Cindy Dees's Blog, page 11

High Stakes Bachelor

Out now in print and e-book everywhere! She’s looking for a job, he’s looking for a lead actress. Neither of them is looking for incendiary attraction or, heaven forbid, true love. But will life imitate fiction as they fall in love on screen or will they be torn apart by danger?

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FEVER ZONE coming in January!

The book that Homeland Security asked not be written is finally coming out…January 27, 2015.  The terrorist plot that keeps government agents awake at night explodes across the pages of this gripping thriller novel by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Cindy Dees.

Hey, that’s me. Cool! And yes, Homeland Security agents really asked me not to write this book because the terrorist plot in it would work, and they didn’t have the budget to fix the weaknesses I exploited in the story. The compromise deal we made was that I would give them a year’s notice before the book is published. They’ve had their year, and Fever Zone can now hit the streets. For the record, I finished the manuscript last March. I swear. (Months before the ebola outbreak in Africa was even a blip on anyone’s radar.)

Keep tuned for details, excerpts, and a special sale price when the pre-order buttons go live…

DO YOUR HOMEWORK...THEN FOLLOW YOUR GUT

Authors are faced with so many decisions about where, when, and how to publish these days that it has become genuinely daunting to manage even the simplest publishing career.

Do you pursue print publishing with its tiny chance of breaking in to a major publisher...but with the attendant credibility to follow? Do you sacrifice the income to get the big name packaging and distribution?

Do you find a reputable indy publisher and sacrifice a portion of your potential earnings to let someone else do the heavy lifting of editing, formatting, and packaging your book? Is the income you give up worth not dealing with the hassles of doing it yourself?

Do you dive into the ocean deep and self-publish, knowing the chance of being discovered is minuscule, but the potential top-end earnings are staggering? How much of the process do you spend hours learning to do yourself, and how much do you hire out to others?

Do you write in the genre that's smoking hot right now, or do you put many months of your valuable writing time toward that off-beat book of your heart that will be difficult to market and sell in any format?

Do you take a financial risk in your current work to make more time to write? Do you give up social time, family time, or other important time to devote to writing? Do you spend money on writing training, or do you just keep writing and learn on the fly?

I could go on for hours with the decisions that bombard writers continuously.

The question, then, is how do you make the hard choices?

In the past few years, I've made two really big mistakes in my career. The first was standing pat at my publisher and continuing to write the same sorts of books I'd been writing for years. I knew it was time for me to do bigger books, bigger stories, to pursue my first love of writing big, steamy, spy thriller novels. But I let the people around me talk me into staying where I was.

As a result, I burned out, grew cynical and frustrated, and much of the joy in writing left me.

My second big mistake was not jumping into e-publishing when that bandwagon first turned the corner and came toward me. I just KNEW it would be a gold rush--the first few writers to dive in would make piles of money and sell mountains of books and their careers would take off like crazy.

But, again, I let the people around me talk me into staying where I was and going the safe route of doing what I was already doing. I didn't branch out into something new.

As we all know, the glory days of million-e-book sales are long gone in the e-publishing world for all but a VERY few lucky, talented, and hard-working writers. The same lightning-striking luck it takes to break out in print now pretty much applies to the e-book industry, too. I missed the window to get into that arena early.

The moral of the story is, I should have listened to my gut.

Now, I'm the last person to suggest that authors should base their careers on nothing but the Fuzzy Feels. We all need to understand the market, watch the emerging trends, drill down into the statistics, and know as much as we can before we make any major decisions.

I am suggesting, though, that once you are armed with that knowledge, the only correct decision is to do what feels right to you. What's that choice that you will go to sleep not fretting over? What choice resonates deep inside you? What choice is the one the little voice in your head is whispering to be the correct one?

There are as many paths to success in this business as there are aspiring authors. There is NO one right way to build your career except the one that you can live with most comfortably.

Do your homework. But then, listen to your gut.

DO YOUR HOMEWORK…THEN FOLLOW YOUR GUT

Authors are faced with so many decisions about where, when, and how to publish these days that it has become genuinely daunting to manage even the simplest publishing career.

Do you pursue print publishing with its tiny chance of breaking in to a major publisher…but with the attendant credibility to follow? Do you sacrifice the income to get the big name packaging and distribution?

Do you find a reputable indy publisher and sacrifice a portion of your potential earnings to let someone else do the heavy lifting of editing, formatting, and packaging your book? Is the income you give up worth not dealing with the hassles of doing it yourself?

Do you dive into the ocean deep and self-publish, knowing the chance of being discovered is minuscule, but the potential top-end earnings are staggering? How much of the process do you spend hours learning to do yourself, and how much do you hire out to others?

Do you write in the genre that’s smoking hot right now, or do you put many months of your valuable writing time toward that off-beat book of your heart that will be difficult to market and sell in any format?

Do you take a financial risk in your current work to make more time to write? Do you give up social time, family time, or other important time to devote to writing? Do you spend money on writing training, or do you just keep writing and learn on the fly?

I could go on for hours with the decisions that bombard writers continuously.

The question, then, is how do you make the hard choices?

In the past few years, I’ve made two really big mistakes in my career. The first was standing pat at my publisher and continuing to write the same sorts of books I’d been writing for years. I knew it was time for me to do bigger books, bigger stories, to pursue my first love of writing big, steamy, spy thriller novels. But I let the people around me talk me into staying where I was.

As a result, I burned out, grew cynical and frustrated, and much of the joy in writing left me.

My second big mistake was not jumping into e-publishing when that bandwagon first turned the corner and came toward me. I just KNEW it would be a gold rush–the first few writers to dive in would make piles of money and sell mountains of books and their careers would take off like crazy.

But, again, I let the people around me talk me into staying where I was and going the safe route of doing what I was already doing. I didn’t branch out into something new.

As we all know, the glory days of million-e-book sales are long gone in the e-publishing world for all but a VERY few lucky, talented, and hard-working writers. The same lightning-striking luck it takes to break out in print now pretty much applies to the e-book industry, too. I missed the window to get into that arena early.

The moral of the story is, I should have listened to my gut.

Now, I’m the last person to suggest that authors should base their careers on nothing but the Fuzzy Feels. We all need to understand the market, watch the emerging trends, drill down into the statistics, and know as much as we can before we make any major decisions.

I am suggesting, though, that once you are armed with that knowledge, the only correct decision is to do what feels right to you. What’s that choice that you will go to sleep not fretting over? What choice resonates deep inside you? What choice is the one the little voice in your head is whispering to be the correct one?

There are as many paths to success in this business as there are aspiring authors. There is NO one right way to build your career except the one that you can live with most comfortably.

Do your homework. But then, listen to your gut.

THE MARKET GLUT AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

I published a link to a Publisher's Weekly article earlier today on my Facebook author page (www.facebook.com/cindydeesauthor) that said 450,000+ self-published e-books and 300,000+ self-published print books were released this year.

Whoa. That's a LOT of new books. And to think: many, many self-published e-books are being released without ISBN numbers generated by Bowker, who came up with these statistics.

I don't know about you, but these numbers and across the boards sales declines for self-published authors (being blamed at the moment on the launch of the Kindle Unlimited program) give me pause.

What does it mean for self-publishing in the near future?

My best guess is that it will be more important than ever to write a high-quality book and that it's going to be harder than ever for readers to find it. This leaves you two choices: 1) market more aggressively and/or 2) be more patient in the pursuit of success. (Which is a nice way of saying that you should it expect it to take longer to achieve success and that your sales numbers will likely build more slowly than authors have been reporting over the past few years.)

It's going to start mattering more than ever that authors have a backlist of titles. Why, you ask?

Readers are going to be looking for clues of who the "real" writers are and who the pretenders are. If you don't have other writing credentials to your name--print published books with major publishers, bestseller status, or hundreds upon hundreds of reviews--one of the clues readers will have that you're the real deal will be a decent backlist. It'll show readers that you're not a one-book wonder or an amateur hobbyist who thought to himself or herself, "How hard can it be to write a book?"

Good reviews will continue to matter, as will word of mouth from your fans to their reader friends. It's going to be all about getting the word out that you are a legitimate author who delivers great reads in whatever genre you have branded yourself in.

The sad truth is, though, that just because you write a great book or several great books, you have no guarantee of selling a lot of books. More than ever, it's going to take perseverance and determination to survive and thrive as an author.

Funny, but when I first broke into print publishing a twelve years ago, the norm was to write for around a decade before making a first sale. Now, although an author can publish right away, significant sales may take upwards of that decade to unfold. The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?

At the end of the day, it takes three things to succeed as an author in the commercial fiction market:

1) good books
2) good timing
3) good luck

And apparently, that hasn't changed one bit with the advent of the self-publishing revolution.

THE PUBLISHING MARKET GLUT AND WHAT IT MEANS FOR YOU

I published a link to a Publisher’s Weekly article earlier today on my Facebook author page (www.facebook.com/cindydeesauthor) that said 450,000+ self-published e-books and 300,000+ self-published print books were released this year.

Whoa. That’s a LOT of new books. And to think: many, many self-published e-books are being released without ISBN numbers generated by Bowker, who came up with these statistics.

I don’t know about you, but these numbers and across the boards sales declines for self-published authors (being blamed at the moment on the launch of the Kindle Unlimited program) give me pause.

What does it mean for self-publishing in the near future?

My best guess is that it will be more important than ever to write a high-quality book and that it’s going to be harder than ever for readers to find it. This leaves you two choices: 1) market more aggressively and/or 2) be more patient in the pursuit of success. (Which is a nice way of saying that you should it expect it to take longer to achieve success and that your sales numbers will likely build more slowly than authors have been reporting over the past few years.)

It’s going to start mattering more than ever that authors have a backlist of titles. Why, you ask?

Readers are going to be looking for clues of who the “real” writers are and who the pretenders are. If you don’t have other writing credentials to your name–print published books with major publishers, bestseller status, or hundreds upon hundreds of reviews–one of the clues readers will have that you’re the real deal will be a decent backlist. It’ll show readers that you’re not a one-book wonder or an amateur hobbyist who thought to himself or herself, “How hard can it be to write a book?”

Good reviews will continue to matter, as will word of mouth from your fans to their reader friends. It’s going to be all about getting the word out that you are a legitimate author who delivers great reads in whatever genre you have branded yourself in.

The sad truth is, though, that just because you write a great book or several great books, you have no guarantee of selling a lot of books. More than ever, it’s going to take perseverance and determination to survive and thrive as an author.

Funny, but when I first broke into print publishing twelve years ago, the norm was to write for around a decade before making a first sale. Now, although an author can publish right away, significant sales may take upwards of that decade to unfold. The more things change, the more they stay the same, eh?

At the end of the day, it takes three things to succeed as an author in the commercial fiction market:

1) good books

2) good timing

3) good luck

And apparently, that hasn’t changed one bit with the advent of the self-publishing revolution.

FINDING LOST WRITING MOJO

Where does the mojo go, anyway, when it decides to leave? If only I had the answer to this one. Then we could track it down and drag it back, kicking and screaming, into our brains.

I do know that creativity picks the darnedest times to just up and run away from home, though. It particularly likes to flee when a deadline is looming, or I finally have a chunk of time all to myself to actually write without distractions or interruptions.

It's one of the hardest parts of being a contracted author with deadlines stacked up for months or years into the future. It's also not something authors often complain about in public. Seriously, who wants to listen to anyone bitch about how many deadlines they have when the rest of us would love to have just one of those same deadlines? It's akin to celebrities griping about how rich and famous they are.

Here's the thing, though. Deadlines do stack up. They do exert tremendous pressure upon authors, and they do contribute to making creativity on demand difficult to achieve. Life also stacks up. Stress and distraction and other commitments suck the joy and creativity out of writing as surely as missing mojo does.

It's not a half bad idea to impose an artificial deadline upon yourself and see how it feels before you accept a publishing contract. Pick a date a reasonable amount of time in the future by which your book MUST be done--as in drafted, revised, edited, and polished. DONE. Then, get writing.

If you make that deadline, turn around immediately and set another deadline for yourself. But just for fun, make this one a little tighter. To the point of being a bit uncomfortable and requiring discipline from yourself to make.

If you make that one, just for fun, set a godawful deadline for yourself that will force you to grab every spare moment to write, that forces sacrifices and productivity even on the worst days, that will keep you up at night fretting over what comes next and how to fix the flaws in the scenes you just wrote.

I'm not saying that all writing is miserable. Far from it. But there is value in teaching yourself to hang on to your love of writing and your ability to be creative in the midst of deadlines, distractions, and pressure. Even if you're self-published, the advent of the pre-order button for everybody has now shared the deadline phenomenon with millions more writers.

Here's the reality: Deadlines do happen. Mojo does take off for parts unknown. Mojo or not, successful authors have to find a way to write in spite of their missing mojo. Writing in that mode sucks. But do it anyway.

FINDING LOST WRITING MOJO

Where does the mojo go, anyway, when it decides to leave? If only I had the answer to this one. Then we could track it down and drag it back, kicking and screaming, into our brains.

I do know that creativity picks the darnedest times to just up and run away from home, though. It particularly likes to flee when a deadline is looming, or I finally have a chunk of time all to myself to actually write without distractions or interruptions.

It’s one of the hardest parts of being a contracted author with deadlines stacked up for months or years into the future. It’s also not something authors often complain about in public. Seriously, who wants to listen to anyone bitch about how many deadlines they have when the rest of us would love to have just one of those same deadlines? It’s akin to celebrities griping about how rich and famous they are.

Here’s the thing, though. Deadlines do stack up. They do exert tremendous pressure upon authors, and they do contribute to making creativity on demand difficult to achieve. Life also stacks up. Stress and distraction and other commitments suck the joy and creativity out of writing as surely as missing mojo does.

It’s not a half bad idea to impose an artificial deadline upon yourself and see how it feels before you accept a publishing contract. Pick a date a reasonable amount of time in the future by which your book MUST be done–as in drafted, revised, edited, and polished. DONE. Then, get writing.

If you make that deadline, turn around immediately and set another deadline for yourself. But just for fun, make this one a little tighter. To the point of being a bit uncomfortable and requiring discipline from yourself to make.

If you make that one, just for fun, set a godawful deadline for yourself that will force you to grab every spare moment to write, that forces sacrifices and productivity even on the worst days, that will keep you up at night fretting over what comes next and how to fix the flaws in the scenes you just wrote.

I’m not saying that all writing is miserable. Far from it. But there is value in teaching yourself to hang on to your love of writing and your ability to be creative in the midst of deadlines, distractions, and pressure. Even if you’re self-published, the advent of the pre-order button for everybody has now shared the deadline phenomenon with millions more writers.

Here’s the reality: Deadlines do happen. Mojo does take off for parts unknown. Mojo or not, successful authors have to find a way to write in spite of their missing mojo. Writing in that mode sucks. But do it anyway.

FIND YOUR PEOPLE!

One of the most time consuming parts of marketing is finding readers and writers who will connect with your stories. It's not enough to just know who they are. You also have to make a personal connection with them. It takes time and it takes effort. Hence, it's one of the first projects to embark upon as you launch your marketing plan.

First, how to find your people? Surf the Internet. Use social media sites to find groups of readers and writers in your genre. Goodreads and Library Thing both have thousands of genre specific reader groups. Follow writers who write in genre and get involved in their fan communities. Join a professional writer's organization like the Romance Writers of America, the Mystery Writers of America, etc.

Some of these professional organizations require you to have published novels in the field and/or have made a minimum amount of money before you can join. However, many of them have some sort of associate membership, or at least an informational website with tons of information for unpublished authors.

Okay, so you've found a bunch of reader/writer/fan groups. It's not enough to join up and lurk. The idea is to build your name recognition. To create real, personal connections with people who would be willing to give your book a try. Yes, you have to actually talk with people...or at least have typed conversations via the Internet. Often. And sincerely.

And yes, this is freakishly time consuming. Hence, my next piece of advice to set a schedule for yourself. Divide your working time between writing and marketing/social media, and make yourself stick to your allotted social time.

Because of the tendency of this phase of marketing to suck up both your time and your soul, I recommend you start this early and try to do a little of it every day. Better that than spending weeks or months around the clock trying to play catch up right before your book comes out.

Not only will this destroy your writing time, but it also comes across as FAKE when you suddenly get all friendly and chatty with total strangers moments before asking them to buy your book.

You have to build legitimate relationships, first. Then, and only then, can you solicit people to read your books.

I hear some of you introverts out there crawling under your rocks in horror at the notion of making hundreds or thousands of online friends.

If you really, truly, can't abide being social with your fellow man, you need to consider pursuing other kinds of marketing. Don't do social networking if you can't do it cheerfully and honestly.

Which is to say, be yourself and be genuine on your social media. And give it time. I didn't build my FB page overnight, nor did I build my substantial Twitter following overnight. I've spent the past year-and-a-half feeding both monsters daily content and actually interacting with thousands of people.

Follow the 90/10 rule. Give your followers and friends 90 percent content of interest to them and no more than 10 percent marketing of your books.

And remember, it's better to have a few hundred genuine, legitimate fans and tens of thousands of followers who neither know you nor like you and who have no vested interest whatsoever in trying one of your books. Of course the best scenario is to have thousands of legitimate fans!

That rabid fan club starts with one person. And it builds one person at a time. Start now, work on it often for a little of time, and think of it as a long-term investment in your success.

Don't miss any of my articles on marketing...visit my website and sign up for notification any time I post a new one...
www.cindydees.com

FIND YOUR PEOPLE!

One of the most time consuming parts of marketing is finding readers and writers who will connect with your stories. It’s not enough to just know who they are. You also have to make a personal connection with them. It takes time and it takes effort. Hence, it’s one of the first projects to embark upon as you launch your marketing plan.

First, how to find your people? Surf the Internet. Use social media sites to find groups of readers and writers in your genre. Goodreads and Library Thing both have thousands of genre specific reader groups. Follow writers who write in genre and get involved in their fan communities. Join a professional writer’s organization like the Romance Writers of America, the Mystery Writers of America, etc.

Some of these professional organizations require you to have published novels in the field and/or have made a minimum amount of money before you can join. However, many of them have some sort of associate membership, or at least an informational website with tons of information for unpublished authors.

Okay, so you’ve found a bunch of reader/writer/fan groups. It’s not enough to join up and lurk. The idea is to build your name recognition. To create real, personal connections with people who would be willing to give your book a try. Yes, you have to actually talk with people…or at least have typed conversations via the Internet. Often. And sincerely.

And yes, this is freakishly time consuming. Hence, my next piece of advice to set a schedule for yourself. Divide your working time between writing and marketing/social media, and make yourself stick to your allotted social time.

Because of the tendency of this phase of marketing to suck up both your time and your soul, I recommend you start this early and try to do a little of it every day. Better that than spending weeks or months around the clock trying to play catch up right before your book comes out.

Not only will this destroy your writing time, but it also comes across as FAKE when you suddenly get all friendly and chatty with total strangers moments before asking them to buy your book.

You have to build legitimate relationships, first. Then, and only then, can you solicit people to read your books.

I hear some of you introverts out there crawling under your rocks in horror at the notion of making hundreds or thousands of online friends.

If you really, truly, can’t abide being social with your fellow man, you need to consider pursuing other kinds of marketing. Don’t do social networking if you can’t do it cheerfully and honestly.

Which is to say, be yourself and be genuine on your social media. And give it time. I didn’t build my FB page overnight, nor did I build my substantial Twitter following overnight. I’ve spent the past year-and-a-half feeding both monsters daily content and actually interacting with thousands of people.

Follow the 90/10 rule. Give your followers and friends 90 percent content of interest to them and no more than 10 percent marketing of your books.

And remember, it’s better to have a few hundred genuine, legitimate fans and tens of thousands of followers who neither know you nor like you and who have no vested interest whatsoever in trying one of your books. Of course the best scenario is to have thousands of legitimate fans!

That rabid fan club starts with one person. And it builds one person at a time. Start now, work on it often for a little of time, and think of it as a long-term investment in your success.

Don’t miss any of my articles on marketing…visit my website and sign up for notification any time I post a new one…

www.cindydees.com