Month: October 2015

The big ‘thing’ in publishing
is the self-published
or indie writer.
Many readers will enthusiastically support
and market writers
they perceive as indie.

Many people feel the same way
about craft or indie businesses.
They will market
for businesses with a craft touch.

I’ve only been an indie writer
for mere months
but readers have perceived me
as being indie for years,
supporting my releases.

Why?

Because I market for myself.
Because I support other indie writers.
Because I support
small and growing
book bloggers and reviewers.

Indie is a community.
You can be part of that community
and benefit from their support
without truly being indie.
You can also be indie
without being part of the community
or benefiting from their support.

Consider making the effort
to be part of the community.

A buddy submitted two stories
to a contest.
One was published
with a big New York publisher.
The other was self-published.

Three out of the four judges
thought the self-published story
wasn’t as well edited
as the New York published story.

The same editor worked
on both stories.

There is a belief
in the writing community
that self-published stories
lack great editing.
The facts don’t matter.
This belief will skew
what people see.

Our customer’s beliefs
are more important
than the facts.
Design and market your product
with these beliefs in mind.

There are unlimited marketing opportunities
for writers, small business founders
and other entrepreneurs.
We can’t say ‘yes’ to them all.

Not all the time.

We CAN, however, say ‘yes’
to all free marketing opportunities
within a certain time period.

Last month,
I said ‘yes’
to all free marketing opportunities
that were presented to me
for a certain pen name.

Some opportunities resulted
in very few sales.
One opportunity tripled
my already solid sales for that day.
I made some new contacts,
tried things I haven’t.
This, not only
made me excited about marketing again,
but my readers (customers)
were excited to hear
what in the world I’d be doing
that day.

Consider saying ‘yes’
to all free marketing opportunities
for a period of time.

One of my big issues
with politicians
is
I only see them
when an election
is approaching.

If my local representative
visited even once
during his tenure,
he’d be such an exception,
I’d likely vote for him
based on that alone.

This is also how I feel
about some writers.
They only participate
in the reading community
when they have a book to release.
I’m not likely to support them.

If we participate regularly
in communities,
blogging weekly
or posting on social media
every day
or otherwise engaging,
we are more likely
to earn community support.

Become part of your community.

Some writers become
very upset
when they receive
one or two star reviews.

They want all five star reviews,
thinking a negative review
will dampen sales.

Often, the opposite is true.
A negative review,
especially a negative review
that could be a positive
(like
“This story has too much sex.”
or
“This story is too emotional.”),
make the five star reviews
“real.”
It gives them authenticity.

Bad reviews also stir up
the super fans.
When I receive a bad review,
I often get a rush of great reviews
immediately after.
My readers passionately defend my books.
They rally behind them.

All five star reviews
aren’t necessarily a great thing.

In the publishing world,
a newsletter is the number one
marketing tool.

I don’t ask for a lot of information
from subscribers
— simply the person’s name
and her email address.

Why?

Jon Clark,
owner of Fuze SEO,
shares

“Keep it simple and short.
Remember that each field
in a sign-up form
represents a roadblock
to getting that user to sign up.
Don’t ask for all their information upfront,
such as an address.
That’s a big put-off,
because it takes
too much time to fill out.
Get the person’s name
and email address in a form
that takes five seconds
to fill out,
and capture additional information
through your re-marketing efforts.”

Limit the information
you require
for a newsletter subscription.

Playboy announced
this week
that it is dropping nude photos
from its magazine.

The explanation is
there are
unlimited free nude photos
on the internet.
Why would anyone pay for it?

This is a bullshit reason
for rebranding.

Why would anyone pay
for a magazine filled
with articles?
There are unlimited blogs
with similar articles.

Why would anyone pay
for books?
There are thousands of free books
on any niche
on Amazon.

Whatever the reason
for their actions,
Playboy is taking a huge risk.
Nude photos are a core cornerstone
of their image.
They could lose their entire brand.
On the other hand,
they could rejuvenate their brand.

Rebranding is a huge risk.
Think before you do it.