books for the entire world. Time to admit an uncomfortable truth. Not everyone is going to dig your work. At least, not right away. I'll talk more about shifting customer bases later but for now, you just need to determine YOUR people. 

If you're writing general fiction, this may not be that easy, but if you're doing genre-specific stuff, there are any number of book clubs, internet forums, facebook groups, etc. that would be ecstatic to have an actual author of the genre they love interact with them. Use these groups to create connections and build a rabid reader base. They'll tell similar-thinking friends and you will start to grow your army.

This can happen for non-genre writing too, but the process seems to be much more hit-and-miss. One person who loves your work won't necessarily have friends and family who will be so readily convertible. It just means you'll have to talk to more people to find your groove, but it's out there somewhere.

Welcome Others

Braaaaaaaaains!

Building your army can be tough, and to make it even tougher, readers are constantly evolving. Ten years ago, nobody was reading zombie books except for a small devoted fan base. Now, everybody is crazy about zombies. 

Unfortunately, the authors who are really making money on zombie fiction began writing it before it really took off, and outright luck often comes into play when finding these new fans, but this is a good thing. It means there's always a chance the the stuff you love to write (and probably what you do best) is going to catch on with the general public and make your books extremely profitable. Don't ever underestimate the chances of making new fans. It can happen in an instant.

But this is not how you should measure your success. These happenstance tag-alongs will not be a given so don't start mansion shopping, but if it happens to you, just enjoy the ride because it appears to be a fun one.

Marketing your work (and yourself) can, and should, be an enjoyable experience. All you need is a solid strategy, a little persistence (read: a crapload of persistence), and an undying love for what you do. You're a writer. They're your readers. Now go find them!

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The Most Effective Hand Selling Technique For Authors I've Ever Seen

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by Jody Aberdeen

My first public signing as an author, independent or otherwise, happens at the end of the month.

I don't know what the rules are Stateside or elsewhere, but in Canada, when you're an independently published author and you want to market your book, there's only one show in town: Chapters-Indigo, our big happy national chain of bookstores, kind of like Barnes and Noble, only more awesome! 

(And I'm not saying that just because I work there on weekends and some evenings).

As such, it's rather fortuitous that our fearless leader Carrie Bailey decided to go with this topic this month, and also rather serendipitous that I found myself, two weeks ago, shadowing a fellow independent author who had what I and Mercury astronaut Gordo Cooper like to call "the right stuff". 

What is the right stuff?  You can see Carrie's recent entry for some great techniques, but I'd like to share what I learned from this writer.

Toronto author Yahaya Baruwa is the twentysomething author of his novel (and the first of a trilogy) called Struggles of a Dreamer, having migrated here in his teens from Nigeria to seek his fortune.  Unhappy with the cookie-cutter templates offered by such print on-demand companies as Lulu and iUniverse, Yahaya decided to start his own publishing company dedicated to his own project.

At one point, Yahaya was selling his book door to door in affluent neighbourhoods in Toronto and its suburbs.  He has also marketed an infomercial-style YouTube commercial for his book, offering a free can of Tim Horton's coffee with every book purchase. 

Yahaya has faced every kind of rejection you can imagine: doors slammed in his face, being told off, having his work criticized to his face.  He does his signings predominantly alone, requiring him to travel with his books and banners to faraway places such as my own store out in Milton, about 40 miles away from the eastern side of Toronto.

He has hired teams of marketers to either go door to door or promote his book in their own businesses and social circles, taking 50% as profit for each book they sell (an idea I toyed with a long time ago, but didn't actually implement...kinda kicking myself now for all the lost potential sales I could have had).

For his efforts and entrepreneurial spirit, Yahaya Baruwa has earned close to six figures in revenue over the past two years from Struggles of a Dreamer alone, making him arguably the most successful independent author in Canada.  And he's just getting started.

A Highly Effective Technique

Yahaya's sales technique, which I told him I was shamelessly emulating for my signings for "Convergence",  is the most effective model I've seen.  I had the chance to shadow him during my shift at the store during his signing.  Here's my takeaway:

1. Positioning

- Get your table at the front of the store.  Set up eye-catching props and signage, but nothing too gimmicky.  Yahaya set up his banner on a stand and a small sign on his table in front of his books.  That's it.

- Look good.  Guy Writers, wear a blazer and dressy jeans.  Girl Writers, wear.....whatever you'd normally wear to a professional kind of job, I don't pay attention to such things.  (Probably one reason I'm still single...but I digress).

- Wear comfy but good looking shoes, with insoles if you, like me, are heavy on your feet.  The comfortable shoes rule is important because you should also...

-  Be standing the whole time.  Yahaya had no chair.  It kept him out of the comfort zone of sitting at the table, using his books and props as a fortress to hide from his potential customer base.  Do the same thing.

2. Approach

- Build up your energy before you start.  Could be through meditation, creative visualization, or smoking some crack cocaine (this still being Rob Ford's Toronto and all...for now), but make sure you're in a positive, outgoing, energized mood when you start.

- Meet the eyes of every customer who comes in.  Smile and say hello.  Ask them: "Would you like to hear about my book today?". 

- If they say "no", and most of them will, don't just take it and feel rejected.  Instead, brand yourself in their minds.  Yahaya's method is particularly good.  "That's no problem.  Would you at least remember the title of my book: 'Struggles of a Dreamer'"?  Nine customers out of ten will say yes.

This kills two birds with one stone: you're able to shake off the rejection (which, admit it, is your biggest fear) AND you brand yourself in the process.  

The branding component is especially effective.  Days after Yahaya's signing, I was telling a co-worker at my full-time job about it and she said, "Wait, is this the guy who wrote 'Struggles of a Dreamer'?"  Turns out she had seen him at another store, declined to buy his book, and was asked the same question.  This shit works, y'all!

- If they say "yes", pause your sales pitch and introduce yourself. Shake their hands, get to know their names.   Personal connection and energy is what separates a shitty salesman from a good one.  People like feeling empowered, and few things empower a customer more than a real connection.  And I'm serious: be authentically interested.  Who are these people who have just said "yes" to your book? Don't you want to know? 

-  Prep your elevator pitch for your novel.  You should already have this ready in the form of your cover jacket description.  If you find that what you've written is a little too wordy to be spoken, then reduce it until you're comfortable rolling it off your tongue (and, um, consider doing the same with your cover jacket description in the next edition).  Should last no longer than twenty seconds to say it all out loud.

- Emphasize the now.  Yahaya tells his customers "I'm in the store for today only, and if you buy my book, I'd be more than happy to sign it to you."  Really, if you like reading, how often do you get the opportunity to have the author stand right in front of you to sign it?  It's quite a privilege, even if we ourselves as authors don't think so, and it's a great nudge to buy now.  After all, he's only here for one day.

- Know when to STFU!  Yahaya makes his case in under thirty seconds, then does one of the most critical things in the process:  he hands them a copy of the book....then says nothing.  This is an old rule: you negotiate, then you shut up.  As my Dad says about buying a car: "whoever talks first loses".

Everyone likes to buy, no one likes to be sold. At this point, you've done all you can do: ball is in the customer's court to buy or not buy.  If they say no, take your book back, thank them for their interest and for meeting them, then move on.

(And, of course, ask them to remember your title). 

And if they say yes, thank them for the sale, sign their copy - making sure to spell their names right, for Valen's sake - and shake their hands before directing them to the cashier. 

Understanding What's At Stake

As a bookseller with Indigo, I've seen a lot of independent authors come in.  They don't do well.  They fiddle with their phones, they don't interact with customers (or do so poorly), no eye contact.  They don't smile.  Some of them even get up from their signing tables and parade around the store.  That's why the average independently-published author sells only two or three copies of their books in any given four-to-six hour sitting. 

By contrast, Yahaya brought 50 books with him and sold 40 in a single visit.  The only reason he didn't sell all 50, in my view, was because he showed up in the afternoon and we had to close the store.  At an average of about $10 profit per book (minus Indigo's cut), Yahaya made $400 in a day, or a little under what I make in a week working for 40 hours for someone else at a non-writing job.  

And it's a good book.  I'm really enjoying Struggles of a Dreamer, which I find to be very reminiscent of all the great things I loved about Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist, but told with multiple levels of narrative that, though it took a little while to adjust to at first, I'm now very much enjoying.

Guys and gals, if you set up a signing event, don't waste your time or your venue's time by screwing it up being timid.  Even if it's just for those few hours, you need to evolve yourself into an effective author salesman.  No one's asking you to push something that other people won't want: all you need to do is let your passion for your own story that you've written find an outlet through effective technique, and you'll win.  It takes practice and rehearsal, but you can do it.  

Yahaya Baruwa isn't all that much different from me: in many ways, he's just an ordinary guy with a dream. If he can do it and he's an ordinary guy, why can't you? 

My signing's on Saturday, July 13th, from 12:00pm to 4:00pm at Indigo Milton, 1180 Steeles Ave in Milton, Ontario, about 40 minutes outside of Toronto.  This will be the first of many.  If you live in the area, feel free to stop on by and watch me demonstrate my shameless adaptation of Yahaya's highly effective technique. 

Visit www.strugglesofadreamer.com to see Yahaya's book and learn more about him.

And, of course, once I get everything nice and updated, visit www.jodyaberdeen.com to find more information on my novel, "Convergence".   

Stay tuned for Part II, which I'll write after the signing itself...

Write What You Know (or at least do really good research first)

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by Kelly DeBie

I’m at this place in my life where I’m reading a decent number of self-help books. All of which are written by so-called experts in whatever the topic is, none of which seem to have very much information that pertains to me or is relevant to my situation.

For their sakes, I’m going to assume that whatever they have written, though it doesn’t apply to me like the cover promised it would, must have mattered to them. At least when they wrote it, that is.

These books seem to not only be off the mark, but filled with judgment and condescension, as though whatever experience the author is drawing from is the only important one, and their opinion the best one available.

I suppose it sells books to suckers like me who keep buying them. I read most of them, then throw them across the room.

Sometimes I think my frustration with these books, and with so much non-fiction writing in general is that there almost needs to be this assumed superiority in knowledge, even if it’s not based in truth. Without that hook, that new and improved version of information, without the new sound bytes, how else would they sell the books?

It’s true, I suppose, that non-fiction writing just is that way.

The air of superiority, the specialized knowledge or experience that is unique to each writer, captured and packaged for the masses, even if it almost never directly applies to anyone else.

Without that, aren’t we just regurgitating the same material over and over again?

I suppose so, but then I also suppose that my suppositions mean that I’m arguing with myself.

This notion of expertise in non-fiction writing, self-help writing in particular, is both required and based in falsehood.

Or maybe it’s just that I’ve grown weary of this universe full of self-proclaimed experts, particularly given that so many of them are later revealed to not actually have the knowledge base to be clinging to that illusion of superiority.

You know what I’m talking about, or at least I’m assuming you do.

The “experts” who aren’t. Who don’t actually know what they are talking about. Who have little or no expertise in the area that they claim to, but sell it well.

While it may be slightly more difficult to publish and sell a book based on an unsteady foundation of knowledge, the internet is full of people who do it on a daily basis.

The political pundits who don’t even understand the text of the laws they argue about. The parenting gurus who have had exactly one child for five months and three days. The relationship experts who have marriages that end in ugly divorces. The moms who proclaim how best to raise a child with (fill in the blank condition) even though their children don’t struggle with that issue at all. The life coaches who mostly have failed at careers of their own. The financial planners who can’t balance their own checkbooks. The hypocritical vegans. The nutrition bloggers who couldn’t even tell you where something falls on the glycemic index.

Them.

I could go on and on and on, but I’m again assuming you’re familiar with the phenomenon. Are some of those topics the type that a sufficient knowledge base can be formed with just doing adequate research? Maybe. 

Are most of them of that variety? No.

When people ask me for advice about starting to write, one of the most common things I tell them is to write what they know. Be honest. Be transparent. Be authentic. Don’t try to be something you’re not, because even if you manage to fool people for a little while, eventually you’ll be found out. Eventually people will see through it.

If that doesn’t work, and you still feel compelled to write about something you aren’t familiar with, make sure you do exceptionally good research. Cover your bases. Learn about whatever that topic is in depth. Then learn more.

Understand though that sometimes there is simply no substitute for experience.

And remember that once something is published, whether on the internet or in a book, it’s going to live on for all eternity. If you’re just giving a topic lip service, someone, somewhere will find out and all the delete buttons in the world won't save you.

I’d rather be unknown and have integrity than be famous for being a fraud.

But that’s just me...

Do it yourself, for yourself

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By Clark Brooks

I published a book last week. What's that? Why, thank you! Yes, I'm very pleased. It's on sale at Amazon.com and at the on-line store at my personal web site among other places. Again, thank you very much. What's that? Oh, I decided to go the self-publishing route. Hey wait! Where are you going?

Are you one of those people who still attaches a stigma to self-published books? Aw, come on, don't be that way. Listen, I know there are stereotypes out there:

• Self-published authors are lazy: They lack the ambition necessary to get their works published "legitimately"
• Self-published books are vanity projects: Some authors just want to be able to see their name on the cover of a book.
• Self-published books aren't good: A self-published book was probably rejected several times by "real" publishers, because it didn't stand up to standard quality control processes like editing or proof-reading and/or it just sucks.

As is the case with all stereotypes, there's some truth there. However, I can assure you, at least in my case, my book was thoroughly scrutinized by professionals (they cashed their checks, that's for sure) for quality control purposes. Whether it's any good or not is for the reader to determine, but it went through extensive edits. Vanity? Not to brag (honestly), but between my blog, my sportswriting and various other published works, the novelty of seeing my name on something has pretty much worn off. Okay, it's still a thrill to see it on the cover of my book, but that's not the reason I did it. And as far as being lazy... well, all right, I'll cop to that, to a degree. I simply didn't want to go through the whole query letter-rejection-find an agent-more letters-more rejections procedure. Not because I have thin skin and fear of rejection but because that stuff just doesn't interest me. I don't care about it. Writing query letters takes time away from writing content and days are too short as it is. I didn't want to do it so I didn't do it. Just like so many writers conferences and workshops that focus on How To Get Published (ie: navigating the quirks and perils of an archaic system designed to stack the the odds heavily against you even if you do everything exactly correct) instead of How To Write More Gooder, it's a waste of time.

Personally, I wanted to put my material into a traditional format (a book) that I could put in people's hands. I wanted to work with people (editors, illustrators, etc.) with whom I wanted to work. I wanted complete control over what the final product would look like. I wanted to retain full ownership of every piece of it. I wanted to be actively involved in the marketing and distribution of it, on schedules set by me. I wanted all of that and very little of it would be afforded to me by submitting to the traditional publishing process. In exchange, I might have gotten my book on the shelves at Barnes and Noble for a year, maybe. For me, that trade off wasn't good enough.

Someone who gets their hands on a lump of clay is a sculptor. Someone who puts paint on canvas is a painter. Someone who can get sounds out of a guitar or a piano is a musician. Yet when it comes to writing, someone who doesn't follow the one long-established path from point A to point B doesn't deserve to be considered a legitimate author? That's nonsense, but writing is the only creative discipline where that provincial mindset still holds sway. One need look no further than the crumbling remains of the music industry to see that not only is it not necessary, it's probably not even sustainable.

The gatekeepers of the traditional publishing process still serve a purpose for those who feel it suits them, authors and readers, and that's fine for them. But if you think there's still just one way to get things done, you're simply not paying attention. After all, why should anyone wait to be let in through a gate when there are so few walls to keep them out?

A Short Collection of my most Controversial and Opinionated Observations on Writers

by Carrie Bailey

If you suck as a person, you will suck as a writer and everyone who reads your work will be granted great insight into exactly how you draw into your mouth by contracting the muscles of the lip and mouth to make a partial vacuum. 

 I’m not saying great writers are great people. Some are the emotional equivalent of a tar pit or a new strain of bird flu. They are very much themselves when they write and happen to be jerks.

What I am saying is that if you have an obvious fault in your personality, it will come out in your writing. I say this thinking about an aspiring YA writer I read with teenage characters having dark jaded and sophisticated sexual relationships that screamed PEDOPHILE to me. I know teenagers can be complex emotional creatures, but this writer was clearly drawing from his own sophisticated sexual

"Hi, I've just finished reading your first draft. I realize
these are unusual circumstances, but I have just sent
a copy to a mental health professional and the authorities. Also,
there were numerous typos on page 6 and 27."

confusion. Most writers aren't as transparently cringeworthy as this man, although published fantasy author, Piers Anthony, certainly is.

How Not to Write a Novel is a book with a lot of examples where writers just get creepy. I recommend reading it.

Creepiness is only one obvious fault that a person can have. Some authors are shallow, overly idealistic, racist, timid, boring... and that's why they suck. Sure, they can still get published. People do, but a writer has to balance out their negative repulsive qualities with enough good ones to tip the scale in favor of attraction.

Bookishness does not make you a superior form of life anymore than wearing glasses makes you more intelligent.

A lot of farmers don’t have time to read, although many listen to a great number of audio books. A lot of poor single mothers don’t have time to read. Many worthwhile people have lives that don’t involve reading books. Time to read is a privilege. It irks me when writers pat themselves on the back for having a noble hobby as if we've all forgotten that there was an era when reading was considered an immoral distraction from responsibility. Humanity can survive without books, but we can’t live without food. Respect the hardworking people who don't read, they may just be catching your book when it gets released on film.

Shocking! It is possible for someone to follow an "author" on social media and not be their adoring fan. 

I bubble over with revulsion whenever an author I friend on Facebook, adds me, and then posts a “Thank-you for friending me” message on my wall. Why don't they thank me privately? Because, they want my friends to see that I made the choice to friend them. Bastards! My Facebook wall is not for you! People I know personally are more considerate about posting on my wall than these authors I've just met.

Real fans are not numbers on social media. Authors friend each other as colleagues not as fans. We inflate each others numbers to make each other look more popular. Sometimes we do read each others work. We share technique, stories and industry information, but we are rarely fans.

Fans are people who are in awe of a writer's work. It can be very uncomfortable to get your first real fans, because you may never have experienced that sort of un-tempered and unreciprocated adoration. While some people may be impressed that you wrote a book, they don’t necessarily plan to read what you wrote. Authors who treat every social media contact as a fan need to recognize the difference!

Being a successful writer is a group effort and anyone who thinks otherwise needs to be led into the forest and left there for 20 days with only saltine crackers.

People, who I know offline, come to me all the time and say that they would like to be a successful author. Can I make that happen? No. I cannot. I have only single digit book sales each week myself and that great trickle of dimes has taken me three years to unleash. People who believe that anyone wields the power to make them successful overnight are naïve. It is kind of cheek-pinching cute though.

However, there are arrogant pricks among writers who knowingly perpetuate this mythology of the author. One day, we click the last button and place the final period on the last paragraph of our great masterpiece. There it sits. Moments later, fans are pounding on our door. Why? Because, authors either have it or they don't; that elusive something that drives sales. It's magic!

Do you agree? Better not. I will come. I will find you and we are going out for a little walk in the woods. We'll have a nice chat. I will leave you there.

If I do take the time to give a writer advice, I expect them to either show me some support by reading one of my books, promoting me, or turn around and mentor someone else. A writer’s time isn’t free just because we aren’t paid hourly. But, we give a lot of it away, because a lot of people gave their time away to us. Now, there it is. The connection between writing and success is a lot of time invested and a lot of help from other people. We have to learn about the industry, make connections, and promote our work. No magic. Just time and the hard work and time of other people.

Giving blanket advice to writers is wrong and dumb and mean and thoughtless and a generally bad idea.

There is no advice that applies to every writer. We’re all at different points in our artistic development and career. But, sometimes people get stuck in a herd…of writers, which they find comforting and validating. And then. They get cultish. It happens.

These rabid and blind writers start to believe they have found absolute knowledge about being an author. They begin to form rules. And that isn't criminal. But, someone of these creatures with laptops and pens, go after the young and those new to writing. They attempt to validate their rules by forcing others to follow them. They oppress creativity. They crush the artistic spark. They douse the fires. They trap the muse in a small cage and poke her with a stick.

Having said that, I would like invite you to read a copy of The Handbook of the Writer Secret Society. It's free when you follow our site and connect with us. While there are no oppressive rules to follow, authors do benefit from the company and companionship of encouraging and unoppressive writers and we've captured that in book form. This handbook holds the epiphanies, experiences and humor of many new authors progressing in their careers within our changing industry.

There are only two types of writers.

Idiots and fools. No! Kidding! We are engaging in a difficult process with uncertain reward or benefit, but there is nothing foolish about it. The benefit of writing is unique to each person and infinitely meaningful to many.

However, I personally classify writers into two categories: the hopeful and hopeless. Some writers add hope to my life and some take it away. It's that simple. I try to avoid the later. I try to identify them early on during our association and keep my distance. It's my overly simplified opinion that this distinction exists and I am proud to say that it has helped keep me writing. But, more than that. It is my opinion and not one I adopted from someone else.

Having and knowing and articulating my opinions is grand. I'm not sure I do it often enough. This month at Peevish Penman, all the authors and I are being opinionated just to practice opening up and saying what we really think without worrying about offending or alienating people. If you have a very opinionated post on your blog about writers, please link to it in the comments. I'd love to read it.