Mike Reuther's Blog, page 5
October 25, 2020
A wrong way to write?
Is there a right or wrong way to write a book?
That’s like asking if there is a right or wrong way to take a vacation.
You can write fast, slow or at a pace somewhere in between.
You can plan and outline a book to death or just start writing it with no plan at all.
There are many ways to write a book. There exists no one-size-fits-all program for authors.
Anyone familiar with my books and blogs on writing knows I am the champion of fast writing, of getting words down quickly.
I strongly believe this stream of consciousness approach puts a writer in his or her natural voice.
It works for me. It works for many writers.
But I realize no matter how much I push this method it will not convince everyone that it’s the best way to write a book.
And that’s okay.
Being a writer and finding success as an author means blazing one’s one path.
Have you found your path on this long journey of the writing life?
Mike Reuther is n novelist, journalist and blogger whose popular books on writing include Write the Darn Book and How to Write a Book Without Going Crazy.
October 21, 2020
Don’t be afraid to seek help
I was in a rut – not selling my books.
At least, not very many books.
The fact is, I had been in this rut for quite some time.
I had tried many of the avenues out there. Maybe you know what I’m talking about.
Tapping into social media to promote my books. Buying ads on book sites. Giving books away for free.
Guess what happened? Occasionally, I would see a very small bump in sales for a day or two. Then – nothing.
I’d like to say that this went on for brief time before I woke up to the reality of trying something different. Instead, I tried some of these same strategies for marketing my books for years.
The hope was that as I wrote more books and promoted them I would eventually catch lightning in a bottle. It was the old “throw enough crap at the wall and something has to stick” method.
Not that I thought my books were crap, but … well … you get the picture.
Some of the reasons my books weren’t selling were staring me right in the face. Unfortunately, I wasn’t taking advantage of the strategies necessary for making sales. It was easy instead to keep trying the same things repeatedly.
I needed to take action, to get out my own way, to apply some of these strategies that worked for the successful authors out there.
I went to the experts.
You can too.
Don’t be afraid to seek help.
October 18, 2020
Free book on writing
This book is free for a limited time: Oct. 18-22, 2020.
If you always wanted to write a novel, this book can help you get started.
July 10, 2020
Book marketing
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If you’re a self-published author with some books under your belt, are you marketing them?
If so, how are you getting the word out about your books?
There are a million ways to self-promote but many as well that either don’t work or yield little payback.
Many authors have found success with Amazon Advertising. It’s not difficult to set up an account and get your book in front of more potential readers on Amazon’s pages, but the learning curve can take some time.
Earlier this year, I dove into Amazon Ads using targeted keywords to attract buyers without realizing you can lose a lot of money.
I’m no expert on this potentially successful means of marketing books, but if there is any small piece of advice I can give, it’s this: Don’t bid high and monitor your ads – daily if possible.
Amazon Ads are…
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July 4, 2020
Don’t make writing a book a daily fight
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Are you having a tough time getting started each day on that book you’ve always dreamed of writing?
You’re not alone.
Sitting down and sticking that fanny in the chair before a computer is really the hardest part of writing.
As a novelist, journalist, freelance writer and blogger of many years, I know how hard it can be just to begin every day.
But ask yourself this if your struggling with that daily launch process: How will I feel after I’m done writing? Or, perhaps the better questions is: How will I feel if I don’t write?
In response to the second question, my sneaking suspicion is: Pretty damn lousy.
So, you don’t feel like writing. Okay. Stare at the television a little longer. Go play on your iPhone. Fold the laundry if you must.
But don’t waste too much time with these activities, which, let’s face it, can be done just about any other time of day that doesn’t interfere with your precious writing time.
Make your writing time a priority. And just do it.
Mike Reuther is a novelist and the author of Write the Darn Book and How to Write a Book Without Going Crazy as well as other books on writing. He loves sharing his experiences and thoughts about writing with aspiring authors.
March 23, 2020
Longing to be a writer
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He was a twenty-something guy with dreams of becoming a writer.
He imagined writing that BIG book, that novel that would knock the socks off the literary world.
For a long time, becoming a literary star remained just that – a dream.
Finally, after the twenty-something guy turned thirty, he decided it was time to put his dream into action, to start writing that book.
For two years, he scribbled away, furiously filling up notebooks in longhand.
Then one fine day, he went to the local post office and sent out his precious, typewritten manuscript, carefully bundled and packaged – his baby – to a literary agent in the great city of New York.
And waited.
Months later, the manuscript came back with a terse note about his work: Not for us.
He sent the manuscript or portions of it to other literary agents … and waited but got pretty much the same unwanted response.
He wrote another book … and another … and then another …
Hungry to unlock the great secret for becoming a published writer, he studied Writers Market, the bible for writers, voraciously pored over the pages of Writer’s Digest, a monthly guide for budding authors.
He no longer dreamed of being the next Hemingway. He just wanted published, to be able to call himself an author.
The years went by and there came many more rejection letters, all of which he filed away in a drawer. They would serve as reminders, he assured himself, of those many years when he couldn’t get published.
Eventually, the writer found an agent. Finally, validation that someone believed in his work, his hard-earned reward for all the work and waiting and rejections.
Sadly, the agent couldn’t find a place for his book.
Into his forties, he kept writing and sending out his manuscripts. It was the dawn of the internet age, and he no longer had to mail out chapters of his books and wait weeks or months for responses. Now, the rejections were coming by email, just hours after he sent out his queries.
And then, everything changed: The self-publishing era arrived.
No gatekeepers to prevent writers from publication. Finish a book and hit the publish button and Presto! you were an author.
But is that what he wanted? It seemed too easy, even wrong. All those years, writing and rewriting, earning his stripes to be an author, only to reach a time when anyone could be a writer.
He was far from a young man now. All those years, all the rejections, yet somehow, he’d kept the faith, a foolish faith, a crazy chase of wasted days and nights that might have been better spent in another endeavor, something with a reward.
He was at a crossroads.
Maybe you can relate to this story, perhaps more so if you’re an old baby boomer who pummeled those impenetrable doors of literary agents and publishing houses back in those halcyon days of the 1980s and ‘90s when life was slower and less complicated and it really did seem as if only the few, the anointed, became published authors.
Becoming a writer, let alone a successful one, is still no easy deal, and there remain agents and publishing houses that beckon writers with contracts, money and validation that they might belong in the esteemed club of authors. Many still opt for this traditional publishing route and likely face what so many writers faced – rejection.
It’s a choice every serious writer must eventually make, traditional publishing or self-publishing.
Whatever choice you make, give the book your best effort. Write the book you want to write. Polish it, have it edited.
But don’t stand on one book.
Write another book … and another … and then another …
Grow as a writer. Improve, get better.
Don’t get frustrated. Okay. You will get frustrated, but if you really want to be a writer, you’ll stay the course.
March 21, 2020
Coronavirus? Write a book
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For many of you, the perfect time to write a book is now.
Yes. You read that right – Now.
Let’s face it. We’re going through some scary times with the coronavirus interrupting lives and leaving all of us wondering just how bad things can get.
It’s quite likely, wherever you are, that you’re suddenly enduring this kind of hermetic life, not going anywhere, closed off from friends, perhaps even family.
There’s even a good chance you have no job to go to in this time of crisis.
Entertainment options in the outside world have been shut down. Restaurants and theaters, even playgrounds have been closed off to the public.
You likely have a lot of time on your hands, that is, if you’re not spending all of it monitoring the TV news or scanning the internet to learn the latest grim statistics about COVID-19.
You likely wonder how long this crisis is going to last.
Give yourself a break. Find a diversion. Better yet, start that book you’ve always dreamed of writing.
Time is so very precious in this life, and why waste all of it worrying, fretting over a pandemic that we have little control over.
Who knows, it just might be the jump-start you need, a daily writing habit you form toward becoming an author.
For those of you who’ve written and published books, I don’t have to remind you that now is a great time to bang away on the keyboard churning out words.
Make lemonade from lemons.
Start writing that novel or other story you’ve been dying to write for far too long.
February 28, 2020
Advice for the newbie indie author
If you’re just starting out in self-publishing with dreams of making it big or at least successful as a writer, you may have already encountered some of the stumbling blocks of the writing life.
You likely learned that after publishing your novel or non-fiction book for all the world to see, your real work commenced.
You want people to read your book and, of course, spend their hard-earned money on it.
What most newbie indie authors quickly find is that the sales don’t come rolling in once they publish. Literally millions of books flood the marketplace and the chances of many people finding your magnum opus is slim.
What to do?
Well … what you’ll likely do is spend an inordinate amount of time, probably more time than is emotionally healthy, searching and scanning the internet for the best and most effective means of marketing and promoting your book.
And boy oh boy, will you find the sites out there, countless of them, making claims that they have the best and most cost-effective strategy for selling thousands of copies of your book. It’s a good bet you’ll try some of these approaches and find they don’t work, and it’s a good bet you’ll question why you ever decided to write in the first place.
Unfortunately, I don’t have the single magic bullet for selling books.
What I can tell you is that I’ve made my share of mistakes, including shelling out money for book promotion sites that brought me little or nothing in return.
Before you go out and spend more money than you can afford to market your book, make sure you first have all your ducks in a row.
Write a good book, free of grammar and spelling errors. Don’t be afraid to spend just a little bit for a good editor or proofreader.
Make sure it has an eye-catching cover. Yes, a cover is important, and there are plenty of talented graphic artists out there you can find who can create one for you without hitting you hard in the pocketbook.
Do a little research on keyword strategies, which help people find your book more easily.
Check out some social media sites on writing where other authors gather and share their concerns. It’s a good place to find out what’s happening out there, and what works and doesn’t work in self-publishing.
Find out who the real experts are on self-publishing. Check out their books or their YouTube sites.
One of the more informative and best self-publishing gurus, at least in my humble opinion, is Dale Roberts, who has a YouTube site called Self-Publishing with Dale. He’s put out countless YouTube productions on a variety of topics covering the self-publishing world.
Meanwhile, keep writing. Get out that next book and the next one after that.
After all, you’re a writer.
February 23, 2020
But what do I write?
Are you stumped about what to write?
Do you figure everything that’s ever been written has been done and put to rest for the ages?
Well .. consider this. You are your own voice. You are unique with something to say, maybe even something very important to say to the world.
Sure, the plight of mankind and what human creatures are doing here on this planet has been written to death. Science fiction stories of every kind have been put to paper. Obscure figures who come from nowhere to emerge as mythic heroes have been made into best-selling novels.
And yet, your story, the way you might want to present some similar narrative, can be told as well.
You see, we are all unique, different in so many ways. There are countless ways to tell a story, and everyone has their own writing style and slant on things.
We all have experiences and backgrounds that we can draw from in writing these wonderful books. There is always room for more stories out there, and readers eager to devour them.
That goes for nonfiction as well.
You see, it’s how you write the story. After all, there is no one like you. Give yourself a chance. If you really have that burning desire to write whatever it is inside you, you owe it to yourself to do it.
Now, what’s stopping you?
Are you interested in publishing a book? Ask for Mike Reuther’s free ebook, How to Write a Book Without Going Crazy. Mike is an awarding journalist with an M.A. and nearly two dozen published books. He can be reached at mreuther@windstream.net.
February 22, 2020
Doubts about Writing
Maybe those voices visited you once again today. You know what I’m talking about, those nagging voices whispering to you that you’re wasting your time writing.
They ask you what you really have to write about that’s so important, that anyone will want to read. That book you’ve been writing or have spent so long thinking about writing just isn’t worth a box of rocks.
Of course, these voices are your own thoughts. They nag at you from time to time, if not endlessly. They visit you at 4 a.m., snapping you awake from a bad dream. They suddenly enter your thoughts, when you’re otherwise in a pretty damn good mood, while you sip coffee at your favorite cafe. They follow you from work as your driving home after a bad day. Sure they do. And why not? No one said you had to write a book. No one forces you to go to the computer and begin banging out stories.
You really think you have something to say? Fine. Don’t waste your time telling the world. Look at the time you’re wasting, the voices remind you. Where’s the payoff?
We’ve all heard these voices. They nag at us, pull us down to the very depths of doubt and negativity. If we heed them, they can prevent us from ever writing those books we’ve long wanted to get out.
No one needs the negativity, the dark despair of pessimism. But it surrounds us all. It’s normal. The best one can do is ignore those voices, which are really the naysayers out there wondering why you’re putting time into something like writing a book. And they’re out there all right – in spades – those folks who suggest your time would be better spent selling real estate or taking up a nice hobby, like collecting stamps or skydiving.
Don’t listen to the doubters, the people who want to pull you down. Maybe the world doesn’t need another book. Perhaps there are more than enough authors out there. Never mind that there certainly exist more lucrative ways to spend one’s time. Sure, it’s quite likely that first book you write won’t make enough money to pay off your mortgage.
But you certainly have as much right as anyone to write a book. Who says the best-selling authors are the only ones who have anything important to say? If writing a book is something you really want to do, go for it man, but don’t go at it half-hearted. Do it with passion, do it with joy, do it with a fire that is fueled from starting something you’ve long wanted to happen, that you know you have to do.
Otherwise, the voices, the naysayers, the doubters are right. You have no business writing a book. For if you don’t do it with passion, with joy and with a commitment, it likely won’t be worth anyone’s time, let alone your own.
Maybe those voices visited you once again today. You know what I’m talking about, those nagging voices whispering to you that you’re wasting your time writing.
They ask you what you really have to write about that’s so important, that anyone will want to read. That book you’ve been writing or have spent so long thinking about writing just isn’t worth a box of rocks.
Of course, these voices are your own thoughts. They nag at you from time to time, if not endlessly. They visit you at 4 a.m., snapping you awake from a bad dream. They suddenly enter your thoughts, when you’re otherwise in a pretty damn good mood, while you sip coffee at your favorite cafe. They follow you from work as your driving home after a bad day. Sure they do. And why not? No one said you had to write a book. No one forces you to go to the computer and begin banging out stories.
You really think you have something to say? Fine. Don’t waste your time telling the world. Look at the time you’re wasting, the voices remind you. Where’s the payoff?
We’ve all heard these voices. They nag at us, pull us down to the very depths of doubt and negativity. If we heed them, they can prevent us from ever writing those books we’ve long wanted to get out.
No one needs the negativity, the dark despair of pessimism. But it surrounds us all. It’s normal. The best one can do is ignore those voices, which are really the naysayers out there wondering why you’re putting time into something like writing a book. And they’re out there all right – in spades – those folks who suggest your time would be better spent selling real estate or taking up a nice hobby, like collecting stamps or skydiving.
Don’t listen to the doubters, the people who want to pull you down. Maybe the world doesn’t need another book. Perhaps there are more than enough authors out there. Never mind that there certainly exist more lucrative ways to spend one’s time. Sure, it’s quite likely that first book you write won’t make enough money to pay off your mortgage.
But you certainly have as much right as anyone to write a book. Who says the best-selling authors are the only ones who have anything important to say? If writing a book is something you really want to do, go for it man, but don’t go at it halfhearted. Do it with passion, do it with joy, do it with a fire that is fueled from starting something you’ve long wanted to happen, that you know you have to do.
Otherwise, the voices, the naysayers, the doubters are right. You have no business writing a book. For if you don’t do it with passion, with joy and with a commitment, it likely won’t be worth anyone’s time, let alone your own.
Are you interested in publishing a book? Ask for Mike Reuther’s free ebook, How to Write a Book Without Going Crazy. Mike is an awarding journalist with an M.A. and nearly two dozen published books. He can be reached at mreuther@windstream.net.
