Amy Denim's Blog, page 2
November 13, 2015
#NaNoWriMo? The Perfect Next Step
I heart NaNoWriMo. I always write way more words in November than any other time during the year. The challenge always is what to do with those words once you’ve got them on the page.
Here are your next steps.
Step one – Walk away from the manuscript
It’s great to give your WIP and your brain a little time to rest. Some people like to give it a whole month, but I think a week is plenty. When you get back to it ready to edit ideas you didn’t even know you had will have marinated and you can look at the story with a fresh head.
Step two – Start Editing
I recommend a three pass system
Pass one – read through the entire manuscript from start to finish and edit, make any changes you like, as you go. Don’t go back…ever. Keep moving forward. If you make some great big changes in later chapters that are going to require alterations to the beginning make yourself a note.
Pass two – print the whole thing out (sorry trees), and in a different color and/or font from what’s on your screen. I like blue and a nice and simple font like Georgia. This is also where I get out the highlighters (and I use Margie Lawson’s EDITS system). Now read through the whole manuscript again, start to finish and write notes in the margins (or even between lines!) for changes you want to make as you go. Don’t go back, keep moving forward. When you’re all the way through the paper manuscript, open your document up and start working on your changes.
Pass three – read it aloud. Either print it out again (really sorry trees!) and read it out loud to yourself making notes for changes as you go or have your computer read it out loud and makes notes on your follow-along copy for changes. When you’re done listening open the document up and finalize your last changes.
Now you’re done with your self-editing!
Step three – Sign up for my online workshop Zero to Self-Published in 90 Days.
We’ll take your mostly finished manuscript through all the steps to successfully self-publish including: Finding an editor and cover designer, formatting for a beautiful book, getting the right front and back matter, writing your book description, finding your keywords and categories, creating a business plan, developing a marketing plan, planning your launch day, sending out ARCs, creating an ebook, a print book, and an audiobook, where and how to sell your book, publishing, and ongoing marketing! Phew!
I only do this workshop once a year through my favorite writing group, Colorado Romance Writers, to help them earn much needed operating money. (Although, your book can be any genre, you don’t have to write romance!)
The cost is only $99 which is super duper inexpensive. If you paid for the same thing one-on-one with me it would cost over $900! So get my brain and my time now at a great rate.
Hugs and Happy Writing,
— Amy Denim
The post #NaNoWriMo? The Perfect Next Step appeared first on Coffee Break Publishing.
October 23, 2015
If you create anything you need to listen to this. #MakeGoodArt
Some days I need a little extra inspiration just to make it through the day, much less get some words on the page. I’ve listened to billions and billions of motivational speeches and looked up quotes.
Today I found one of the best motivational speeches for being an artist…evah.
If you are an artist (and if you’re on my blog, I bet you are) and maybe you’ve gotten caught up in the business or the social media or the overwhelming lists of things you have to do self-publish, than this is for you as much as it is for me.
Enjoy Neil Gaiman sharing his wisdom about being an artist.
Happy Writing (and making good art!)
–Amy Denim
The post If you create anything you need to listen to this. #MakeGoodArt appeared first on Coffee Break Publishing.
October 15, 2015
5 Writing Podcasts Totally Worth Listening to on Your Coffee Break
Are you trying to keep up with all the publishing news, tips, tricks, updates, and ideas so you can keep up with the landscape and business of writing, publishing, and selling books?
Yeah, me too. But there’s too much. I’m on information overload. I can so easily get lost in hours clicking from one article to the next, trying to make sure I’ve got the latest and greatest information.
I was spending way more than a couple of coffee breaks on this every day, and while it’s a good use of time, it’s not the best. (The best is writing more books!)
Until I started listening to publishing podcasts.
Thank goodness.
Now I pop up a podcast on my writing coffee breaks while I’m working out, or while I’m in the car. I’ve gotten truckloads of tips and tricks and feel like I’m at the forefront of publishing news.
Here are my favorite podcasts and the ones that I think are totally worth spending your coffee breaks listening to.
1. The Rocking Self-Publishing Podcast with Simon Whistler
This is the podcast I go to first every week. (Probably because Simon has that James Bond British accent thing going on. #LoveIt). The show is usually around an hour long and Simon interviews somebody super smart and successful. Plus, the show notes have action steps and links to follow for later if you are listening while washing dishes and can’t take notes.
2. The Sell More Books Show with Jim Kukral and Bryan Cohen
This is where I get most of my news for the week. Way better than CNN. (Unless of course Jim is cranky and needs a Snickers.) No, seriously the duo play off each other well and often don’t agree which helps show the whole picture of the tips and news they gather and discuss.
Bryan also runs BestPageForward.net and AuthorCopy.com where he offers lots of copywriting services like writing your books descriptions. Jim runs Author Marketing Club.
3. Author Strong with Mat Morris and Nancy Elliott
This is a daily podcast around a half an hour long, and I occasionally get behind and have to start binge listening because this show is the real deal. Like, I wanna be friends with Mat and Nancy.
Mat is a multi-published author who is mentoring Nancy, who is just starting on her self-publishing journey. They talk goals and processes and strategy, plus they have guests that talk about everything writers want to know about. They also have a Facebook group filled with writers that if you join could totally become your mastermind group.
4. The Creative Penn with Joanna Penn
Yay for women writers! Joanna has a business background and she’s totally on my wavelength. She interviews all the smarty-pants writers and delves out all the goods on how to boost your career and treat it like a business. She also has free downloadables on her website to help authors as well as great courses you can take.
5. The Self-Publishing Podcast 2.0 with Johnny B. Truant, Sean Platt, and David W. Wright
These guys are such…guys. They poke fun at each other, talk about all kinds of weird shit, and I’m waiting for the fart jokes. But, they are on top of writing, publishing, and repeating that. In fact, they wrote a book you need to read called Write. Publish. Repeat. They also do live Hangouts and have a bunch of other podcasts under their Sterling and Stone FM station.
Honorable Mention – The Writing Renegade with Carl Plumer 
Carl is hitting on some topics that are really important to writers that no one else out there is covering right now, like how to use WordPress. Nice. Those podcasts are very short and sweet, easily listened to on a coffee break. He also does interviews that run a bit longer, 30-45 minutes, including one with me!
Check it out on SoundCloud here or iTunes here
Do you listen to podcasts? Are there any you simply love that I’ve missed or is there one you want to recommend? Let me know about it in the comments.
Happy Writing (and listening!)
–Amy Denim
The post 5 Writing Podcasts Totally Worth Listening to on Your Coffee Break appeared first on Coffee Break Publishing.
July 11, 2015
7 ways to make Facebook chats painless
Have you been thinking about doing some author brand building or book promotion
Create a Word doc/OneNote/Evernote page with everything you’ll need for the chat like pre-drafted posts, images, links to your books, your other social media, sign up for your newsletters etc. Have it open and ready for your chat so you can just copy and paste your posts.
If you’ve got a press kit (see this post for creating a press kit), grab that file so you can use your prepared links, bio, excerpts etc and simply copy and pasted into your chat document.
Bonus tip – Use a link shortener/link click tracker service like Bitly to see how many hits you get on your links to your books, social media, website, etc. It will help you get a nice measurement on how effective your chat and time spent are.
Create some images you can use on any chat – www.picmonkey.com is an easy way to create those pics. Be sure to brand the pics to match your author/website/book/series branding. Use things like – Ask Me Anything, Contest (with details), Newsletter sign ups. You can make these specific to this chat event or generic so you can use them over and over.
Prepare enough posts to be able to share one and interact for about 10 to 15 minutes. So, for an hour long chat have at least 4 to 6 posts ready. It’s a good idea to have 1 of 2 back-up posts in case you change your mind mid-chat or see that another author did the exact same thing as you.
Have an event theme. It can and should match your book or the promotional even you’re doing. For example if you are doing a summer/beach reads promotion do a beach/relaxation/spa day theme. Find music videos (search on YouTube) that you can post during your chat. Create a graphic to post not only on the event page but also your profile, fan page, and profile pic.
In multi-author scheduled chats be sure to pay attention to who is going before and after you so you can do a shout out post to each of them. Be sure to begin and end on time so you avoid posting over another other’s posts
Make as many of your posts are open-ended questions as you can. The chat should be about the readers. Remember, people love to talk about themselves. Ask for recommendations, suggestions, ideas or in kind replies. For example if you share something like a music playlist/ soundtrack for your book ask the readers/fans to share some songs they think would be great additions.
Here are a few ideas of posts to share
A trivia tidbit ready to share about your book(s), like what inspired a certain scene or how you’ve actually been to a place in the book etc.
This is a great place to share your Pinterest boards
Contests are a quick and easy way to get lots of interaction. Need some contest ideas? Check out this post.
Pictures are worth a thousand likes. Post a picture of your hero/heroine/villain/cat, say something about how you like men (or cats) who are (cowboys, billionaires, sexy nerds, etc) and ask the readers to post their favorite pictures of that same archetype.
Ask me questions about…(your books, your writing life, etc)
Recipes – something that goes with your book, your characters, the season, your chat theme, your own personal favorites. Think drink, snacks, etc.
Cast my book – Ask readers to share which movie stars they would cast as the characters in your books if it were to be made into a movie
Book trailers. You spent time (and/or money) having it made, this is the perfect place to share it. Remember to include your buy links in the post.
Excerpts are the perfect way to attract new readers. Be sure to include the buy links at the end.
Your writing playlists/ a soundtrack for the book. YouTube or Spotify are great places to create these and are easily shared.
Other books like yours that your readers might recommend to you to read (this one is great for finding antecedents and other authors you might be able to do cross promo with)
Let one of your characters hijack your Facebook/Twitter account. Let your readers ask questions and answer as your character might.
For more ideas on how you can use social media to build your platform and promote your books check out my book The Coffee Break Guide to Social Media for Writers: How to be Successful on Social Media and Still Have Time to Write.
Questions or do you have more ideas for author chat tips or posts to share? Hit me up in the comments below. Share your thoughts with me and other authors!
Happy Writing,
–A
Amy Denim
June 26, 2015
How creating a Press Kit for your book will make your life easier (and what to include)
Are you scrambling to put together some efforts to launch your new book? Or maybe your sales have dropped and you need a push. Wait, I know, a fabulous and easy promo opp has dropped into your lap. Any which way you need to do some marketing. Maybe a blog tour can help or you’re going to reach out to journalists in your area with a press release. Maybe it’s as simple as updating your website social media and blog with your book’s information so readers can easily learn about and buy it.
I know the first time I tried to do some book marketing I was eternally hopping from folder to folder on my laptop and website to website to get all the info compiled into an email or upload. By about the fifth time, I finally saw the light and created my own little press kit.
Yay! Now I had everything I needed to let the whole world (including all those lovely book bloggers) all about my book. One zip file, or a couple of clicks and I had blog posts drafted, excerpts posted, and marketing plan chugging along like a well-oiled tin man.
Now whenever a new promotional avenue opens up I’m ready to send out my message without the fuss of scouring my files only to remember the latest copy of my cover is saved in the cloud.
Book marketing is hard work, so make your life easier by creating your own press kit. It won’t exactly be the same as the ones say a new car company puts out. But, when you’re ready to reach out to blogs and groups and readers (oh, my!) having your kit put together will save you time and tears.
I suggest creating a special folder on your computer specifically for your press kit. You may also decide to have a page on your website with the same information available for download, except, of course, the PDF, mobi, or epub file of the actual book.
Here’s what to include.
PDF, mobi, and epub file of your ebook
Book cover image in both a high and lower resolution
Book title
Book Blurb
Your author name
Page count
Genre
The book’s first chapter
3 separate shorter excerpts
URL/link for your book’s page on your website
URLs/links for your book’s page on the bookseller sites
ISBN or ASIN
Name of publisher (if you have a publishing company or DBA) and publication date
Prizes/awards for this title (only if it was the grand-prize winner)
Stupendous blurbs and/or awesome review excerpts
Your bio
Your headshot in both a high and lower resolution
Your blog or website URL
Upcoming personal appearances or events
Contact information
A Q&A sheet with easy items for media or interviewers to get headlines and details about you and your book
For more lessons on marketing, promo, and everything else you need to self-publish your book successfully check out my class Zero to Self-Published in 90 Days.
Questions or do you have more ideas of what to include in an author press kit or what to do with it once you have one? Post them in the comments below. I love hearing from authors, but I love learning new tips and tricks from them even more!
Happy Writing,
–A
Amy Denim
June 18, 2015
5 Ideas for Book Promo – Quick & Easy Contests
Contests are a great way to generate buzz for your books. I’m a fan of giving away books as prizes. Why? Because your target audience are readers! If you’ve got some sway (like bookmarks, cover flats, etc) that you want to include too, those are great rewards for fans. But giving away some of your books will also help you gain new readers.
*Bonus tip # 1 – When you send the books to the winners, ask them if they would be kind enough to let you know how they liked the book by leaving an honest review on Amazon, Goodreads, or your other chosen book review site.
Okay, onto the quick and easy contest ideas. You can use these on your blog, Facebook, Twitter, or any other social media site you love using.
One in Ten (for every ten new (subscribers, likes, etc) you’ll give away one book. 100 new whatevers = 10 giveaways.
Three random winners. When you ask a question or ask readers/fans to interact choose three random winners for a giveaway. I recommend doing your random drawings using www.random.org. You input a list and it will generate random winners for you.
For you and a friend. This is a great way to use word-of-mouth marketing. Ask the readers/fans to nominate a friend they think would like to read your book. When you choose your winners give a prize to both the nominator and their friend. Prizes don’t have to be the same for each. Maybe the friend wins the first book in a series, but the nominator wins some swag. The nominators are likely already fans so rewarding them with a prize that besides the book.
Cross promo giveaways – Get together with another author, or a few and give away their books instead of your own.
Name a book/character/choose a location/cover, etc. Fans love to be involved in the creative process. Run a contest where fans get to name a character or choose your book cover (from a few choices you and your cover designer create).
Bonus tip #2 – Keep track of who you give books away to. That way you won’t give the same book to someone, or a prize to the same person when you are trying to reach out to new readers. Plus, if you get good reviews from any of your prize winners you can add them to your reviewers list and offer them an ARC (Advanced Readers Copy) in exchange for an honest review when your next book comes out.
Be sure to include some contest disclaimers and rules for your contests. Facebook usually requires you say something about not being affiliated through them. Check their website to see their current requirements. You might also include the dates/times the contest is open, when you’ll choose the winners, where/how you’ll let them know they’ve won, how to contact you, where the contest if valid, and what happens if winners don’t claim their prize in a specific time frame.
If you run a contest where the fans get to be involved in your creative process be sure to let them know you’ll thank them in your acknowledgements, but that they are not entitled to any payments or royalties from the sale of the books.
For more ideas on how you can use social media to build your platform and promote your books check out my book The Coffee Break Guide to Social Media for Writers: How to be Successful on Social Media and Still Have Time to Write.
Questions or do you have more ideas for author contests? Post them in the comments below. I love hearing from authors!
Happy Writing
–A
Amy Denim
June 9, 2015
Coffee Break Tips for Busting Writer’s Block
Whether it’s the internal editor squashing your creativity or major life traumas (like having teenagers) crowding your brain, every once in a while the words just won’t come.
Wouldn’t we all like to go on a vacation or writer’s retreat to refill that creativity well? But, that’s not realistic most of the time (although, if you go on one, can I come too?)
I’m here to tell you writer’s block is all in your head, figuratively speaking. No, I don’t think it’s a bunch of hooey, but I do think it’s all mental, and you can beat it. Here are my top tips for busting through writer’s block on your coffee break.
1. Change Your Internal Dialog
Oh, we are your harshest critiques, aren’t we? That mean little voice inside our heads that tell us what we’re writing is crap, or that we won’t ever get published, or whatever your writing demons whisper it’s doing your writing a life a whole lotta harm
I found myself saying that I just couldn’t get this book finished, and I got called on the green shag carpeting for it by one of my critique partners.
So, I’m no longer allowed to say or even think that phrase. Anytime I find myself ruminating on how difficult writing has been lately I deliberately change that internal dialog.
I am writing a great book. I will finish it in plenty of time. I’m having fun writing this book.
Sounds corny, but the power of positive thinking totally helps.
Coffee Break Buster: Take five minutes to write down a few positive affirmations about your, your writing process, your work in progress, and the words you’re going to write today. Now repeat those to yourself, first in your head, then out loud.
2. Guided Meditation
Sometimes when those internal editor demons are yelling so loud you can’t hear yourself think of ways to tell them to shut-up on your own. Why not let someone else get out the bullhorn?
I’m talking about a guided meditation. You get to close your eyes (but, don’t take a nap!), do some deep breathing (oxygen is good for the brain), and listen to some soothing voice convince you to write amazing words today.
I found a whole bunch of guided meditations for creativity on YouTube.
Here are a couple of my favorites:
10 Minute Guided Meditation On Unblocking and Expanding Creativity from Positive Magazine:
Improve Your Creativity Hypnosis from HypnoBusters.com:
Coffee Break Buster: I’ve put together a playlist on YouTube chocked full of more Coffee Break Writer’s Block Buster mediations:
3. Do Something Else Creative
Maybe the words aren’t flowing because you’ve let your creative well run dry. Try doing some other creative projects besides writing to fill yourself back up. I go to an art group every week and we paint, color, craft, sculpt, and chit chat. There’s no pressure to make anything amazing, sellable, or even good enough to hang on the refrigerator at home. We are all there simply to have some self-care time. It gets the creative juices flowing without any pressure, and I always write better afterwards.
You don’t need an organized group or event, grab some blank paper and crayons, or even a coloring book. Any creativity will activate the fun parts of your brain and then you can harness it to write some words.
Coffee Break Buster: Doodle at your desk, make people out of paperclips, or a post-it note collage. Come on, it will be fun!
Need some more ideas? Here’s a round-up of articles for busting through writer’s block. There are some great strategies to be found (and some kind of weird ones too.)
From Joanna at The Creative Penn
From Stephanie at Good in a Room
From Psych Central at the World of Psychology
From Henneke at Boost Blog Traffic
Do you have other ideas or activities you do to bust through writer’s block? Share them in the comments!
Happy Writing,
Amy Denim
The post Coffee Break Tips for Busting Writer’s Block appeared first on Coffee Break Publishing.
April 30, 2015
Use the Muse
The first part of writing a business is often to put together a mission statement. Doesn’t that sound super, umm, boring? Yeah, I thought so too.
So I transformed this dull, no fun task into something I could relate to. I understand the muse. Well, when she’ll talk to me. Best way to get her feeling chatty is to strait up ask her for help. I asked her to help me write something to keep my inspired about my writing career.
Here’s what she told me.
Write one or two sentences that sum up you and your goals for a successful writing career. Think of this as your mantra, or the logline for your writing career. Your books have loglines, why shouldn’t you?
Whenever you’re stuck, feeling down about writing or getting published, or need a jumpstart to your day, get this sentence back out and see if it doesn’t get your imagination running again.
Try to give your muse value. That can mean financial value, but can also be personal values — like family or life philosophies. If being able to support your family financially is an important value to you, include that. If you need to write just to stay sane, include that. If it’s important that your friends and family are proud of you, say that. These are your core beliefs as they relate to your writing career. Include them in your muse statement so that it is valuable to you.
The name of the muse game is inspiration. If you think it, you believe it. If you believe it, you are it. If you use the present simple tense, i.e. I am instead of I want, I will be, or I can, then you’re one step closer to believing you are the writer of your dreams. Another part of inspiration is to use those big dream goals. If you want to be a best-selling author, include that in your muse statement. Whatever your true aspirations are, use them here.
Woo-hoo! You’re getting excited now, right? Okay, not to be a downer, but the inspiration you put in this all-important sentence must also be realistic. You might be tempted to say you’ll be making a million dollars with your writing next week, but unless you’re already a multi-published author whose last royalty statement came in at $999,999, this isn’t very realistic. A million dollars can absolutely be your goal, but be honest with yourself about when that might actually happen. If it happens sooner than that, then yay!
You also need to be specific with the goals in your statement. Don’t say you mean to write a bunch of books that people really like. Do say you write four books a year, or fifty books, or one book that gets five-star reviews and wins your genre’s industry award.
Here’s an example:
I am a financially successful author who shares award-winning stories of love and adventure with readers around the world.
Let’s evaluate this muse statement’s components.
Does it have value? It does say financially successful and award-winning, both of which hold some value.
Is it inspirational? The sentence is in the present tense, and assuming the author isn’t already financially successful and winning awards, it does have modest goals. The part about readers around the world also speaks to the idea that the author wants to be read by more than just family and friends.
Are the goals plausible? Sure they are.
The biggest problem with this muse statement is that it isn’t very specific. It has the other three components, but they seem ho-hum because there is no specificity.
Try rewriting this statement with some specific goals for these words: financially successful, shares, award-winning, and around the world.
Do you have a clearer vision of where this author wants to be?
Now try your hand at writing your own.
Your muse statement can go through lots of drafts and incarnations. If you add a new dimension to your business plan, you might need to update your statement.
You can have more than one mission statement, too. If you find creating a mission statement motivational, consider creating them for different parts of your life and career. You can have one for your writing career, your marketing efforts, your financial goals, your family life, spiritual life, your health, or anything else that is important to you.
Thanks Muse. You’re the best. So dear readers I’d love if you would share some inspirations for your muse about your writing career.
Leave a comment with some inspiration or with questions about business plans. I’ll pop in to chat and answer the best I can.
The post Use the Muse appeared first on Coffee Break Publishing.
April 23, 2015
The Thirteen Minute Business Plan
Have you thought about putting together a business plan? But, oh, it’s such a long and complicated process. Ugh. Why bother, when you could spend your valuable time writing. But, wait, what’s this? A guide to help authors write a business plan on coffee breaks?
Okay, so I find when things get boring and staid that some humor and creativity makes it all much more fun. And let’s admit that a traditional business plan is anything but fun. But having one can be an important part of taking control of your writing career. To get you started I’ve created a quick and easy set of questions that hit all the main parts of a plan and it really should only take you about a coffee break to complete it.
Okay, put your thinking cap/top hat/beanie with the helicopter rotor /tiara on. It’s time to think about what you really want from your writing career.
These questions are to get you started thinking about your goals, but don’t go crazy and spend hours making lists and/or daydreaming about your success as a writer, I want you to do these on a coffee break.
I call this the Coffee Break Business Plan. This is all about basic goals, which you can expand on to create a full-blown business plan, so spend only a few minutes thinking about each of these questions. Write a couple of sentences to answer them or make yourself a nice bullet-point list. If you’d like a template to print out to help you with this exercise, you can download one at www.coffeebreaksocialmedia.com/Books/....
Grab a cup of coffee and a pen
Write down the answers to these questions.
How many books do you plan to write? In what genre?
What’s your projected word count?
When will you finish each project? Or, how much time will you need to complete each project? (Don’t forget to build in time for critiques, beta readers, editing, and all those other activities… besides actually writing the book.)
How will you publish these books? Traditionally, self-published, a hybrid approach?
If you’re self-publishing, what services will you need and how much will you spend on those?
Who is your competition? Who else writes books like yours?
How will you sell and market your books?
How much money will it cost you to publish and market? What services might you pay for to help you do that?
How much money do you plan to make, and when will you see that revenue?
When do you plan to achieve these goals?
What resources do you need (like a budget template, word count tracker, a reference book about business plans) to complete your plan?
When can you review your goals to see what you’ve accomplished and what you need to revise?
What rewards can you set up for yourself to say “Job well done!”
There you go. You just created a basic business plan. For real. Laminate that sucker and put it up big and pretty in front of your computer. Every time you sit down to write, take a look and focus on writing to achieve those goals. If the IRS comes knocking, you can wave it in their faces.
If you’d like assistance expanding your business plan I can help with that too. Leave a comment on the blog today, ask questions about business plans or anything else you’d like and one lucky commenter will win a copy my book The Coffee Break Guide to Business Plans for Authors: The Step-By-Step Guide to Taking Control of Your Writing Career. But, if you can’t wait to win it, it’s available now on Amazon.
Happy Writing
–A
Amy Denim
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