Jane Friedman's Blog: Jane Friedman, page 127

How to Be Active on Social Media without Losing Your Mind

Today’s guest post is by author and social media expert Kirsten Oliphant (@kikimojo).

The biggest issue I hear from people struggling with online marketing is TIME. Many writers struggle to balance social media and writing or creative work. Since we don’t have the option to go back before the age of Twitter, we are left with a few options.

Hire it out. Find someone to manage your email and Twitter and any other of your online spaces.

Gripe and procrastinate. Hope that it all goes away. Refuse to acknowledge the idea of visibility on social media.

Master and manage. Proactively learn the tricks and tools you need to build a killer presence on social media.

Before I dive into more specific suggestions (particularly on the third option), let’s reframe the discussion. Rather than thinking of social media as something you have to deal with, consider it this way: social media and online tools give us the means and opportunity to directly connect with fans in ways we never could have ten years ago. It can be a struggle, yes, but it is also a gift. If you think of social media as a tool for direct connection, it seems less like extra work and more like something fabulous. Now let’s consider the three options in a little more depth.

Hire it out.

While I think it’s worth your time to learn at least the basics of a few social media networks, you can hire someone to do this work for you. It is important to think about what work specifically needs you and what work could be done by someone else without ill effect. Only you can write your novel (unless you are hiring a ghostwriter). But anyone could write a tweet from you or create a Facebook post linking to your blog.

Virtual assistants provide affordable help and can complete a number of tasks, from creating blog posts or email newsletter content to posting on various social media sites. Some of them can even create images for your blog posts or social shares.

You can use a larger site like Virtual Staff Finder, but I prefer to work with people who are bloggers or using social media personally. Many bloggers supplement their income by becoming virtual assistants. They already utilize the different platforms and know the ins and outs of each. You can also check their own social accounts to see what kind of work they do. Check out a Facebook group specifically for connecting with VAs, like Elite VA Buy/Sell Exclusive Content or VA for Hire and Pinterest-Friendly Content for Bloggers, or join a blogging Facebook group like Blogging with Becky and Paula (which is also a great resource to learn more about blogging and social media).

Hiring someone to do the work that doesn’t have to involve you specifically can be a great way to work on your platform without detracting from your most important work. You may still want to consider learning about the platforms yourself or interacting personally on at least one platform to establish a deeper relationship with your fans. (See item 3 for more on this!)

Gripe and procrastinate.

I see a lot of people hanging out in this lounge. It’s comfortable and crowded. It’s also a little stuffy and stagnant. If you are currently here, I do understand. Creative people sometimes just want it to be enough to write great things.  But realize that while you are complaining about platform, you could be building it. You could be creating lasting connections with your fans who will support your writing.

Master and manage.

If you want to manage the platform-building aspect yourself, you need to find a way to do so that doesn’t eat up all of your writing time. This may take a little time at the front end to get to know the platforms and set some systems in place, but once you have your methods down, it will become easier and more comfortable.

1. Choose Your Platforms

It is unrealistic to think that you can master every social platform. Even many social media experts pick one platform as their focus and use others minimally. I would suggest having a presence on a few of the main platforms, but picking one or two as your main event.

To choose the platforms, you need to get to know them a little better. This doesn’t mean you need a master’s degree in every platform, but at the least an understanding of the benefits each has to offer, where your particular people hang out, and what you like. Here are the big three questions that will help you navigate these waters.

Where does your audience spend their time? At this point, social media is so prevalent that it’s likely your audience is probably on multiple social media platforms. Do a bit of research to see who hangs out more where. If you want to connect with people in the traditional publishing world, LinkedIn might be a good place, for example. But that may not be where readers of speculative fiction or independent authors spend their time. You may not always be able to pinpoint exactly where your people are or limit it to one platform. Consider some of the tools or ideas in this post as you work to find where your people spend their time.

What do you love to use? The nice thing about everyone mostly being everywhere is that it means if you fall in love with Instagram, with 500 million active monthly users, some of your target people are very likely there. If you love using a platform personally in a way that doesn’t quite align with your brand as a writer, I would suggest keeping this private or under a different name. Readers tend to love a look behind the curtain at their favorite writer’s life, but they will probably not want to see six daily posts about your children unless that directly correlates to your work as a writer. Start with the platforms you know and love, but also use them as a writer, not just as you do personally.

What does each platform offer? You need to do some homework on each platform. You might be surprised to find that a platform you think sounds like a bad fit will actually provide exactly what you are looking for in terms of connecting with fans.

If you aren’t sure where to get started with the various platforms, I created a free resource guide that provides a snapshot look at some of the bigger social media platforms. It will help you get to know the unique vibe of each platform and also provide helpful links, resources, and tools to manage each.

Choose at most two or three platforms to start. I like to actually park my name on the various platforms (especially as newer ones emerge) so that I can keep the consistency of my name across all brands. It’s so easy to tell people to find me as kikimojo on Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram rather than having a different handle on each. But aside from signing up to check out the platforms, you don’t want to bite off more than you can chew if you plan to self-manage. Choose a few platforms and really rock them hard. Then when you feel you have systems in place, you can consider broadening your reach.

2. Set Up Systems and a Workflow

Systems are the methods and processes you set in place to reach your goals. They are a way of strategically simplifying and often automating your workflow. In simplest terms, you will want to set up tools and processes that will simplify your workload for you. This typically involves using tools to automate and schedule your social media activity.

Scheduling and automation are similar, but an effective strategy employs both. Scheduling may look like you sitting down once or twice a week to schedule tweets through a tool like Hootsuite. Automation may look like setting up a tool like Social Jukebox to continually push your blog posts to Twitter. You set it up one time and it keeps happening until you adjust the settings. Read more about the pros and cons of scheduling and automation in this post.

3. Automating Effectively

There are a number of tools that you can put on autopilot to push out your content on various platforms. These are in some way similar to hiring a virtual assistant. You could invest in a larger scale option like Edgar (for $50 a month), which seems expensive, but not compared to hiring a person to do your sharing for you.

IFTTT: If This Then That lets you set up “recipes” where one action triggers another. As an example, you could create a recipe that says every time you publish a blog post, links will automatically be shared on Facebook and Twitter. There are any number of really great options on this tool and you can create your own recipes as well. This is a free tool.

Recurpost: This allows you to create a content library of social shares and a schedule to share them over time on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It has free and paid options.

Tweet Jukebox: Similar to Recurpost, this allows you to set up a sort of library of social shares that will continue to autopost on Twitter over time. It has free and paid options.

Revive Old Post: This is a plugin for WordPress that you can set up right within your blog to autopost your blog content over time to Twitter. It has free and paid options.

A big mistake people often make with automation is to set up posts for one social platform to go out to all social platforms. As an example, you’ve probably seen the tweets that have the beginning of a sentence, then cut off and have a link that is clearly to a Facebook post. Why is someone from Twitter going to jump off to read your post on Facebook? This comes across as disingenuous or lazy.

If you want to reach your Twitter followers, tweet to them. Don’t link to your Facebook post or Instagram photo. There is no value in a shortened post with a link to read the full post somewhere else. It takes a bit more time, but size your images correctly for each platform and post for the platform you are using. The occasional crossover is okay, because it does remind people that you hang out in other places. But I would advise against setting up all your posts from one platform to automatically push to other platforms. Be intentional and platform-specific. This will be much more effective in the long run.

4. Scheduling Effectively

Schedule your social media management into your week. Set aside a weekly block of time to schedule posts. (Note: Instagram does not allow for third-party scheduled posts. Many tools will say they allow Instagram scheduling, but this will merely be a reminder you set in place to post your content on Instagram.) Ideally, on most platforms, you should schedule a mix of your own content and posts from other sources that would be relevant to your audience.

Popular tools to schedule content are Buffer, Hootsuite, CoSchedule, or Post Planner to set up posts ahead of time. For better reach right within Facebook pages, I would recommend scheduling right from within Facebook. (See more best practices for Facebook in this post.) For Pinterest, tools like BoardBooster, Tailwind, or Ahalogy can have great results.

5. Engaging Effectively

Even if you have great automation and scheduling in place, you should plan for a window of time each day to interact in real time. Respond to comments, retweets, or other engagement. Follow relevant people back. Answer or ask questions in real time. Do some non-scheduled shares. In general, be active for some period of time each day. (Read this post to see my workflow for using Twitter in 15 minutes a day.)

This is where many people fall into the abyss. Don’t trust yourself to be good about your time. Set an actual timer or use apps like Rescue Time or Minutes Please that will literally set a timer and shut down the sites you choose after the allotted time.

Final Thoughts

An effective workflow will include automation, scheduling, and interacting in real time without exhausting all your time or energy. Start with one or two platforms and set up your systems. Consider using a combination of hiring a virtual assistant and managing some of the work yourself. Whatever you do, don’t wait until you’ve completed a manuscript to start considering your platform.

Reframe platform as a way to connect with your fans and make the most of your time by working smarter, not longer.

Start Here: How to Write a Book Proposal

This post is a companion to Start Here: How to Get Your Book Published. My expertise on this topic comes from more than a decade of acquisitions experience at a traditional publisher, where I reviewed thousands of proposals. Originally written in 2012, this post is regularly updated and expanded.

What exactly is a book proposal?

Book proposals are used to sell nonfiction books.

A book proposal argues why your book (idea) is a salable, marketable product. It acts as a business case or business plan for your book that persuades a publisher to make an investment in your and your project. Instead of writing the entire book, then trying to interest an editor or agent (which is how it works with novels), you write the proposal first. If a publisher is convinced by your argument, it will then contract you and pay you to write the book.

If properly developed and researched, a proposal can take weeks, even months, to write. While proposal length varies tremendously, most are somewhere around 10–25 pages double-spaced, not including sample chapters. It’s not unusual for a proposal to reach 50 pages, even 100 for complex projects once sample materials are included.

New writers might find it easier to simply write the book first, then prepare a proposal—which isn’t such a bad idea, since many editors and agents want assurance that an unknown writer can produce an entire book before they commit. But having the manuscript complete does not get you off the hook when it comes to writing the proposal.

Side note: You may occasionally hear someone refer to novel proposals, which includes a query or cover letter, a synopsis and/or outline, and a partial or complete manuscript—along with any other information the editor or agent requests. This bears little to no relation to a typical nonfiction book proposal.

Your book’s business case usually matters more than the writing itself

People don’t like it when I say this, but for most nonfiction books, the artfulness of the writing doesn’t matter nearly as much as the marketability of the book or the author. (You can see this played out in the rejections received by award-winner Rebecca Skloot.)

If your book’s purpose is to impart useful information or benefit readers’ lives, then you’re selling it based on the marketability of your expertise, your platform, and your concept. The book proposal persuades agents/editors that readers are willing to pay $20 or more for the benefit that your book provides. While everyone expects the writing to be solid, they’re not expecting a literary masterpiece. To learn how to lose weight, readers don’t need a poet; they need a clear communicator who can deliver her ideas and methods in a way that will help readers achieve their goals.

Especially in fields such as health, self-help, or parenting, your credibility and platform as a professional in the field may be most critical, since no one will trust your advice without recognized credentials. Your background must convey authority and instill confidence in the reader. (Would you, as a reader, trust a health book by an author with no medical experience or degrees? Would you be OK reading a serious guide on how to invest in the stock market by someone who is living in a van down by the river?)

Some types of nonfiction can be credibly pitched by anyone with proven journalistic or storytelling skills. (Think of a narrative nonfiction book, such as Seabiscuit). If your book must succeed based on its ability to artfully weave a story, then your strength as a writer becomes more and more important. It’s still necessary to prove there’s a market for that story, but you won’t be successful in your pitch if you can’t deliver on the writing.

If your book doesn’t require a narrative structure, then your skills as a writer mainly have to be up to the task of producing and revising a book manuscript with an editor’s or agent’s guidance.

The gray area of memoir

Memoirists will find that submission guidelines vary tremendously when it comes to pitching their work to agents and publishers. Some agents don’t require a book proposal for memoir, while others want only the book proposal and the first few chapters. Some agents may even ask for both the proposal and the complete manuscript if you’re an unpublished author.

While this is a broad generalization, I find that professional, published writers can typically sell a memoir based on the proposal alone, if they clearly have writing chops or publication credits to back up the proposal. New, emerging writers who have no publishing track record will likely be asked to submit a complete manuscript to prove they can write, sometimes in addition to the book proposal itself.

Your memoir is not salable unless you’re confident of several things.

Your writing must be outstanding. If your memoir is your very first book or very first writing attempt, then it may not be good enough to pass muster with an editor or agent.

You must have a compelling and unusual story to tell. If you’re writing about situations that affect thousands (or millions) of people, that’s not necessarily in your favor. Alzheimer’s memoirs or cancer memoirs, for example, are common, and will put you on the road to rejection unless you’re able to prove how yours is unique or outstanding in the field.

You have the start of a platform. If you have a way to reach readers, without a publisher’s help, then you’re more likely to get a book deal.

Finding a literary agent (and do you need one?)

If you are writing a book that has significant commercial value, or you want to publish with a New York house, then you’ll need to submit your work to literary agents. Projects that don’t necessarily require agents include scholarly works for university presses, regional works likely to be published by regional or independent presses, and works with little commercial value.

3 key questions every book proposal must answer

While these questions are not explicitly addressed in the proposal (e.g., with specific sections), these questions will be running through the mind of every publishing professional who considers your project. As a whole, your proposal must effectively answer them.

So what? What’s the reason for your book’s existence? What’s the unique selling proposition that sets it apart from others in the market?

Who cares? This is your target readership. A unique book is not enough—you must show evidence of need in the marketplace for your work.

Who are you? You must have sufficient authority or credentials to write the book, as well as an appropriate marketing platform for the subject matter or target audience.

Editors care about one thing only: A viable idea with a clear market, paired with a writer who has credibility and marketing savvy. Knowing your audience or market—and having direct, tangible reach to them (online or off)—gives you a much better chance of success. Pitch only the book you know has a firm spot in the marketplace. Do not pitch a book expecting that the publisher will bring the audience to you. It’s the other way around. You bring your audience and platform to the publisher.

The most common book proposal sections

The following sections belong in every book proposal.

Competitive title analysis

This section analyzes competing book titles and why yours is different or better. Whatever you do, don’t claim there are NO competitors to your book. If there are truly no competitors, then your book might be so weird and specialized that it won’t sell. Overall, your competitive title analysis should include around 5-10 titles. You might be okay discussing just a few titles if your book is on a very specialized topic or for a very narrow audience.

For each entry in your competitive title analysis, begin by listing the title, subtitle, author, publisher, year of publication, page count, price, format, and the ISBN. If it has a specific edition number, include that, too. You don’t need to list things such as Amazon ranking, star rating, or reviews. You also shouldn’t worry about not including or knowing the sales numbers of the competing titles. (There’s no way for an everyday author to find out that information, and the agent or editor know how to look it up for themselves.)

Then comes the most important part: for each competitor, you briefly summarize the book’s key strengths or approach in relation to your own. This is where you differentiate your title from the competition, and show why there’s a need for your book despite the existence of the others. This is usually about 100 words or so.

Resist trashing the competition; it will come back to bite you. And don’t skimp on your title research—editors can tell when you haven’t done your homework. Plus researching and fully understanding the competition and its strengths/weaknesses should help you write a better proposal. (I discuss the research process here.)

Keep in mind that for some nonfiction topics and categories, the availability of online information can immediately kill the potential for a print book. Travel is a good example—its print sales have declined by 50 percent since 2007. Many book ideas I see pitched should really start out as a site or community—even if only to test-market the idea, to learn more about the target audience, and to ultimately produce a print product that has a ready and eager market once it’s published.

Target market or target audience

Who will buy your book? Why will it sell? In as much detail as possible, discuss an identifiable market of readers who will be compelled to spend money on your information or story in book form. However, avoid generically describing the book buying audience in the United States, or—for example—broadly discussing how many memoirs sold last year. Publishers don’t need to be given broad industry statistics; they need you to draw a clear portrait of the specific type of person (beyond “book buyers”) who will be interested in your book. We need to be able to envision who the readers are and how they can be marketed to.

It can be very tempting to make a broad statement about who your audience is, to make it sound like anyone and everyone is a potential reader. That doesn’t help you at all.

Avoid generic statements like these:

A Google search result on [topic] turns up more than 10 million hits.
A U.S. Census shows more than 20 million people in this demographic.
An Amazon search turns up more than 10,000 books with “dog” in the title

These are meaningless statistics. The following statements show better market insight:

Media surveys indicate that at least 50% of quilters plan to spend about $1,000 on their hobby this year, and 60% indicated they buy books on quilting.
Recent reviewers of [X books] complain that they are not keeping up with new information and trends.
The New York Times recently wrote about the increased interest in military memoirs; [X and Y] media outlets regularly profile soldiers who’ve written books abour their experience.

Marketing plan

What can you specifically do to market and promote the book? Never discuss what you hope to do, only what you can and will do (without publisher assistance), given your current resources. Many people write their marketing plan in extremely tentative fashion, talking about things they are “willing” to do if asked. This is deadly language. Avoid it. Instead, you need to be confident, firm, and direct about everything that’s going to happen with or without the publisher’s help. Make it concrete, realistic, and attach numbers to everything.

Weak

I plan to register a domain and start a blog for my book.

Strong

Within 6 months of launch, my blog on [book topic] already attracts 5,000 unique visits per month.

Weak

I plan to contact bloggers for guest blogging opportunities.

Strong

I have also guest blogged every month for the past year to reach another 250,000 visitors, at sites such as [include 2-3 examples of most well-known blogs]. I have invitations to return on each site, plus I’ve made contact with 10 other bloggers for future guest posts.

Weak

I plan to contact conferences and speak on [book topic].

Strong

I am in contact with organizers at XYZ conferences, and have spoken at 3 events within the past year reaching 5,000 people in my target audience.

The secret of a marketing plan isn’t the number of ideas you have for marketing, or how many things you are willing to do, but how many solid connections you have—the ones that are already working for you—and how many readers you NOW reach through today’s efforts. You need to show that your ideas are not just pie in the sky, but real action steps that will lead to concrete results and a connection to an existing readership.

Author bio

It can be helpful to begin with a bio you already use at your website or at LinkedIn. But don’t just copy and paste your bio into the proposal and consider the job done. You have to convince agents and editors you’re the perfect author for the book. That means you need to tailor your bio and background for the book idea you’re proposing. Show how your expertise and experience give you the perfect platform from which to address your target audience. If this is a weak area for you, look for other strengths that might give you credibility with readers or help sell books—such as connections to experts or authorities in the field, a solid online following, and previous success in marketing yourself and your work.

Overview

This comes at the very beginning of your proposal; think of it as the executive summary, around two to three pages. I suggest you write it last. It needs to sing and present a water-tight business case.

Chapter outline (or table of contents)

A chapter outline works well for narrative or meaty works, especially those that are text-heavy and anticipated to come in at 80,000 words or more. For each chapter, you write a brief summary of the idea, information, or story presented, usually 100-200 words per chapter.

If writing a chapter outline seems redundant or unnecessary for your book’s content, then use a table of contents. And if you want to use both, that’s completely acceptable. The most important thing is to show how your book concept will play out from beginning to end, and strongly convey the scope and range of material covered.

Sample chapters

If you’re writing a narrative work that has a distinct beginning, middle, and end, then include sample material that starts on the beginning of the book. If your work isn’t a narrative, then write or include a sample chapter that you think is the meatiest or most impressive chapter. Don’t try to get off easy by using the introduction; this is your opportunity to show that you can deliver on your book’s promise.

Common problems with book proposals

They’ve been submitted to an inappropriate agent, editor, or publisher.
The writer hasn’t articulated a clearly defined market or need—or the writer has described a market that’s too niche for a commercial publisher to pursue.
The concept is too general or broad, or has no unique angle.
The writer wants to do a book based on his or her own amateur experience of overcoming a problem or investigating a complex issue. (No expertise or credentials.)
The writer concentrates only on the content of the book or his own experience—instead of the book’s hook and benefit and appeal to the marketplace.
The proposed idea is like a million others; nothing compelling sets the book apart.

If you’re told the market isn’t big enough, maybe you approached too big of a publisher. Is there a smaller publisher that would be interested because they have a lower threshold of sales to meet? Big houses may want to sell as many as 20,000 copies in the first year to justify publication; smaller presses may be fine with a few thousand copies.

The most common problem leading to rejection: no author platform

A sizable platform and expertise is typically required to successfully sell a nonfiction book to a major publisher, especially for competitive categories such as health, self-help, or parenting. (Here’s a definition of platform.) An agent or editor is going to evaluate your visibility in the market, and will want to know the following:

The stats and analytics behind your online following, including all websites, blogs, social media accounts, e-mail newsletters, regular online writing gigs, podcasts, videos, etc.
Your offline following—speaking engagements, events, classes/teaching, city/regional presence, professional organization leadership roles and memberships, etc.
Your presence in traditional media (regular gigs, features, any coverage you’ve received, etc)
Your network strength: if you have good reach to influencers or leaders, or have a prominent position at a major organization or business, that matters
Sales of past books or self-published works

You typically need tens of thousands of engaged followers, and verifiable influence with those followers, to interest a major publisher. Traditional houses are pickier than ever; producing anything in print is a significant investment and risk. They need to know there’s an audience waiting to buy. Plus, given the significant change in the publishing industry, authors shouldn’t consider a print book their first goal or the end goal, but merely one way, and usually not the best way, for making money.

Looking for more?

For more than a decade, I worked at a mid-size publisher that specialized in nonfiction; I was also an editor at an award-winning literary journal specializing in journalism and narrative nonfiction. I’ve prepared book proposals for myself and critiqued hundreds of others. If you need help with your proposal, here’s what I offer.

How to Write a Powerful Book Proposal That Sells ($99)

If you haven’t yet written your proposal, here’s what I can offer you:

A 3-hour video lecture series, broken down into six segments: The Big Picture, Research, Platform, Proposal Writing, Industry Know-How, and Selling
A series of worksheets to aid in your research process that makes writing the proposal far more simple and enjoyable
A book proposal template
Sample book proposals

I’ve taught numerous conference workshops and online classes on book proposals, so my lectures anticipate your questions and address all the most common mistakes and weaknesses I see. To find out more, click here. After your purchase is complete, you’ll get immediate access to the course and all curriculum.

I also offer critique services if your proposal is already written.

My Pop-Up Strategy, Part 2: The Autoresponder Series

Last week, I discussed why I added a pop-up form to my site (which gathers email newsletter subscribers); the following post explains what happens once people join my list. What you do after the sign up is important as the pop-up itself.

First, my newsletter call-to-action doesn’t offer a freebie.

When asking for someone’s email address, it’s extremely common to offer something free in return, such as an ebook, tip sheet, or other instantly downloadable benefit. I don’t do this; my theory is that it leads to high churn, or a significant number of people joining my list just to get a free-something-or-other. If I offer something for free, I’d rather not have any strings attached or make it contingent on getting someone’s email address. (That said, I know this strategy works, and I don’t begrudge anyone who uses it.)

What I do instead: Once people have joined my list, my thank-you message and page tells them that I believe every professional author should learn how to read basic contract language. I then offer a link to a PDF download of a Contracts 101 article I published a few years ago. I’d rather delight people with something they didn’t expect, not bribe them at the outset.

Next, subscribers receive a welcome series of emails.

Since my Electric Speed newsletter is only sent once every two weeks, it’s not uncommon for people to forget they signed up, especially when they quickly join with a pop-up. If someone has only visited my site once and hasn’t seen my work before, they may not even remember my name.

So last year I began using an autoresponder, which is a way of automatically sending emails based on certain triggers. I created a welcome series of three messages that introduce people to some of the most key posts and information I make available for free.

Here’s a screen capture of the first message:

This message is sent immediately after someone signs up for my list, and I make it clear the message is part of a welcome series. I keep it short and sweet.

The next two messages—also very short—offer resources on topics that I’m often asked about: how to build an author platform, and where to find process checklists for publishing and marketing. (Each of these are sent once 5 days have passed from the previous message.)

I make it clear on the third message that it’s the last one in the welcome series, and the next message will be the Electric Speed newsletter. I also welcome people to email me if they’re looking for specific information or advice they haven’t been able to find at my site.

Here are the aggregate open and click rates for my autoresponder series, before and after I added the pop-up to my site. (The blue bar represents the volume of new subscribers.)

Autoresponder series: open and click rates BEFORE the pop-up was added to my site (top line is open rate).

Autoresponder series: open and click rates AFTER the pop-up was added to my site (top line is open rate).

As you can see, the behavior of subscribers has remained about the same after adding a pop-up to my site. This indicates I’m getting quality subscribers.

My Electric Speed newsletter open and click rate has remained healthy, although there is a perceptible decline in both metrics as the list size doubled. However, this may have more to do with changes in my subject line strategy than the quality of pop-up subscribers. Time will tell.

Electric Speed newsletter open and click rates

I’ve been using an autoresponder series for less than a year, and I haven’t done any A/B testing, or even closely studied best practices. But my primary goal is to stick in people’s minds after they subscribe, be demonstrably helpful with free information and resources (without asking for a purchase), and show that I’m available to answer questions.

If you have experience with autoresponders, I’d love to hear from you in the comments.

6 Ways to Vet Freelance Editors

by Daniel Kulinski |via Flickr

Today’s guest post is from author and freelance editor Maya Rock.

Hiring a freelance editor is a significant investment, so you’ll want to do your due diligence before making your pick. To help with your decision, here are six ways to vet freelance editors.

1. Work experience

Freelance editors often don’t have traditional résumés posted on their websites, but they usually include a professional bio that says where they’ve worked in the past. Check to see if your potential freelance editor has worked at a publisher or literary agency. These are places where they’ll have been in close contact with the book editing process and have garnered the professional expertise that can help take your manuscript to the next level.

Additionally, consider whether the places your potential editor worked exposed him or her to books like yours. For example, if you’re writing a children’s book, you probably don’t want an editor who worked for a military history press, and vice versa.

You should also determine what kind of editing your potential editor did. He or she could have worked at a publishing house, but as a copyeditor, whereas you may be seeking developmental editing.

2. Testimonials and references

Another great way to vet freelance editors is by seeing what others have to say about them. Many freelance editors have testimonial sections on their websites, where authors describe their experiences with the editors. You can get big clues about the editor’s personality through these testimonials. Do their clients describe the as warm and hands-on? Technical and thorough? Consider how your personality and writing would gel with their work style.

If you want to know more, don’t be afraid to ask for references. Just be aware that the relationship between freelance editors and their clients is very private—many clients request confidentiality. Still, others are happy to give feedback.

3. Books they’ve worked on

In the book publishing industry, everyone has a list of books they’ve worked on. Agents have a list, publishing houses have a list, and individual publishing house editors have a list. Your freelance editor has a list, too, and it can help you decide whether to work with her. If the editor doesn’t have the books she’s worked on visible on her website, ask for one. Then research those books on Amazon. Do you know any of them? Are the books getting read? Are they similar to your book?

4. Sample edit

Many freelance editors happily give sample edits, for free or a small fee. Even if they don’t say outright that they offer them, you might want to request one before committing. A sample edit will give you peace of mind, as well as a very precise idea of what you’re paying for. If you don’t want to pay for a sample edit on your own work, they may have one they keep on file for this purpose. My website, for instance, has a sample editorial letter.

5. Professional organizations

Is your freelance editor a member of or affiliated with any professional organizations? I am a member of Publishers Marketplace and Editorial Freelancers Association. Both organizations require dues, which helps screen out some of the less serious editorial freelancers out there. Does your freelance editor mention writers organizations like Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, Thriller Writers of America, or the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators? If your freelance editor attends conferences or is a member of any of these organizations, it shows that he or she is in touch with editors, agents, and writers, and knows what the current trends are.

6. Terms

When choosing a freelance editor, pay close attention to the terms of your agreement with them. Because so many freelance editors are self-employed individuals, you might not have a formal contract, but there should still be terms agreed to over email before you commit to work with them. These include due dates, kill fees in case you decide not to move forward with the edit, method of payment, payouts, and a clear definition of what is to be delivered.

When you’re in the first flush of identifying that perfect match for your book, you might not be thinking so much about practical matters, but they should be in place to keep the project running smoothly and prevent misunderstandings.

One last tip: don’t underestimate the importance of personal chemistry or gut instinct. Writing is highly personal, and having a good rapport with your editor will go a long way toward making the editorial process a fruitful, productive experience.

Visit Maya Rock at Maya-Rock.com.

How to Get More Speaking Gigs (Even If You Don’t Have a Lot of Speaking Experience)

by Leo Reynolds | via Flickr

Today’s guest post is from author and speaker Dorit Sasson (@VoicetoStory).

One of the best ways to build an author platform is by doing speaking engagements. You share your expertise, come into direct contact with potential book buyers, tap into existing readership, build your email list, and ultimately increase your income.

However, you need a plan for finding these speaking gems. Where do you find them? What if you don’t have a ton of speaking experience or expertise in a particular niche?

Just for the record, speaking gigs don’t have to be a full-fledged two-hour workshop or a fancy TED Talk–type setup; they can be as simple as presentations at libraries, talks at fundraisers, and even webinars. You won’t always get paid, but coupled with selling copies of your book (which I’ve done), these types of speaking engagements are a great opportunity to increase your visibility and to build a network of fans and contacts.

To help promote my newly published book, Accidental Soldier: A Memoir of Service and Sacrifice in the Israel Defense Forces, I’ve been using a number of strategies successfully to get on the speaking radar, beginning with my local community. These three strategies have helped me land more speaking engagements.

1. Start locally.

Your local community offers wonderful opportunities for networking and speaking. Almost all of these networking communities are looking for speakers to engage their members.

Here are a few examples:

Local rotaries love to feature different stories and profiles about their communities. You don’t have to be a member or write a book about business. You don’t have to be a bestselling author or a member of the National Speaking Association. You’ll typically be given a twenty- to twenty-five-minute speaking slot where you can talk about the themes of your book or the writing process—always offer a few helpful tips or strategies.
Informal business-type luncheons in your area can be identified through Meetup.com, and chances are there will be quite a few of these. These are homegrown opportunities. Plan on attending a few. Get to know the members. Ask what topics might be of interest for future speaking engagements. Offer to do a talk on a subject of value. Fiction is always a harder sell than nonfiction, but if you can talk about how your book supports universal themes or lessons, you’ll have a better chance of engaging your audience.
Bookstores and libraries are hungry for author talks and panels, but often there can be low turnout, which can be discouraging; in fact, bookstores and libraries are concerned about low turnout. Instead of immediately getting discouraged or intimidated due to a lack of a following, use your social media voice to drive “customers” to your venue using this sample plan.

2. Use the same book to appeal to different audiences.

Another tried and true way to get more speaking gigs is to appeal to multiple audiences. Use themes as a starting point. If you’re a novelist or memoirist, pitch themes that have the strongest universal appeal.

Here are examples of how I pitched six different venues with the themes of my memoir:

For schools: I pitched my book within the framework of an author talk that also supports the objectives of the English or global studies curriculum, because serving in the Israel Defense Forces is a worldly topic that also encompasses a coming-of-age story. I also use the heroine’s journey to support the “courage piece” of the book, which is meaningful for targeting private girls’ schools.

For Hillel campuses on US universities: I slightly changed the pitch to appeal to a Jewish student body.

For military groups and women’s organizations: I changed the wording of the pitch to showcase the status and plight of women and what it feels like to serve as a woman in a foreign militaristic country.

For global/refugee-type organizations: I changed the wording of the pitch to appeal to the plight of the refugee and immigrants and to give tips to directors of these organizations on how to help immigrants and refugees acculturate more effectively to the US.

For writing groups, talks, and conferences: I pitched to conference organizers about the courage it took to write a memoir, which also encompasses the craft of memoir writing.

For business groups: I used my story of courage to talk about another strategy: the courage to market yourself as a thought leader in your industry.

As you can see, six different themes support the needs of multiple audiences. This only took a few minutes. And this was all pitched locally.

Chances are, you’ve probably got multiple themes going on, whether you’re written an ebook, a novel, or a nonfiction print book. The more universal they are, the more effective you’ll be engaging your (local) audience.

As Maya Angelou famously said, “I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

3. Join your local Toastmasters.

Talking up my book at my local Toastmasters was like working out in the gym. In fact, it toned my speaking and courage muscle to talk up the themes of my book once I decided to speak about it in the big world.

After all, the courage to speak is the courage to succeed.

Patricia Fry, author of Talk Up Your Book, encourages speakers to look for opportunities to build this special kind of muscle. She says to “present your programs in safe zones (friendly territory), among family members, at your local Toastmasters club meeting, before your writer’s group, in front of your fellow business or civic club members. These are good opportunities for you to work the bus out of your presentations.”

As I’ve learned, Toastmasters isn’t just an opportunity to practice speaking; it’s also a networking opportunity. You never know who can connect you to a particular group or organization. At our unique Women to Women Toastmasters chapter, I connected with the chapter organizer, who I later found out was the director of a women’s organization, where I later did a fundraiser for my book and sold fifteen copies.

So you don’t need impressive speaking credentials to get a speaking slot. In fact, it’s easier than you think. And it all starts locally. By creating a memorable experience for your audience, you will up the chances to sell more books.

Speaking engagements are interactive, real and dynamic. And once your peeps connect and engage with you, they have a reason to read what you have to say.

For more from Dorit Sasson (@VoicetoStory), check out Accidental Soldier: A Memoir of Service and Sacrifice in the Israel Defense Forces.

Why I Started Using Pop-Ups on My Website

Photo credit: Lester Public Library via VisualHunt / CC BY-NC-SA

I’m not a fan of pop-ups. Like most of the Internet world, I find them at best a minor annoyance and at worst a reason to stop reading. I can’t recall a time that I ever signed up for someone’s email newsletter list as the result of a pop-up. I abandon sites when I’m assiduously and repeatedly begged to sign up for an email list. I also get extremely impatient when I’m entirely prevented from reaching someone’s homepage (or content) without first being asked to sign up for an email list—when I’m forcefully diverted to a full-on sales pitch for someone’s whatever-it-is. That’s always strikes me as incredibly presumptuous—shouldn’t I get to experience you or your content for at least a few seconds before you ask for my email address?

See, I’ve already digressed into how annoying these tactics are! I hope it demonstrates how reticent I’ve been, in all my years of running this site, to place any kind of pop-up that would interrupt the reader’s experience. While I know from experience and reading case studies that pop-ups work, I rarely like how they work. They feel like a trick or a betrayal of some kind. I always figure: If people really like me, then they’ll end up on my list. I only want truly devoted people.

I’ve begun to change my mind, however.

Earlier this year, I read this article on website pop-ups: How to Use Exit-Itent Popups to Grow Your Email List. It wasn’t exactly a disinterested post, as it was published by MailMunch, a service that specializes in, well, pop-ups.

But it was a really persuasive article because it shared concrete data that helped put at ease some of my anxieties about pop-ups—mainly, that they have more negative effects than positive. It showed that with an exit-intent pop-up (I’ll explain that in a moment), a site’s bounce rate remained the same. That means people weren’t leaving in higher numbers after the pop-up was added. Also, there were some pretty amazing stats on how effective the pop-ups were: one person found the pop-up drove 1375% more subscribers than a sign-up in the site sidebar. (The sidebar has been my default placement and still is for blog subscriptions.)

I was convinced it was time to try a pop-up myself. Here are the results.

In this graph, the light blue is my existing email subscriber list; the dark blue is the number of new subscribers added each month. I added the pop-up in March 2016. I had roughly 5,200 people on my list before I added the pop-up; now I have 12,000. That means I more than doubled my list size in less than six months. My website traffic remains steady (it’s even increased a bit), and my bounce rate remains the same as before.

Here are the key reasons why I’ve changed my attitude, at least partly, toward pop-ups.

1. I’ve customized the pop-up to be as minimally intrusive as possible.

Through the use of MailMunch, I’ve been able to finely tune and control exactly how the pop-up behaves. If I weren’t able to do this, I wouldn’t use one. Here’s what I’ve done so far.

I’m using an exit-intent pop-up. An exit-intent pop-up only appears when people leave the site. If it works as it should, then visitors are not interrupted while reading blog posts or browsing content. They only see it once they demonstrate clear intent to leave. Then the pop-up appears.

The pop-up does not show on smartphones. Pop-ups tend to be most frustrating and annoying when you’re using a small screen and can’t easily get them to close. Therefore, my pop-up only appears to readers who are using desktops and tablets.

The pop-up does not keep re-appearing on subsequent visits. Some of this depends on how a visitor accesses my site, but once the pop-up has been seen and closed, it should not appear again for that visitor for at least another 180 days. However, it is possible to see it again if the reader switches browsers, devices, or locations.

It’s easy to make the pop-up go away. Some pop-ups are sneaky and don’t make it clear how to close them. My design has the traditional “X” in the corner.

I do not guilt people into joining the list. Have you ever noticed that some pop-ups make you feel stupid for not joining someone’s list? They’ll say something like, “No, I don’t want to become a better person!” I dislike that kind of overt and silly manipulation.

MailMunch offers a variety of different behaviors and formats for your pop-up; you can make it even less intrusive by having it appear in the body of the content, in a top bar, or in a scroll box.

2. It was increasingly obvious that most visitors never saw my newsletter sign-up.

I say it again and again to other authors and publications: most people spend very little time at your site, they may never come back, and they need to be given clear calls to action.

But sometimes it’s hard to take your own advice, and I was taking the issue of reader devotion a bit too far, by thinking that someone really interested in my content will find the sign-up. Actually, no, they won’t. The simple fact is that most visitors are going to miss the majority of what’s on your site, for a million different reasons. But it doesn’t mean they’re not interested in what you have to offer, if it’s made clear and valuable to them—which brings us to our next point.

3. I have a strong call-to-action and something specific to offer.

My pop-up has a very clear value proposition that is geared toward the large majority of people who visit my site. This is what it looks like:

To be honest, though, I know I could do better if I added some customized visuals, as recommended here. But this quiet approach (at least as quiet as you can get with a pop-up) is more my style. I don’t like a lot of flash, and I don’t want people to feel like they’re already being sold before they enter their email address.

4. My website carries no advertising and offers a large volume of free content.

I thought it might be time to give myself permission for this one pop-up that can help me better build my email list, which is key for my business. This website and blog is at the heart of everything I do, and given the significant traffic that it attracts month after month, it would be strategically stupid of me not to build on that traffic in some way that provides a sustainable, business resource. And since I’m not interested in hosting ads, why not better advertise myself?

If you’re interested in adding a pop-up to your site, I highly recommend MailMunch. I’m still on their free plan, but they also have more advanced, paid plans. There’s lots of functionality than I haven’t even touched on, and so far I couldn’t be more pleased with the seamless and intuitive nature of their service.

Do you use pop-ups? What’s your experience been like? Let me know in the comments. And just in case you’re wondering, you can sign up for any of my newsletters here.

Literary Agents and the Hybrid Author: A Conversation with Bob Mecoy and Kristin Nelson

Photo credit: Yukon White Light via Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC-ND

Today’s guest post is an interview with literary agents Bob Mecoy (@BOBMECOY) and Kristin Nelson (@agentkristinNLA) by Sangeeta Mehta (@sangeeta_editor), a former acquiring editor of children’s books at Little, Brown and Simon & Schuster, who runs her own editorial services company.

How is it advantageous—financially or otherwise—for self-published authors to enlist the services of a literary agent, especially if they are making a sizable profit independently?

Can authors successfully straddle the traditional and indie publishing worlds without creating any conflicts of interest?

At the Romance Writers of America (RWA) annual conference, I attended a panel called “Agents and the Self-Published/Hybrid Author: A Winning Combination” in which agent Bob Mecoy at Creative Book Services answered these and many related questions, and I followed up with him after the panel. I also sat down with agent Kristin Nelson at Nelson Literary Agency to ask her opinion about the indie author–literary agent partnership.

SANGEETA MEHTA: Do you believe the self-published/hybrid author–literary agent combination can be highly beneficial for the author?

BOB MECOY: Google “intellectual property” and “lawsuit” and you’ll discover that you need an agent. As a writer, you are playing in one of the most complex fields there is. You have rights you have to control, enforce, and sell. An agent can help with all this whether in the independent or traditional realm. You need someone to say, “This is what booksellers are looking for. This is what I’m hearing from the field.”

KRISTIN NELSON: Absolutely. There are two types of authors—those who come from traditional publishing and who are well aware of what an agent can offer, and those whose only success has been indie (Cristin Harber, Hugh Howey). When indie authors start navigating the waters themselves—the film inquiry, the foreign contract—they learn pretty quickly why an agent might be valuable. It’s definitely a beneficial partnership. But to be clear, I rarely take on an indie author simply to exploit film or subsidiary rights. The profit margin is too low in that arena to make an effective agency model.

Indie authors are often encouraged to take cues from the traditional publishing model. Can you cite any instances in which traditional publishers have learned from the indie model?

BOB MECOY: Traditional publishers are looking at what indie authors are doing with everything except packaging. This is especially true when it comes to romance, which has always been an evolutionary hot spot in publishing.

Several years ago, my client Jennifer Ashley and I went to her publisher to discuss pricing. We’d discovered that, if you publish a short book at a low price before you publish a long book at a standard price, sales would increase. To their credit, the publisher agreed to try this approach under their banner. Indie authors are equal parts independent publishing company, equal parts lab; they can afford the sweat equity traditional publishers can’t, and traditional publishers can learn from this.

KRISTIN NELSON: The most important factor traditional publishing could learn from indies is how to leverage sales by deploying venue-targeted ebook files for all the major vendors. In other words, for the Amazon Kindle edition, indie authors embed buy links that lead directly to their other titles available on Amazon. All indies see higher click-through to sales—which traditional publishers don’t leverage, as they have not adopted this practice yet. And I get it. They aren’t tech companies. That would mean ten different asset files for the same title. They simply don’t have the manpower to handle the volume.

But I have definitely coordinated metadata tags across series where the publisher controls the first couple of books and the author controls and indie publishes the last couple books of the series. And we’ve seen sales of all the titles rise. We’ve also worked on down-pricing permanently the first book in a series controlled by the publisher and then coordinating the pricing of all the other titles—even those controlled by the author. Works remarkably well, even for a ten-year-old backlist title, as I recently coordinated this with a major publisher and we saw sales pop in a big way.

Considering your success working with writers who have bridged the traditional and indie publishing worlds, many authors probably query you with the goal of wanting to go hybrid as well. What are some of the mistakes you see these authors make in approaching you? Not explaining their sales? Asking you to sell foreign rights only?

BOB MECOY: Don’t say you’re a bestselling author if your book cracked some category of the Amazon bestseller list for a second. Query with the truth. Tell me how many copies you’ve sold and if these sales were in the ebook format or print-on-demand or both. Tell me what kind of business you’re running. Don’t tell me about your pets or your garden unless you’re writing about that. Make yourself commercially interesting.

KRISTIN NELSON: In terms of asking an agent to just sell foreign or film rights—it’s not a mistake. It’s smart on the author’s part to look for an agent to sell these rights. However, it’s not a strong enough of a financial incentive for me to enter into a partnership to sell these rights only; I’m not a foreign rights outlet. This could be a great business model for someone who wants to focus on these rights, though.

If some of your clients are hybrid authors, you’ve likely had to change the way you negotiate option clauses and non-compete clauses. Can you elucidate?

BOB MECOY: It is possible to form a non-exclusive relationship with a publisher if you’re very specific about the non-compete clause. One client is continuing her series with her publisher by giving them the opportunity to consider anything new that’s not under contract—with a ticking clock. What we get from that is the opportunity to continue an independent series in the indie market, and what they’re getting is transparency. What I’m negotiating is a degree of control for my client for her time and efforts.

KRISTIN NELSON: For some of my hybrid authors, non-disclosure was involved, so I can’t reveal specifics. However, I can tell you that publishers will work with you on contract clauses and language, on a case-by-case basis, if an indie author is involved. Publishers are realizing that there are sales benefits to an indie author promoting their own titles at the same time as their traditional books. Do note that publishers will want to coordinate the release schedule of a hybrid author’s titles with their own. That way it’s maximized for mutual benefit.

Some agents are attracting prospective clients by promising them a hybrid publishing career—but mainly through digital platforms they own. What should writers watch for in these kinds of situations?

BOB MECOY: Beware of thieves. You shouldn’t have anything to do with any digital platform that’s taking a piece of the profits from the work unless that company is contributing to the success of that work. What can they contribute—editing, positioning, packaging, design, marketing? If the company is affiliated with an agent or agency, ask if they’re a member of the AAR or subscribe to the code of ethics of the AAR. Agents affiliated with the AAR can’t recommend a rewrite for your book and profit from it. What you’re looking for is someone who is doing the real work of publishing your novel and not simply profiting from putting your book up online.

KRISTIN NELSON: We offer clients the opportunity to use our NLA Digital platform, but they control their rights (NLA is not a publisher). Also, this is 100 percent the authors’ choice and not an expectation on our part. It’s simply an added value of the services Nelson Literary offers as a literary agency for our authors.

If an agent tries to take a commission for work she hasn’t done or hasn’t significantly helped to “publish” or distribute, just say no. I’ve definitely heard rumors of agencies wanting to take on an indie author, establish a hybrid career, and then requiring a commission percentage on the author’s indie-published stuff that they weren’t involved in. For me, that doesn’t make much sense for the author.

Do you have any other advice for those looking to publish both independently and traditionally?

BOB MECOY: You have to build your own infrastructure. You have to find independent ways to create yourself as a publisher, which means having readers who will give you advice that to a degree equals the advice from an editor. You have to know what’s going on with independent writers. One of the best ways to learn this is to also traditionally publish, because publishers do have something to offer. They can give you access to the larger cultural conversation. They can give you positioning with independent bookstores and online. They can give you authority that is extremely difficult to achieve independently. You won’t have the same degree of control, but you will have the luxury of seeing your book developed to its fullest potential in the market.

KRISTIN NELSON: Know thyself. Have reasonable expectations. If you want to be an indie author with full control, then be that. If you want to be a hybrid author who also publishes with a traditional publisher, know that you as an author will have to forgo control to make that work. Smart expectations are essential. A traditional publisher is not going to pay what you are “worth” as an indie. They simply don’t have the profit-and-loss bottom-line numbers that will support those kinds of advance levels. Know ahead of time that publishers will not follow the same practices that successful indie authors often deploy. Also, indie authors need to trust that publishing houses can make a big international success happen—something we’ve not seen an indie-only author achieve as of yet. However, a publisher cannot guarantee that such success will happen. There are simply no sure things in this industry. If an indie author looking to be hybrid goes into the partnership with the idea that it will expand audiences and readership, then the potential is there for both parties to be happy working together.

About Kristin Nelson and Bob Mecoy

Kristin Nelson (@agentkristinNLA) established Nelson Literary Agency, LLC, in 2002 and over the last decade-plus of her career has represented over thirty-five New York Times bestselling titles and many USA Today bestsellers. Clients include Jamie Ford, Hugh Howey, Gail Carriger, Josh Malerman, J.D. Barker, Marie Lu, Ally Carter, Stacey Lee, Simone Elkeles, Jasinda Wilder, Jana DeLeon, Courtney Milan, and RITA-award winners Kristen Callihan, Sherry Thomas, and Linnea Sinclair.

She is currently looking for literary commercial novels, big crossover novels with one foot squarely in genre, upmarket women’s fiction, lead title or hardcover science fiction and fantasy, single-title romance (with a special passion for historicals), and young adult and upper-level middle grade novels in all genres.

When she is not busy selling books, Kristin attempts to play golf and tennis. She also enjoys playing bridge (where she is the youngest person in her club), and can be found hiking in the mountains with her husband and their dog Chutney.

Member: AAR, RWA, SFWA, SCBWI.

Please visit her website for submission guidelines, as well as her popular blog, Pub Rants. Kristin can also be found on Twitter (@agentkristinNLA) and on Facebook.

Bob Mecoy (@BOBMECOY) is a recovering editor who has visited all the stations of the commercial cross. He was senior editor at Dell, executive editor at New American Library, editor in chief at Avon, vice president at Simon & Schuster, and vice president at Crown before jumping over the desk to become an agent fifteen years ago. He represents New York Times bestselling authors in the romance, crime, and thriller genres. He also represents award-winning graphic novelists and a number of nonfiction authors of note.

How to Find and Reach Influencers to Help Promote Your Book

Photo via Visualhunt.com

Today’s guest post is from writing coach and author Angela Ackerman (@angelaackerman).

As a writing coach and avid user of social media, one of the most heartbreaking things I see is when an author puts a ton of effort into writing, editing, polishing, and finally publishing a book—only to see it fail to gain traction in the marketplace. Often this comes down to a marketing misstep that’s all too common: failing to understand (and therefore reach) one’s ideal book audience.

I’ve posted about how to find your book’s ideal audience before, so I won’t wander down the same trail. Instead, I want to look at another piece of the marketing map that can greatly improve your success rate with reaching your audience: influencers.

What Is an Influencer?

Influencers are the people who are already doing a great job of connecting with your ideal audience, because it is their audience too. They have a good reputation, are visible, and they interact with your potential readers every day. Hmmm, sounds like people we should get to know, right? Exactly!

Influencers are not one-size-fits-all. Each author will have different ones depending on the audience they are trying to reach. However, one common ingredient with any influencer is that they are worthy of our admiration for the trust and respect they’ve earned with their audience. And admiration is a key ingredient of any healthy relationship—but I’ll get back to that in a minute.

Influencers for a fiction author might be:

popular authors who write very similar books
bloggers who are passionate about a topic or theme that ties into the author’s book
well-regarded book reviewers
bookstore owners
librarians
organizers of literacy or book programs and events
teachers and instructors
groups and organizations that cover the same specific interest featured in the author’s book
celebrities (hey, it can’t hurt, right?)
businesses that cater to the same audience as the author’s in some way
forums and websites dedicated to the same topic/event/theme explored in the author’s book
well-connected individuals (who endorse the book or author to other influential people)
people who are passionate about a particular topic/theme (that ties into the author’s book)
fans of the author and her work (if the author is established)

And that’s just the start!

Because influencers are recognized and have clout with your shared audience, they can really help you reach your readers. Not only that, but they are a living, breathing example of how to connect with your audience the right way. There is much to be learned by examining how an influencer engages with others online. In fact, if you want to see an example, check out this post by Author Accelerator’s Jennie Nash, who wrote about shadowing me online. (I had no idea, so this was eye-opening for me as well.)

When you determine who an influencer is, it isn’t just a matter of you asking them to help you. People are generally busy, and whoever you’re approaching likely works very hard if they hold a position of influence. They may already have a lot on their plate.

This might sound like a closed door, but it isn’t. It just means that, as in most things, there’s no marketing shortcut, and honestly there shouldn’t be, because we’re talking about creating a relationship with someone. Relationships, to work, need to come from a place of sincerity. Healthy ones are balanced, with each party giving and receiving.

How to Reach Out to an Influencer

When you’re seeking to engage with an influencer, your heart needs to be in the right place, so choose carefully. Get to know this person. Admire their work. Because if you truly appreciate what they do, you will naturally want to help them further succeed. And while of course you hope they’ll return the favor, that’s not your endgame. Creating a relationship is.

Sometimes an influencer will already know you. Maybe you are in the same circles, and have a friendly connection. In that case, it’s really just about you making it a priority to actively show you care. This can be done by trying to boost their visibility however you can (tweeting, mentioning, sharing links to their work, talking about them and their work online, recommending them, etc.), and lending a hand here and there because you want to. Think about what they need to better reach their audience, and then proactively help them do it. Tag them online. The relationship should naturally grow because they will see what you’re doing and will want to do the same for you in return. Helping each other out leads to collaboration, and with a shared audience, this becomes a win-win for both of you.

If you don’t yet have a relationship with an influencer, the first step is getting on their radar. To do this, think about what your strengths are, and what you can give. Put yourself in their shoes: what would you like help with in their position? If they are an author, a business owner, or an organization, visibility is usually welcome. So, how can you give them a shout out and help your shared audience find them? Can you blog about them, or recommend them in some way? Or what about sending a personal note to let them know you admire their work and what they do for others, and that you’d like to help if they ever need it?

If it’s a librarian, a teacher, or a nonprofit group, maybe there’s some way you can use your skills to help them. Can you volunteer your time? Show that you appreciate what they are doing, be it promoting literacy or an interest you share (because it will tie into your books, remember)? Perhaps you noticed they mentioned in a blog post that they wanted to know more about something and so you do a bit of research and send along a few interesting links their way. In all things, seek to provide value.

Generally speaking, when you consistently help someone or show interest in what they do (influencer or not), they will notice and appreciate it. A relationship naturally forms—they will want to know more about you. That’s your goal: to create a friendship that feels natural and authentic, and to have the type of connection where either of you can help, ask for advice, brainstorm ideas, and possibly collaborate with in ways that can help you both. In this way, you both grow and benefit.

Remember Anyone Can Be an Influencer

Are you cultivating strong relationships with the people you interact with day to day? I hope so! It’s just as important as seeking someone “established.” After all, a writer who asked you to look over their query letter might end up selling a five-book mega-deal a year from now. Or be affiliated with an organization looking for a speaker or visiting author. Maybe that blogger you contacted as a source of knowledge on a certain topic may become a huge fan of your work and want to help the world discover you.

Bottom line, wouldn’t you just love it if one day someone came to you and offered to put your name forward because they liked and admired you? So, adopt the mindset of a giver. Ask yourself what value you can add, what you can do for others. If you can help, do, because you never know when it will come back to you tenfold. (This is coming from someone who knows this firsthand!)

How Do You Find Your Influencers?

Determine who your exact audience is. Then, pay attention to the movers and shakers who interact with this group. These might be authors, businesses, special interest groups, forums, bloggers, and other individuals that produce content or a product that ties into the same topic, interest, theme, or element that you have written about.

To help with this, I put together something I call the Influencer Hot Sheet. This will show you what to look for to find your exact audience influencers, how to break down what they do online that helps them be successful (so you can do the same), and finally, ideas on how to build a relationship with them.

You can find it and many other marketing handouts on my Tools for Writers page.

Happy writing and marketing!

You can visit Angela at her sites for writers, Writers Helping Writers and One Stop for Writers.

How Much of Themselves Do Authors Put in Their Fiction?

Photo credit: booyaa via Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC-SA

While studying literature in college, I had to take two courses in literary theory, which involved endless debates about how much the author’s life should affect one’s reading of a text. One of the most predominant schools of thought (at least in the halls of academia) is that one should not look at the goals of the author or autobiographical issues when interpreting a work.

But if you go to an author event, or read just about any author interview, inevitably questions arise as to both the author’s intentions and how much of their own life events inspired the work.

Fiction writer Nellie Hermann (@NellieGHerman) reflects on the curious border between fiction and nonfiction in her recent essay at Glimmer Train:

Many people have asked me about the truth of my work—strangers as well as people I have known for years. I don’t deny the aspects of what I have written that are based on my experiences, but I wonder at our desire to know the answers to these kinds of questions, and at what level the answers matter. If I have done my job as a writer, I think, a piece of my writing can stand outside of questions of truth, for it can achieve a kind of truth that is its own.

Read Hermann’s entire essay.

Also this month at Glimmer Train:

The Gift of Research by Abby Geni
An excerpt from a Bret Anthony Johnston interview by Margo Williams

2 Keys to Unlock Your Momentum

Photo credit: andronicusmax via Visual Hunt / CC BY

Today’s guest post is an excerpt from Fierce on the Page by Sage Cohen (@sagecohen), recently released by Writer’s Digest Books.

The world is brimming with advice about how to write more and write better. Chances are good that you’ve explored some—or maybe even many—of these recommendations. Chances are also good that you’re not getting the kind of mileage you’d expect from adapting these approaches.

What’s in your way?

Before you can make good use of someone else’s advice, it’s important to develop a realistic picture of who you are, what your tendencies are, and what you’re realistically willing and able to change. Two key approaches can take you there.

The first is perception. You are better equipped to reach your goals when you notice with fresh and friendly eyes who you are and how you operate.

Where do you stall and when do you take flight?
What are you doing when you have your best ideas?
How do you waste time?
What writing do you admire?
What do you want so badly that you haven’t even articulated it yet?

So many of us are so entrenched in our unconscious ways of doing and being that we have no idea what’s broken, and therefore we are not in a position to intelligently decide what needs fixing. Nor do we recognize and appreciate our gifts, our strengths, and our anchors of existing momentum. We may not even know what our true aspirations are, so we have no concrete way of striving for them or evaluating if we’re reaching them.

Simply paying attention to the way you write—and don’t write—can be the start of a sea change.

Pretend you are an anthropologist studying the culture of you. Keep a log of observations—about the behaviors, attitudes, and habits you notice as you write. Your job is not to judge, but to get clearer about who you are as a writer.

Once you’re working with an informed picture of how you write (and how you don’t), the second key to unlocking your momentum is giving yourself permission to be you. That’s right. Just because you read once that “serious” writers get MFAs or do manual labor to have more writing time doesn’t necessarily mean you are called to do the same. Maybe most poets write only poetry, but you span multiple genres. No problem. Perhaps you think you should write faster, be less stiff in front of an audience, sharpen your pencil more often. When you know yourself well, you can let go of advice about what you should be doing and spend time doing things that actually help you succeed.

While driving the other day, I caught myself in an inner monologue, chastising myself with this odd thought: Other people must be better at being happy than I am. I felt like a big disappointment on the happiness-maintenance scale. Then some part of me—I like to think it’s the Fierce Writer I’ve been cultivating all these years—interrupted this negative self-talk with the challenge: Well, so what? Let’s say that other people are actually better at being happy. What difference does that make? This is who you are. What do you intend to make of it?

Simply knowing and welcoming yourself can help you find true and enduring momentum as you let go of the strategies and attitudes that don’t fit—to make room for the ones that do.

What unfriendly things do you tell yourself that make you feel unwelcome? I propose that you release the oppression of who you believe you are supposed to be as a writer. No need to force yourself to do something the “right way” if it’s not your right way. Your job is to honor your process, your rhythms, and your voice by finding ways to put them in service to your writing life. Give yourself permission to be exactly who you are. The welcomed writing self is far more receptive to fine-tuning systems, habits, and craft. The paradox is that when you welcome the writer you are today, you clear a space in which the writer you always wanted to be can come forward.

Note from Jane: If you enjoyed this article, I highly recommend you take a look at Fierce on the Page by Sage Cohen (@sagecohen).