K.D. Clark's Blog, page 4

July Camp NaNoWriMo 2020

Hi there!

It’s camp NaNoWriMo time and I’m excited to be announcing my project for this year. If you aren’t familiar with Camp NaNoWriMo I will quickly sum it up by saying that you pick a writing project and a goal and you work hard on it for the month of July.

I’ve participated in Camp NaNoWriMo before and it can be a fun way to hold yourself accountable if you really want to finish a book. This year I’m doing things a little bit differently. I’m working on a big overall project that will be releasing in 2021 and I’m in different stages of the writing process. I have a book that I need to edit, I have a book that I’m drafting, and I’m releasing a book in August(King of The Bronx). So instead of focusing on word count like I usually would my goal is to spend 3,600 minutes this month working on my author business. I like the idea of tracking my time better because I’m not tied down to one project. If I decide to work on edits one day I can. If I want to work on administrative task one day I can and it all counts towards my goal. This will also help me see how much time I’m actually spending on my business. I have a feeling it’s probably over 3,600 minutes a month but we’ll see.

The benefit of keeping track of how much time I spend on my author business is that I can see how much I’m paying myself if that makes sense.

So what project am I working on?

The Russian Mafia! I’m so excited that I’m starting a new series that will begin to release next year and it’s surrounding the Bratva. I have one book that is drafted and I’m slowly drafting book two. I want to make sure I have a good grasp on the entire series before I start releasing anything but I think you all are really going to love these characters. I already have my covers picked out and they are pretty dark and steamy! I will continue to blog and keep you updated on my progress. Happy Writing!

My new writing schedule 2020

Since I found my passion for writing I’ve been pretty strict about setting aside time every single day to work on writing. It has worked well for me I’ve published eight books I’ve written more than that. Writing every day has help me build up a routine and take my career seriously. So why am I changing up my schedule? The short answer is I’m tired. I’ve been writing every single morning since 2017 when I started my first book; Merciless Queen. I started by getting up at five am and writing before work and I’ve pretty much kept that routine. But, for some reason starting at the end of last year waking up at 5 am became nearly impossible. Its almost like my body was rebelling against me. No matter what time I went to sleep I could not get myself up at 5 am. So I changed my wake up time to six. I could still get my words in but I only had 30 or so minutes in the morning and many times I’d finish up my word count on my lunch break or when I got home from lunch. With quarantine this schedule hasn’t really changed except the fact that I’ve also been writing at night. Quarantine has been really good for my writing and my creativity, my fast-pace world has slowed down and I’ve been able to hear my ideas and I have the time to get them on paper. But, I’ve realized in order for me to write the best I can and not feel like I’m sprinting to a finish line I need to have quiet. And as my state comes out of quarantine I’ve analyzed how I can create that quietness in my every day life.

My solution is to make changes to schedule that I’ve been following for the last 3+ years. Starting this week I’m only writing three days a week; Saturday, Sunday, and Tuesday. In order to keep my word count up I’ll have to get about 3,000 words per session. When I’m writing every day that kind of word count would be a struggle but when I’m only writing three days a week I’m spending the entire rest of the week filling up my creative well.

This is scary for me I won’t lie. It makes me anxious thinking about it but I know that I perform better at my day job when I haven’t been up staring at a computer for a hour already and I know I can concentrate more on my writing when I don’t have a time limit/ place to rush off to.

I was worried about using my weekends for writing because in my mind I should take those days off but then I realized I’ve been writing on weekends for a long time. I always tell myself that I’m not going to do any writing but every single weekend I find myself in front of my laptop typing away.

I believe this new schedule will be good for a few reasons.

More time to explore our creative passions such as this blog that I want to start working on again. Less rushed writing time. More time to focus on administrative and advertising work for the publishing side of the business.

I will keep you all updated on my progress!

It’s Release Day!

Dirty Empire is now live!

Are you ready to read Maverick and Hazel’s epic love story?
Have you ever heard of a dark beach read? Me neither that’s why I wrote one. Dirty Empire takes place in Hawaii, Tahaiti and Mexico all beautiful tropical places with all the grittiness of a dark romance. It’s the perfect escape story. This book has been so much fun to write and I can’t wait for you to read it!

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“Lucky for you, I’m not a man to apologize, even if I accidentally took another man’s wife.”

He lets his shoe fall to the floor with a thud before untying the other and dropping that one too. It takes a while for me to process what he’s saying.

“So you’ll drop me off? At the next island?” I ask, hope filling my chest for the first time today.

Maverick shakes his head before standing up and unbuttoning his dress shirt. A slight grin coats his lips. “Oh no, Pumpkin. Miles is going to come after me, and without you, I have no leverage.”

He takes off his shirt and leaves it in the middle of the floor. His washboard abs are on display, each one perfectly sculpted in a way that could only be achieved by hours spent at the gym. “I’m not a knight in shining armor, Pumpkin. I’m a villain.”

I married a monster.

Years ago my husband was the perfect man, until I was faced with his abusive side. I thought my husband would kill me but Maverick saved me. He seemed like my knight in shining armor. However, Maverick comes with his own set of baggage.

How will this tangled web of destruction and lust unravel? Dirty Empire will thrill, anger, push, and prod you to the edges of your imagination!

My Inspiration for Dirty Empire

Tomorrow is release day for Dirty Empire! I rewrote this book I think three times to get it just right. This story is different than anything else I’ve ever written. To start of this story is inspired by Greek mythology. Most people don’t know this greek myth but when I heard the idea for Dirty Empire instantly popped into my head.

Aphrodite’s first husband was Hephaestus, the god of blacksmiths and metalworking. She was unfaithful to Hephaestus and had an affair with Ares, the God of war. Hephaestus found out about their affair and set a trap. He caught them in a net and the entire village came out to see naked Aphrodite and Ares caught together. Poseidon finds this to be very cruel and rescues Aphrodite from the net. She gave birth to two of Poseidon’s daughters.

In Dirty Empire; Hazel is Aphrodite, Miles is Hephaestus and Maverick is Poseidon.

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“Lucky for you, I’m not a man to apologize, even if I accidentally took another man’s wife.”
He lets his shoe fall to the floor with a thud before untying the other and dropping that one too. It takes a while for me to process what he’s saying.
“So you’ll drop me off? At the next island?” I ask, hope filling my chest for the first time today.
Maverick shakes his head before standing up and unbuttoning his dress shirt. A slight grin coats his lips. “Oh no, Pumpkin. Miles is going to come after me, and without you, I have no leverage.”
He takes off his shirt and leaves it in the middle of the floor. His washboard abs are on display, each one perfectly sculpted in a way that could only be achieved by hours spent at the gym. “I’m not a knight in shining armor, Pumpkin. I’m a villain.”

I married a monster.
Years ago my husband was the perfect man, until I was faced with his abusive side. I thought my husband would kill me but Maverick saved me. He seemed like my knight in shining armor. However, Maverick comes with his own set of baggage.

ORDER DIRTY EMPIRE NOW: https://books2read.com/u/m2VzZ6

Self-Published: Create a Marketing Plan

If no one has told you yet you need a marketing plan. This will be your life saver as far as selling books goes. Last week I made a post about the four P’s of marketing. The first one is product and I think it goes without saying that you need a well-written book but relying just on writing a good book is foolish. The days of being able to throw a good book up on Amazon and it selling like hot cakes is over. There is far to much competition now on Amazon to not do any marketing.

So what is a marketing plan and what does it look like? Well first I want to suggest a book to you called the 1-Page Marketing Plan. Its an excellent book and can really help you create a marketing plan. In the mean time there are a few key things you need in your marketing plan.

Target Audience: Who is going to buy your book? Get REALLY specific. For example: My customer is 30 years old. She’s married with two kids and works a full-time and she uses romance novels as a way to escape and relax. If you don’t know where to start with this do some research. You can simply good “Who buys (your genre) books.” As you get further into your writing career your target audience will become more specific but start with what you have.

What’s your message?: When people think of your name what do you want them to think of? I would come up with one sentence that describes what kind of books your write and why they should read it.

How are you going to reach your audience: AKA where does your audience hang out? Are they on Facebook? Instagram? Do they prefer to walk into bookstores and pick up books? I can not emphasize enough how important this is. If you don’t know where your audience hangs out you can’t reach them.

Sales Funnel: “The purchase funnel, or purchasing funnel, is a consumer-focused marketing model that illustrates the theoretical customer journey toward the purchase of a good or service.” In today’s society I think its important to just straight-out write your sales funnel. If someone doesn’t know who you are how are you going to make them buy your product? There are steps involved to get from point A(Someone doesn’t know you) to point B(Them buying your book and becoming a loyal customer.) You need to write these steps out.

For example: Step One: I’m going to advertise a free e-book to collect email address. Step Two: I’m going to create automatic emails over the next week after they sign up so they can get to know me. Step Three: Educate my newsletter about new releases and hope they purchase my new books.

This is a simple sales funnel but basically you want to build a long term relationship with a reader and get them from point A to B.

Nurture Audience: How will you keep that relationship with your readers? In simpler terms this can be public relation or content marketing. You want to continue to give your readers content and attention. I suggest setting up a FB group for your super fans and show up in there often.

These are just some things to get you started and to start thinking about how to market your book. As mentioned before I high suggest the book 1-page marketing plan.

I can not stress enough how important it is to have a plan in place to how you will sell your book. Your book WILL NOT sell itself.

Self-Publishing Marketing: The 4 P’s

Hi! Today I want to go a bit in-depth on marketing as a self-published author. I went to school for marketing and it has helped me tremendously with my writing career, but I do realize that this is something authors really struggle with. I plan to start a series on my blog all about marketing but for today I thought I’d start with something simple; the 4 P’s of marketing and how they relate to your self-publishing career.

Product- This one seems pretty straight forward. The product is your book but it goes even deeper than that. Your product is your cover, your blurb, your genre, and your writing style. You are going to have a hard time marketing if you don’t have a good overall product. Covers are HUGE in indie publishing and you want to make sure you have a high quality cover because this is the first thing a reader is going to see.

Price-This is my favorite P to talk about because how you price your book determines who shows up to buy your book. A book that is priced at $0.99 and is available on Kindle Unlimited attracts a different fan-base than a book that is priced at $6.99 and is available on all platforms. Decide on a target market and that’s going to determine how you price your book.

Placement- I’m going to translate this to distribution. How are people going to get your books? Are you exclusive to Kindle Unlimited? Are you wide? Do you want to be in book stores? Libraries? This is all part of your marketing.

Promotion: This is what most people think when they think about marketing. Some examples of promotion is Facebook Ads, Amazon Ads, Goodreads Giveaways, Social Media, Newsletter emails, etc. Basically it’s how you are getting your product in front of your target market.

These are the basic 4 P’s of marketing. As I’ve mentioned I will continue to go into depth on marketing as a indie author but I think it’s good to talk about the basic’s first.