Welcome to the
Creativity Sparks Newsletter, distributed to over 1870 people, full of tips, resources, and coaching for novelists so that you can build a successful and sustainable career that's right for you.
I send out this newsletter mostly each week, and sometimes more often when I have upcoming events and happenings to announce.
Thanks for joining us!
Know that I am here to support and guide you in your writing adventure.
I do this work because I'm called to and because I am my best, first client.
I am also a novelist -- all that I teach and do with novelists is first tried and tested on myself.
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This week's news for you
Phases of the Author Career
Update on Book Marketing Adventures
Current & Upcoming Events
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Phases of the Author Career
Prepare, Write, Market & Publish Your Novel
Where are you? Where would you like to be?
I am a working novelist. By that I mean, I write, produce (publish myself), and market my work. Then rinse and repeat.
Actually, I usually have books in all phases or nearly all. Currently, I'm planning one story, editing another, and marketing my new
collection of my 4 romance novels (now available on Amazon internationally).
For all the working novelists I know this is the way of it -- writing and marketing, publishing and marketing, daydreaming about the writing and about the marketing.
What stage or stages are you in?
Yet, all to often, I hear writers wishing all they could do was write and forget all that marketing stuff.
Isn't someone else, the publisher, supposed to market for me?
Well, yes and no. In short, if you have a brand that you've nurtured, the publisher is most likely taking you on because of it. If you have no marketing know-how, your publisher can easily take advantage of you. If you don't understand what you publisher does or doesn't do for you, you're walking in blind and uneducated.
I am a self-published author and advocate for that. If you chose that route too, then you are absolutely in charge of your marketing.
That may mean you do it yourself or hire others to help you. But why rely on someone else to tell you how to present yourself and your books to the marketplace? The good news is you get to decide. The bad news is you get to decide.
Fortunately you're creative, curious, and know how to learn. That's all you need to start your marketing education.
There are certain times in your career, like when you're working on your first book, that I do recommend you keep your head down and just write -- especially if marketing is a big scary and new endeavor. Focus on one thing at a time, especially at the beginning phases. Learning how to write a novel is a big enough mountain to climb.
But once you enter the editing, revising, and polishing phase, I highly recommend you start thinking about, learning about and more importantly, doing, your marketing planning and activities.
But what can you market if your first book isn't even done?
I too had this question. It was so frustrating! What? People were expecting me to start my marketing when I barely had my hands around this wriggly new thing -- my precious novel.
Well, now that I've written and published two novels and four romance novellas, things are starting to settle for me. I've figured out to integrate much of the marketing prep during the story creation process. I'll be sharing that knowledge in a series of articles coming soon.
If you're ready to start thinking about, learning about, and doing your marketing, here's a few places to start:
- For your author branding, write your Clear Message and share it. Here's my post on that: how to write your Clear Message.
If you're courageous, post your clear message in the blog comments and I'll comment on it!
- For your story, draft short marketing pitches that you will be able to use during in-person networking, online, and in print marketing.
Ezra Barany, my husband -- also a novelist and writing teacher in my business -- wrote this post in his fun way, after people complimented him on how well he hand sold his books at a local book fair.
How to Write the Perfect Pitch to Sell Your Novel In Person.
(You'll see a summary of Clear Message here too!)
What is your biggest book marketing challenge now?
Hit "reply" and let me know. Thanks!
♥
Update on Book Marketing Adventures
- To send out 100 queries for review by October 20, 2015
I'm giving myself six months to hit this milestone. I know I can do this.
I can announce that to-date I've sent out four!
Hey, progress not perfection, plus I just started... I'm building momentum.
I'm tracking my queries in a spreadsheet and am keeping my eye on that ball.
I can't control sales or even actually getting reviews, but I can send out requests for review. So that is what I'm doing!
Here's a helpful article on the topic:
As I mentioned a few weeks ago,
I've been taking myself to school by adapting my Writer's Adventure Guide book (actually a book and workbook combined) to my book marketing needs.
You are the hero in your book marketing adventure!
You can grab a summary of the book here to adapt to your own needs. You do need to sign up to grab it.
I got as far as Stage 3: Refusal of the Call. That was useful -- confronting my fears and concerns about book marketing. I did a big journaling session on this -- so healing.
Now, I'm at Stage 4: It takes a Village. I'm in the process of setting up a support system so that I can stay on task with my marketing activities. Is this something you need or want? Hit "reply" and let me know! I'm probably going to set up a sort of buddy call with a fellow author, but I'm also curious to create a program that works for you. So let me know what kind of support you need.
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Quick reminder: You can join my 30-Day Writing Challenge to Preparing Your Novel anytime!
Special this month: I'm giving away prizes this month to those who take the quizzes at the end of each week, and I'm offering students a special coaching rate too.
Join here: http://school.bethbarany.com/courses/30daywc
More about this class and our other current and upcoming classes at the Barany School of Fiction here:
http://www.writersfunzone.com/blog/barany-school-of-fiction/
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