Beth Greenslade's Blog, page 41

Should You Be Using Instagram To Market Your Book?

Nowadays every author knows that utilizing every possible promotional platform to help increase their visibility and to reach their target audience just makes good sense. The market is only going to get more crowded and competitive, and finding ways to reach your readers and present your work to them requires a mammoth effort. While many writers dislike the promotional side of things and find social media somewhat frustrating and overwhelming, the sooner they acknowledge its power and make friends with it as an exceptional communication and promotional tool, the sooner they can wield its power to their advantage.

Instagram is one of the most popular social media platforms with over a billion users. Any wise author will know that having a presence here is crucial. So what are some of the things that you can do on Instagram to promote your book? 

Posting exciting and relevant content

If you want to grab the attention of your target readership and keep them coming back for more, you need to consistently post content that’s going to make them pay attention, that feels relevant and useful, and inspiring to them. Creating a content plan before you begin is the best way to achieve this. Publish fresh content daily. You can publish content related to your work, but also always consider how useful and interesting it will be to your target readership. Think of clever and creative ways to incorporate promotion while simultaneously providing content that’s of genuine value to others and will help show off your author persona and brand.

Use paid Instagram adverts and get on board with analytics

Paid ads are enormously effective and will help ensure that your book is seen by your target audience. Paid ads make it far more likely that readers will purchase your book. Use Instagram stories to post ads where thousands of potential readers are watching. You of course need a budget to do this, but it can make all the difference to your book sales. There are great analytics features on Instagram too, so you can see how well your ads are doing and tweak them based on the data to try and ensure they are as effective as possible.

Create interactive content with a giveaway

People love something for nothing and if you want to encourage interaction and gain more followers you can also set up a book giveaway, competition, or challenge to help encourage Insta users to share your content and get it in front of more pairs of eyes without having to fork out any of your marketing budgets. Ask followers to upload pictures, or tag a friend to follow your account and in exchange randomly pick winners to receive a copy of your book. 

Post quotes from your story

You can also use Instagram to do some cool teaser quotes that will get readers interesting in your book and create excitement around your launch. Choose the most exciting, creative, beautiful lines from your stories, and readers will be intrigued and gripped and excited to know more. Make sure you use a good image to go alongside the quote and this can be a very effective technique at luring more readers in. You can also use the platform to introduce your characters. 

Using hashtags in Instagram

Hashtags can be a valuable way of making sure your content gets seen by a particular audience so make sure that you use appropriate and well-considered hashtags to help more people see content that’s relevant to them.

The above is just some of the reasons why using Instagram can be a fantastic marketing platform for your work. So don’t underestimate it. From creating marketing campaigns to promoting your book and utilizing the useful analytics features, Instagram is well worth getting on board with, so what are you waiting for? 

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

The post Should You Be Using Instagram To Market Your Book? appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

Why A Business Plan Will Help Sell Your Book

Writing a book is an exciting time, and for many writers the urge to focus simply on the creative side of things, plotting and structuring, developing characters and mapping out scenes is where their head is at in the beginning stages of book development.

However, if you want your book to be as successful as possible, it’s also worth considering creating a business plan for your book. While this might not be at the forefront of your mind, doing so can help you to see clearly how to develop your book in such a way that it has a much higher chance of selling. No one can deny that selling your book is important. It will also help you understand what you’ll need to do when your book is finished, and trust us, once you have finally got to the end of the book writing process, you be glad you did the work beforehand so you have some clear guidance in place.

Still need convincing? Here are some of the main reasons why a business plan for your book is crucial. 

It will help you understand your motivation for writing

Thinking about why you write is important. Any decent business will have a clear understanding of ‘the why’. You too should ask yourself why you want to write. Not just why you want to write, but why you want to write this particular book. Digging deep to understand what inspires and motivates you, and what purpose you think your book will have not only provides clarity, but is also excellent to refer back to when your motivation is low. 

It will help you discover your target market

A business plan should state who you think your book is for and why they will want to buy it. If you can understand your target readership at an early stage, this will influence how you write you story and ensure that your  book is marketable to those people. Understanding your target market means that you can then define what kind of content they’ll respond to best, and keeping this in mind as you write will mean you are more likely to create something that appeals to them and they’ll want to purchase. 

It will help you gain clarity around your book idea

If you create a solid business plan, what should emerge is a greater understanding of why your book is unique and why it is necessary and why you are the best person to write your book. f you do a competitive analysis you’ll ensure that the story you write is one that hasn’t been told before and will help you forma precise and marketable ideal that will rise above any competition. 

It will help you carve a clear path to success

In this hugely competitive market, books succeed because of their authors. including a high-level, strategic marketing and promotion plan within your business plan will help steer your pre and post release promotion and help ensure that when you do come to publish, your book will fly off the shelves!

A book’s business plan can be crafted at any stage of the book writing process, but the sooner the better. So if you are writing a book, why not spend some time crafting a business plan for it, this could make a big difference when it comes to how successful it is. 

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

The post Why A Business Plan Will Help Sell Your Book appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Use Your Experiences To Write A Better Book

Writing from your own experiences isn't just about taking the things that have happened to you in your life and trying to recreate them on the page or manipulating your fictional stories so that you can write about an inspiring real-life event. Using your experiences can help create more authentic characters, more believable storylines and help your reader relate to the story as it unfolds.

Your life doesn't need to have been a whirlwind of excitement, a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, or a tragic sob story. We all have things that will have happened to us and different experiences that we can use in our writing to make it better.

We have all experienced times of joy, sadness, frustration, or anger. We have all had days where everything has worked out, where we've cried with laughter or been able to appreciate the little things. We've all had times where things haven't gone our way, and it seems like one bad thing after another happens to us.

What every writer should try to do is to pay attention to these experiences, both good and bad. The more in touch you are with yourself and how you feel, the more accurately you will describe these experiences and find the right words to capture the thoughts and feelings you have.

The more you practice explaining, in words, your feelings, your emotions, and the physical reactions you have at things, the better versed you will be when it comes to relaying these kinds of emotions to your reader. Writers should pay attention to how they feel and spend time trying to capture the essence of this on the page.

Writing about our feelings isn't something that always comes naturally to us. That's why keeping a daily journal can be so helpful. Spend five minutes each morning describing how you are feeling. Ask yourself whether you are excited for the day ahead? What goals you have, and how might you feel if you achieve them or fail to achieve them? What are you most looking forward to and dreading? The key here is to focus on your feelings and write in emotive or metaphorical language. You should also spend some time writing whenever a significant event occurs in your life or when you feel an emotion particularly strongly. You can think about describing the feeling but also capturing it better by asking questions such as, 'if this feeling were a color, what color would it be?' or 'if this feeling were an animal, what would it be?' By asking questions such as this, you build up a rich bank of language and description around certain feelings. So instead of falling into tired old cliches, you instead find surprising and arresting words that will capture your reader's attention and create vivid images in their mind's eye.

Using experiences from your own life to influence your writing will help to bring authenticity to your work. Make sure that when you are taking the time to practice writing, you dedicate some of it to describing your feelings and emotions so that when you come to tell these in your story, you do so with precision and flair!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

The post How To Use Your Experiences To Write A Better Book appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

How To Stay Motivated During The Winter Months

When the weather is cold and the days are short, it can be all too easy to want to hibernate. When getting out of bed seems like a challenge in itself, the idea of carving out time to write can feel laughably unrealistic. We want to curl up under blankets and watch Netflix, not have to engage our half-frozen brains in something that requires effort and concentration.

However, just because winter is well and truly upon us, we shouldn’t start to become slack. Sticking to our writing goals may require more effort and determination, but they are still so worth doing.

So what are some useful ways to stay motivated during the winter months? Here are some helpful tips:

Learn productivity techniques

There are lots of amazing people out there who are excited to share their tried and tested productivity techniques with you. Everyone has different ways to get motivated, but why not invest in some popular books on motivation and effectiveness to learn what works for you? You can discover and start to use some strategies from hugely successful people that are sure to keep you on the right path toward reaching your writing goals.

Acclimatize to dark mornings

Throwing open your curtains to a gloriously sunny day is something we can only dream of now. For many of us, having to get out of bed before the sun comes up can be a real problem. However, learning how to get used to this, and do so with positivity and energy now can be a game changer when the seasons turn. If you get used to writing in the dark mornings, you’ll be able to continue to do so in the summer, meaning you will find it easier to get up earlier and find more time to write later in the year. 

Go to bed early with a good book

When the sun starts to set, and you’ve barely finished your lunch, you might feel like the end of the day is around the corner, and your energy and motivation start to wane. Dark, cold evenings aren’t very appealing to step outside into, so instead, why not try to conserve as much energy as possible and go to bed early, with an excellent book to keep you company?

Focus on short term goals and rewards

People tend to work better if they give themselves short term goals and reward themselves each time they achieve them. So if you want to keep your motivation up, keep goals short and sweet to ensure that you can always see the next step ahead.

Keep warm and get as much natural light as possible

Nothing makes us want to dive back under our duvets like a freezing cold, dark room to work in. So if you can, try to keep your workspace warm and cozy, and get out and about when the sun is up for a boost of Vitamin D and positivity!

By following the above, you can keep your motivation levels high, even during the coldest, darkest winter days. So don’t let the colder weather become an excuse not to write your book, and use these tips to stay on the right writing track!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

The post How To Stay Motivated During The Winter Months appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

What You Need To Know Before Hiring A Ghostwriter

Hiring a ghostwriter can be a great way to get your book written and have a professional organize your thoughts and ideas into something that is worth reading. While some writers feel that hiring a ghostwriter is ‘cheating,’ others are very open about the fact they do and feel perfectly okay with a ghostwriter helping them become successful.

So is hiring a ghostwriter the right choice for you? Let’s look at the benefits.

There are many reasons why hiring a ghost writer might be tempting:

You can present your thoughts and ideas more clearly and professionally. If you have great ideas but find it difficult to find the words to convey them into something people will be excited to read. In that case, a ghostwriter with lots of experience can be a great option.

Frees up your time to build your brand

Nowadays, the role of an author isn’t just to write. If you want to be successful you have to invest time in building a brand. A ghostwriter can be ideal if you need someone to keep churning out on brand, consistent content so you can focus on marketing and keeping your readers interested.

Eases the pressure of completing your novel

Many writers put so much pressure on themselves to finish their novels, and this can be an overwhelming, time consuming, and lonely task. By collaborating with a ghostwriter to help take some of the workload it can feel as though a weight has been lifted off your shoulders. Building a relationship with a ghostwriter means they will become familiar with your style and will be able to help you out in the long term too. 

So what do you bing to the table?

Hiring a ghostwriter doesn’t mean you don’t have to do any of the work. You will still be the creative and have to bring the ideas and share your plot, characters, your world, and anything else that will help ensure the ghostwriter creates the story you have in mind. You can’t just expect a ghostwriter to write the entire book for you - if they were willing to do this they might as well take credit for the book themselves. Rather, you need to provide them with outlines, details, and snippets of your work, and they will take all this and polish and add and recreate it to make it something better. The more you ask of a ghostwriter, the larger premium they will charge.

The kind of information you will need to agree beforehand includes:

The word count

A deadline

A contract agreement that both parties must sign before starting

A cost estimation

There are lots of places you can look for a ghostwriter such as Upwork, Reedsy, Bookwitchery, The Writers for Hire, to name up a few. Make sure you do your research and conduct a face-to-face interview before you agree on anything to make sure that your ghostwriter has the experience and ability to write for your specific need. 

Hiring a ghostwriter is a useful way for writers to get some help crafting and creating their novels. They aren’t cheap but can be a great way to achieve your goals as an author. 

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

The post What You Need To Know Before Hiring A Ghostwriter appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

Understanding Dialogue Tags

When it comes to formatting your novel, even the smallest mistakes can be picked up by eagle-eyed readers. So it is important to understand as much as you can about all aspects of formatting a book, and dialogue tags are an important part of that.

What are dialogue tags?

Dialogue tags are what comes after dialogue to let a reader know who has spoked. The simplest and most obvious example would be, ‘he said,’ or ‘she said.’

However they aren;t quite as simply as that. Dialogue tags can be used as a clever narrative device to create a conversation that is sparky, and full of energy, fast and breathless, awkward and uncertain and so on. 

Just using the simplest dialogue tags can be limiting, so lets look at some of the options and the way to format them accordingly:

Typically when formatting a dialogue tag you will place a comma directly after the spoken sentence, was well as the quotation mark, then followed by the tag and a period. While you would never capitalise the word ‘he’ or ‘she,’ using the first person i.e., ‘I’ always is. 

Some examples for clarity are below:

“I love eating cheese,” he said.

“I love eating cheese,” Peter said.

“I love eating cheese,” I said.

If two of your characters are engaged in conversation, continually adding these dialogue tags will quickly become extremely repetitive and are very likely to irk your readers. So in these cases you have the options to leave the dialogue tag out altogether. 

“I love eating cheese,” Peter said.

“Why is that?”

In the above example, it isn’t necessary to put a dialogue tag after the second line, rather you can close the sentence inside the speech marks.

Another way to break up a repetitive strong of dialogue tags is to add an action after one to help build up a vivid image for your reader and match a characters action to their words. An example of tis would be:

“I love eating cheese,” Peter said, rubbing his belly.

in this example, the correct way to format the sentence is by placing the action after the ‘Peter said’ or ‘he/she said’ — by doing so you are separating it from the tag with a comma. A writer also could choose to do this before the dialogue.

Rubbing his belly, Peter said, “I love eating Cheese.”

In this case, the comma is placed after the ‘said,’ and the dialogue begins as usual but ends with a period in this instance.

Each sentence of dialogue from each different speaker must be separated out onto a new line to help readers understand that there is a change in person talking.

Understanding small things such as dialogue tags can make all the difference to ensuring your book is polished and professional. So make sure you take the time to learn these and it could make all the difference!

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

The post Understanding Dialogue Tags appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

Want Publishers To Notice You? Do This!

Deciding to submit to publishers is an exciting time, but before you start sending off your manuscript you’ll want to do everything in your power to ensure that your novel stays out of the slush pile. Here are some strategies to put in place to ensure that you do!

Follow the guidelines

There is nothing that we can emphasize more than this first point. If you don’t bother to read the individual guidelines on the submission page of the publisher's site, you might as well just throw your manuscript straight into the bin and save yourself some time. Publishers are inundated with manuscripts. Some receive thousands each week. If you want yours to stand a chance the very least you can do is present your work how they’ve asked you to. if you can’t even be bothered to follow a few simple rules then editors aren’t going to want to work with you in the long term anyway.

Be polite and professional

While you might be tempted to be quirky, funny, or brazen, the best bet is simply to be polite and professional. Unless you are absolutely certain that your attempts to stand out will be well received, sticking to a professional manner is the safest route. 

Make it your best work

We know it can be disheartening to hear about how much competition you are up against, but that is the unfortunate truth. So if you want to get noticed, you better make sure you are sending in the absolute best example of what you can do. You’ll kick yourself if you don’t and you only get one chance, so make it count. 

Be open to feedback

If a publisher or agent bothers to give you some feedback, sit up, and pay attention. it’s highly rare that you’ll receive anything other than a polite (and often heartbreakingly generic) ‘no,’ so if you don’t it means something. Take advice from people who know the industry better than you, and make those changes. 

Build your author platform

If you can demonstrate you have a loyal army of fans who will buy your work, that makes you a pretty safe bet. So take time to build your author platform and use this as leverage to make your work seem irresistible.

So there you have it, if you do the above you can rest assured you are giving your manuscript the very best chance of finding a publisher. So what are you waiting for? 

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

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Using The Plot Factory To Write Your Book

When it comes to developing your plot, sometimes it feels like you could do with all the help you could get. While there are many techniques writers can use for plot development, one of the most interesting and more contemporary ones is using special software to help you.

One such piece of software is Plot Factory, an online story planner, that helps you to organize your fictional world, develop rich characters, and create unique stories.

For writers who sometimes find themselves stuck and unsure of where to go when plotting their novels, or those who want to find easier ways to streamline the process of outlining a book or develop new strategies for doing so, Plot Factory can be a helpful tool.

Outlining your novel before you begin to write it is important and will make sure that your idea is solid. A good outline will help you write with confidence and more effectively too. 

So, take a look at what Plot Factory has to offer.

The dashboard gives you some idea of the features of this browser-based app. You can choose to create new stories, character sheets, utilize the inbuilt name generator or answer ready-made questionnaires to help you get to know your characters. 

Plot Factory allows you to gather all elements of your novel into one place and then provides you with a smart guided process to help you develop the story. 

Within the software, writers are able to create multiple projects and can assign different plot threads and characters to them. You can use their outlining templates to help build your plot - they have several which are built on tried and tested methods. Alternatively, you can use their plot creator which doesn’t use templates but instead helps create your own story using acts and events.

The character creation tools are also really useful and pretty intuitive to use. You have the option of filling in basic or comprehensive character sheets and to import different characters from other universes. There is a Universe Creation tool that enables writers to create different locations within their world and attach characters to them as well as make up laws for the universe which can be helpful in particular for writers who are creating a world entirely different from the one we reside in.

The Plot Factory also assists with story creation and it is in this area that you can create your draft manuscript, write your book description, online your story, create character templates, add places, make notes, check out your writing stats and use their name generator. There is also a cool feature where you are able to share your draft with others and even add a narration by choosing one of their four narrators which will automatically create an audio file of your work. 

Writing a novel isn’t easy, and outlining software such as Plot Factory can really help authors stay motivated and on track - so why not give it a try? After all, you’ve got nothing to lose. 

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

The post Using The Plot Factory To Write Your Book appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

Looking For A Writing Course? Here Are Some Of The Best!

A great writing course can help you improve your craft, meet like-minded people, and get the confidence boost you need to persevere and stay motivated. However, not all writing courses are created equal, and if you do choose to join one and make the time and financial commitment, you need to ensure you are going to get a lot out of it.

Below are some great courses that can help you write your book. 

The 100 Day Book Program

If you need help finishing your book, this is the course for you. It will guide you through a proven process that will help you get over the finish line. It’s ideal for writers looking for tips on how to build exciting worlds and characters and also gives great pointers on things like dialogue, and point of view, as well as editing tips too!

MasterClass 

Masterclasses a really all-signing, all-dancing online course that provides training for writers - this course is fantastic for writers who want very specific help as the course is divided into different subjects which are taught by experienced and celebrated professionals in that particular industry. The ‘teachers’ on this course are what makes it, for example, if you join you could find out how to outline your novel with tips from James Patterson, or how to create a  page-turner from Neil Gaiman! You can also go at your own pace so you have time to absorb all the wisdom and put it into practice as you go. 

Some of the writing MasterClasses available include:

Writing by New York Times bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell

Screenwriting by Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Aaron Sorkin

Writing for Young Audiences by bestselling children's author R.L. Stine

Writing by all-time bestselling author James Patterson

Writing by award-winning author Judy Blume

Storytelling by bestselling author Neil Gaiman

Writing With Flair: How To Become An Exceptional Writer 

This is a fantastic course for any writer who is just starting out and needs some fantastic pointers to set them off on the right track.  It’s delivered by ex-Wall Street Journal editor, Shani Raja and teachers writers to do so effectively with confidence and flair!

This course has seen over 75000 students enrolled and delivers 7-hours of intensive writing training focused on how to write with: 

Simplicity

Clarity

Elegance

Evocativeness

So there you have it, if you are looking for an online writing course, try one of the three above and you won’t be disappointed.  Remember, writing is all about expanding your knowledge base and being will to learn, and these courses can teach you a thing or two, no matter how much experience you have.

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

The post Looking For A Writing Course? Here Are Some Of The Best! appeared first on Writer's Life.org.

Authors – How To Create Successful Email Marketing Campaigns

Creating a successful email marketing campaign could mean great things for your book. An effective email marketing campaign will get your book noticed by readers who are likely to be interested in buying it. It could also be fantastic to increase website traffic to your author site, get more people to follow you on social media, and increase your fan base in general.

Many authors find the idea of marketing their books a little daunting. Still, the truth is that if you aren’t willing to put time and effort into creating a robust marketing plan for your book, it will easily get lost amongst the sea of others, and you won’t sell nearly as many as you could.

Email Marketing For Authors

Email marketing is a handy tool for authors, and even if you do nothing else in the way of book promotion, this is something you should consider. Of course, to make your email marketing campaign effective, you need to have a big enough list of people to send it to. So it’s essential to work on building up a significant email list before you start work on your campaign.

The key to successful email marketing is to ensure that your email gets noticed. People get a lot of junk these days, and they have short attention spans. So it would be best if you were careful and smart about how you curate your campaign to make it irresistible to everyone who receives it.

Having a long term strategy is crucial. Your emails are personal, and they need to come across as such. You need to think about your branding, messaging, purpose, and goals and do plenty of recipient research to ensure that your email delivers a fantastic impact.

Essentially your email is where you can make the case as to why anyone would want to buy your book, but you only have a few seconds of a person’s attention to get this right. So to ensure that you do, here are some things you must consider:

How to make it personal.

Your email needs to be tailored to the individual so that the person who opens it feels as though it was written just for them. You don’t have to spend time writing individual messages, but by using a professional email service such as MailChimp, you can tweak certain details to make your email seem that way. If you are smart about it, you can cleverly craft a message that looks like you wrote it for just one person. If you can do that, you give the impression that the recipient is important, of value. It also creates a connection and starts a dialogue between the two of you.

What your incentives are

Offering incentives to buy your book is a great way to capture attention and motivate readers to act. You can do this by sharing teasers, unpublished works, and character secrets. Alternatively, you could offer something more tangible like a signed copy of your work or a chance to meet the author if they buy your book. Giving away freebies needs to be done with care. If you overdo it, you could create an expectation and a state where no one will be willing to part with any money - which is the exact opposite of what you want.

What to automate

It can’t be expected that you will type a unique message to everyone on your mailing list, and that’s why automation is so brilliant. Naturally, you’ll want to include the person’s name, but you can also add lots of other variations to ensure the email feels personal. So make sure that you think about how to set this up in the best way, so it reads naturally. You can also set up automation to trigger email responses. So, for example, if a reader clicks on something or signs up for something, you can send out a personal thank you note without having to lift a finger!

Email marketing is a huge opportunity to connect with new readers while simultaneously providing fresh content and making important announcements. The trick to email marketing is to be consistent without overwhelming, offering value, and understanding how to catch a reader’s attention with enticing subject lines, visuals, and, of course, excellent content.

Bethany Cadman - bethanycadmancreates.com

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